Andrea Antico

Andrea Antico (también Andrea Antico da Montona , Anticho , Antiquo ) (c. 1480 – después de 1538) fue un impresor de música, editor, publicista y compositor del Renacimiento nacido en la República de Venecia , de origen istriano ^{[ 1 ]} , activo en Roma y en Venecia . ^{[ 2 ]} Fue el primer impresor de música sacra en Roma y el primer competidor del veneciano Ottaviano Petrucci , considerado el primer impresor de música importante.

Antico nació en Montona, Istria, en la República de Venecia (hoy Motovun , Croacia ). Se desconoce su origen étnico; en el siglo XV, Montona tenía una población mixta de italianos y croatas. ^{[ 3 ]} Aún se dispone de poca documentación sobre su juventud, pero es posible que haya ejercido su actividad en la diócesis de Parenzo (actualmente Poreč ) en Istria , según una carta papal de 1516 que lo denominaba «clérigo de la diócesis de Parenzo, residente en Roma». ^{[ 4 ]} Su primera publicación data de 1510 y fue una colección de frottole . Al igual que Petrucci, cuyo Odhecaton, de características similares , había aparecido ocho años antes en Venecia, comenzó publicando música popular secular.

En 1513 obtuvo privilegios papales para imprimir música en los Estados Pontificios ; este fue el primer privilegio de este tipo que se concedió, y poco después se le otorgó el derecho exclusivo de imprimir tablaturas para órgano . Esto lo convirtió en competidor de Petrucci, quien tenía privilegios similares en la República de Venecia (el derecho a imprimir tablaturas para órgano en los Estados Pontificios pertenecía originalmente a Petrucci, pero como no había impreso ninguna, el papa se lo transfirió a Antico). ^{[ 5 ]} Se añadió un derecho de autor de diez años al privilegio de impresión, aunque muchas reimpresiones de las planchas y bloques de Antico, algunas anteriores a la expiración del derecho de autor, no siempre se le atribuyeron. ^{[ 4 ]}

While in Rome, Antico worked in financial partnership with Ottaviano Scotto, and also used the services of printer Antonio Giunta. Antico stayed in Rome until 1518, moving to Venice, where he began working as a printer in 1520. During the period from 1520 to 1522, he worked in partnership with Luca Antonio Giunta. What he did between 1522 and 1533 has not yet been determined, but he resumed his printing activities in 1533, still in Venice, this time working as an employee of Ottaviano Scotto, his previous collaborator from Rome. It has been suggested that Antico spent the years from 1522 to 1533 in Lyon, possibly working with the famous printer there, Jacques Moderne, who was also from Istria.

Antico's last publication, a collection of motets for four voices by Adrian Willaert, is dated 1539, and no information is known about Antico's life after this year.

Unlike Petrucci, who used moveable type and a multiple-impression technique, Antico made woodblock prints. While this technology was older than moveable type and more laborious to prepare, it allowed for high-quality prints when done by a fine craftsman, and Antico was acknowledged to be one of the finest woodblock printers of the time.^[6]

One of his Roman-period publications, the Liber quindecim missarum of May 9, 1516, contained masses by Josquin des Prez, Pierre de La Rue, Antoine Brumel, Jean Mouton, Antoine de Févin, and Matthaeus Pipelare. This was the first sacred music to be published at Rome itself (Petrucci had published sacred music in Venice more than a decade earlier). Antico told Pope Leo X in the dedication that he had spent three years laboriously preparing the woodcuts for this publication. The graphic artist responsible for the cover page designs as well as the abundant illustrations in the Liber quindecim missarum and elsewhere was probably Giovanbattista Columba.^[4]

While in Venice, he published many kinds of music, including frottole by Bartolomeo Tromboncino and Marchetto Cara arranged for voice and lute; French motets and chansons; motets, including a collection of works by Willaert; and some of the first books of madrigals, including collections by Philippe Verdelot and Jacques Arcadelt.

Of special historical importance is his 1517 publication "Frottole Intabulate per sonare organi, libro primo." (Frottole intabulated for playing on the organ, book one).

This is the first keyboard music ever to be printed. "Organo" then was a generic term which could refer to different keyboard instruments. The book^[7] consists of 29 pieces by composers like Tromboncino or Cara that were printed in keyboard tablature.

Antico was also a composer, and occasionally included his own frottole in his publications, signing them "Andrea Anticho D.M". They are in a light, fairly simple, and homophonic musical style.

The early musicEnsemble Renaissance performs and has recorded a setting of his frottole as part of its "Journey through Dalmatia" and Music of the Old Adriatic program.^[8]

• Martin Picker: "Andrea Antico", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed December 29, 2006), (subscription access)Archived 2008-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
• Stanislav Tuksar: "Croatia: §I. Art music, Medieval and Renaissance", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed July 8, 2007), (subscription access)Archived 2008-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
• H. Edmund Poole (I), Donald W. Krummel (II), "Printing and Publishing of Music" (I, II). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
• Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4
• CD record: Andrea Antico, Frottole Intabulate, Libro Primo, 1517, by Maria Luisa Baldassari, Tactus records 2017.