Tromboncino [Trombonzin, Trombecin etc.], Bartolomeo
- William F. Prizer
Extract
(b in or nr Verona, 1470; d in or nr Venice, after 1534). Italian composer. He was, with his contemporary Cara, one of the most important frottola composers in the early 16th century.
Tromboncino’s Scopri, o lingua was ascribed to ‘Bartholomeus Trumboncinus Vero[nensis]’ in Petrucci’s first book of frottolas (RISM, 15044), and in a letter to the Doge of Venice dated 19 September 1521 he signed himself ‘Bortholamio Tromboncin Veronese’. He apparently grew up in Verona, where his father, Bernardino Piffaro (‘Bernardino the shawm player’), was a member of the town’s municipal wind ensemble. There has been some confusion as to the identity of Tromboncino’s father and therefore as to the musical environment in which Bartolomeo was raised. This was because there were two musicians known as Bernardino Piffaro: one in Verona and later in Venice, and another, a native of Mantua (b 1445; d...
