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[Karel]

(b Bruges, c1575; d Bruges, May 1, 1654). Flemish composer, organist, music theorist and civic official. His name appears in 1610 in the preface to Du Caurroy’s Meslanges. A leading citizen of Bruges, he occupied the posts of city councillor (1616), head of one of the six quarters of the city (1618) and alderman (1620–21). In the preface to his Vingt-quatre fantaisies à quatre parties disposées selon l’ordre des douze modes for organ (Paris, 1610; ed. in MMBel, iv, 1938, and in L’organiste liturgique, xxxiii, xxxvii, xlix, Paris, n.d.) he described himself as an organist in the service of Baron de Surgères, stating that this was the purpose for which he had written these fantasias. The work reflects theoretical concerns that the composer was to develop in his manuscript treatise Institution harmonique (1642, A-Wa ). The organization of the 24 fantasias, illustrating the 12 modes both in their older sense and in that of the late 16th-century theorists, shows the influence on Guillet’s thinking of Zarlino and Salinas. The treatise, dedicated to Leopold Wilhelm, governor of the Netherlands, and written long after the publication of Guillet’s fantasias (its dedication dates from ...

(from Lat. introitus)

The first of the Proper or variable chants of the Mass. It is sung, as its name suggests, during the entrance of the celebrant and his ministers at the beginning of the Mass.

The 8th-century Ordines romani describe the introit as an antiphon and psalm that was sung by the Schola Cantorum as the pope moved in procession down the centre of the basilica from the secretarium (a room near the entrance where he vested) to a position before the main altar. According to Ordo romanus I, when the pope arrived at the altar he nodded to the singers, who then broke off chanting the psalm to conclude with the Gloria Patri and a final repetition of the antiphon. Outside Rome, in subsequent centuries, the practice of singing a full psalm was replaced by the singing of a single verse, the probable reason being that the celebrant approached the altar from a sacristy in the vicinity of the sanctuary rather than from the secretarium at the church's entrance as at Rome. The verse sung was generally the first available from the relevant psalm, for example, the second verse if the antiphon itself derived its text from the first verse, or the first verse if the antiphon used a later verse or a text from some other source. A frequently encountered peculiarity in the early history of the introit is the ...

(b Faenza, bap. Dec 1, 1729; d Berlin, July 28, 1802). Italian composer. He was a leading figure in late 18th-century opera.

David DiChiera

Sarti was the seventh of 11 children of a jeweller who was also a violinist. He began his musical education with F.A. Vallotti in Padua and at the age of ten went to study with Padre Martini in Bologna. He was organist of Faenza Cathedral from 1748 to 1752, when he accepted the directorship of the theatre in Faenza, for which he wrote his first opera, Pompeo in Armenia. In December 1752 he became music director of Pietro Mingotti’s opera troupe, which visited Copenhagen late in 1753. His talent and personality won him the admiration of King Frederik V, who in 1755 nominated him to succeed Scalabrini as court Kapellmeister. Later he became director of the Italian opera company at Copenhagen. He continued to compose ...