Dentice, Fabrizio

Born Naples, early 16cent, † Parma 24 Feb 1581. Neapolitan nobleman, lutenist & violist, composer of vocal and instrumental music. Part of his life spent in Spain. Taught to sing and play lute by his father Luigi, music theorist. Grew up in the most cultured circles of Naples. Fabrizio participated as a young boy as a singer in the play Ingannati in 1545 at the palace of the Sanseverino. As a result of his role in the 1547 noble revolt against the Spanish viceroy Pedro de Toledo, Luigi Dentice and his eldest son Fabrizio went into exile, and all their possessions were confiscated. They were probably pardoned when the new viceroy, Pedro Pacheco was installed. In Luigi Dentice’s Duo dialoghi della musica (Naples 1552 and Rome 1553) Fabrizio is mentioned together with Pietro Cis [=d’Isis] and the brothers Giovann Antonio, Pompeo and Giulio Severini as “suonatori eccellenti di Viola” Luigi may have been in London in 1554 but this is circumstantial evidence. During the exile, Cardamone has shown father and son to have been in Rome for at last part of the time as actors and singers in the circle of Lasso. They were pardoned in 1554. In 1559 the two Dentices were away from Naples, probably in Spain, possibly among the numerous Neapolitan virtuosi recorded to have participated in the festivites celebrated by Felipe II in Madrid in 1559 for his marriage to Mary Tudor [check]. Two other documents record Fabrizio’s performances in Spain, the first prior to 1567. The composer Pierre Maillart (in Spain as a member of the capilla flamenca 1565-1570) described him as a “jouer du luth avec une perfection qu’il ait jamais rassenties”. The second document is a letter written by Sir Thomas Chaloner to Lord Robert Dudley (27 Sept 1564; rpt in Ward Dowland Miscellany 97, and Fabris) who reported to have heard Fabrizio sing and play in Barcelona in 1564, also Luigi. Galilei (Dialogo 1581) who cites Fabrizio as one of the leading lutenists of the age: “nobile napoletano, raro sonatore di liuto, & compositore in esso” In the Dialogo Count Bardi says of him: “… dico adunque, che à tempi nostri sono stati & sono molti i sonatori eccellenti & di liuto & di tasti; tra i quali alcuni hanno veramente saputo & ben sonare, & ben scrivire, o vogliano dire comporre nel loro strumento; come in quello di tasti un Annibale Padovano , & nel Liuto un Fabritio Dentice nobile Napoletano” (p. 138). Among other homages is the one by Cerreto of 1601, Tagliaferro (1608), Sigismondo d’India (1609). It is well known that Fabrizio had students and imitators in Naples including Giulio Severino and Luigi de Paoli. Dentice also had a role in the development of the Neapolitan villanella. The final period of Dentice’s life was spent in Parma at the court of duke Ottavio Farnese from 1569/70[?] until 1581. During this time, there is ample evidence of connections and frequent presence in Pesaro and Rome. After his death, Dentice was replaced by Santino Garsi. Because of his noble status, Fabrizio does not appear in the payrolls of the Parma court.

In a Spanish publication of 1624, by the imprisoned Secretario of Phillip II, Antonio Pérez, Dentice is cited as the paragon of suavity in a description mainly aimed to extoll the talents of Fray Hernando de Castillo, famous preacher and theologian. Of him, Pérez cites: “D’este, dezía el doctor Velasco,graue persona de nuestros tiempos, que no avía vihuela en manos de Fabrizio Dentice tan suaue como la lengua del Maestro F. Hernando de Castillo en los oydos” (Perez1624, 45).

Fantasia in Ramillete. Other pieces for lute in 40032.
rubioESCORIAL: MS 4, ff 11v-16 obra vocal de "Fabricio Dentici": "Feria V in Coena Domini" a 5. Incipit: Lamentation

Other vocal works in: Valladolid, Catedral Psalmos a 8

Adrian Le Roy, A brief and plaine instruction to set all Musicke of eight divers tunes in Tableture for the Lute [Brown 1574/2 ] = an English translation of [1557]/1 and [1567]/1. States that Dentice used unisons on the bass strings.
• Check Fabris biography for the dates of Fabrizio’s sojourn in Spain.
• Email from: Dinko Fabris, 14 Dec 2002: Renato Di Benedetto & Cesare Corsi, “La formazione e l'attività musicale tra chiese e case feudali nel Cinquecento”. Gli inizi della circolazione della cartamoneta e i banchi pubblici napoletani nella società del loro tempo (1540-1650). Naples: 2002. 201-228:
• pp. 215-6. Era vissuto a Roma “con Fabrizio Dentice”, prima di essere arrestato a Napoli nel 1571 dal tribunale dell’Inquisizione, Grammatio Metallo. Questa notizia conferma che Dentice era stato attivo a Roma già prima di entrare al servizio dei Farnese
• pp. 227-8. Nello stesso saggio si propone l’identificazione in chiave ironico-satirica con Fabrizio Dentice del protagonista della commedia “La Vedova” di Giovanni Battista Cini (1569), Cola Francesco, che descrive suo padre come un fedele seguace del principe di Salerno.

From Dinko Fabris 9 April 2006:
Philippe Canguilhem - has made new discoveries in Florentine archives concerning Dentice.
First, a letter the mentions Fabrizio Dentice in connection with proto monody in the Florentine milieu of Isabella de Medici and the Bottegari lute book.
The document is:
A letter from Troilo Orsini “di castello villa del S.r Duca, il 30 di marzo 1565” to his brother Mario Orsinio in Rome (ASF, Mediceo del Principato 673, inserto 1):
“Desiderarei che V. S. cercasse d'havere un aere di fab.o dentici che lo canto quando il S.r disino con il Car d'Aragona et di gratia c'usi diligentia ch'io lo dia alla S.ra in nome di V.S. perche e belliss.o”
Note added by Dinko Fabris: disino = desinò, cioé pranzò. It means that Dentice was singing an "aere" by him in Rome, 1565 (the first "aeri" were published by Rodio in Naples 1577!) in presence of the Cardinal Fabio Orsini d'Aragona (the patron of Filippo de Monte) at lunchtime. The Signora is Isabelle de Medici, the same person mentioned in the Bottegari Lutebook, that desire to receive the "aere" probably to sing it.
Text: “I wish that Your Signoria had been there to hear an aere by Fabrizio Dentice who sang it when the Signor had lunch with cardinal d'Aragona and ….”
• Cardamone, “Prince of Salerno” (1) suggests that Fabrizio may have been in the retinue of Lasso and Brancaccio travelling to England in 1554 (p. 90, fn 51). (2) suggests that the Spanish songs in the Winchester partbooks were probably compiled by Fabrizio Dentice. Whoever did them, Cardamone analyses the compositional process of these songs. Important material re popular song in Spain and Naples. (Winchester College MS 153)
• Lothar Siemens affirms that Fabrizio Dentice was one of the leading composers of “endechas de Canarias” See his article “Las endechas canarias del siglo XVI y su melodía” (1975). The Italian engineer Leonardo Toriani, 2nd half of the 16th century offers a comment in his Descripción e historia del reino de las Islas Canarias (from the Spanish translation by A. Cioranescu: “Cantaban versos de lamnetación, de ocho, nueve y diez sílabas, y con tanta tristeza, que lloraban ellos mismoscomo se ve que todavía lo hacen hoy día los que descienden de los últimos habitantes. Su tono lamentoso ha sido empleado por excelentes músicos en sus composiciones, sobre todo por el divino Fabricio Dentici, y por los españoles en la poesía en dúos y tercetos, imitando a los antiguos” (Siemens p. 283) Further in his essay, Siemens (p. 298) mentions Dentice again and implies that he had studied the Dentice works in the Bottegari lutebook (in the Biblioteca Estense) and that there is no apparent trace of this music.

• G. P. LOMAZZO, Trattato dell'arte de la pittura, Milano, P. G. Pontio, 1584, Libro sesto, Cap. XXV ("Quali pitture vadano dipinte intorno a' fonti, ne' giardini, nelle camere, & altri luochi di piacere, & negli instromenti musicali"), pp. 347-348: "Et vaga cosa sarebbe anco, & capriciosa il rappresentarvi i nove chori della musica a tre a tre, co' suoi instromenti, & ritratti de gli huomini eccelenti in ciascuno de quelli, come per esempio ne' tempi nostri [...] nel terzo [cho- ro] de i liuti, Francesco sopranominato il Monzino Milanese, Ippolito Tromboncino da Vineggia, & Fabricio Dentice". For Lomazzo's poem, see his Rime, Milan: P. G. Pontio, 1587, p. 163: "Quindi udia di leuti un dolce coro / Ove il Canova era, che tanto honoro, / Il Tromboncino Hippolito, e '1 Dentici, / Ch'al arte leva i vici". Quoted in David Nutter “Hippolito Tromboncino” (1989): 136-137. “Finally, Tromboncino was one of three lutenists (with Francesco da Milano and Fabrizio Dentice) to have been portrayed in a painting ideally suited to the decoration of musical instruments. The fanciful invention of Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo (Trattato del'arte dela pittura, 1584), the painting was to show "the nine choirs of music, three by three, with their instruments and portraits of the men excelling in each of these". This choir-by-choir list of twenty-seven musicians was also the subject of a poem Lomazzo dedicated to Claudio Merulo (Rime, 1587)”