Michel’Angelo Grancini 300 years after his death

 Grancini (Milan ca. 1605-69) was organist at the Milan cathedral from 1630-50 and then maestro di cappella until his death. The present study 1)reconstructs a documented biography of the composer in the context of the Milanese musical environment during the Counter Reformation, and 2) investigates his vast corpus of church music, discussing polychoral techniques that create brillance in his polyphonic compositions and the Baroque expressiveness of hismonodic pieces. Grancini was influenced by Monteverdi in his youth, especiallyin his op. 6 Sacri fiori concertati of 1631. Later as an ecclesiastic composer, he turned to an elaborate contrapuntal idiom. Grancini emerges todayas a leading Milanese composer of the 17th c.