Biography
Biagio Marini entered the world in Brescia during 1594 as the son of a prosperous musical household. His father Feliciano had earned recognition as a theorbist, while his uncle Giacinto Bondioli worked as a composer and supplied the greater part of Marini’s instruction. The young musician received a thorough education before securing his initial post in 1615 as a violinist at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, where Claudio Monteverdi directed the music. While serving there he produced both Affetti musicali, Op. 1 and Madrigali e symfonie, Op. 2, introducing double stops, slurred bowing, and the first known use of string tremolos. In 1620 he returned to Brescia to assume the role of maestro di cappella at Sant’Eufemia and simultaneously took charge of music for the Accademia degli Erranti.
Over the following three decades he maintained an active and varied professional life. Between 1623 and 1649 he served as concert master for the Wittelsbach Courts in Düsseldorf and Neuburg an der Donau, yet the precise conditions of that post remain uncertain because he also accepted positions in Brussels in 1626 and, during the 1630s, in Brescia, Padua, and Venice. Records dated 1624 list him as married with two children; by 1641 he had entered a third marriage and fathered five more children. Throughout these years he retained property and civic rights in Brescia. When his Wittelsbach employment concluded in 1649 he settled once more in Italy, accepting brief engagements in Milan, Ferrara, and Vicenza before relocating to Venice around 1654. His last extant compositions date from this Venetian period, and he divided his remaining time between Brescia and Venice until his death in 1663.
Over the following three decades he maintained an active and varied professional life. Between 1623 and 1649 he served as concert master for the Wittelsbach Courts in Düsseldorf and Neuburg an der Donau, yet the precise conditions of that post remain uncertain because he also accepted positions in Brussels in 1626 and, during the 1630s, in Brescia, Padua, and Venice. Records dated 1624 list him as married with two children; by 1641 he had entered a third marriage and fathered five more children. Throughout these years he retained property and civic rights in Brescia. When his Wittelsbach employment concluded in 1649 he settled once more in Italy, accepting brief engagements in Milan, Ferrara, and Vicenza before relocating to Venice around 1654. His last extant compositions date from this Venetian period, and he divided his remaining time between Brescia and Venice until his death in 1663.