Puliti, Gabriello

Gabriello Puliti (Montepulciano, 1583? - Trieste or Cherso now Cres 1644) entered the Franciscan order before or at the time of his first appointment as maestro di coro of the monastery at Pontremoli in 1600. In 1602 he was an organist at the monastery in Piacenza. In 1604 he was at the monastery in Pola (now Pula) and in 1605 he was maestro di cappella in Muggia, near Trieste. Between 1606 and 1609 he was an organist in Capodistria (now Koper) and from 1609 to 1612 he was in Trieste. In 1614 he was back in Capodistria and in 1616 he was in Pirano (now Piran). He was elected guardiano at the monastery of Capodistria and lived there between 1618 and 1620. Puliti served at Albona (now Labin), 1621–2, before returning to Capodistria between 1622 and 1624. In 1628 he was elected "discretus" at the monastery of Pago (now Pag) Island, concluding his career in Trieste about 1638. His death is recorded in the acts of the Franciscan order for the province of Dalmatia. Working in the most important cities of Venetian Istria, Puliti benefited from noble patronage and from acquaintances with other Franciscan composers working in Dalmatia, for example Ivan Lukačić, and Giacomo Finetti, maestro di cappella of St. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice. Puliti was a prolific composer. However, less than half of his output seems to survive: 15 of his published volumes are extant (9 are available also in modern edition), and the latest known is marked as op.36. He wrote sacred and secular vocal music plus some collections of instrumental music. The quality of the surviving works varies and his music shows both modern and traditional tendencies. His early publications are those of an undistinguished beginner. He seems to have been slow in accepting the monodic style, his first known collection consisting entirely of monodies dating from 1618. At least three volumes in the same style followed in quick succession around 1620. These monodies show him at his best: they demonstrate a good sense of balance between syllabic and melismatic passages, although some of them show a bias towards virtuosity. Some of the madrigals in his "Baci ardenti" (1609) are in praise of the Archdukes Maximilian Ernst and Ferdinand II of Austria, the future emperor of Austria. "Pungenti dardi" (1618) contains a imitation (parody) of a sacred monody by Bartolomeo Barbarino and a imitation of Palestrina’s madrigal "Là ver l'aurora" appears in the second book of masses (1624). The title "Accademico armonico detto l’allegro", which appears for the first time in the madrigal book of 1609, and his friendship with the poets of Capodistria, may suggest that Puliti was a member of the Accademia Palladia. Part of his sacred music is dedicated to the inquisitors of Carniola (a region of present-day Slovenia) and Istria; his motto mass of 1624 reveals his consent to the Counter-reformation's policy aiming to restore the power of Roman Church, both in Austria and Istria after the Council of Udine (1596).