Johannes Antonius [Giovanni Antonio]  Merlo [Merlis, Merula]  {Julius III-Sixtus V}

Tenor/Alto; Rome; brother of Alessandro  Merlo; formerly in the Cappella Giulia (December  1546 -August  1551 ); admitted 12 September  1551  [according to the list in DS  6, fol. 24v];  mandati : October  1551 -October  1571 ; January  1580 -November  1586 ; in list of  1573 ; in  DS  lists of July  1577 , June  1578 ,  1587 - 1590 ;  died  between October 5 and 19  1590  in Fellonica in the duchy of Mantua;  abbas  in  1566 ,  1567 ,  1568 ; the first elected  maestro di cappella ,  1586 ; elected  maestro  again in  1590.

Although Merlo turned out to be one of the most respected and long-lived of the papal singers, he got into serious trouble in April  1558 , when he (along with Nicola Clinca ) refused to vote on the admission of Ferdinandus and Franciscus Bustamante, disobeying the orders of the  maestro di cappella. Merlo and  Clinca  were then ordered expelled, but the singers by special petition managed to have them reinstated and their penalties reduced to heavy fines (see Francisco Bustamante). We also are rather well informed about Merlo's private life because of his diary, preserved as VatS 651 in which he recorded personal financial transactions and miscellaneous entries concerning the College of Singers for 30 years (the entries are dated from  1558  to  1588 ), as well as a list of chapel repertory and falsobordone settings of the  Miserere. He was fairly well off, and could afford to invest in the Monte della Farina and lend money to various individuals, and to afford the construction of a house which he later rented out; this renders his designation as " bonus pauper" in Document 1.16 of  1565  a bit suspect (see Chapter 2). He was a trusted member of the choir, as evidenced by his election and re-election for three consecutive years to the post of  abbas . There is, however, a hint of financial impropriety about his years of service in that job; on 7 February  1569  (after he had given up the position), the singers ordered him to pay over to them the "agio" (the money changing premium that resulted when he, as  abbas, converted tips paid to the chapel in gold into silver giulii for distribution to the membership) that he had kept to himself during his years in office. Merlo seems to have been particularly favored by Pope Gregory XIII, who assigned him a pension in 1575 and 1580, and in  1581  apparently sent him on a trip to recruit singers for the chapel.

By  1586 , Merlo was one of the most senior members of the choir (he is third in the chapel lists); it was probably for that reason that he (along with Franciscus  Soto de Langres ) was summoned on 20 June  1586  to meet with Pope Sixtus V to consider changing the office of  maestro of the Chapel from an appointed position given to an ecclesiastic to an elective one given to a singer (see Chapter 1), a change incorporated into the bull  In Suprema militantis ecclesiae  (see Chapter 1). Merlo was himself elected the first singer  maestro  of the chapel, serving from September  1586  (the date of the bull) to January  1587 , when he resigned the post. He was elected again in  1590 , and in that capacity was sent along with Christianus  Ameyden  to oversee the choir's benefice, the Abbey of Fellonica in the duchy of Mantua (see Chapter 2). While on that trip, both singers became ill;  Ameyden  recovered, but Merlo did not, dying sometime between 5 and 19 October  1590.

WORKS IN VATS MSS

Fragments of a falso bordone Miserere (VatS 651-diplomatic edition in SHERR (1985), pp. 116-118)

DOCUMENTS

DS 5

134v-135r: entry dated 5 April 1559 [CASIMIRI (1938), pp. 219-220]

See Barono.

138r-138v: entry dated 1559 [CASIMIRI (1938), pp. 285-286]

See Francisco Bustamante

 DS  9

6r-6v: entry dated 7 February   1569  

Item congregatis dominis cantoribus in cappella Paulina, fuit resolutum de novo ut abbas pro tempore existente debeat dividere inter cantores participantes non solum partem venientem pro unuquoque de regalibus tam in missis quam de aliis, sed etiam de agio ut vulgariter dicitur quando dictus abbas recipit ipsa regalia in auro; et quia D. Jo. Ant.s Merulus cum fuisset abbas per tres annos proximos elaxos fuit ista die et anno ut supra condemnatus a dictis dominis cantoribus ut solveret quidquid de ipso agio veniebat et ita distribuit pro quolibet cantorem quo veniebat.

 

VatS 646

101r: Motu proprio dated 6 June 1581 (not the original) [HABERL , p. 128]

Joanni Ant. Merulo Cappellae nostri Cantori Gregorius Papa XIII

Dilecte fili saltuem etc. Summa in hoc pastorali munere, quod Dei benignitate sustinemus, eiusdem ipsius Dei cultus cogitatio et cura suscipienda nobis est. Colitur autem Deus, non mente tantum, atque interna animi veneratione, sed ore etiam, et externa pietatis testificatione, beneficiorum praedicatione, laudum adhibitione; quem quidem morem usque a veterus testamenti patribus ductum, Catholica Ecclesia semper diligentissime retinuit, divinasque laudes, musicorum etiam vocibus cantibusque celebrari voluit; Romani vero Pontifices proprios sempre Musicos habuerunt, quos Cappellae suae Cantores nominarunt, inque eisdem ipsis aedibus, in quibus habitarent, divina per eos officia quotidie summa Religione peragi curarunt, horis canonicis concinendis, et sacrosancti Altaris sacrificio in iis partibus, quae Musicorum esse solent, inserviendo. Hunc igitur Nos cultum, non modo conservare, sed augere etiam cupientes, Te, cujus peritiam et fidem in hoc ipso Cantorum nostrorum, in quo iamdiu versaris numero, spectatam et cognitam habemus, in primis delegimus, cuius opera uteremur in cantoribus perquirendis; speramus enim te nostrae expectationi responsurum, neminemque electurum, nisi moribus, voce, peritia idoneum. Conferes igitur te ad eas civitates, unde existimabis posse nostro desiderio satisferi, hocque Tibi commissum munus summa fide et sinceritate, ut res postulat, exequeris. Nos enim eos, quos vel miseris vel tecum adduxeris in nostrae cappellae cantorum numerum adscribi mandabimus.

Datum Romae apud S. Petrum sub anulo Piscatoris die VI Junii MDLXXXI, Pontificatus nostri Anno Decimo

 

DS 16

5r-5v: entry dated 14 January 1587

Cantores omnes SDN congregationem numerosa ac referta in Capella Sixti ut mos est habuerunt cui tres D. Honofrius Gualfreducius, qui gravi morbo laborabat D. Alexander Merulus qui erat imunis et exemptus et D. Joa. Baptista Martinus non interfuerunt Hac in congregatione R.D. Jo. Antonius Merulus cum in suo magistrarum chorum prudenter gubernasset multaque extra chorum, in quibus tranquillitas et quasi totius capelle salus agebatur, maximo labore et sudore composuit, offitio functus suo, magistratum deposuit, et cum cantores de successione eligendo consultarent in eam deliberationem pervenerunt ut R.D. Franciscus Sottus magistratum depositum susciperat atque ita omnes uno ore unoque consensu, eum recusante [?] in magistrum capelle del more servatis secundis elegerunt.

VatS 695

32r-33r: letter of Christian Ameyden from Mantua to the singers dated 19 October  1590 

Ho ricevuto tre lettere insieme delle ss.ri v. una delli 6 et doi delli 13 del presente mese ale quale responderò con questa che essendo tornato da Felonica a Mantoa havendo dato ordine alle cose della bone memorie del nostro mastro di cappella del quale non accaderà ch'io mi alarghi in scrivere il particolare et insieme rinovare il dolore ch'io et tutti voi altri sig.ri ne haverete sentito con molti raggione, che in vero habbiamo perso un grande homo da bene et amorevole fratello, poi che con la matre del s.r Paolo Fachone va a Roma un giovane il quale lo ha governato del principio della sua infirmità insino al ultimo, del quale le ss.ri v. intenderanno particularmente il tutto. N.S. Dio benedetto habia misericordia de l'animo sua et preghiamo Dio per lui.

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:  BAINI, Giuseppe. Memorie storico-critiche della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (Rome, 1828) ;  HABERL ; CELANI, p. 103; CASIMIRI ;  FREY, Die Diarien, pp. 137-138; ROSTIROLLA, Giancarlo. "La Cappella Giulia in San Pietro negli anni del magistero di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina." In LUISI, Francesco,, ed.  Atti del Convegno di Studi Palestriniani  (Palestrina, 1977), p. 161; SHERR, Richard. "From the Diary of a 16th-Century Papal Singer."  Current Musicology  25 (1978): 83-98; SHERR, Richard. "The Diary of the Papal Singer Giovanni Antonio Merlo,"  Analecta Musicologica  23 (1985): 75-128.