Michèle Dévérité - Trabaci: Clavicembalo Napoletano (2002)

Giovanni Maria Trabaci was born in Monte Pelusio (Irsina) around 1575, and died in Naples on 31 December 1647. This close contemporary of Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) spent his entire career at Naples. He was engaged as a tenor at SS Annunziata at the age of nineteen, and in 1597 was invited to examine the organ of the Oratorio dei Filippini, whose organist he subsequently became. On 30 October 1601 he was appointed to the prestigious post of organist of the chapel of the Spanish Viceroys of Naples, where he was joined in 1602 by his contemporary Ascanio Mayone, who played the second organ.
His teacher, the great Giovanni de Macque, was at that time maestro di cappella in the same establishment. Trabaci succeeded him on 1 November 1614 and held this post until his death. Between 1625 and 1630 he was also once more organist at the Oratorio dei Filippini. The dedication to the volume from which the works on this CD are taken, dated 10 September 1603, ad Ottavio di Capoa del Balzo et D. Giovanna di Capoa sua moglie, reveals that he was also in the service of this cultivated Neapolitan family which took a keen interest in vocal and instrumental music.