Antonius Scandellus (Antonio Scandello/Scandelli, 1517-1580) was an Italian composer who lived and worked in Germany. He was born in Brescia (or Bergamo), Italy. In the 1540s Antonio Scandello worked at Bergamo and Trent, but in 1549 was called to the Electoral court of Saxony at Dresden. In 1553 he was already resident in Dresden and a member of the Hofkapelle, but he often returned to visit his native land; in 1567, on account of the plague, he and his family left Dresden and spent four months in Brescia. In 1555 six Italians are mentioned as being members of the Dresden Hofkapelle: among them Anthonius Scandellus, his brother Angelus Scandellus and Benedict Tola, the painter, whose daughter Agnes became Scandello's second wife in June 1568. The Italians, receiving higher pay than the Germans, were even then arousing feelings of jealousy, which later resulted in open quarrels and opposition. In 1555, Scandello, with 250 fl. 16 grs. 9 pf. a year, was receiving a larger salary than the Kapellmeister, Matthias Le Maistre, who had only 204 fl. 7 grs. 9 pf. It is also curious to note that the Italian players were paid on a higher scale than singers from the Netherlands, the highest salary to the latter only amounting to 120 fl. It is true that the player was expected to show facility on a large variety of instruments; Scandello himself was a noted zinke (or cornett) player, besides being already a composer of some repute.
In 1566 Scandello became assistant Kapellmeister to the ageing Le Maistre, and on his retirement was appointed Kapellmeister, February 12, 1568, when his salary altogether amounted to 400 fl. a year, a large sum for those days. He retained his post until his death. One of his sons, August, was also a member of the Dresden Hofkapelle.
Antonio Scandello's music combines elements of the Italian Renaissance with German musical traditions. Three motets for six voices, dated 1551, in a manuscript in the Dresden Library, are probably Scandello's earliest compositions. Next comes the Mass for six voices, Missa super Epithaphum Mauritii, in commemoration of the death of the Elector Moritz of Saxony, July 9, 1553, at the battle of Sievershausen. The mass is based on a motet on the Latin epitaph of Maurice by the headmaster Georg Fabricius of the Misnian princely school. It was conducted at the burial of the Elector in the Freiberg minster in 1562. In the Inventarium of the Kapelle music drawn up by the Dresden Kapellmeister, Johann Walther, October 16, 1554, for the use of his successor, Matthias Le Maistre, this Mass is mentioned as being in six little printed partbooks.
Especial mention must be made of the Passion music and the story of the Resurrection, which were in all probability composed before 1561. Scandello some years later refers to them in a document dated July 15, 1573; they were therefore in existence some fifty years before Heinrich Schütz's Auferstehung and Passionen nach Johannis. The Passion opens with the words in four-part writing, Das Leyden unsers Herm Jesu Christi wie das der heilige Evangelist Johannes beschreibet. Throughout, each individual character is represented by a duo, trio or quartet, with the exception of the Evangelist, who is given the traditional recitative. The words of Christ are invariably set as a solo quartet, those of Peter as a trio, and so on. The concluding chorus and the short, quick outcries of the people are all in five-part writing; possibly the opening chorus should be the same. There is no accompaniment. Scandello was the first composer to set the story of the Resurrection to music, and he followed very closely the lines laid down in his Passion music. Scandello's Osterliche Freude (1568) is an important prototype for Heinrich Schütz's Easter Historia.
Antonio Scandello's two books of Canzone Napoletane were the first music with exclusively Italian texts to appear in Germany. As for his other compositions, it may be noted that although his Italian madrigals, published 1566 and 1577, are purely a cappella vocal works, the German Lieder, both sacred and secular, published 1568, 1570 and 1575, may be sung to an instrumental accompaniment. Examples are given in Ambros's Geschichte der Musik. v., Bonzomo, madonna, for four voices; Der Wein der schmeckt mir for six voices; and Nu komm der Heiden Heiland for five voices.
