Gabrieli, Andrea (c. 1533–1585)

Italian composer. He was organist at St Mark's, Venice, from 1566, and his music, for example Concerti (1587), makes much use of the spatial effects possible within St Mark's, with vocal and instrumental groups separated in contrasting ensembles.

He was a member of a Venetian school which cultivated an antiphonal style suited to the two choir galleries and two organs of St Mark's Church. He became second organist at St Mark's in 1566 and first organist in 1584. He was a famous teacher and had many distinguished pupils, Italian and foreign, including his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli and the Germans Hans Hassler and Gregor Aichinger.

Works Masses, motets, and other church music with instruments; spiritual songs; madrigals, and other pieces for several voices; choruses for Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus; ricercari for organ.