Polychoral writing may have been over a century old in Venice and northern Italy by the time Giovanni Gabrieli began his musical career. As he learned the style from his Venetian uncle Andrea Gabrieli and from Orlando di Lasso, his teacher in Munich, the music tends to proceed in polychoral echoes; two or more choirs reiterate similar material in powerful, blocklike alternations. With his 1597 publication the Sacrae Symphoniae, however, Giovanni seems to be moving in a different direction, one less involved in slavish devotion to repeated motives, but more involved in musical dialogue between the choirs. This dialogue is evidenced even in his simpler compositions, such as the relatively modest Sonata "Pian e forte" from the 1597 Sacrae Symphoniae collection. Though its forces (only eight voices), length, and melodic development remain fairly circumspect, both his use of specified instrumentation (perhaps for the first time in history) and his pioneering use of dynamic markings show an overall concern for interaction between the choirs.

Gabrieli was not, as once thought, the inventor of instrumental dynamics in this piece. Adriano Banchieri had used similar instructions in a 1596 "echo" canzona, and Vincenzo Capirola of Brescia instructed an instrumental player to "play very softly" in a transcription from much earlier in the sixteenth century. But Gabrieli deployed the markings "pian[o]" (softly) and "forte" (strongly) throughout this sonata, allowing the dynamics to distinguish the choirs from the larger tutti sections. In addition, he specifies the instrumentation of both choirs: a cornetto and three trombones for the first choir, and a violin (or viola) with three trombones for the second. Thus the two choirs are also distinguished by intentional contrasts in timbre. Throughout, the two choirs alternate passages between one another and passages with all voices sounding. The passages often retain nearly equivalent proportions (the opening two phrases, for instance, are almost exact in length), but most offer a response to, rather than a copy of, what came before. The overall progression is toward shorter phrases and more active counterpoint, building to a rather splendid climax; the harmonic language, however, never completely settles into expected cadential patterns.

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Sixteenth and early seventeenth century Venice exerted an extraordinary draw upon the musical world of the North; the draw was embodied in its most famous musician, Giovanni Gabrieli. Ironically, Gabrieli himself learned much of his craft from a northerner—Orlando di Lasso—in the northern town of Munich. Gabrieli then returned to Venice and began an illustrious career serving the principal churches and confraternities of the city. His music and teaching also returned almost immediately to German-speaking lands above the Alps. Music from his first published anthology, the Sacrae Symphoniae of 1597, appeared as well in German printed collections as early as the very next year. And as early as 1599, the first of a long stream of northern composers and organists began making the pilgrimage to Venice for musical studies with Gabrieli. This stream would, of course, culminate in Heinrich Schütz's study with Gabrieli. Gabrieli's music traveled north in the prints, and his style traveled north in the music of his students. One essential component of his style that exerted a profound influence upon later seventeenth century German instrumental music is the alternation of sonorous textures in the larger multi-"choir" works such as the Sonata octavi toni (No. 15 in the 1597 anthology).

This sonata, as with most of the pieces bearing that title in the 1597 print, takes a generally conservative musical cast. It uses fairly large forces—fully 12 parts divided into three choirs—but tends to reserve the grander tutti passages until the end of the piece. The piece opens, in fact, with a fairly lengthy passage for one choir only, in which the opening motive extends across a long exposition and development. Yet the musical structure avoids the merely bland, in large part in this case by means of greater musical interest in a medial passage. An extended but predictable sequence leads to an obvious cadence on G major, but almost immediately digresses to A major, a more distant key that is also explored in much more sprightly rhythms. The conclusion of the sonata returns to more relaxed and obvious tonal areas.

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Western musical traditions of antiphonal singing date well back into Catholic plainchant, though they later spawned several fascinating tributaries in the European Renaissance. Composers such as Lassus in Munich and Martini in Ferrara began writing for full polyphonic choirs in alternation with each other. And a lengthy string of composers in Venice apparently brought to flower the full polychoral idiom. Adrian Willaert, as Master of the Chapel at Venice's Saint Mark's, put the city on the international map, and his successors, such as Claudio Merulo, Andrea Gabrieli, and his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli, wrote music in which the choirs did not only alternate, they eventually overlapped in a stunning array of possible textures and various combinations. By the time Giovanni Gabrieli was publishing his uncle's church music, and two volumes of his own (the 1597 Sacrae Symphoniae), both Venice's central church, and most likely a number of the other churches and even confraternities in the city, were accustomed to hearing both voices and instruments combining in up to four contrasting choirs on the greatest feast days and civic celebrations. Even a purely instrumental work such as Gabrieli's Sacrae Symphoniae No. 13 bears witness to the splendor of the city's musical soundscape.

Though the two volumes of Gabrieli's 1597 publication center on Latin-texted ceremonial music, they also include 16 pieces of polychoral instrumental music, arranged by tone (or key). Symphoniae Sacrae No. 13 is for three separate "choirs" of four presumably brass instruments, and bears the somewhat unusual designation "Septimi et Octavi Toni" (in the seventh and eighth mode). The modal confusion may indicate a mixture of the Mixolydian and Hypo-mixolydian modes, or may show that the modal system was already becoming obsolete. At any rate, the tonal character of this Canzon carries an exultant affect, as does Gabrieli's approach to texture. After a broad, tutti opening phrase upon which a hint of imitation in the upper voices glistens, the composer moves into a series of shorter phrases tossed back and forth between the three choirs. The listener's ear can easily follow the progress, as choirs often imitate their predecessor. Twice, all players articulate together large cadential points. For contrast, Gabrieli gives us a brief triple-meter intermission, again constructed of shorter and overlapping phrases, before returning to the broad opening music and a final passage that rocks between two harmonies that support echoing flourishes in the upper voices and prepares the final cadence.

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Giovanni Gabrieli was steeped in traditions of grand polychoral music for the great ceremonies of Church and State from his earliest musical tutelage. Both his uncle, Venetian musician Andrea Gabrieli, and Orlande de Lassus, Giovanni's tutor while in Munich, frequently composed for grand court and state functions, and knew how to build textures from multiple overlapping "choirs" of voices. Giovanni took over as organist in Venice's Saint Mark's from Claudio Merulo, and after the death of his uncle, essayed to publish a large number of Andrea's pieces. A decade or so later, in 1597, Giovanni published two extensive volumes of his own music; these two volumes of the Sacrae Symphoniae show the younger composer's mastery of the polychoral idioms, and give some idea of the true splendor of the music heard in Saint Mark's, and in another institution that had been employing him for church music, the wealthy confraternity (Scuola Grande) of San Rocco. These two volumes of Giovanni's not only include expansive polychoral motets for both voices and instruments to be heard on the higher feast days, but also concerted polychoral music for instruments alone, and some of the first music that contains specific designations of which instruments perform each part. The sixteenth work in his 1597 publication, for instance, the Canzon quarti toni, specifies three instrumental choirs: two consisting specifically of four trombones and a cornetto (an early wooden melody instrument), and one placing a violin over four trombones.

The other element besides the orchestration giving Sacrae Symphoniae No. 16 its individual character is its mode (or key). Gabrieli here chose the fourth, or Hypophrygian mode, often heard as a solemn and even somber tonality. In keeping with the harmonic character, the composer also eschews his frequently grand opening music in favor of a relatively extended and highly polyphonic passage for just one choir. Rife with accidental inflections and harmonic suspensions, this first choir carefully explores the solemn mode. The remaining two choirs merit similarly extended passages, with the rhythmic intensity only gradually increasing, before all instruments are finally heard in a single, triumphant tutti (in a brighter harmonic area). The second half of the Canzon proceeds in music more usual for this collection: shorter overlapping phrases, often introduced with syncopation, punctuated with more frequent cadences and brief tutti passages. A fairly conventional triple meter section leads directly—and even abruptly—into the final cadence, leaving the opening seriousness almost unresolved.

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Giovanni Gabrieli's experience with polychoral music likely began when he was a child. Though little documentation survives to establish the relationship, he may very well have been raised by his uncle, Andrea Gabrieli, who was then maestro di capella at St. Mark's, Venice. The most important church in the city of Venice already had a long tradition of polychoral music, which may have come to it from Ferrara. In addition, Giovanni studied music under Orlande de Lassus in the Bavarian court of Munich, another stronghold of polychoral composition. Yet in the music of Gabrieli, especially in the instrumental works of his 1597 Sacrae Symphoniae, the polychoral idiom seems to be turning a corner. As Dennis Arnold noted, there is little "which could not be sung by voices," the composer is here evolving a more intentionally instrumental music than perhaps had existed before. The parts to his Canzon Septimi toni, for instance, bear the same indications of voicing as to the motets in the same collection. The musical flavor of the work, however, breathes a fresh instrumental spirit.

The Canzon opens in a straightforward manner, with a four-voiced exposition of an imitative motive in the first choir. After a lengthy approach to a cadence, the second choir enters with contrasting material, including a secondary imitative motive that will receive bold expansion later in the piece. A triple-meter passage intervenes, which begins once again in a very straightforward alternation of quick phrases, but develops quickly into a highly syncopated dance-like interlude. The next duple-meter phrases explore different sequential adaptations of the musical material and lead to an extended dialogue between two upper voices before cadencing into a repeat of the triple-meter passage. Twice more, the composer leads through repeats of this second duple passage, with more and more complex melodic embellishments on its tunes (even in the bass trombone part, as a testament to the skill of Gabrieli's players). An upward sequence in both choirs signals the approach to a final, resplendently ornamented cadence. In a polychoral vocal motet by the same composer, the words and their rhythms might have guided this structure, but in the Canzon Septimi toni, sheer musical invention drives the development.

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Sixteenth century Venice provided some of the most lucrative professional posts for instrumental musicians in Italy. The Basilica of San Marco, the church at which the Doge and all the city government worshipped on the highest feast days, employed not one, but two organists on a full-time basis, as well as keeping several instrumentalists on permanent retainer. By the time Giovanni Gabrieli assumed the leadership of San Marco's music, its stable of musicians included a number of virtuosic players. Two of his cornetto players, for instance, Girolamo della Casa and Giovanni Bassano, both wrote treatises on cornetto playing and ornamentation. Though the printed text of many of Gabrieli's instrumental works remains fairly straightforward, the evidence of these two men's abilities suggests quite strongly that an authentic performance of the music should include virtuoso embellishments. Occasionally, hints of the skill of these individuals even surfaces in Gabrieli's printed music. The instrumental canzona that opens his great 1597 anthology, the Sacrae symphoniae, offers an excellent example.

The superficial structure of this canzona overtly reflects both Gabrieli's forebears, and his advances on their technique. The piece is composed for two choirs of four instruments each, much like the music of Gabrieli's uncle Andrea and his teacher Lassus. The structure is articulated by textural antiphony, a rhetorical alternation between each choir (who at first have almost identical music) and then the full ensemble. Even the opening motive uses the most characteristic dactylic rhythm. But from the outset, it is the upper two (cornetto) parts that achieve unquestioned prominence; both soar above their respective ensembles with melodic ornamentation. Indeed, even specific elaborations of the melody, though repeated in a somewhat slavish manner, derive from examples in Girolamo della Casa's ornamentation treatise! Should any question remain regarding the assignment of the upper parts to these two players, the cornetto prominence continues and even intensifies in the tutti passages, with frequent imitation and alternation of similar ornamental riffs. Several passages in the middle of the piece invoke the repeated chords of a "battle" chanson; the upper voices still take some soloistic indulgences. In the harmonically exciting lead up to the final cadence, the ornaments even echo one another in conflict with the underlying harmonies. The influence of these fathers of modern brass playing may have contributed to Gabrieli's continued popularity with brass ensembles (and their audiences).

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