Francesco de Layolle

Francesco de Layolle (also spelled dell’Aiolle, dell’Aiuola, dell’Ajolle, dell’Aiolli), (March 4, 1492 – c. 1540) was an Italian composer and organist of the Renaissance. He was one of the first native Italian composers to write sacred music in the Franco-Flemish polyphonic style, combining it with the indigenous harmonic idioms of the Italian Peninsula. Life He was born in Florence. In 1505, around the time of his 13th birthday, he joined the choir of the church Ss. Annunziata in Florence, where his teacher was the distinguished composer to the Medici family, Bartolomeo degli Organi. Layolle eventually married his teacher’s younger sister-in-law, Maddalena Arrighi. In 1518 he left Florence, settling in Lyon in 1521. While in Florence he also served as a music teacher to sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, who referred to him as a superb organist, musician, and composer. Layolle remained in Lyon for the rest of his life but retained a number of friends in Florence, including several men who conspired to overthrow the Medici in 1521. After the failure of the plot and the uncovering by the Medici of the perpetrators, the conspirators fled Florence, finding refuge in Lyon with Layolle, who wa