Italian composer and organist, blind from
an early age, He was organist at S. Lorenzo in Florence between
1369 and 1396, and in 1379 was paid 9 solidi for writing five
motets--an extremely rare record of payment to a composer.
Landini was the most celebrated musical personality of the
trecento; his 155-odd extant works are nearly all ballate, in
which he excelled. In these smoothness of sound rather than
dissonant asperity is evident; Landini's technical prowess can
be seen in the canonic madrigal
De! dimmi tu.
He was a brilliant player of several instruments, especially
the portative organ, and at the same time a distinguished poet,
writing some of the texts he set and being awarded poetic
honours in Venice. His music not only represents about a
quarter of all the Italian
trecento
music known to have survived, but is preserved in many diverse
sources, from Florence and elsewhere.