The Many-Voiced Sorrows of Love Italian Madrigals from Marenzio to Monteverdi
Michael Horst
In the second half of the 16th century, Italy was considered the musical lynchpin of Europe. The Italian courts between Milan and Florence, Mantua and Ferrara vied with the wealthy seafaring republic of Venice and the Papal Curia in Rome for the most sumptuous forms of cultural self- expression. Anyone compiling a program of Italian madrigals today can take his pick from the cream of the crop, and it is no coincidence that almost all the composers whose music is heard in these two performances of Concerto Italiano worked in Mantua or Ferrara. The local ruling dynasties— the Gonzaga in Mantua and the Este in Ferrara—displayed considerable ambition in attracting poets, musicians, and philosophers of rank to their small-town residences. Among them was Luca Marenzio, one of the three great names in the art of the Italian madrigal. The other two are Claudio Monteverdi and Carlo Gesualdo (the only one who does not appear in the present parade of masters). Marenzio frequently joined his Roman employer, Cardinal Luigi d’Este, at the court of his brother, the ruling Prince Alfonso d’Este, in Northern Italy. He was a very prolific composer: during his seven years in the employ of Luigi d’Este alone, Marenzio published four collections of fivepart madrigals and the first three books of six-part madrigals, as well as further compilations of villanelles and motets. More were to follow later, and all show him exploring the possibilities of vocal polyphony ever more radically. Marenzio quickly became a European celebrity. The triumph of music publishing—in 1501, the Venetian Ottaviano Petrucci had published the first book dedicated entirely to music—contributed significantly to the dissemination of his compositions. Unusually, his collected works were republished early, first in Antwerp and later in Nürnberg as well. The four madrigals in this program are taken from different anthologies, allowing us to recognize both constants and 13
