related works
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Mixed choir
Scoring:
GK
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Mixed choir
Scoring:
GK
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Mixed choir
Scoring:
GK
Dirge for Fidele : for mixed choir / William Knight; text William Shakespeare
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Mixed choir
Scoring:
GK4
composition
Il Lauro Secco (The Dry Laurel) : First book of madrigals for 5 voices / Various authors; transcribed and edited by Cees Wagemakers
Other authors:
Wagemakers, Cees
(Editor)
Anonymous (Early Music)
(Composer)
Contains:
Luca Marenzio: Mentre l’auro spirò (4’15”)
Ruggiero Giovanelli: Nel foco d’un bel lauro (2’45”)
Paulo Isnardi: A piè d’un lauro (4’15”)
Tiburtio Massaino: La fiamma c’hai nel petto (4’)
Claudio da Correggio: Mentre il lauro gentil (3’30”)
Alessandro Striggio: Con l’aura di sospir (4’)
Annibale Zoilo: In vano ascondi il vero (2’30”)
Innocentio Alberti: Dal mio bel lauro Amore (3’15”)
Paolo Virchi: Arsi mentre à voi piacque (3’15”)
Francesco Manara: Chi ama, vine in core (3’)
Alberto da l’Occa: Però, se coronato (3’30”)
Hippolito Fiorino: O de l’anima mia gioia (2’45”)
Nicolò Pervè: Sei tu quel lauro (2’)
Vincenzo Fronti: Come hor la terra (3’45”)
Bartolomeo Spontone: T’amai frondosa pianta (3’)
Giovanni Battista Mosto: Secco è l’arbor gentile (3’45”)
Girolamo Belli: Amor, con l’arbor mio (2’45”)
Orazio Vecchi: Fummo felici un tempo (3’)
Marc’Antonio Ingegnieri: Già non mi maraviglio (3’45”)
Annibale Stabile: Fu’l lauro sempre verde (3’)
Francesco Pigna: Giusto disdegno Amore (3’15”)
Giovanni de Bardi: Lauro ohime, lauro ingrato (2’30”)
Costanzo Porta: Io pensai dolce e grato (2’45”)
Giovanni de Macque: Goditi pur novo Terren (3’30”)
Luca Marenzio: Quel lauro che fu in me (à 2 chori à 5) (6’15”)
Lelio Bertani: Movi il tuo plettò Apollo (3’15”)
Giaches de Wert: Hor fuggi infedel ombra (4’)
Giulio Eremita: M’è pur stato dal core (3’)
Luzzasco Luzzaschi: Se’l lauro è sempre verde (4’15”)
Andrea Gabrieli: O in primavera eterna (2’45”)
Alessandro Milleville: Tra mille e più arborcelli (2’45”)
Description:
In 1580 Duke Alfonso II d’Este of Ferrara founded the Concerto delle donne (consort of ladies) in order to amuse his young wife (Margherita Gonzaga, then 15 years of age). This group of professional female singers, renowned for their technical and artistic virtuosity became a musical attraction in and around Ferrara. Many of the composers of this album were regular visitors in Ferrara. The ensemble was active until 1597 when the duke died without descendants and the court was dissolved. The ducal library went to Modena, the property of the court annexed to the Papal States.
Several composers in the underlying album played a part in the forming of the concerto delle donne: Luzzasco Luzzaschi formed the ensemble and accompanied it on harpsichord. Another composer and lutist active in the consort was Ippolito Fiorini, the maestro di cappella and in charge of all the musical activities at the court.
The most prominent member of the vocal ensemble was Laura Peverara. This young lady was the daughter of a wealthy merchant in Ferrara and became member of the nobility through marriage. She was later followed as leading lady of the consort by Anna Guarini, the daughter of one of Italy’s most revered poets Giambattista Guarini, whose poems have been so thankfully used for madrigals (together with Francesco Petrarca’s and Torquato Tasso’s).
Many interesting and juicy historical facts are to be told about this court and its musicians, but let us stick to this album. The publisher of the 1582 edition of Il Lauro Secco (The Dry Laurel), Vittorio Baldini, was the ducal publisher, although he did not publish very much for the duke besides this album and a second one, Il Lauro verde (The Green Laurel), which he presented to Laura Peverara on the occasion of her marriage in 1583. He admired her greatly, and my personal opinion is that he was madly in love with her. How else could someone make such an effort in assembling all the madrigals that have in one way or the other the word lauro in them – thus making an allusion to her name? Besides this possible allusion Baldini may also have referred to Francesco Petrarca’s Laura: symbol of impossible and unattainable love.
Most of the composers of this album are from Rome or northern Italy, Marenzio (with his monumental double-choral last madrigal in this album), Striggio, de Bardi, de Macque and Vecchi being the best-known of them. The others, however less rewarded in our times were masters in the innovative art of the seconda prattica, the way of enhancing the meaning of the lyrics in the music, even when it is against the musical rules of the time – the prima prattica following the rules of the music more rigidly.
Cees Wagemakers, 2015