MASTER LIST OF COMPOSERS

Below is a list of composers currently represented on this Web site. Clicking on a composer's name will bring up a list of madrigals available to be downloaded. Three downloads are available for each madrigal: Score (in PDF format), MIDI (.mid) and Text/Translation (also in PDF).

All downloads are free of charge; however, you must register with the site in order to download Scores and Texts/Translations.

Note that, in the case of madrigals in multiple sections, the full Text/Translation may be downloaded from the entry for the first section (the prima parte).

NOTE ABOUT MIDI FILES: Mac users are advised that Apple's QuickTime application no longer supports MIDI. However, MIDI files can be played on GarageBand for Mac, as well as on some third-party freeware programs. Alternatively, users can request MP3 files of particular pieces by contacting Martin Morell.


Aleotti, Vittoria
Arcadelt, Jacques (Giaches)
Artusini, Antonio
Bati, Luca, Primo a 5 (1594) (complete)
Bellasio, Paolo
Bertani, Lelio
Boschetti, Giovanni Boschetto
Caletti, Giovanni Battista
Califano, Giovanni Battista
Capilupi, Gemignano
Casentini, Marsilio
Cavaccio, Giovanni
Cifra, Antonio
Costa, Gasparo
Croce, Giovanni
D'India, Sigismondo
Dalla Casa, Girolamo
Del Mel, Rinaldo
Dentice, Fabrizio
Falcone, Achille
Felis, Stefano
Florio, Giorgio
Freddi, Amadio
Gabrieli, Giovanni
Gagliano, Marco da
Gastoldi, Concenti musicali a8 (1604/1610) (complete)
Gastoldi, Giovanni Giacomo
Gastoldi, Primo a 6 (1592) (complete)
Gastoldi, Quarto a 5 (1602) (complete)
Ghizzolo, Giovanni
Giovanelli, Ruggiero
Guami, Francesco
Guerini, Pietro Francesco
Ingegneri, MarcAntonio
Isnardi, Paolo
Leoni, Leone
Mancini, Curzio
Marenzio, Luca
Masnelli, Paolo
Massaino, Primo a 6 (1604) (complete)
Massaino, Quarto a 5 (1594) (complete)
Massaino, Terzo a 5 (1587) (complete)
Mezzogorri, Giovanni Nicolò
Monteverdi, Claudio
Mosto, Giovanni Battista
Nasco, Giovan (Jan)
Nodari, Giovanni Paolo, Madrigali a 5 (complete)
Pallavicino, Benedetto
Rognoni Taeggio, Francesco, Primo a 5 (1613) (complete)
Rognoni Taeggio, Giovanni Domenico, Primo a 5 (1605) (complete)
Rore, Cipriano (De)
Rossetti, Stefano
Rossi, Salamone
Ruffolo, Lucrezio
Sabino, Ippolito
Santini, Marsilio
Stabile, Annibale
Taroni, Antonio
Tomasi, Biagio
Tresti, Flaminio
Tresti, Secondo a 5 (1587) (complete)
Usper (Spongia), Francesco
Valmarana, Girolamo
Various (from Dolci Affetti, 1582)
Various (from Trionfo di Musica, 1579)
Vecchi, Orazio
Venturi del Nibbio, Primo a 5 (1592) (complete)
Venturi del Nibbio, Primo pastorali a 5 (1592) (complete)
Verdonck, Cornelius
Virchi, Paolo, Primo a 5 (1584) (complete)
Virchi, Paolo, Secondo a 5 (1588) (complete)
Wert, Decimo a 5 (1591) (complete)
Wert, Giaches de
Wert, Ottavo a 5 (1586) (complete)
Zanchi, Liberale
Zanotti, Camillo
Zoilo, Annibale

Gastoldi, Concenti musicali a8 (1604/1610) (complete)

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Title and DescriptionScoreMidiTranslation
T’amo mia vita (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
Summary: Gastoldi’s collection of 21 madrigals published under the title Concenti musicali a otto voci ... (1604, repr. 1610) occupies a distinctive position in Mantuan secular vocal music of the late 16th/early 17th century. It consists of largely homophonic and diatonic music for two equal four-part choirs, and relies primarily on block-sound, antiphonal and echo effects rather than on the word-painting, contrapunctal sophistication and chromaticism prevalent in much of the repertoire. In many respects it seems more akin to the production of Giovanni Gabrieli and the contemporary Venetian school. Furthermore, about half the pieces are preceded by instrumental sinfonie – a practice which may be unique to this collection. Further details are provided in the Introduction (see below). In “T’amo mia vita,” the protagonist takes to heart, quite literally, his love-object’s declaration of affection. The text was extremely popular with other madrigalists, some 20 settings being known, including versions by Cifra, Luzzaschi, Monte, Monteverdi and Pallavicino. The missing Tenore 2o of the sinfonia has been reconstructed. 		Download
Cara vezzosa Filli (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
A “lovers’ dialogue” between two stock pastoral characters; here the affect is consistently one of lovers’ delight and joy in each other’s company – a rare depiction, for the time, of fully requited love. Essentially the same text was set by Francesco Rognoni Taeggio (Primo libro a 5, q.v.) in a much more virtuosistic idiom.		 Download
O dell’anima mia (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
A lovelorn swain beseeches his love-object to return and put everything to rights. The text is anonymous, and there are no other known musical settings. The missing Tenore 2o of the sinfonia has been reconstructed.		 Download
Trionfando d’Amor (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
The enigmatic text is anonymous and is not known to have been set by any other contemporary composers. Perhaps it was originally set in a broader context (a masque or pageant?) which is no longer traceable. 		Download
Una farfalla cupida e vagante (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
The text was set by several other madrigalists, including Biffi, Ingegneri and Pallavicino. Pallavicino’s setting (q.v.) is particularly animated and charming. The missing Tenore 2o of the sinfonia has been reconstructed.		 Download
O notturno miracolo (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
A lover invokes the power of the moon to work amorous magic. The style and imagery of the poem suggest that Guarini is the author, although the work does not appear to be attributed to him in contemporary sources.		 Download
Dolcissimo usignuolo (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
The poet envies a nightingale, who proclaims his love joyously and with no thought to anything else, while the poet is burdened with memory and self-awareness. Better known is Monteverdi’s concertato setting of the same text in Madrigali Guerrieri ed Amorosi (1638). The missing Tenore 2o of the sinfonia has been reconstructed.		 Download
Con che soavità (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
Perhaps the epitome of the sensuous, earthly-delights-centered milieu of Guarini’s poetic madrigali, in praise of a woman whose lips are as alluring as her speaking (or, more likely, her singing) voice. The same text was set by several other composers, including Monte, Pallavicino and Francesco Rognoni Taeggio (q.v.); of these, Monteverdi’s lush setting for solo voice and two instrumental choirs (Settimo libro de’ madrigali, 1619) is perhaps the best known. The missing Tenore 2o of the sinfonia has been reconstructed.		 Download
Udite amanti, udite (prima parte) (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
The protagonist flaunts his long-sought success in winning over his lady-love. The missing Tenore 2o of the sinfonia has been reconstructed. 		Download
Io veggio pur pietate ancor (seconda parte) (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
 Download
Dolce Filli, del core (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
An anonymous bit of love-poetry fluff, on the well-worn theme of the “stolen heart.” The text is not known to have been set by other composers. The missing Tenore 2o of the sinfonia has been reconstructed.		 Download
Baci pur bocca curiosa e scaltra (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
An excerpt from an extended speech by the Chorus that closes Act II of Guarini’s “pastoral tragicomedy” Il Pastor Fido (The Faithful Shepherd). In his copious notes to the 1602 edition of the play, Guarini claims that the purpose of the speech is to extol faithfulness in love, but this particular passage appears to be a sensuous, even erotic digression on the delights of kissing. The missing Tenore 2o of the sinfonia has been reconstructed.		 Download
Per far sua prigioniera (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
The piece is an epithalamium, celebrating the Mantuan wedding of Giulio Cesare Malaspina and Elisabetta Grassi, Marquises of Madrignano (a village in La Spezia province). The text incorporates, a bit clumsily, two puns on the surname “Malaspina,” which literally means “bad thorn.” 		Download
Rallegrati mio cor (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
A rare depiction of requited love and lasting (perhaps even wedded) bliss. This anonymous text was also set by Wert (Ottavo libro de’ madrigali, q.v.). The missing Tenore 2o of the sinfonia has been reconstructed.		 Download
Occhi ch’alla mia vita (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
Chiabrera’s poem is an unusual one to appear in an early 17th-century setting, with a four-line refrain that repeats twice (with some variations in wording, but with the same rhyme scheme). Although Chiabrera was a contemporary of Gastoldi, the poem seems to harken back to the Trecento ballata favored by Landini and other composers of his generation.		 Download
Non temete più amanti (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
The protagonist belittles Cupid with mock bravado. The missing Tenore 2o of the sinfonia has been reconstructed.		 Download
Al suon de’ nostri accenti (prima parte) (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
The piece bears the subtitle “Le Quattro Stagioni” (The Four Seasons), and provides an early example of musical treatment of the theme of the seasons. In the text, the seasons are represented as personified narrators. Perhaps the piece was originally intended for inclusion in some form of court entertainment, possibly (given the reference to “the depths of frost” in the prima parte) a winter festival. The missing Tenore 2o of the sinfonia has been reconstructed.		 Download
Voi spirti eccelsi tanto (seconda parte) (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
 Download
Nasce la fiamma mia (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
An anonymous poem, not known to have been set by other madrigalists, whose cosmological musings can be regarded as ecstatic, mystical and/or confused. The missing Tenore 2o of the sinfonia has been reconstructed.		 Download
Gentil pastor che miri (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
Gastoldi may have included this piece by Benedetto Pallavicino – a setting of an anonymous text on the theme of Cupid bested at his own game – as a tribute to his late colleague, who had died a few years previously. At the time, Gastoldi may not have been aware that Pallavicino’s son Bernardino would eventually collect and publish this and other madrigals by his father in the posthumous Ottavo libro de’ madrigali a cinque voci, con alcuni a otto, 1612. 		Download
Eran ninfe e pastori (SATB/SATB) *NEW*
A piece by Antonio Taroni, whose text had previously been set to music by Alessandro Striggio in Il Trionfo di Dori (1592), a collection commissioned by Venetian nobleman Leonardo Sanudo in honor of his wife. Why Taroni would have undertaken to publish a composition on the same “occasional” text more than ten years later is something of a puzzle. One plausible explanation is that Taroni – probably around 20 years younger than Gastoldi – was the latter’s pupil, and that Gastoldi gave him the poem to put to music as an exercise. The missing Tenore 2o of the sinfonia has been reconstructed. 		Download
Introduction
The Introduction can be downloaded from the Translation column.

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