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, Primo a 6 (1592) (complete)

Check this box before downloading a file below.
Title and Description	Score	Midi	Translation

Introduction and Commentary The Introduction can be downloaded from the Translation column.
Dalla voce più dolce e più sonora (SSATTB) (NEW) Published in 1592, Gastoldi’s first and only book of six-voice madrigals features light-hearted pieces that revolve around the twin themes of osculatory delights and the amorous dalliances of shepherds and shepherdesses (sometimes in combination), reflecting the fashion for pastoral and sentimental poetry that was popular in late-16th-century Italy and in particular at the Gonzaga court in Mantua. (See the Introduction for more details about the publication.) The first piece, “Dalla voce più dolce,” exemplifies both themes.		Download
Mi cibo, e dal soave tuo bacio (SSATTB) (NEW) A description of kissing as spiritual nourishment, with mock-serious warnings of dire consequences unless it is continuously replenished.		Download
Liete piante e felici (prima parte) (SSATTB) (NEW) A peculiar text of unknown authorship, in which a protagonist speaks to, and extols the charms of, an assortment of flora close by a fountain. Possibly the text is excerpted from a longer work, such as a play or epic poem. See also the Notes accompanying the text/translation of the next piece.		Download
Dalle vostr’ ombre segue (seconda parte) (SSATTB) (NEW)		Download
Nasce da bei vostr’ occhi (SSATTB) (NEW) The text is taken from a collection of verse by Orazio Navazzotti entitled Le cento donne di Casale in Monferrato, each of whose 100 poems is in praise of a particular woman of Casale Monferrato, a town in the dominions of the Duke of Mantua. The subject of Navazzotti’s poem is one Lucrezia Cavagnola Montiglia, who is 61st in order of appearance (Agnese Argotti del Carretto, mistress of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga, is No. 1). Why Gastoldi chose this text is not clear; however, since in his version Lucrezia’s name is replaced by that of a stock pastoral character (Clori), the intent may simply be to convert the original into a “generic” decontextualized bit of amorous pastoral verse. Erotic innuendo is present in the form of the repeated line “Che mille volte il dì vorrei morire” (I fain would die a thousand times a day).		Download
Al mormorar de’ liquidi cristalli (SSATTB) (NEW) “Al mormorar de’ liquidi cristalli” also appeared in the madrigal anthology Il Trionfo di Dori, published in the same year (1592) as Gastoldi’s Primo libro a 6. Il Trionfo di Dori, comprising 29 pieces composed by an equal number of madrigalists (and the texts by an equal number of poets), was commissioned by a Venetian patrician, Leonardo Sanudo. Each piece concludes with the refrain “Viva la bella Dori!” It has been assumed that the anthology was intended as a wedding gift to Sanudo’s bride Elisabetta Giustinian, although the fact that their marriage took place in 1577 renders this assumption problematic.		Download
Esser non può che questa non sia imago (SSSATBar) (NEW) The image of Cupid referred to in the text is evidently a marble statue, given its dazzling whiteness. It would seem that a particular work of art is being described; Gastoldi would presumably have been familiar with one or more such sculptures possessed by the Gonzaga family in Mantua (a 1627 inventory lists four statues of “amorini,” including one believed to be the “lost” Cupid by Michelangelo).		Download
Son questi ohimè dal core (SSATTB) (NEW) A nicely crafted madrigal, with numerous clever word-painting effects. It was reprinted in the anthology Ghirlanda di madrigali a sei voci (Antwerp, 1601), and was also copied into the manuscript Drexel 4302, now in the New York Library for the Performing Arts.		Download
Questi soavi accenti (SSATTB) (NEW) Another piece that describes the ravishing impact of a female singer’s voice upon her listeners.		Download
Felice amante io sono (SSATTB) (NEW) A tale of carefree pastoral goings-on, featuring the shepherd Giglio and shepherdess/nymph Nigella. The “portator del giorno” (bearer of the day) mentioned in the text is Phoebus Apollo, who emanates rays from his golden chariot. The word “risonò” (resounded) gives Gastoldi the opportunity to introduce some nice echo-like effects.		Download
Bocca mia che mi dai (prima parte) (SSATBB) (NEW) An anonymous paean to osculatory bliss, whose text is akin to that of No. 2 above. The vocal disposition is somewhat unusual (F4 clefs for the two lowest voices).		Download
Sì cari e dolci provo i baci tuoi (seconda parte) (SSATBB) (NEW)		Download
Sovra l’erbose sponde (prima parte) (SSATTB) (NEW) Another piece in praise of pastoral delights. In all probability, mention of the river Adige places the scene in Verona (one of the few cities of consequence through which that river flows). Assuming that the choice of this referent is deliberate and significant, the piece may be intended as a tribute to a Veronese woman, transmuted (like the personage in No.5 above) into a stock-character pastoral shepherdess.		Download
Ogni saggio pastore (seconda parte) (SSATTB) (NEW)		Download
Non è questa la mano (SSATTB) (NEW) The opening line of the text is the same as that of a poem by Tasso (Rime 47), whose subtitle reads “While dancing with his lady, he wishes to take amorous revenge on the hand he held tightly,” while the last line is reminiscent of the first line of Petrarch’s “Che debb’ io far? che mi consigli, Amore?” (Canzoniere 268), an extended meditation on the loss of his beloved Laura. The somewhat jarring line “Donargli vita o morte?” (Give it life or death?) is presumably not to be read literally, but rather in the sense of “Shall I accept her or reject her?”		Download
La pianta sacra (prima parte) (SSATTB) (NEW) The “pianta sacra al Dio che nacque in Delo” (plant sacred to the god born in Delos) is the palm tree; in Greek mythology, Delos was the birthplace of Apollo, said to have been born under a sacred palm tree. Phoinix in Greek means “phoenix” as well as “palm tree”; the notion that the two have something in common is mentioned by Pliny. Here, however, the poet uses these references mainly as a point of departure for a rather gloomy meditation on dying for the sake of his lady-love’s happiness.		Download
Morte solo sperai (seconda parte) (SSATTB) (NEW)		Download
Ohimè che faro io (prima parte) (SSATTB) (NEW) Caught on the horns of what appears to be a self-inflicted dilemma, the protagonist agonizes over the prospect of stealing a kiss. The text is a Petrarchan sonnet in form, although the manner in which the lover’s predicament is expressed is distinctly non-Petrarchan.		Download
S’io no’l toglio io mi muoio (seconda parte) (SSATTB) (NEW)		Download
Cantiam lieti, cantiamo (danza de' pastori a 8) (SATB SSAT) (NEW) A charming piece with a pastoral text, for two unequal four-voice choirs, whose title and structure indicate that it was intended to be danced. Some instrumental doubling would not seem out of place. Although not a setting of a Pastor fido text as such, the piece provided a rousing finale for the production of Il pastor fido that was staged at the Amherst Early Music Workshop in 1998. Versions transposed down a whole step and a fourth are also available.		Download

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