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).

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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

Rognoni Taeggio, Francesco, Primo a 5 (1613) (complete)

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Title and DescriptionScoreMidiTranslation
Introduction
Summary: Francesco Rognoni Taeggio (ca.1580–ca.1630) was a member of an accomplished musical family that included his father Ricardo and his brother Giovanni Domenico, all of whom were active in Milan at the end of the 16th and first two decades of the 17th century. A virtuoso on several instruments, Francesco is best known to posterity for his two-part treatise on diminutions, titled Selva de varii passaggi … (1620). His Primo libro de’ madrigali a cinque voci (1613) comprises his only surviving Italian-texted secular vocal music. See the full text of the introduction (downloadable from the Translation column) for further details.
Io vo piangendo i miei passati tempi (SATTB+b.c.) *NEW*
By prominently featuring this composition – in effect a “spiritual madrigal” on a text by Petrarch – in his Primo libro a 5, Rognoni was perhaps seeking to establish himself as a “serious” composer. At the same time, given that Rognoni paid homage to his father Ricardo by including some of his compositions (see Nos. 4 and 21−22), perhaps the father in his capacity as teacher gave his son the task of setting the text.		 Download
Con che soavità labbra odorate (SATTB+b.c.) *NEW*
Rognoni transitions abruptly from the sorrow-laden, introspective world of Petrarch (No.1) to the sensuous, earthly-delights-centered milieu of Guarini’s madrigali, in this instance in praise of a woman whose lips are as alluring as her speaking (or, more likely, her singing) voice.		 Download
Misera, che farò? (SATTB+b.c.) *NEW*
A text of unknown authorship, expressing the anguished predicament of a woman betrayed by her lover.		 Download
Quando ch’al mar discenderanno i fiumi (SATTB+b.c.) *NEW*
A composition by Francesco Rognoni’s father Ricardo, with a text taken from Petrarch’s Sestina III (beginning with the line “L’aere gravato e l’importuna nebbia”), in which the poet compares his beloved Laura to winter. The standard version of the text renders the opening line of this stanza as “Mentre ch’al mar ….”		 Download
Qual sì ferigno ed agghiacciato core (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
Another florid madrigal by Rognoni, this one on a histrionic text of questionable literary merit. 		Download
O dolcezze amarissime d’amore (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
A setting of a small part of Mirtillo’s extended soliloquy that opens Act III of Il pastor fido. No longer able to be seen in public with his beloved Amarilli (who has been unwillingly betrothed to another man, although she still loves Mirtillo), Mirtillo ensconces himself in the bushes, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. In the speech he runs through a wide gamut of emotions – bitter reminiscences, despair, denial, hope, fear, anticipation and finally resignation. Rognoni's downward chromatic lines at the beginning of the piece seem to reflect the emotional conflict.		 Download
Felice chi vi mira (prima parte of 2) (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
Rognoni divides this short, epigrammatic madrigale by Guarini into two parti, lengthening the setting of each by extensive repetition (including repetition of an entire section in the prima parte).		 Download
Ben ebbe amica stella (seconda parte) (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
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Donna mentr’ io vi miro (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
Guarini’s text was quite popular with other contemporary madrigalists, nearly 20 other settings being known (e.g., by Sigismondo d’India, Antonio Cifra and Salomone Rossi). In some cases (e.g., Monteverdi’s setting in his Quarto libro a 5 of 1603) the first line is rendered as “Cor mio …”		 Download
Parlo misero o taccio (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
Another Guarinian text that was popular with other madrigalists, more than 30 settings being known (e.g., by Salamone Rossi, Benedetto Pallavicino, Sigismondo d’India, Antonio Cifra, Monteverdi and Gesualdo).		 Download
Se la doglia e ’l martire (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
Rognoni’s florid setting of Marino’s text seems to fit well with the poet’s extravagant literary style.		 Download
Godo mia bell’ Aurora (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
The anonymous poem begins with a seemingly conventional depiction of the ravishing impact of a beautiful singer on the listener, but abruptly proceeds to describe contrasting, grief-stricken effects (giving Rognoni ample opportunity for expressive musical rendition of the text).		 Download
Ma tu, più che mai dura (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
Rognoni Taeggio’s setting of part of Mirtillo’s increasingly desperate, and hopeless, appeal to Amarilli (Il pastor fido, III/iii). Better known is Monteverdi’s masterful setting (as the seconda parte of the cycle “Ch’io t’ami, e t’ami più dell amia vita,” Quinto libro a 5, 1605).		 Download
Intenerite voi, lagrime mie (prima parte of 2) (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
Another instance in which Rognoni has taken a relatively short poem, split it into two parts, and fleshed out the musical setting with extensive repetition. Rinuccini’s text was also set to music, either as a polyphonic madrigal or as a solo song with continuo, by Sigismondo d’India, Amadio Freddi, Angelo Notari and Jacopo Peri.		 Download
Or che ’l mio vago scoglio (seconda parte) (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
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Deh Tirsi, anima mia, perdona (prima parte of 2) (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
A setting, with obligatory basso continuo, of Amarilli’s soliloquy (Il pastor fido, III/iv) in which she laments the pain that she is compelled to inflict on Mirtillo. The first line is altered so as to address a “generic” shepherd Tirsi instead of Mirtillo (Marenzio similarly treats the same text), thus decontextualizing the passage, although the rest of the Pastor Fido text is essentially unchanged from the original. See also “Anima mia, perdona” by Monteverdi.		 Download
Che se tu se’ ’l cor mio (seconda parte) (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
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Dialogo: Perché piangi Pastore? (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
The first of two pastoral dialogues, with obligatory basso continuo, in the Primo libro a 5. Rognoni uses the bottom three and two top voices to represent the protagonist shepherd and shepherdess respectively. The final phrase harkens back to Marenzio’s famous (or infamous) “Tirsi morir volea,” an unabashedly erotic portrayal of pastoral goings-on. Essentially the same text was set as a soprano-tenor duet with basso continuo by Giovanni Ghizzolo (Secondo libro de’ madrigali ed arie, 1610).		 Download
Dialogo: Filli e Tirsi (SSTTB+b.c.) *NEW*
The second pastoral dialogue in the Primo libro a 5, with voice parts that are notably florid in places. The affect, in contrast to that of the first dialogue, is consistently one of lovers’ “delight and joy” in each other’s company – a rare instance, for the time, of fully requited love.		 Download
Pallidetto mio sole (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
Marino’s poem bears the subtitle “Pallore di bella donna” (Pallor of a beautiful woman), and exploits various usages of the word “pallido” (pale, pallid) and its derivatives, including the diminutive “pallidetto,” used here with an affectionate connotation. 		Download
O quanto o pio Gesù (prima parte of 2) (SATTB+b.c.) *NEW*
A “spiritual madrigal” by Francesco’s father Ricardo, based on a sonnet where, peculiarly, the order of the two sections has been reversed (the six-line unit precedes the eight-line one). The poem was written by one Girolamo Malipiero, a Venetian cleric, who published “spiritualized” versions of Petrarch’s sonnets under the title Il Petrarca spirituale. “O quanto o pio Gesù” is loosely based on Petrarch’s Sonetto XXIV (“Gli occhi di ch’ io parlai sì caldamente”), composed after the death of the poet’s beloved Laura.		 Download
Gli occhi di ch’io parlai (seconda parte) (SATTB+b.c.) *NEW*
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Balletto: Fanciulletto fortunato (SSATB+b.c.) *NEW*
The subtitle of the balletto indicates that it was commissioned by the then Marquis of Caravaggio, Muzio Sforza, to celebrate the birth of a son to the “Sig[nor] Contestabile” (= Señor Condestable de Castilla in Spanish). As Robert Kendrick notes, Sforza was the founder of a Milanese learned society and a central figure in Milan’s cultural life. The title “Condestable” was a hereditary honorific which had been bestowed on the Spanish Velasco family. The new father in question, therefore, is evidently Juan Fernández de Velasco, fifth Duke of Frías (ca. 1550−1613), and Governor of the Duchy of Milan during the years 1592−1600 and 1610−1612. 		Download
Editorial Notes
The Editorial Notes can be downloaded from the Translation column.

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