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

Bati, Luca, Primo a 5 (1594) (complete)

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

Introduction The Introduction can be downloaded from the Translation column.
Questo fonte gentil non versa stilla (prima parte) (SSATBar) NEW Benedetto Varchi (ca. 1502–1565) was a prolific poet, as well as the author of plays, dialogues, and translations from the classics. “Questo fonte gentil” is an excerpt from a lengthy cycle of pastoral sonnets set on the banks of the Reno (a river in the Emilia-Romagna region, that flows through Bologna) and featuring an ample cast of shepherds and shepherdesses. The lines are spoken by the shepherd Tirinto, who expresses his love for the nymph/shepherdess Tesilla, albeit in terms that would be considered sexist today.		Download
Qui con sì dolce sguardo e sì sereno (seconda parte) (SSATBar) NEW		Download
Occhi un tempo mia vita (SSATBar) NEW This poetic madrigale, which bears the subtitle “Cangiati sguardi” (changed glances) in contemporary editions, is a testament to the make-or-break power attributed to eyes and their glances in Guarini’s time. Numerous other composers set the same text to music.		Download
Baciami vita mia, baciami ancora (SSATBar) NEW This anonymous strambotto toscano, with its clearly erotic subtext, had been earlier set to music by Ferabosco in an anthology published in 1554. With its French-chanson-like opening, vigorous rhythms, and four-part texture for the first 12 bars, Bati’s setting seems like a throwback to the lighter genres of an earlier generation. Bati switches to longer note-values and shorter phrases to render the unexpected twist in the last line.		Download
Appena potev’ io bella Licori (prima parte) (S S/A ATB) NEW Similarly to Nos. 1–2, “Appena potev’ io” is part of a lengthy cycle of pastoral sonnets featuring multiple characters. Here the protagonist is a certain Iola – to judge from the river names, he is a denizen of Tuscany – who is in love with Licori, evidently resident near Rome. Apparently a condition for his relationship with Licori to progress is that he relocate.		Download
Già viss’ io presso a te felice e lieto (seconda parte) (S S/A ATB) NEW		Download
Misero, che farò, piangerò sempre? (SATTB) NEW An anonymous text, not known to have been set by other madrigalists, and with an unrelievedly gloomy affect. It is ostensibly a version of the “separation-is-so-bitter” theme, although the last two lines hint at something darker. Bati’s setting displays some daring progressions as well as interesting chromatic touches.		Download
O Amarilli, che sì bella in vista (SSATB) NEW The protagonist makes a pitch to his lovely-on-the-outside, rock-hard-on-the-inside love object. (The outcome remains uncertain.)		Download
Filli, deh non fuggir, deh Filli aspetta (prima parte) (SSATB) NEW This breathless bit of pastoral fluff is cast as a classical Petrarchan sonnet – perhaps an indication of how durable that poetic form was, notwithstanding the fact that Petrarch doubtless would have found the content and the sentiment appalling. Nonetheless, Varchi should be given credit for his clever adaptation, which is both animated and dramatic.		Download
Rallenta Filli ohimè, rallenta il passo (seconda parte) (SSATB) NEW		Download
Il più bel pastorel e’l più gentile (prima parte) (SSATB) NEW A neo-Petrarchan sonnet with a stock pastoral setting, on the well-worn theme of a shepherd’s complaint that his love for a wayward shepherdess is unrequited.		Download
Tirsi che sola te nott’ e dì chiama (seconda parte) (SSATB) NEW		Download
Vago monte fiorite ombrose piagge (SATTB) NEW A variation on the theme – which harks back to Petrarch – of “nature is so beautiful but I’m so miserable,” the protagonist’s misery being occasioned here by his love object’s seeming lack of regard for him. Gandolfi was a minor poet whose works appeared in several mid-16th-century anthologies.		Download
Cessate il pianto omai, cari pastori (prima parte) (SATTB) NEW According to its subtitle, the sonnet was composed on the occasion of the death of a certain Bardo Segni (the “Pardo” of the third line of the prima parte), a minor Florentine poet and editor of poetry who apparently died at a relatively young age. Varchi seems to have transposed the occasion to a pastoral milieu and endowed Bardo with pseudo-classical views on human mortality.		Download
Assai viss’ io se si misura gl’anni (seconda parte) (SATTB) NEW		Download
Da voi da me disgiunto (SATTB) NEW A variation on the theme of separation as unending misery. The poem is attributed to Strozzi in a MS possessed by the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence.		Download
Se di cenere il volto (SSATB) NEW An anonymous text, not known to have been set by other composers, whose affect is as tortured as its syntax.		Download
Mentre l’armento mio la sera cingo (prima parte) (SSATB) NEW A setting of another of Varchi’s pastoral sonnets, this one part of a lengthy and loosely connected cycle featuring the shepherd/shepherdess protagonists Carino and Nape. Here the protagonist evesdrops on an intimate conversation between the two. (To the modern reader, Carino’s reply to Nape’s impassioned declaration may seem a little lame.)		Download
Altro da te non cerco, e tu non dei (seconda parte) (SSATB) NEW		Download
Ben sei Tirinto mio più ch’il sol bello (prima parte) (SSSTB) NEW An excerpt from a lengthy pastoral sonnet cycle by Varchi, set on the banks of the Reno (a river in the Emilia-Romagna region, that flows through Bologna) and featuring an ample cast of shepherds and shepherdesses. The lines are spoken by Nisa, who has broken off with her paramour Silvano and fallen madly in love with the uncaring Tirinto.		Download
Prendi ti prego questi fiori (seconda parte) (SSSTB) NEW		Download
Quel che nel proprio sangue (SATTB) NEW A setting of an anonymous poem, preserved elsewhere in a few contemporary MS sources. In one of these it is described as an “epitafio” (epitaph), the term being used in its original Greek meaning of a discourse honoring a deceased person. The text represents an unusual choice for a musical setting. In Greek mythology, Hyacinth(us) was a Spartan prince whose beauty was such that he attracted the attentions of Apollo. Apollo attempted to teach him the use of the discus, but the instrument struck him in the head and caused his death. The piece is by Neri Alberti, a minor figure whose few known works appear only in publications devoted primarily to other composers.		Download
Baciatemi cor mio (SSATB) NEW According to Piero Gargiulo (“Notes on the life and works of Antonio Bicci (1552–1614),” Early Music, November 1999, 600–607), Bicci was an “aristocratic dilettante” musician influenced by Marenzio. Seven of his madrigal compositions have come down to us; “Baciatemi cor mio” is one of only three that survive complete. Livio Celiano was the pen-name of Angelo Grillo, a Benedictine monk originally from Genoa. He wrote religious verse under his own name and secular poetry (much of it amorous or risqué) under his pseudonym.		Download
Da begl’occhi ch’adoro (SS A/T TB) NEW An anonymous text, which was also fashioned into a madrigal by Giovanni Battista Locatello. Cupid’s pronouncement would seem to call for some clarification; perhaps the gist of it is, “She’s not as hard-hearted as you think; maybe you should do something besides just watch.”		Download
Se da quel vago viso (SSATBar) NEW Livio Celiano was the pen-name of Angelo Grillo, a Benedictine monk originally from Genoa. He wrote religious verse under his own name and secular poetry (much of it amorous or risqué) under his pseudonym.		Download

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