Lodovico Agostini: madrigals from Ferrara

About Lodovico Agostini

Agostini was born in Ferrara in 1534 and died there on 20 September 1590. He was the illegitimate son of Agostino Agostini, a Ferrarese singer and priest, and he took orders himself. By 1572 he was singing in the chapel of Ferrara Cathedral, and by 1578 he was on Duke Alfonso II d'Este's payroll; he stayed in the duke's service for the rest of his life. In the 1580s he taught composition to Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, who became a madrigal composer in his own right. He knew Tasso and Guarini and worked alongside Luzzasco Luzzaschi, and he ended his career as a monsignore and apostolic protonotary.

His publications are unusual for their playfulness. The Enigmi musicali and L'echo, et enigmi musicali are canons to be solved from riddles, full of chromatic turns and instrumental interludes. Several madrigal books were written for the three singers of Ferrara's concerto di donne — Laura Peverara, Anna Guarini and Livia d'Arco — and the third book, for six voices, printed in 1582, appears to be the earliest collection of their actual repertory. A late set, Le lagrime del peccatore, turns Luigi Tansillo's penitential poems into madrigali spirituali. No liturgical music by him survives.

The catalogue holds only the 1572 book: seven canzoni and twenty-one madrigals for four voices, dedicated to Girolamo Roverelli and printed by the sons of Antonio Gardano. Most of the 26 titles correspond to items in that contents list, all with text and all at complexity index 0. That is why the collection reads as a single experiment in four-voice writing rather than a survey, and why the pieces run to about three minutes each.

Listening and playing notes

Four voices, mostly homophonic, with the text declaimed in short syllables: the difficulty is not range but intonation, because the part-writing leaves suspensions exposed. Keep the cantus clear and let the lower voices support rather than compete. The canzoni are longer and more sectional than the madrigals, so mark the changes of metre before rehearsing. Agostini's later music is full of riddles and chromatic puzzles, but this book is comparatively direct; treat it as expressive late madrigal writing, not as a technical exercise.

Selected scores

1. Nel bel terreno della donna mia

   The most-viewed Agostini score, a four-voice madrigal from the 1572 second book.

2. E tu per cortesia

   One of the canzoni rather than the madrigals in the 1572 print, longer-breathed and more sectional than its neighbours.

3. Se quanto in voi si vede

   Printed as 'Se quanto in uoi si vede'; the catalogue modernises the u to v, as it does throughout the book's titles.

4. L'occhi, le mani e le chiome d'Amore

   A madrigal cataloguing the beloved's eyes, hands and hair as weapons of Love; the print's incipit is simply 'L'occhi le mani'.

5. Donna felice e bella

   A short four-voice madrigal from the central run of settings in the 1572 book.

6. Donne mie care chi non sa ch'Amore

   Listed in the print by its first two words, 'Donne mie care'; the catalogue supplies the rest of the line as the title.

7. Deh, dimmi car mio ben

   A dialogue-like appeal to a beloved, printed in the shortened form 'Deh dimmi car'.

8. Si chiara e pelegrina

   The first of the twenty-one madrigals in the 1572 book, and the entry that opens the section in the surviving partbooks.

9. In cosi dura sorte

   A complaint whose title the print leaves as 'In cosi dura', withholding the noun the poem supplies.

10. Porgetemi la lira

    An invitation to take up the lyre, placed among the canzoni that open the book rather than among the madrigals.