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Welcome to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani. “Two households, both alike in dignity (In fair Verona, where we lay our scene), Form ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.” So begins Romeo and Juliet. Music’s silver sound, as it’s described by the Capulet’s servant Peter, is woven throughout Shakespeare’s well-loved tragedy, set in Verona, Italy. We’ll explore music from that city, from clever frottolas to masterfully set sacred texts to strange sonatas. Later in the hour, our featured release is Stadpfeiffer, Pifari: Musique à cinq soufleurs with Capella Itineris—civic wind band music performed on sackbut, recorder, and cornetto.

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MUSIC TRACK
Capricci a tre voce
Accademia Strumentale Italiana / Alberto Rasi (cond.)
Stradivarius 2011 / STR33337SD
Vincenzo Ruffo
Tr. 23 Capricci in musica, a 3: No. 19 El melanconico (4:48)

Music by Veronese Renaissance composer, Vincenzo Ruffo. That was “El melanconico” from Capricci in musica, for three instruments—in this case, viols. Accademia Strumentale Italiana was led by Alberto Rasi. We’ll hear more from this musical city and it’s “silver sounds” this hour.
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Set in “Fair Verona,” Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet is filled references to music and its quote “silver sound.” After Juliet succumbs to self-inflicted poison, thinking that Romeo is dead, she is found by her family, the Capulets, and her father mourns, “Our instruments to melancholy bells, / Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast, / Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change.” The Capulet’s servant Peter then sings the song “When griping griefs the heart doth wound.” Here is it sung by tenor Gerald Place.

MUSIC TRACK
Music for Shakespeare's Theatre
Gerald Place, tenor; Dorothy Linell, lute
Naxos 2008 / 8.570708
Richard Edwards
Tr. 31 When Griping Grief (2:29)

We heard music used in Elizabethan productions of Romeo and Juliet. Gerald Place, tenor, and Dorothy Linell, lute, performed “When Griping Grief” by Richard Edwards.

Fictional Verona was not the only place for music, however. In Shakespeare’s day, if you walked around the city, music was everywhere. When entering the Milan Cathedral, for example, you might have heard something by choirmaster and composer Vincenzo Ruffo.

MUSIC TRACK
Capricci a tre voce
Accademia Strumentale Italiana / Alberto Rasi (cond.)
Stradivarius 2011 / STR33337SD
Vincenzo Ruffo
Tr. 4 Capricci in musica, a 3: No. 13 La gamba (1:58)

Music from Capricci in musica by Veronese composer Vincenzo Ruffo. Accademia Strumentale Italiana was led by Alberto Rasi.

A couple of generations later, Verona-born composer Antonio Bertali was a favorite of patrons and listeners throughout Europe. Although he spent most of his professional life in Vienna, working for the Hapsburg court, Bertali studied with Stefano Bernardi, music director at the Verona cathedral. We’ll hear music by both teacher and student. First, here is “De profundis clamavi a te, domine” by Stefano Bernardi.

MUSIC TRACK
Stephano Bernardi: Lux Aeterna, Ein Salzburger Requiem
Voces Suaves (choir); Concerto Scirocco (instrumentalists)
Arcana 2019 / A470
Stefano Barnardi
Tr. 14 De profundis clamavi a te, domine (5:28)

Voces Suaves (choir) and Concerto Scirocco (instrumentalists) performed seventeenth-century Italian sacred music. That was “De profundis clamavi a te, domine” by Stefano Bernardi.

Antonio Bertali, worked in Vienna, and eventually snagged the high-paying position of Kappellmeister to King Ferdinand the Third. Here is Bertali’s Sonata in G major, virtuosic and full of wonderfully strange changes in affect, moving from pathos to whimsy in the blink of an eye.

MUSIC TRACK
Paradise: Instrumental Sontatas of Antonio Bertali
Acronym
Olde Focus Recordings 2014 / FCR901
Antonio Bertali
Tr. 7 Sonata a 2 in G Major (8:25)

The ensemble ACRONYM performed Sonata in G Major by Veronese composer, Antonio Bertali.
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Early music can mean a lot of things. What does it mean to you? Let us know your thoughts and ideas. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org, where you’ll also find playlists and an archive of past shows.

You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.

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Mid Break Music Bed:

MUSIC TRACK (Naxos) (2:33) in prod folder
https://iub.naxosmusiclibrary.com/catalogue/item.asp?cid=FCR901
Paradise: Instrumental Sontatas of Antonio Bertali
Acronym
Olde Focus Recordings 2014 / FCR901
Antonio Bertali
Excerpt of Tr. 13 Sonata a 6 in D Minor (2:33)

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Welcome back. We’re hearing early music from Verona this hour.

An old city, even by European standards, Verona has always been a place steeped in music. The 14th-century poet Immanuel Romano, also known as Manuello Giudeo, described Verona’s “Guitars and lutes, viols and flutes, the high and clear voices of singers; the beautiful chanting of cantors, and the troubadours, “trovatori,” in harmony with one another.”

Around this time period Verona was also a place where the new sounds, surprising polyphony, and other musical explorations of the Italian Ars Nova flourished. While in Verona, theorist and composer Marchetto da Padova wrote about these principles in his treatise Lucidarium. Here is Marchetto’s “Ave Corpus Sanctum / Adolescens protomartyr.”

MUSIC TRACK
Venetia Mundi Splendor
Ensemble Oktoechos / dir. Lanfranco Menga
Tactus 2017 / TC390001
Marchetto de Padova
Tr. 1 Ave Corpus Sanctum / Adolescens protomartyr (4:49)

“Ave Corpus Sanctum / Adolescens protomartyr” by Marchetto de Padova. Ensemble Oktoechos was directed by Lanfranco Menga.

The Veronese gentleman Cangrande della Scala was the patron of Dante Alighieri as well as other writers, artists, and musicians. Composers Jacopo da Bologna and Magister Piero were also among the musicians who benefited from the Della Scala family patronage. Jacopo’s music was prized for its “suave dolce melodia” (sweet gentle melody).

Like Jacopo, the poet Petrarch also spent time in Verona. Jacopo da Bologna’s setting of “Non al suo amante” is the only Petrarchan poem with surviving music written during the poet’s lifetime. The poem begins, [quote] “Diana did not please her lover more, the day he viewed her bathing nude in an icy cold pool, than did the simple mountain shepherdess I saw today.”

MUSIC TRACK
Jacopo da Bologna: Italian Madrigals of the 14th Century
Ensemble Project Ars Nova
Ars Musici 2010 / AM232306
Jacopo da Bologna
Tr. 14 Non al suo amante (3:15)

Ensemble Project Ars Nova performed “Non al suo amante” by Jacopo da Bologna set to words by Petrarch.

Jacopo da Bologna and Magister Piero both worked for the Della Scala family, often setting madrigals to texts in the local dialect. Here’s Magister Piero’s “Cavalcando con un giovine accorto.”

MUSIC TRACK
Segreti Accenti: Italian Renaissance Music
Canta Alla Viola (Nadine Balbeisi, soprano; Fernando Marin, vihuelas and viol)
Quartz Music 2017 / QTZ2125
Magister Piero
Tr. 19 Cavalcando con un giovine accorto (3:35)

Canta Alla Viola performed “Cavalcando con un giovine accorto” by Magister Piero.

On our featured release this hour, Capella Itineris takes a deep dive into music for Renaissance civic wind band on their CD Stadpfeifer, Pifari: Musique à cinq soufleurs. These wind bands were the ancestors of the modern marching band. Cities and town councils paid core musicians to perform at civic functions including the election of a new leader, commemoration of specific battles, and some church service performances. The positions were competitive to attain; artistry was high, and so was the pay. We’ll begin with music by Daniel Speer, who was born in Poland and worked as a Stadpfeifer in Stuttgart: a Sonata for two cornetts and three sackbuts.

MUSIC TRACK
Stadtpfeifer, Piffari, musique à cinq souffleurs
Capella Itineris
Aparté Music 2022
Daniel Speer
Tr. 17 Sonata für zwei Zinken und drei Posaunen (3:19)

Capella Itineris performed Sonata for two cornetts and three sackbuts by Daniel Speer.

Civic wind band musicians played various instruments: trumpet, cornett, recorder, sackbut, shawms, dulcians, crumhorns, and percussion. In German-speaking lands, the musicians were called “Stadtpfeiffer”; in Italy they were “piffari”; and in England, “waits.” Here is Giovanni Picchi’s Sonata no. 10 for two Recorders and two Sackbuts.

MUSIC TRACK
Stadtpfeifer, Piffari: Musique à cinq souffleurs
Capella Itineris
Aparté Music 2022
Giovanni Picchi
Tr. 5 Sonata decima a due flauti e due tromboni (4:20)

Sonata for two recorders and two sackbuts by Giovanni Picchi. Capella Itineris performed from their 2022 Aparté Music release, Stadtpfeifer, Piffari: Musique à cinq souffleurs.

While they were working on this recording, Capella Itineris engaged in one unusual aspect of historical accuracy: they went from venue to venue by foot as much as possible rather than using modern methods of transportation. Perhaps this brought them closer to the experience of Renaissance musicians, and it certainly brought the artists closer together. We’ll conclude with music by Italian Renaissance master, Palestrina. Here is Vineam meam with improvisational diminutions by Capella Itineris sackbut player Davide Lombritto.

MUSIC TRACK
Stadtpfeifer, Piffari: Musique à cinq souffleurs
Capella Itineris
Aparté Music 2022
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina / diminutions by Davide Lombritto
Tr. 4 Vineam meam (5:28)

“Vineam meam” by Palestrina, with improvisational divisions by Davide Lombritto of Capella Itineris, from their 2022 Aparté Music release, Stadtpfeifer, Piffari: Musique à cinq souffleurs.
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Harmonia is a production of WFIU and part of the educational mission of Indiana University.
Support comes from Early Music America: a national organization that advocates and supports the historical performance of music of the past, the community of artists who create it, and the listeners whose lives are enriched by it. On the web at EarlyMusicAmerica-dot-org.

Additional resources come from the William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

We welcome your thoughts about any part of this program, or about early music in general. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org. You can follow us on Facebook by searching for Harmonia Early Music.

The writer for this edition of Harmonia was Sarah Schilling.

Thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, and our production team: LuAnn Johnson, Aaron Cain, and John Bailey. I’m Angela Mariani, inviting you to join us again for the next edition of Harmonia.

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