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What's on YouTube: Antonio Valente

Antonio Valente is an Italian Renaissance composer who continues to languish in obscurity. This is mainly due to the fact that we know very little about him. Fortunately, enough of his music survives that we can at least judge him to have been a good composer.

He's mostly known for the Intavolatura de cimbalo, a collection of keyboard music that includes dances and settings of popular songs, among other kinds of pieces typical of the late Renaissance. Published in 1576 (Naples), it is the earliest publication that was intended solely for the harpsichord.

Nevertheless, organists and other instrumentalists also like to play Valente's compositions.

Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI perform a terrific arrangement of Valente's Galliarda Napolitana:

Although Hesperion XXI's reading is as fine as any, it is worth listening to what Valente's music sounds like on a keyboard instrument. Here's organist Matthias Rascher performing Lo Ballo dell'Intorcia:

Good music.

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