Ancora su Verdelot-Savonarola: il madrigale 'con lacrim' et sospir''

Abstract

Often viewed as late evidence of adherence to the climate of the Florentine Republic and at the same time as a religious-political reflection of the revival of Savonarolan ideals, the well-known Newberry-Oscott manuscript collection [NO] (c. 1526-29) includes a setting of Con lacrim' et sospir' among the 22 madrigals attributed to Verdelot. Though the piece is sometimes confused with another setting of the same text and has also been ascribed to Arcadelt, the attribution to Verdelot is confirmed in the two illustrious printed editions (the incomplete Roman Serena editions, which appeared in 1530 and 1534) which constituted the first substantial nucleus of madrigals by the Franco-Flemish composer.
Taking into consideration the area of Verdelot's formation (prior to his arrival in Tuscany in 1521) and his successive admission to the historical-artistic environment that inspired the compilation of NO, this article assesses the grounds for a Verdelot-Savonarola link also in the secular field (as already conjectured and discussed for certain motets). And it does so through objective data and analytical findings: the manuscript unicum of the madrigal surviving complete in NO; the restricted circulation of the piece and the fact that it was less successful than the other setting of the same name; and the actual stylistic features of the madrigal, judged to be «the most consistently and ingeniously imitative among Verdelot's madrigals». Finally, to complete the enquiry, the article also considers possible influences of the Savonarolan lauda: for example, the metaphor of the incipit and final distich (a sort of suggestive allusion to the spiritualism of thePiagnoni) and the affinities in polyphonic texture between the madrigal and the two-voice lauda Padre del cielo, included in MS Venet. Marc. It. IX, 145 (fols. 1450-60) together with four other poetic texts set by the frater