'Musica spirituale di Eccellentissimi autori' (1586): un itinerario devoto collettivo nel mondo del madrigale

Abstract

The Musica Spirituale of “eccellentissimi autori” for five voices (1586) is without doubt one of the most extraordinary and refined collective editions of late-16th-century sacred madrigals, both because of the strong representation of leading composers from the Venetian school and owing to the singular editorial project that generated it. By the term “collective” what is meant here is not an anthology, but an original work by various composers. 
The present article assesses the environment in which it was conceived, the question of the title (already used 23 years earlier in a similar edition) and the problems concerning the lack of a dedicatory letter and the dating. Finally, it examines in detail and depth the organizational features of the remarkable underlying poetical and musical structure and outlines the intended literary project.

The originality of the Musica Spirituale consists in the fact that the 30 (+2) pieces are in fact based on a single literary canzone of 15 metrically identical stanzas, each in turn divided into two parts of seven and five lines respectively. Each part follows a clear narrative course: the 15 odd-numbered parts (1, 3, 5, etc.) develop the main themes of Christian faith according to the history of the Christian revelation; the even-numbered series rigorously are settings on the 15 mysteries of the Marian rosary. The singularity of the project is then embellished by further formal and musical details that display considerable artistry and powers of suggestion.

All of this once again indicates the level of refinement and development achieved by the Italian madrigal, here interpreted from a spiritualistic angle: a point of view that was anything but marginal in the last quarter of the 16th century!