FUTURO ANTICO III - Mantua : the music of the court of the Gonzaga

During the whole Renaissance and the first baroque period the Gonzaga were important patrons of music and promoters of the musical life of Mantua.
Already in the middle of the 15th century a humanistic school of court had been instituted , called "Casa giocosa" (cheerful house) where also music was taught and during the court festivities always the presence of musicians was documented.
Since 1490, with the wedding of Isabella d' Este and Francisco II Gonzaga, Mantova became the centre of a very generous patronage of music, literature and art.
Isabella knew how to play various instruments and promoted with enthusiasm the musical initiatives, engaging musicians and ordering new instruments and compositions.
In the 16th century the construction of the ducal church Saint Barbara , wished by Guglielmo Gonzaga was determinant. It had its own and very active musical staff. For this basilica Guglielmo even obtained a liturgy different from the one dictated by Rome, which required a different repertoire of music.
For a long period the following Dukes one by one increased more and more the splendour at court by employing the most well-known and innovative musicians of that period.
Under the government of Vincenzo Gonzaga the modern forms of madrigales and new styles of vocal music arose, as a result also of the contacts with the courts of Ferrara and Florence. At the beginning of the following century the presence of the composer Claudio Monteverdi and the production of his first works gave the music of the courts a touch of considerable renewal, a fact which was recognized as a treasure by the musicians of many other Italian and foreign cities.

Futuro Antico III presents the music of some famous composers who worked at the court of Mantova, as Monteverdi and the "Frottolisti" Cara and Tromboncino, as well as music from other musicians who had been in different manners in contact with the Gonzaga, representing it authentically and at the same time in a modern way through the use of ancient musical instruments and the voice of Angelo Branduardi.
The vocal forms during the time of the 15th - 17th century had been numerous: madrigals, "frottole", songs, aria.... In the variety of the kinds and facets we have chosen what today we would call "song": compositions for a solo voice with accompaniment, short and effective, independent, with a simple structure and a direct communication.
The vocal pieces of this CD are works by composers at court, but, as they are rather catchy, they certainly have been sung also by the ordinary people, representing a good passage between the elevated and the popular music.
The presence of Monteverdi determined this recording: the instrumental pieces (ballet, symphony, refrain) which have been inserted between the vocal pieces are all parts of Orfeo.
We also have inserted some popular songs from the Lombardy which are considerably noticed still today, but which have their origins in a time long ago, a Mantuan-version of "Donna lombarda" (the lombardian lady) and "L'avvelenato" (the poisened).
The thread running through the subjects of this album is love, interpreted in the musical way by the composers and represented under various aspects: "La Ninfa amorosa" (the nymph in love) because the songs of that time, often in a pastoral stage ambience, had been populated by very desirable nymphs, "La rugiada... lacrime d'amore" (the dew... tears of love) because in one of these songs, as in others of that time, drops of dew and tears overlap and are symbols for one and the other. "Amore e attesa" (love and expectation), "Amore e tormento" (love and pain), "Amore e morte" (love and death), "Amore and gioia" (love and joy), however have always been the essence of the songs during all the times, from the ones sang at court till the ones sang in the disco's.

Francesca Torelli

Translation: M.Wegener / P.Gruben

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