Luca Marenzio: The Career of a Musician Between the Renaissance and the Counter-Reformation

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Contents: Preface
Competition and pre-eminence
First fruits of genius on the world stage
Cardinal d'Este
Maestro di cappella
Secular music for a prince of the church
The 'buon compagno' pope
The Ferrarese interlude
'Gentildonne'
Roman confraternities
Homeland and compatriots
'Musici di Roma'
'Stravaganze d'amore'
The new pope
A job in Mantua?
'His heart in France'
A 'new aria'
The grand duke's wedding
Orsini and Montalto
The peak of his career
From Vatican Palace to Polish court
Repentance?
The 'Wise Fool'
The Platonic spirit
A new style
Order and significance
Seconda prattica and second Renaissance
Bibliography
Index of compositions by Marenzio
General index.

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Regarded by his contemporaries as the leading madrigal composer of his time, Luca Marenzio was an important figure in sixteenth-century Italian music, and also highly esteemed in England, Flanders and Poland. This English translation of Marco Bizzarini's study of the life and work of Marenzio provides valuable insights into the composer's influence and place in history, and features an extensive, up-to-date bibliography and the first published list of archival sourcesÂ containing references to Marenzio. Women play a decisive role as dedicatees of Marenzio's madrigals and in influencing the way in which they were performed. Bizzarini examines in detail the influence of both female and male patrons and performers on Marenzio's music and career, including his connections with the confraternity of SS TrinitÃ and other institutions. Dedications were also a political tool, as the book reveals. Many of Marenzio's dedications were made at the request of his employer Cardinal d'Este who wanted to please his French allies. Bizzarini examines these extra-musical dimensions to Marenzio's work and discusses the composer's new musical directions under the more austere administration of Pope Clement VIII.

Reviews

Goldberg Magazine

Marenzio remains today a rather shadowy figure... This absorbing study by Marco Bizzarini should go a long way toward rectifying the situation... It is a particular strength of the book that Bizzarini has been able to draw on a number of previously unknown sources... The clarity and at times riveting skill with which Bizzarini unravels the frequently complex politics of the great Italian courts with which Marenzio was either directly or obliquely involved at various times is another of the book's major achievements... Also exceptionally valuable are the author's discussions on patronage and the dedication of publications... he guides us with unerring skill through the stylistic changes that occured during the twenty-year span of Marenzio's creativity... There is no doubt that this is a highly important book that fulfils admirably what should be the most important ambition of any book on music - that of sending the reader back to the music itself

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