Of the origin and certainty of music

Ensemble Stultifera Navis
Elena Casaglia, soprano
Giuditta Pizzilli, spinet
Iris Faceto, viola da gamba 

Silverio Zanobetti, voice

Music by Cipriano de Rore, Jacob Arcadelt, Orlando di Lasso, Diego Ortiz, Francesco Rognoni, Girolamo della Casa

Tickets € 5

Booking of seats is strongly recommended (bookings will be held until 15 min. before the start of the concert)

The program presents madrigals by the three most representative composers of the Franco-Flemish school: Cipriano de Rore (Ronse, 1515 – Parma, 1565), Jacques Arcadelt (Liège, 1507 – Paris, 1568) and Orlando di Lasso (Mons, 1532 – Monaco of Bavaria, 1594).
From the 15th to the mid 16th century said composers spread their art from Flanders and the Netherlands throughout Europe, reaching an undisputed hegemony at that time, by virtue of those learned, and sometimes artificial, contrapuntal forms with which vocal polyphony was elevated to to the highest a cappella style.

In the first part of the program the focus is on the penetration of the Flemish musical element in Italy. One of the most paradigmatic theoretical models is found in the best-known work of Giovanni Battista Bovicelli (Assisi, ca. 1550 – ?): Rules, passages of music, madrigals and motets (Venice, 1594), – in which the the art of “diminishing” the long notes of a melody with others of shorter value. Another important treatise for this genre is the one by Girolamo Dalla Casa (Udine, ? – Venice, 1601): this is a diminution for viola da gamba taken from his significant The true way of diminishing, with all le sorti di instrumenti (Venice, 1584), a document of fundamental importance on Venetian instrumental practice at the end of the 16th century, managing in an emblematic way to directly compare the different styles of the composers.
In the second part of the program, Diego Ortiz (Toledo, ca. 1510 – Naples, ca. 1570) of Spanish origin and rooted in Naples is presented, with an example taken from his best-known work Tratado de Glosas (Rome, 1553) – in which various pieces for diminished viola da gamba and with accompaniment are present (a decisive evolution for the development of instrumental music) – and above the madrigal O happy eyes mine by Jacques Arcadelt you will hear a cercare for soprano viola da gamba. The program then includes Vincenzo Ruffo (Verona, ca. 1508 – Sacile, 1587) with his Capriccio a tre over the same Arcadelt madrigal. This musical form does not include lyrics and is probably conceived as an instrumental piece, capable of testing instrumental and notational skills: think, for example, of the fact that the Cantus is in ternary time while the Tenor and Bass are in tracks; these are the first instrumental pieces in history that are called ‘capricci’.
The third part of the program presents the French chanson Susanne un jour by Didier Lupi Second written around 1560, a very successful song at the time which was adapted by many other composers until the mid-17th century; about forty versions are known for both voice and instruments. The original melody of Lupi Second sung in solo voice will be followed by the madrigal version by Orlando di Lasso intavolato for organ, soprano and viola da gamba bass followed by the magnanimous version for organ intavolato and diminished by Claudio Merulo (Correggio, 1533 – Parma, 1604). The program will end with the version of Lasso played by organ and soprano with the viola passate alla bastarda for Francesco Rognoni (Milan, second half of the 16th century – ca. 1626).
The three parts of the program will be punctuated by the recited reading of passages from the “Harmonic Institutions” by Gioseffo Zarlino, the greatest musical theorist of the Renaissance, in order to lower the listener’s sensitivity into the vision of the world and of the culture that he was able to produce so wonderful masterpieces. Before each of the three sections, the structural meaning of the succession of pieces will be explained, consisting, as indicated above, of the madrigal and the following elaborations of the same.
Stultifera Navis is a musical and cultural association born in 2024, on the initiative of Iris Faceto. The association proposes an idea of ​​integrated art in which the different disciplines of sound, word and vision are combined following the Renaissance ideal of the total man, the point of arrival of human development, the result of an integral education in which all disciplines were necessary for the harmonious, full and conscious growth of the individual.