Leonard Meldert’s Primo libro de madrigali a cinque voci (Venice, 1578) has an interest and musical quality far beyond what one might guess from the modest facts of the author’s life and works. The book partly reflects the musical tastes of the court of Urbino in the final years of Duke Guidobaldo II Della Rovere (1514–74) and of the private household of his brother, Cardinal Giulio Della Rovere (1533–78). But its structure and contents display some unusual features that can be linked to the circumstances of Meldert’s life and to his own initiative in projecting and assembling his book of madrigals. Moreover, it offers the first settings of then-recent poems by Torquato Tasso, Giovanni Battista Guarini, and Giuliano Goselini, the result of the composer’s personal contacts in the court of Ferrara and his ties to the literary and musical circle of Antonio Londonio, a Milan-based Spanish diplomat. This edition presents the Primo libro for the first time in a modern edition, examining Meldert’s textual choices and musical style within the contexts of courtly life, his personal biography, and the nascent seconda prattica.

Il primo libro de madrigali a quatro voci (Venice, 1542)

First Published in 1994. Il primo libro di madrigali a quattro voci (Venice, 1555)

Explores the role of music in the cultural, religious, and political upheavals of late Renaissance Italy, revealing how musical activity of all kinds was instrumentalized by those in power. Italian culture did not lose its vigour after 1530, but underwent a transformation.