Product Description
Synopsis
Regarded by his contemporaries as the leading madrigal composer of his time, Luca Marenzio was an important figure in 16th-century Italian music. This English translation of Marco Bizzarini's life and work of Marenzio provides provides insights into the composer's influence and place in history, and features a bibliography and an updated list of works. 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 Trinita. 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 re-examines the composer's fall from grace under the more austere administration of Clement VIII.
