Musica Transalpina on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
''Musica Transalpina'' is a collection of 
madrigal
A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance music, Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque music, Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The Polyphony, polyphoni ...
s published in England in 1588. The madrigals had crossed the Alps (hence the name) in the sense that the madrigal form was borrowed from the Italians, and the pieces were mainly by Italians (although the lyrics were rendered into English). It is significant for marking the beginning of the golden age of the madrigal in England.
''Musica transalpina'' contains 57 separate pieces by 18 composers, with Alfonso Ferrabosco the elder having the most, and Luca Marenzio
Luca Marenzio (also Marentio; October 18, 1553 or 1554 – August 22, 1599) was an Italian composer and singer of the late Renaissance.
He was one of the most renowned composers of madrigals, and wrote some of the most famous examples of the fo ...
second most.Gustave Reese
Gustave Reese ( ; 29 November 1899 – 7 September 1977) was an American musicologist and teacher. Reese is known mainly for his work on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly with his two publications ''Music in the Middle Ages'' (1940) ...
, ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W. W. Norton & Co., 1954. . p. 821 Ferrabosco had lived in England in the 1560s and 1570s, which could explain the large number of his compositions in the book; he was relatively unknown in Italy.
Publication history
The collection appeared with a dedication to Gilbert Talbot. It was edited byNicholas Yonge
Nicholas Yonge (also spelled ''Young'', ''Younge''; c. 1560 in Lewes, Sussex – buried 23 October 1619 in St Michael, Cornhill, London) was an English singer and publisher. He is most famous for publishing the '' Musica transalpina'' (1588 ...
and printed by Thomas East
Thomas East, (also spelled Easte, Est, or Este) (''c.''1540 – January 1609), was an English printer who specialised in music. He has been described as a publisher, but that claim is debatable (the specialties of printer and bookseller/publish ...
. Several similar anthologies followed immediately after the success of the first. For example, in 1590 East published ''The First Set of Italian Madrigals''; the compositions (which were mainly by Marenzio) were provided with English texts by the poet Thomas Watson.
Yonge himself published a second ''Musica transalpina'' in 1597, hoping to duplicate the success of the first collection.
See also
''Musica Transalpina'' is also the title of a 2006 collection of poetry byMichelene Wandor
Michelene Dinah Wandor (née Samuels; born 20 April 1940), known from 1963 to at least 1979 as Michelene Victor, is an English playwright, critic, broadcaster, poet, lecturer, and musician.
Birth and education
She was born Michelene Samuels i ...
.
References
External links
* {{Authority control 1588 works Madrigals Music books