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Nova Angeletta by Luca Marenzio
At Christmas, we hear a lot about angels--the Angel Gabriel, for example, who appeared to Mary nine months previously to convey some startling news; and of course the band of angels out in the fields announcing the glad tidings to the shepherds and the shepherdesses: 'Gloria in excelsis Deo!'

Today's angel is of another sort. She's attractive, playful and most definitely amorous. Seeing our hero making his way across an attractive landscape, she sets a trap for him, into which he is most willingly drawn, so captivated is he by her bright eyes.

This happy little tale--poem 106 from Petrarch's 'Canzoniere'--appears in Luca Marenzio's one and only book of madrigals for four voices, published in 1585. One might think that this volume, written in the four-voice texture which by then was becoming archaic, might be more backward-looking than the many other publications which Marenzio issued in the mid-1580's. This supposition would be true only in one sense: a large number of the poems--no fewer than eight--are by Petrarch, who died over 200 years earlier. 


But then Petrarch's poetry was always popular with the madrigalists.  In fact, he might be said to have inspired the whole madrigal genre, by means of which the 14th-century master rose again to prominence. And Marenzio was an especial devotee of Petrarch, over the course of his career setting to music some thirty Petrarchan lyrics.

Aside from the preponderance of older poems, however, Marenzio's four-part madrigals are amazingly up-to-date, even forward-looking. Nothing simple or simplistic about the wrenching 'Zefiro torna', for example; and nothing elementary or old-fashioned in the amazing, mystical 'Non vidi mai'.

In contrast, today's madrigal is a joyous romp, with voices tossing motives gleefully back and forth throughout. It only lasts a few minutes (depending upon tempo, which can vary a lot), but packs in a lot of great counterpoint and a lot of fun. Check out the following two recordings:
1. Concerto Italiano: A very fast rendition which captures the rush of excitement and anticipation inherent in the poem;
2. Capella de la Torre: A much slower instrumental rendition, followed immediately by a version for solo voice accompanied by lute and organ (or it might be a few recorders instead of the organ), with a little coda for wind ensemble.

The difference in effect between these two recordings could hardly be greater; but each seems to grasp something special about the madrigal and brings that something to vivid life.
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