‘Vive Adriane, Decus Musarum !’, (’Long live Adriaen, glory of the Muses !’)

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It has long been my desire to compile a single album of all the many elegies and songs of praise in which Maestro Adriaen Willaert is musically immortalized. In recent years, various musicological articles have been published that shed light on the music that pays tribute to Adriaen Willaert, composed in the period following his death on December 7, 1562.

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However, recordings and especially performances of most of these works have been lacking until now _ voilà le constat ! All the more reason to fill this ‘vacuum’—which, for some works, spans over 400 years—with Dionysos Now!

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In my research, I rediscovered a six-part composition by the (until now unknown to me) composer Floriano Canale (c.1550 – 1616 ?), who sets to music the same text  _ voilà ! _ Willaert’s “poulin” Cipriano De Rore (1515/16-1565) used in the ode to his teacher and mentor : Concordes adhibite animos. An ideal opportunity to start and end the recording with these two works, especially since they do not sound like typical ‘deplorations’ on the composer (deplorer = to mourn) but rather as “ceremonial motets” such as those written for emperors and cardinals, full of praise and honor, in Latin, with the typical reference to Greek mythology.

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The madrigal Sassi, Palae by Andrea Gabrieli (c.1533 – 1583) is an imaginative invocation that calls upon everything that grows and swims in the canals of Venice — from the smallest plants to the mermaids (whether they be unmarried or married!) — to join in mourning. This appeal is based on the writings of one of the Commedia dell’Arte’s leading figures, Antonio Molino, also known as Manoli Blessi. Similarly, Pianza’l Grego Pueta by Alvise Willaert (fl. 1560, Adriaen’s nephew _ voilà : celui-ci porte un prénom typiquement vénitien… _) is based on a personal lamentation of Blessi on the great loss of the “Màstora della Musica.”

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A true discovery for me _ et c’est bien sûr à relever… _ was the madrigal Giunto Adrian by Lorenzo Benvenuti. The lyrics (by an unknown author) are less personal compared to the other elegies, but no less intense : daring harmonies accompany this beautiful example of mystical poetry, demonstrating that — even though we know almost nothing about this composer — he knows perfectly how to imitate the composition style of Willaert and the way he set text to music, indeed even developing it further.

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Giovanni Battista Conforti’s (fl. 1550 – 1570) S’hoggi son senz’honor has similarly allegorical lyrics, but they contrast with the added music. The rhythm of the vocal lines feels like a kind of undisturbed rippling in the calm waters of the lagoon. Only in the last line does it become clear that this sonnet is about the death of Adriaen.

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Dulce Padrun is Adriaen Willaert’s opus ultimum _ voilà _, set to a text by Antonio Molino. In this work, Willaert announces his departure from this (music) world. After the first part, in which his (deceased) dog boasts (in the first person) from heaven how it cured him of his many ailments (by making the summer heat disappear at night), Adriaen decides to join his dog on the “other side.”

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This madrigal could be a “musical reply” to an earlier work by Daniele Grisonio, also on a text by Antonio Molino, Vù ha ben casun. The two madrigals were published one after the other in the same print in 1564. In the lyrics of Grisonio’s composition, the same deceased pet comforts its owner (Willaert) from heaven by assuring him that he will greet him every year in August in the form of the brightest star in the night sky, referring to the “dog star” Sirius.

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I added the triptych Parce mihi Domine/Taedet Animam meam/Manus tuae* three “readings for the dead” by Willaert’s student — and later maestro di cappella at the San Marco Basilica —  Gioseffo Zarlino (1517 – 1590), to this recording after reading the article “Deep mourning in Cinquecento Venice” by musicologists Antonio Chemotti and Katelijne Schiltz, which suggests that Zarlino could have composed this music for Adriaen Willaert’s funeral mass.

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The madrigal Dove sei tu is by Adriaen Willaert himself, written after the death of an unnamed young man.

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Tore Tom Deny

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• With special thanks to Katelijne Schilz and Cristle Collins Judd for making their music editions available.