Toffetti, Marina

The present volume focuses on three main themes: the dissemination of Italian music in central-eastern Europe, faithfully reflected in the numerous historical inventories of music items kept in ecclesiastic institutions of the area under consideration; the migration of musicians and composers; and the adaptation and assimilation of style and compositional techniques of Italian origin, suitably modified depending on the performing conditions of the different geo-cultural contexts.

The present volume offers a reflection on the phenomenon of the re-textualization of vocal music in the 16th and 17th century. Its main object of investigation is the contrafactum, an intertextual artifact par excellence that is studied here from multiple points of view.

The present critical edition, realised with the contribution of the University of Padua and the Department of Cultural Heritage, is one of the results of a multi-year project devoted to the analysis, the critical edition and the reconstruction of incomplete polyphony, carried out by a research group of the Department of Cultural Heritage. It was born from the belief that musical analysis, which in turn represents the main prerequisite for the reconstruction of incomplete polyphony, should be grounded on a critically investigated musical text. 

Il primo libro delle divine lodi contains a total of 35 compositions, of which 33 are vocal and 2 instrumental. Because of the lack of one separate part, 5 vocal compositions come down to us incomplete.

The book is available on-line free of charge. Click here to download it.

Il secondo libro delle divine lodi contains a total of 28 compositions, of which 21 are vocal and instrumental. Considering that among two-part compositions there is also a Mass, divided, as was customary, into five parts, this second volume is no less substantial than the previous one, and moreover has a greater variety of vocal and instrumental combinations: within it, in fact, we find a higher number of concertos for one and for three voices and continuo, as well as three four-voice motets and two instrumental compositions for four instruments.