Paradigma Medioevo: Music from 14h-century Italy Aquila Altera

• Francesco Landini (ca. 1325 - 1397): Ecco la primavera:
• 1Landini: Ecco la primavera01:54
• Antonio Zacara da Teramo (ca. 1350 - 1413): Dicovi per certança:
• 2Teramo: Dicovi per certança03:51
• Andrea da Firenze (1350 - 1415): Dolce speranza d'amoroso foco:
• 3Firenze: Dolce speranza d'amoroso foco02:40
• Anonymous: Chominciamento di gioia instrumental:
• 4Anonymous: Chominciamento di gioia instrumental05:57
• Francesco Landini: I' priego amor e la vostra biltate:
• 5Landini: I' priego amor e la vostra biltate03:54
• Ochi dolenti miei che pur piangete:
• 6Landini: Ochi dolenti miei che pur piangete02:45
• Questa fanciull'Amor, fallami pia:
• 7Landini: Questa fanciull'Amor, fallami pia03:15
• Antonio Zacara da Teramo: Non voler, donna:
• 8Teramo: Non voler, donna03:46
• Anonymous: Aquila altera:
• 9Anonymous: Aquila altera02:39
• Francesco Landini: Adiu, adiu dous dame:
• 10Landini: Adiu, adiu dous dame04:17
• Anonymous: Amor mi fa cantar:
• 11Anonymous: Amor mi fa cantar03:15
• Francesco Landini: Non creder donna:
• 12Landini: Non creder donna03:28
• Anonymous: Tre fontane:
• 13Anonymous: Tre fontane05:31
• Antonio Zacara da Teramo: Cacciando per gustar/Ay cinci, ay toppi:
• 14Teramo: Cacciando per gustar/Ay cinci, ay toppi04:48
• Total Runtime52:00

Info for Paradigma Medioevo: Music from 14h-century Italy

Polyphonic 14th-century Italian secular music seems to emerge out of nowhere in the history of music. Nevertheless, this tradition – which often goes by the name Ars Nova – fits seamlessly into the history of Italian culture. Our knowledge of it has been pieced together from relatively few sources, which nevertheless reveal three distinct phases. In its first phase, Italian Ars Nova spread out from universities, including those of Padua and Bologna, which had strong links with the dominant and contemporaneous French Ars Nova. In the second phase, the centre of 14th-century Italian polyphony seems to shift markedly to Florence. The final phase, which bridged the late 1300s and early 1400s, shows the influence of intense cultural exchange brought about by an international circulation of musicians and poets caused by the political instability of the papacy’s return from Avignon to Rome and the consequent heightened mobility among the various courts and their entourages.

This phase is reflected in such sources as the renowned Squarcialupi Codex. Compiled in Florence around 1415, it contains over 350 compositions (madrigals, ballate and cacce) and is the source of the majority of the tracks on this album. Francesco Landini (c.1325/35–1397) is represented by five of his 141 ballate and the virelai ‘Adiu, adiu dous dame’. Also from the Codex are one ballata by Andrea da Firenze (c.1350–1415) and two ballate and a caccia by Antonio ‘Zacara’ da Teramo (1355–1416). Three instrumental tracks complete the album, two of them from the ‘London’ Manuscript (British Library) compiled in Florence, probably in Medici circles. In addition to mostly polyphonic music by Landini and other Florentine composers, this tome features several anonymous instrumental works including the lively dances ‘Chominciamento di gioia’ and ‘Tre fontane’. The madrigal ‘Aquila altera’ has a different background entirely: the version presented here is the instrumental arrangement found in the Codex Faenza, a unique volume assembled in the early 15th century containing around 50 Italian and French polyphonic compositions for organ.

Aquila Altera

Aquila Altera
The early music ensemble Aquila Altera takes its name from a madrigal by Jacopo da Bologna. It was born in L'Aquila in 1998 from an idea of Antonio Pro and Maria Antonietta Cignitti. Since its foundation, the ensemble has made use of the participation of musicians, singers, dancers and actors, specialised in the ancient repertoire, in its musical activity and historical-musicological research, with the aim of creating historically informed musical programmes.

It has been responsible for the artistic direction of numerous events and festivals, realised numerous musical productions studying codices and composers of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and collaborated in the realisation of musicological conferences for various Italian institutions and universities with a focus on the research and performance of the vast instrumental and vocal, sacred and secular, production of codes and composers from the Abruzzi of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Booklet for Paradigma Medioevo: Music from 14h-century Italy