Nicholas Yonge

Musica Transalpina

Edited by David Greer

This is the first ever complete published edition of a major madrigal collection that is essential to our understanding of the fruitful interaction of Renaissance Italian and English music.

In four, five and six voices, the 57 pieces of Musica Transalpina include 51 madrigals by Marenzio, Palestrina and others, the two parts of Byrd's 'La virginella', and four French chansons. Uniquely, the anthology also features singing translations of the original poems from the Italian into the vernacular, for which it was widely admired and circulated. As a printed source from which composers could learn the madrigal style and aesthetic, it was hugely influential in inspiring the 'golden age' of Tudor and Jacobean vocal music.

An important addition to The English Madrigalists series, Musica Transalpina of 1588 is not only of great scholarly interest but is also an outstanding addition to the repertoire that will delight contemporary singers no less than it enthralled those Elizabethans who first responded with such enthusiasm to its fine music and accessible 'Englished' texts.