Adriano Banchieri, the « enfant terrible » of Italian polyphonic music, produced a real masterpiece with his « Barca di Venetia per Padova » (« Venetian Boat bound for Padua »). This is true both front the point of view of the wit and liveliness of the text and subject, and with regard to the musical devices and technique employed. The composer imagines that persons from diferent parts of Italy, plus a German, are aboard this boat. Each of them speaks in his own dialect, the diferences in character also being fairly well marked. The Chaucer of « The Canterbury Tales » naturally comes to mind. Even if the pòetical standard of the present work is not on the same level, the wealth and variety of the musical ideas provide ampie compensation and show the composer's endless powers of imagination. Banchieri could not even resist a touch of humour in the title, in the case of a second edition (the one used for the present edition, as no complete copy of the first edition exists as far as we know). He states that his « Boat » has been « newly plugged and coated with pitch ». The title page also makes it clear that the Spinet (or Theorbo) part was in fact added in this second edition.
The work consists of twenty 5-part madrigals (Canto I, Canto II, Alto, Tenor and Bass). A « subject » appears above the Spinet part for each madrigal...(more)
Elio Piattelli | |
