Madrigali Spirituale & Contrafacta -- PLAYLISTS
"In essence, ... motets were sacred madrigals. ... The language of the text was the decisive feature : if it's Latin, it's a motet; if vernacular, a madrigal. Religious compositions in vernacular languages were often called madrigali spirituali, "spiritual madrigals"." (Nicolae Sfetcu : The Music Sound.) https://books.google.com/books?id=kXyFAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT3541&lpg=PT3541&dq=
"Madrigali spirituali ... were performed at private houses, academies, and courts of noblemen in Italy and adjacent countries but ... were not used liturgically. The madrigale spirituale was an a cappella form, though instrumental accompaniment was used on occasion ... . ... Some famous examples of madrigali spirituali include Lassus's sublimely beautiful Lagrime di San Pietro (Munich, 1595); Guillaume Dufay's Vergine bella, (ca. 1470) setting a poem in praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Petrarch; Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's First Book of Madrigals (1581), also setting Marian poems by Petrarch; Carlo Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responsories (1611); and the huge collection by Giovanni Francesco Anerio, Teatro armonico spirituale (Rome, 1619)." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrigale_spirituale
"He was born in Narni ... . ... The most important achievement ... was his Teatro armonico spirituale of 1619, which is arguably the first oratorio. It includes the earliest surviving obbligato writing for instruments by the Roman School. Instrumentation is indicated with unusual care, and the alternate instrumental and vocal passages were greatly influential in works of the following decades. Unlike the works of the Venetian school .., the Teatro armonico spirituale was in Italian; it included stories told musically but not acted (as would be done in opera); and voices and instruments alternated movement by movement." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Francesco_Anerio#Musical_style
"Alexander Agricola (1446-1506) ... . ... Alexander's surname was apparently Ackerman, but he is called Agricola in most sources. ... His Missa In minen sin is one of the largest cycles of the era, a virtual encyclopedia of motivic variation. Agricola did not show the concern for text championed by Josquin, nor the feel for open textures pioneered by Obrecht. His counterpoint is extremely dense, with a fantastical feeling developing upon the "irrationality" of Ockeghem's designs. Agricola's larger settings are consequently some of the most intricate and inventive of the era, combining an abundance of contrapuntal ideas with a seemingly intentional arbitrariness into a web of shifting musical connections." http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/composers/agricola.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RehAQb2sd8&list=OLAK5uy_nEHCwtdNK3vB1TpSR97bqgrQjwn02O0vg
29 [contrafacta]