Luzzaschi, Luzzasco (EN)

Luzzaschi Luzzasco, *1545 (?) Ferrara, †10 September 1607 Ferrara, Italian composer, organist, harpsichordist and teacher. He was a student of C. de Rore in his youth. In 1561, he became a singer, and in 1564 the first organist at the court of Alfonso II d’Este in Ferrara. From around 1570, he took care of the concerto delle donne ensemble, especially the musica secreta, which made the Ferrara court widely famous after 1580. Luzzaschi provided the ensemble with repertoire, prepared it for performances and accompanied it on the harpsichord. After the death of Alfonso II and the transfer of the court to Modena (1597), Luzzaschi remained in Ferrara. He may have been the organist of the cathedral at that time; he maintained contact with the city’s ruler, Cardinal P. Aldobrandini and, between 1599 and 1601, with Cardinal F. Borromeo, who was active in Milan, to whom he sent his compositions. Luzzaschi educated many virtuosos playing keyboard instruments, the most outstanding of whom was G. Frescobaldi.

Luzzaschi is considered one of the most outstanding composers who contributed to the stylistic breakthrough in music at the end of the 16^th century. This applies both to the shaping of performance practice and structural changes in composition. Testimony to these achievements, consisting of, among others, the specific embellishment of melodic lines and the introduction of original harmonies, is evidenced by the praise of his virtuosity expressed by E. Bottrigari, A. Banchieri, P. Cerone, G. Diruta and V. Galilei; universal admiration also accompanied the performances of the concerto delle donne ensemble prepared by him. Luzzaschi’s instrumental music has almost entirely been lost (we know of two printed books of four-voice ricercars and music for balletti performed at court), while examples of vocal diminutions have been preserved in madrigals for one, two and three sopranos. These are pseudo-monodies, in which individual voices were isolated and decorated from a 4-voice written in a keyboard accompaniment. In 1601, such works were no longer something unusual, but they were probably written about 20 years earlier and, as innovative, they were not published at the prince’s request. Luzzaschi’s five-voice madrigals also show innovative features. The choice of texts is significant. Only exceptionally did the composer reach for larger literary forms (sonnet, strambotto, ode) of recognised poets of previous generations. He usually developed shorter and freer, typically madrigal avant-garde poems, in which short phrases and images are juxtaposed on the principle of opposition. This influenced the shape of the melodic line, composed of short, kaleidoscopically juxtaposed phrases, separated from each other by a pause or a jump, and gave the effect of discontinuity. The polyphonic sections are sometimes repeated (along with the text) in a different key and developed in variations on the principle of double counterpoint; they are often separated by general rests, whereby the weakening of the cadence (through the reduction of the number of voices and harmonic manipulations) evokes in these places a strong sense of the necessity of continuity. Another important change in the compositional concept is evidenced by the absence of imitated material and fragments of the text in some voices.

Luzzaschi’s madrigals had a significant influence on the work of C. Gesualdo da Venosa, who stayed in Ferrara around 1594–96 (his Da le odorate spoglie is an outright imitation of Luzzaschi’s work on the same text); in turn, probably thanks to Gesualdo, the share of unusual leaps and chromaticism in the melodic lines and dissonant chords increases in Luzzaschi’s madrigals (especially from book five – 1595!). The abundance of chromaticism is not characteristic of his work (the two madrigals published by A. Einstein are not typical in this respect). Luzzaschi was aware of the stylistic changes to which he contributed. His dedicatory introduction to book six is a manifesto of the aesthetics of the late madrigal; in it, he formulated the assumptions of seconda pratica (without yet using this term) 9 years before C. Monteverdi.

Literature: A. Bertolotti Artisti bolognesi, ferraresi ed alcuni altri del già Stato pontifico in Roma, Bologna 1885; A. Solerti Ferrara e la corte estense nella seconda metà del secolo decimosesto, Castello 1891, 2^nd ed. 1900; O. Kinkeldey Luzzasco Luzzaschi’s Solo-Madrigale mit Klavierbegleitung, “Sammelbände der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft” IX 1907/8; J.A.F. Orbaan Notizie inedite su Luzzasco Luzzaschi, “Bollettino bibliografico musicale” IV, 1929; J. Racek Les madrigaux à voix seule de Luzzasco Luzzaschi, “La Revue Musicale” XIII, 1932; A. Einstein The Italian Madrigal, 3 volumes, Princeton 1949, reprint 1971 (in vol. 3, a madrigal from book 6); E. Strainchamps Luzzasco Luzzaschi and his Five-Part Madrigals, dissertation, Columbia University, 1960 (includes a transcription); A. Spiro The Five-Part Madrigals of Luzzasco Luzzaschi, dissertation, Boston University, 1961 (includes a transcription); A. Newcomb Carlo Gesualdo and a Musical Correspondence of 1594, “Musical Quarterly” LIV, 1968; A. Newcomb Il modo di far la fantasia. An Appreciation of Luzzaschi’s Instrumental Style, “Early Music” VII, 1979; A. Newcomb The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579–1597, 2 volumes, Princeton 1980 (in vol 2, five five-voice pieces); J. Ladewig Luzzaschi as Frescobaldi’s Teacher: A Little-Known Ricercare, “Studi musicali” X 1981; E. Durante and A. Martellotti Tasso, Luzzaschi e il Principe di Venosa, in: Tasso, la musica, I musicisti, ed. M.A. Balsano and T. Walker, Florence 1988; M. Fromson A Conjunction of Rhetoric and Music: Structural Modelling in the Italian Counter-Reformation Motet, “Journal of the Royal Musical Association” CXVII, 1992; Z.M. Szweykowski Między kunsztem a ekspresją, part 2: Rome, Kraków 1994; S. Döhring Concerto delle Dame: Die Madrigale Luzzaschis am Hof von Ferrara, in: Traditionen–Neuansätze: Für Anna Amalie Abert (1906–1996), ed. H. Schneider, Tutzing 1997; D. Borghi Affetti, intenzioni e colori cangianti. I ricercari di Luzzasco Luzzasci, maestro di color che sanno, in: Arte organaria e organistica V, 1998; P. Fabbri I teatri di Ferrara, Lucca 2003; C. Toscani Carlo Gesualdo e la corte di Ferrara, in: Florilegium musicae. Studi in onore di Carolyn Gianturco, vol. 2, ed. P. Radicchi and M. Burden, Piza 2004; S. Klotz Wie klang der Frühling um 1600?: Madrigale von Monteverdi, Luzzaschi und Sigismondo d’India im mentalitätsgeschichtlichen Vergleich, in: “Vanitatis fuga, aeternitatis amor”. Wolfgang Witzenmann zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. S. Ehrmann-Herfort and M. Engelhardt, Laaber 2005; F. Tasini Le virtú del maestro: Luzzasco Luzzaschi e la lunga tradizione didattico-compositiva del Ricercare, “Arte organaria e organistica” XIV, 2007; M. Padovan Il Ballo della duchessa: Margherita Gonzaga, coreografa e ballerina (1579–1597), in: Le Lombarde in musica, Rome 2008; A. Newcomb Luzzaschi’s settings of Dante’s Quivi sospiri, pianti ed alti guai, “Early Music History” XXVIII, 2009; A. Newcomb The Ballata and the „Free” Madrigal in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” LXIII, 2010; G. Watkins The Gesualdo Hex: Music, Myth, and Memory, New York 2010; M. Bizzarini Orsina Cavaletta, musa occulta del madrigale ferrarese, “Il saggiatore musicale” XXVIII, 2021; J. Turci-Escobar An Intervallic Approach to Sixteenth-Century Chromaticism, “Journal of Music Theory” LXV, 2022.