Ruffo, Vincenzo (EN)

Ruffo Vincenzo, *1508 (?) Verona, †9 February 1587 Sacile (near Pordenone), Italian composer. Between 1520 and 1534, he attended a school for altar boys and clerics at the cathedral in Verona, but he gave up higher ordination and married around 1535. Between 1538 and 1541, he moved to Milan to the court of the governor, Marquis Alfonso d’Avalos, where he remained until 1542. In that year, his book 1 of motets and (in a collective print) a 5-voice mass were published, and in October he became maestro di cappella of the cathedral in Savona. Between 1545–47, he worked in Genoa, returning to Verona in 1547, where from 1551 or 1552 he directed the ensemble at the Accademia Filarmonica, and between 1554 and 1563 also the cathedral ensemble. From 1563 to 1572, he was maestro di cappella at Milan Cathedral, where he established close contact with Archbishop Carlo Borromeo, who was actively involved in the reform of sacred music. From 1515 to 1571, he worked at the cathedral in Pistoia, from 1578 to 1580 he stayed in Verona, and he spent the last years of his life in Sacile. Ruffo’s students in Verona included G.-M. Asola and M.-A. Ingegneri. 

Ruffo’s prolific output, comprising around 200 madrigals, over 120 motets, 19 masses, and many other religious and instrumental works, can be divided into two clearly distinct groups belonging to two periods, separated by the composer’s encounter with Archbishop Carlo Borromeo. The first includes missa parodia masses, with an elaborate form and polyphony, motets from 1542 and 1555, some based on chorale cantus firmus, almost all secular works, and an experimental instrumental collection containing dances, works based on madrigals and chansons, and works with programmatic titles. The motets from this period are dominated by very free imitation, but the voices are conducted independently, although in the 6-voice pieces there are sections similar to chordal texture. The contrasts between this texture and free imitation, and at the same time between slower and faster motion, are characteristic of Ruffo’s madrigals (most of which belong to the ‘a note nere’ type). In both his motets and madrigals, Ruffo emphasized and illustrated the meaning of the words from his first books onwards, introducing, among other things, dissonances and real chromaticism, which surpass the boldness of the early madrigals of Cipriano de Rore. In his motets, influenced by madrigals, he introduced repetitions of the final section, while in others the ABCB reprise structure is common. In his secular works, apart from madrigal poems, he eagerly arranged sonnets and canzoni (longer cycles), drawing on the poetry of F. Petrarch, L. Ariosto, Cassola, J. Sannazzaro, and lesser-known authors. In his second period, there was a marked simplification of texture. In psalms, responsories, and magnificats, Ruffo used falsobordone structures; in masses, he abandoned the parodia style, reduced their size, and clearly limited polyphony in favor of chordal texture, which made the text easier to understand. He compensated for the impoverishment of the texture with frequent changes in voicing, at times alternating different 2-voice combinations with 3- and 4-voice ones almost from word to word. It seems that Ruffo’s zealous and consistent preference for modest musical settings of texts cost him his prestige, which led to his gradual transition from the Milan cathedral to a provincial town.

Literature: L. Torri Vincenzo Ruffo, madrigalista e compositore di musica sacra del secolo XVI, “Rivista Musicale Italiana” III, 1896; A. Chiapelli Il Maestro Vincenzo Ruffo a Pistoia, “Bulletino storico poistoiese” I, 1899; G. Vale Gli ultimi anni di Vincenzo Ruffo, “Note d’Archivio per la storia musicale” I, 1924; A. Einstein Vincenzo Ruffo’s “Opera nova di musica”, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” III, 1950; W. Wtorczyk Die Madrigale Vincenzo Ruffos, thesis, Freie Universität Berlin, 1955; L. Lockwood Vincenzo Ruffo and Musical Reform after the Council of Trent, “The Musical Quarterly” XLII, 1957; L. Lookwood The Counter-Reformation and the Sacred Music of Vincenzo Ruffo, thesis, Princeton University, 1960; A. Schmitz Bemerkungen zu Vincenzo Ruffos Passionskompositionen, in: Miscelánea en homenaje a monseñor Higinio Anglés, ed. M. Querol, vol. 2, Barcelona 1961, repr. in: A. Schmitz. Ausgewählte Aufsätze zur geistlichen Musik, eds. M. and H.J. Marx, Paderborn 1996; J. Haar A Gift of Madrigals to Cosimo I: the MS Florence Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Magliabecchi XIX 130, “Rivista Italiana di Musicologia” I, 1966; L. Lockwood The Counter-Reformation and the Masses of Vincenzo Ruffo, Venice 1970; E. Paganuzzi Documenti veronesi su musicisti del XVI e XVII secolo, in: Scritti in onore di Mons. Giuseppe Turrini, Verona 1973; F.E. Scogna La musica nel Duomo di Savona dal XVI al XVIII secolo, “Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana” XVI, 1981; M. Tarrini and M. Scarrone Un manoscritto musicale del XVI secolo e due documenti su Vincenzo Ruffo conservati nell’Archivio Vescovile di Savona, “Liguria” XLIX, 1982; M. Tarrini and M. Scarrone Un manoscritto del XVI secolo con musiche polifoniche di Vincenzo Ruffo e Andrea Festa conservato nella biblioteca Ariostea di Ferrara (M.107.3), “Bollettino di notizie e ricerche da archivi e biblioteche” VI, 1983; M. Tarrini Contributo alla biografia di Vincenzo Ruffo. L’attività a Savona e a Genova (1542–46, 1562), “Note d’archivio per la storia musicale,” no. series IV, 1986; D. Kämper Vincenzo Ruffos Capricci und die Vorgeschichte des musikalischen Kunstbuchs, in: Zeichen und Struktur in der Musik der Renaissance, ed. K. Hortschansky, Kassel 1989; C.S. Getz Music and Patronage in Milan, 1535-1550, and Vincenzo Ruffo’s First Motet Book, thesis, University of North Texas, 1991; T. Carter Music at the Duomo in Pistoia: Three New Documents from the Cinquecento, in: Musica Franca. Essays in Honor of Frank A. D’Accone, eds. I. Alm et al., Stuyvesant 1996; G. Stanny I Księga madrygałów 4-głosowych Vincenzo Ruffego, master’s thesis, Jagiellonian University 1997 (includes a transcription of the 1556 A. Gardano edition); I. Fenlon, Music and civic piety in counter-reformation Milan, in: Music and culture in late Renaissance Italy, Oksford 2002; Msze Maryjne z druku Scotta w rękopisie Kk I.1: Ruffo, Jachet, Morales and anonymous, ed. M. Solarz, Krakow 2015; V. Morucci Music, patronage and reform in 16th-century Italy: new light on Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, “Early Music” XLVII, 2019.