ASOLA, Giovanni Matteo.

by Giovanni Matteo Asola

£3,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

The sole known, unrecorded copy of the first edition of this musical score by Asola, containing a set of Vespers psalms for three voices. The 1602 and 1608 reprints are more common. This is the part of the Chorus Primus , the first choir, usually the most important, which in this case is Altus (high). The part of the chorus secundus was published for the first time in 1599, with the title Cantus (Tenor, Bassus) Secundi Chori Vespertinae omnium Solemnitatum psalmodiae vocibus ternis paribus canendae (Venice, Amadino). Giovanni Matteo Asola (1524-1609) was an Italian priest and composer born in Verona. At a young age, he entered the congregation of secular canons of Alga di Venezia, and later received his musical education from the renown composer of masses Vincenzo Ruffo in Verona. He became maestro di cappella at Treviso in 1578 and at Vicenza in 1581, then moved to Venice, where he lived until his death. An extremely productive composer, Asola wrote almost exclusively sacred music, including numerous masses, psalms and hymns, but also a series of madrigals a type of secular composition that was particularly appreciated in the Renaissance. This attractive volume contains the words and music of psalms to be sung in the evening at Vespers, one of the most important services of the Roman rite, often celebrated more solemnly than the mass. At the time, Asola was one of the most prolific composers of Vespers settings, and his large and often reprinted corpus encompasses a great va

• Binding: Hardcover

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