Varia Musica Sacra
Composizioni a 2-8 voci e organo dai codici di Palazzo Altemps
edited by Talya Berger

(Sacred Music, 2)

XL, 120 pp.; 21 x 29 cm
Intro and Apparatus in Italian and English

In 1604, Duke Giovanni Angelo Altemps had the private chapel in his Rome palace turned into a true church, the Madonna della Clemenza and Sant’Aniceto’s. It hosted music by prominent Roman composers, subsequently copied into manuscript anthologies called Varia musica sacra, now at the Museo Nazionale Romano in Palazzo Altemps. Thirteen pieces are published here; twelve are unica. Composers are: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Felice Anerio, Giovanni Bernardino Nanino, Giovanni Maria Nanino, Ottavio Catalani, Ruggero Giovannelli, and the Duke Altemps himself, who also has another piece of his added, taken from a printed source. All compositions call for an organ, although ensembles (two to eight voices) and styles widely differ, thus forming a revealing panorama of music in Rome before and after 1600.

The edition includes:
Giovanni Angelo Altemps, Tota pulchra es (3 voices and organ) and In die solemni (4 voices and organ); Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Ascendens Christus in altum and Innocentes pro Christo (4 voices and organ), Stabat Mater (8 voices and organ); Felice Anerio, Salve Regina, Memento Domine David, Misericordias Domini (4 voices and organ), Magnificat (5 voices and organ); Giovanni Bernardino Nanino, Laudate pueri (4 voices and organ); Giovanni Maria Nanino, Te Deum (8 voices and organ); Ruggero Giovannelli, Anicetus vir mirabilis (8 voices and organ); Ottavio Catalani, Dies irae (8 voices and organ); Anonymus, Ave regina coelorum (8 voices and organ).

Talya Berger's research focuses on music of the 16th - 18th centuries with particular emphasis on performance practices. Her other publications include studies of transcriptions of vocal performances of Luigi Marchesi, performance practices of sacred music from 17th century Rome, and a scholarly edition of Benedetto Marcello’s Cassandra (A-R Editions). Berger has also published on film music and on metric ambiguity in JS Bach. Her monograph on Historically Informed Performance Practice in Continuo Accompaniment is slated for publication by Stile Galante this year. Berger is a Senior Lecturer in Music at Stanford University where she teaches music theory, analysis, continuo and performance practices.