Musica Transalpina

Musica Transalpina is a collection of madrigals published in England by Nicholas Yonge in 1588. The madrigals had crossed the Alps (hence the name) in the sense that the madrigal form was borrowed from the Italians, and the pieces included in the collection were mainly by Italians, although the lyrics were rendered into English by Yonge. It was the first and largest Elizabethan anthology of Italian madrigals, and marked the beginning of the golden age of the madrigal in England.^[1]

The title-page of Musica transalpina, 1588

Musica transalpina contains 57 separate pieces by 18 composers, with Alfonso Ferrabosco the elder having the most, and Luca Marenzio second most.^[2] Ferrabosco had lived in England in the 1560s and 1570s, which could explain the large number of his compositions in the book; he was relatively unknown in Italy.

Publication history

Musica transalpina was printed by Thomas Este and appeared with a dedication to Gilbert Talbot. Several similar anthologies followed immediately after the success of the first, beginning with Thomas Watson's The First Set of Italian Madrigals, published in 1590, also by Este. As in the earlier collection, the compositions, which were mainly by Marenzio, were provided with English texts by Watson.^[1] Yonge himself published a second Musica transalpina in 1597, hoping to duplicate the success of the first collection.

See also

Musica Transalpina is also the title of a 2006 collection of poetry by Michelene Wandor.