The Complete Madrigals of Andrea Gabrieli (c. 1510-1586)

Andrea Gabrieli, Libro primo de madrigalia à 3 (1575), title page.

The Complete Madrigals of Andrea Gabrieli, edited by Tillman Merritt, is a unique set within Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance. This edition makes available in a critical edition practically all of Gabrieli's secular vocal music, which consists of approximately 250 pieces for various numbers of voices.

In designating the music of this edition as madrigals, Merritt allows the term to be, as he himself states in the introduction, "a loose and inclusive one, covering all those vocal works, either single or multipartite, that are settings of vernacular texts in Venetian dialect or in Italian." This broad definition of the late sixteenth-century madrigal also allows for a variety of types of music, including pieces devoted to amorous ones, spiritual madrigals, laments, madrigals composed for specific occasions, including weddings and other celebrations. The Complete Madrigals of Andrea Gabrieli contain examples of all these kinds of pieces, and shows the breadth of expression which existed for the madrigal at the end of the sixteenth century.

Beyond purely musical considerations, the texts of Gabrieli's madrigals are of interest for the variety of sources which the composer used. In addition to the poetry of Petrarch, which other madrigalists used, Gabrieli set texts by Ludovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso, Giambattista Guarini, Antonio Molino, and others. The selection of these authors contributes a richness to the music, and sets Andrea Gabrieli apart from some of his contemporaries.

The Complete Madrigals of Andrea Gabrieli occupies 12 volumes of Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance (R 41 through R 52), and are published in eight physical volumes. In addition to the extensive introduction published with the first volume, Merritt wrote a specific introduction to each of the volumes. Critical notes, texts, and translations are part of the edition.

Print of canto part for "Una felice etate," published in Andrea Gabrieli's Terzo libro à 5 (1589).	"Una felice etat" as typeset in Andrea Gabrieli: Complete Madrigals 5-6, edited by A. Tillman Merritt, Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance, vol. 45-46.