Musica Transalpina

The title-page of Musica transalpina, 1588

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]

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.

  1. ^ E. H. Fellowes, English Madrigal Verse, 1588–1632, 3rd edition rev. and enlarged by F. W. Sternfeld and D. Greer (Oxford 1967), p. 722.
  2. ^ Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W. W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4. p. 821