Ensemble Di Musica Antica Del Conservatorio Di Vicenza - Ludovico Balbi: Ecclesiasticae Cantiones (Venezia 1578) (2011)

The highly regarded Ensemble di Musica Antica del Conservatorio di Vicenza and its musical director Piervito Malusà explore the sacred music of the 16th century Italian composer Ludovico Balbi. The disc features Balbi’s Ecclesiasticae Cantiones, his first important collection of sacred polyphony. The organist is Stefano Lorenzetti.

Ludovico Balbi was born in Venice in 1545. In 1565 he had the chance to study in Padua with one of the leading composers of the Venetian school Costanzo Porta, and it was Porta who helped him to find employment in the city. In his career Balbi published at least eleven collections of sacred works including the work recorded here, the Ecclesiasticae Cantiones. It was published in 1578 by the famous Venetian editor Angelo Gardano. The Ecclesiasticae Cantiones are twenty-one motets for four-voices based on the Mass proprium texts. On this recording it has been decided to fit each of the seven groups of three motets (one set for each holyday) around instrumental works by Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Merulo, Luigi Balbi, and Bastian Chilese.