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Composer: Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (c.1560-1627)
Work: Missa pro Defunctis (1604)
Performers: Sylvia Pozzer (sopran); Fabian Schofrin (alto); Mirko Guadagnini (tenor); Miguel Bernal (tenor); Giovanni Dagnino (bass); Vox Hesperia; Ensemble de Cuivres Anciens du Conservatoire Superieur de Lyon; Romano Vettori (conductor)

Painting: North Italian School (17th Century) - A vanitas still life
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Lodovico Viadana [Grossi da Viadana]
(Viadana, c.1560 - Gualtieri, 2 May 1627)

Italian composer. He ranks highly among composers of his period for the freshness, fluency and notably expressive quality of his music; above all, he gave a strong impulse to the vocal concerto with basso continuo in ecclesiastical music, and acquired many pupils who continued his work. According to a document dating from the end of the 18th century, he was a member of the Grossi family by birth and took the name Viadana when he entered the order of the Minor Observants some time before 1588 (see illustration). It has been asserted that he was a pupil of Costanzo Porta, but there is no confirmation of this. He was maestro di cappella at Mantua Cathedral from at least January 1594 probably until 1597. At the end of the 16th century he may have been at Padua, for he had connections with that city, and he was also in Rome. In 1602 he was maestro di cappella at the convent of S Luca, Cremona, from 1608 to 1609 of the cathedral at Concordia, near Venice, and from 1610 to 1612 of Fano Cathedral. In 1614 he was appointed diffinitor of his religious order for the province of Bologna, which included Ferrara, Piacenza and Mantua; he remained in this office for three years. Shortly thereafter a troubled time for him was caused by the enmity of some of his religious associates. In 1623 he was ordered to leave Viadana and to settle in Busseto; he later moved to the convent of S Andrea, Gualtieri, where he died.

In Viadana’s work, most of which survives, sacred vocal music is predominant. He cultivated the a cappella style and from op.13 onwards added a basso per l’organo which was a basso seguente rather than a true continuo bass. His style in these works ranges from the strict homorhythm of falsobordone and pseudo-polyphony to genuine polyphonic writing. The simpler music is purely functional, and as such was very successful. Even the more elaborately polyphonic music is modest in proportions and simple in text-setting. Three volumes are particularly worthy of attention: the masses of 1596, which were very popular, the Lamentationes op.22, which use fine expressive melodies and the Completorium op.16, with its brilliant interplay of choral forces. The Concerti ecclesiastici op.12 (1602) is chronologically the first publication to include a basso continuo with sacred vocal music. It was designed to provide sacred music that could be performed by any number of singers from one to four, so that in practical performance the musical text should not become distorted through the lack of any one type of voice among the performers. In the concerti for three voices the basso continuo, which is partly figured, is indispensable, but some of those for four voices can be performed unaccompanied. The composer recommended, however, that the instrumental part, assigned to the organ, or exceptionally to the clavichord (‘manicordo’), should never be omitted. Viadana’s monody has little in common with recitative: it is a simple melodic line influenced by his a cappella practice, with varied expressive ideas and some decorative passaggi. Chromaticism is comparatively rare and quite mild; episodes in the concertante style occasionally appear. The success of op.12 and the three subsequent volumes of concerti can be attributed largely to their modernity: the works are closely aligned with progressive composition techniques in the early 17th century.

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