Comet Musicke

The overwhelming madrigals of Pomponio Nenna Naples around 1580 is a powder keg of ambition, rivalry and mad genius. When Pomponio Nenna publishes his first madrigal book there, he enters an arena where the boundaries of the genre are constantly being pushed. In the shadow of Carlo Gesualdo, Nenna seeks new intensity: he combines clever polyphony with sharp dissonances, sharp modulations and a razor-sharp handling of the text. Old techniques, such as fauxbourdon, clash with new expressive freedoms – a harbinger of what will come to be called the seconda pratica. Comet Musicke seeks the slipstream of the baroque with Nenna's first collection of five-part songs and with the instrumental sound experiments of Giovanni de Macque, Giovanni Maria Trabaci and Stefano Felis: music that explores the edge of renaissance polyphony, unmistakably heading towards a new era. Programme: P. Nenna: Madrigals | Instrumental works by G. di Macque, G.M. Trabani, S. Felis and others.