Cruda Amarilli / Felle amaro

In 1600 Giovanni Maria Artusi published a polemic on the imperfections of modern music. He used Monteverdi’s five-voice madrigal Cruda amarilli as a central example, thereby involuntarily assigning it a special place in music history. To this day the madrigal is considered a landmark of Monteverdi’s artistry and an example of how innovative one could be even when composing in the “traditional” madrigal form.

What’s especially fascinating is not only that Artusi knew the piece years before its publication in 1605, but that he also clearly assumed his readers did too: a sign of how new music electrified the era!

Our edition also includes the Latin sacred contrafactum text which Monteverdi’s contemporary and friend set to this madrigal (and others), so that the music could also be used in a sacred context.