Previous posts for January 18th are here: César Cui; Emmanuel Chabrier (2020), Emmanuel Chabrier, Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder (2021), Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder (2022), Emmanuel Chabrier (2023), Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder (2024), and Emmanuel Chabrier (2025)
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Alfonso Ferrabosco (the Elder) (bapt.18 January 1543 – 12 August 1588) was an Italian composer who the one mainly responsible for the growth of the madrigal in England.
Three Elizabethan Variations
In England, however, he [Ferrabosco] built up a really remarkable reputation as a composer of madrigals and motets. – Kerman, Joseph. “Master Alfonso and the English Madrigal.” The Musical Quarterly 38, no. 2 (1952): 222–44. http://www.jstor.org/stable/739655.
(1)
In the reign of Elizabeth One,
When madrigals counted as fun,
And singing one's part
Was a desirable art,
Ferrabosco was second to none.
(2)
Ferrabosco wrote things of the sort
That Elizabeth favored at court,
And so for a while
He was living in style
With generous Tudor support.
(3)
Since the taste of Elizabeth's reign meant
That madrigals gave entertainment,
Ferrabosco was sunny
When counting the money
That this fad for the shepherd and swain meant.
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