Missa... for 8 voices. Manuscript music. Tenor 1 part. Italian, ca. 1600.

MEL, Rinaldo del ca. 1554-ca. 1598.

Price: $6,500.00

Large octavo (ca. 240 x 179 mm.). Sewn into early grey wrappers with manuscript titling to upper: "Primus Chorus Tenor Missa binae Tenor Primi Chori à 8." 14 pp. including one ruled page without notation. Notated ink on hand-ruled staves. This work is unrecorded in both Grove and RISM.

Mel, a Flemish composer, was "mainly active in Italy. He was of a landed family whose fortunes were closely linked to the Duchy of Lorraine... After Spain annexed Portugal in 1580 Mel went to Rome, where his name appears in that year on a subscription list for two new bells for the Flemish church, S Maria in Campo Santo. Whether or not he studied composition with Palestrina as Baini claimed, his first published works indicate that he was well acquainted with Palestrina's style. The title-pages and dedications of his printed books show that in addition to his continued allegiance to Lorraine... He enjoyed the friendship and patronage of the Valignani, the Henrici and Cardinal Gabriel Paleotto... Mel was well educated and a prolific composer whose aristocratic lineage and connections seem to have ensured him at least a modest fame. His works have not been edited, and have therefore not received the study they deserve. His sacred pieces show him to have been a craftsman, well trained in Dutch counterpoint and a diligent imitator of the Palestrinian style." Patricia Ann Myers in Grove online

Item ID: 19185

$6,500.00