Urtext Edition by Maria Antonietta Cancellaro and Andrea Coen

The Estro poetico-armonico is regarded as the most monumental and complex collection of sacred vocal music, not merely within the context of Benedetto Marcello’s output, but also among the entire Italian repertoire of the 18th century. It comprises eight volumes and features intonations of the first fifty Psalms of David, based on the Vulgate translation and paraphrased in Italian – Parafrasi sopra salmi – by the Venetian poet Girolamo Ascanio Giustiniani.

The current lack of a complete modern and accessible edition of this monumental work incited us to publish the corpus of 50 Psalms in 8 separate volumes, and to reprint the full range of literary texts that introduce the music according to the order and organization of the Lovisa edition. The objective of this venture is thus to faciliate access to these riveting pages of 18th century vocal repertoire, for both “practical” and “theoretical” musicians, enabling the former to revive the Estro poetico-armonico via performance, and the latter to grasp the work’s originality and convey its intellectual scope.

Introductory Texts in Italian and English