Vincenzo Ruffo

Possibly in the Vicinity of Vincenzo Ruffo

Posthumous copy of painting possibly by Bernardino India

Source: Art UK

Born circa 1508 in Verona, Italy, Vincenzo Ruffo became a priest as a young man in 1531. Holding to the Roman Catholic faith, he was a composer of the Counter-Reformation in response to the Protestant Reformation. The above portrait isn't found in most accounts of Ruffo. Its absence from Wikipedia bespeaks that it might not be a reliable visage of Ruffo at all, though a Google image search points to no one else but Ruffo. If it is actually intended to be Ruffo, then it is a posthumous copy by an anonymous painter of a lost portrait possibly by Bernardino India [Sharples].

Beginning to compose about 1536, six years later Ruffo published his first book of music while employed by Governor Alfonso d'Avalos in Milan: 'Il primo libro de motetti a cinque voci de l'egregio Vincentio Ruffo', printed in Milan by Giovanni Antonio Castiglione [Cancioneros Musicales Españoles]. The next year in 1543 Ruffo was appointed choirmaster at the cathedral in Savona. He is thought, however, to have had to flee the Genoese the next year, then showing up in Milan again. In 1546 Ruffo returned to Verona where he eventually became director of the Accademia Filarmonica di Verona in 1552/53, succeeding composer, Jan Nasco, as leader of that group (humanists, musicians and poets) since its founding in 1543. Antonio Gardano had published Ruffo's first of six volumes of madrigals in 1546 titled 'Il primo libro de madrigali a notte negre di Vincenzo Ruffo a quatro voci'. It was in 1552 that his madrigal, 'Fiere Silvestre', was published in Antonio Gardano's 'Il primo libro de madrigali cromatici a quatro voci'. CPDL cites the date of the 1556 edition, but if I'm reading Mary S. Lewis correctly (warranties here expired) that's basically a copy of the second edition in 1552. Gardano published three more editions of madrigals to 1560.

'Fiere Silvestre'   Madrigal a 4 by Vincenzo Ruffo

Pub 1556 if not 1552   Lyrics: Jacopo Sannazaro

The Cipriano Project

Though more greatly influenced by the polyphonies of the Franco-Flemish School, Ruffo began to tailor his sacred works in a simpler Tridentine style after becoming maestro di cappella at the cathedral in Milan in 1563, for in 1564 Charles Borromeo (1538-84) became Archbishop of Milan, he charged to implement the wishes of the Council of Trent. Tridentine refers to the Council of Trent which held sessions from 1545 to 1563 as the brain trust of the Counter-Reformation. 'Missa Quarti toni' was composed in 1465 to set the model for conservative Tridentine Masses [Lopez/Dumestre]. Yet in 1564 Ruffo had published 23 capricci in 'Capricci in musica a tre voci'. Grove Music credits Ruffo with originating the caprice as of pieces in this book. But that seems more likely, at least when it comes to publishing, to have been Ruffo's contemporary, Jacquet de Berchem, as of 'Capriccio' published by Antonio Gardano in Venice in 1561. The caprice is a short and lively instrumental in free form tending toward virtuosity. Such is a big deal since for the last thousand years voice tied to rigid forms had rather more somberly than not been hogging the show. Come the viol et al no longer merely instruments for supporting singers, but they themselves the feature together with the notion that music needn't be utterly confined to formalities. A sibling of the caprice having already made its way into music is the fantasy (: fancy, fantasia). One thus finds Ruffo now exchanging liberal counterpoint for the more musically plain Tridentine styling meant to trim harmony of excessive ornamentation deemed profane. Less conservative, however, were Aquilino Coppini's contrafacta of erotic madrigals by Monteverdi as text for the 'Missa Quarti toni'. It isn't known when Coppini was born but he died in 1629. His first book of Monteverdi contrafactae, 'Musica tolta da i madrigali di Claudio Monteverdi', was published in 1607 under Archbishop Frederico Borromeo (1564-1631), who thought to make sacred music more popular with altered secular texts. Capricci below saw publishing in 'Capricci in musica a tre voci' in 1564. The 'Missa Quarti toni' first saw print in 'Missae quatuor concinnatae ad ritum Concilii Mediolani' in 1570.

'La Disperata'   Capriccio a 3 by Vincenzo Ruffo

No.9 in 'Capricci in musica a tre voci'   1564

Trío Intratempo Flautas de Pico

'La Gamba in Basso e Soprano'   Capriccio a 3 by Vincenzo Ruffo

No.13 in 'Capricci in musica a tre voci'   1564

Hespèrion XXI directed by Jordi Savall

'Missa Quarti toni'   Conservative Tridentine Mass of the Counter-Reformation by Vincenzo Ruffo

Comp 1565 in Milan for Archbishop Charles Borromeo   Pub 1570

Le Poème Harmonique   2004  

In 1572 Ruffo became choirmaster at the cathedral in Pistoia, a position he would also hold in Milan (again) and Sacile. It isn't identified when he completed the responsory motet, 'Adoramus Te, Christe' but it's simplicity bespeaks conformity with the Tridentine ideal, so it's probably a work of at least the late sixties onward. 'Adoramus Te, Christe' is a setting for 'Psalms 51:9-10' not published until 1853 in Volume I of Carl Proske's 'Musica Divina'.

'Adoramus Te, Christe'   Responsory motet a 4 by Vincenzo Ruffo   Setting for 'Psalms 51:9-10'

Comp unknown: at least late sixties onward   Pub posthumously

Amici Cantores / Stefano Torelli