Johannes Ciconia, though from the north of Europe, helped bring the first native Italian "Renaissance" in music to flower. He worked in a series of Italian courts, encountering many of the best musicians of his time, and helped develop both French and Italian musical styles and genres. In turn, his music was quickly adopted onto an international stage, being copied—and further arranged—in numerous manuscript collections of the time. Ciconia's Italian ballata Ligiadra donna, che'l mio cor contenti offers a pertinent example. The composition follows the forms and conventions of one of the earliest native Italian secular genres and adopts the native musical style with applomb and authenticity. But beyond demonstrating Ciconia's mastery of the local musical styles and forms, it also shows his later popularity on a wider field by the adaptations other musicians began to compose upon it.

The text of Ligiadra donna, che'l mio cor contenti, a verse by the Paduan poet Domizio Brocardo, speaks of a "comely lady," who brings the poet's heart pleasure. At the same time (following the conventions and contradictions of courtly love), he begs her to grant him peace from the torment of his love. Her pure faith strangles his heart and gives deep sorrow, cries, and sighs in his breast; he begs for her to grant consolation in his lamenting. Several musical versions of this piece survive, all apparently germinating from a simple, quite Italianate, original setting of Ciconia's. The basic framework seems to be a two-voiced piece, which follows the poetic refrain form of AbbaA. The two essential voices interact in (mostly) graceful counterpoint; the upper voice frequently presents more active rhythms, while the lower brings rhythmic interest in the form of numerous hemiola patterns. Following the "Italian" styles of the time, most phrases both begin and end with melismatic extensions in both voices; imitative passages do, however, punctuate the texture, especially to highlight texts in which the protagonist is begging for mercy. Several different versions of the piece apparently came into circulation quite rapidly. Ciconia himself probably is responsible for a three-voiced version in another contemporary manuscript: this version adds a contratenor, which fills in many of the harmonies without adding much to (or distracting from) imitative passages. A different three-voiced version is the work of Matteo da Perugia; the contratenor in this case is a bit more adventuresome in both melody and harmony. Finally, an instrumental version survives in a somewhat later manuscript.

© Timothy Dickey, All Music Guide