Marchetto Cara (1465-1527); ITA

Marchetto Cara (c. 1465–1525) was an Italian composer, singer, and lutenist who became one of the foremost exponents of the frottola, the principal Italian secular song form of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Details of his early life are uncertain, but by the 1490s he was established at the Gonzaga court in Mantua, where he served for decades and enjoyed the particular favor of Isabella d’Este, one of the Renaissance’s most important patrons of music and the arts. Cara performed as a singer and lutenist as well as composing for court entertainments and private gatherings. His reputation extended well beyond Mantua, and his works were widely disseminated through the pioneering printed music collections issued in Venice by Ottaviano Petrucci. Contemporary testimony suggests that his performances were admired for their expressive refinement and charm.

Cara composed primarily frottole, generally strophic Italian songs characterized by a prominent upper melody, clear rhythmic organization, and relatively simple supporting voices. His works include settings of poetry by leading writers as well as lighter courtly and popular texts, and they were suited both to ensemble performance and to solo singing with lute accompaniment. Songs such as Io non compro più speranza illustrate the direct melodic appeal and graceful declamation associated with the genre. Cara’s music stands at an important historical juncture between the contrapuntal secular song of the fifteenth century and the more text-centered Italian vocal styles that culminated in the sixteenth-century madrigal and, eventually, accompanied monody. Together with Bartolomeo Tromboncino, he was among the most important composers of the frottola, helping establish a distinctly Italian secular idiom during the High Renaissance.

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Read biography at allmusic.com.