A comparison of two lute intabulations of Wert's madrigal Cara la vita shows how two different composers (Emmanuel Adriensen and Giovanni Antonio Terzi) adapted their style and techniques to specific performance settings. Adriensen's intabulation of the madrigal mostly maintains the texture, melody, and rhythms of the original so that the intabulation can still be played as an accompaniment for singing. Terzi on the other hand intended his intabulation for solo performance. The outer voices are still delineated in the first section of Terzi's intabulation. The second section departs from the model as less effort is made to preserve the melodic material. Although the outline of the original is discontinued, the harmonic structure of the original remains clear. The two intabulations show how both composers adhere closely to the tonal structure within their elaboration of the music and how they were still inclined to preserve their model rather than obscure it.

Works: Adriensen: Intabulation of Cara la vita (95-97); Terzi: Intabulation of Cara la vita (96-98).

Sources: Wert: Cara la vita mia (94).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Jir Shin Boey