Michele Pesenti

(c.1475 - after 1524)

Italian composer and priest, about whose life little is known. Petrucci's anthologies (1505-14) contain thirty-three of his thirty-six surviving frottole, some to his own texts, which helped to set the pattern of development for sixteenth century Italian secular music; the others were published by Antico. Some of the frottole were printed with text in all vopices, suggesting fully vocal performance, a previously unkown practice in Italian Renaissance music. Popular texts and melodies are often present, although certain pieces incorporate no pre-existing material.

Two motets also survive.





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