Michi Dell’Arpa : E Che Vuoi Più?

   in Early Music Today (Mar, 2014)
This is a fascinating disc. La Gioannina is a duo comprising chordophones and triple harp, and Orazio Michi ‘dell’ Arpa’ was born near Naples in the 1590s and died in 1641 near Rome. A harpist of renown, presumably trained in the Neapolitan tradition of harpistry, he was (exceptionally well paid) in the services first of Cardinal Montalto and subsequently at least four further cardinals. His bequest of his music library to an oratory perpetuating San Filippo Neri’s tradition of spiritual exercises to musical accompaniment, and the fact that his formative years were spent under Montalto, who promoted an expressive Roman vocal style accommodating the Neapolitan villanelle and ornamented madrigal, help …