Nola: Motetti Pastorali Per La Solennità Del Santo Nate – Nova Ars Cantandi

Antonio Domenico Nola, a refined yet long-neglected figure of the Neapolitan Baroque, was trained at the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini and later served as organist of Naples Cathedral and member of the Oratory of the Girolamini. His Motetti pastorali per la solennità del Santo Natale, written for four voices and basso continuo, embody the devotional splendour of seventeenth-century Naples, where Christmas inspired some of the most evocative sacred music of the age.

Structured in the form of a Latin oratorio and rich in expressive counterpoint, pastoral colours and echoes of popular tradition, the cycle unfolds as a vivid musical meditation on the Nativity. Rediscovered in the archives of the Neapolitan Oratory and performed again for the first time in centuries, these motets reveal a composer of striking melodic invention and profound rhetorical sensitivity, whose art unites learned craftsmanship with heartfelt spiritual expression.