Chansons

Matteo da Perugia is one of the outstanding composer personalities in Italy at the transition between the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. Yet we know little about his life. We do not know the date of his birth, not even the year, nor is it certain whether the suffix “da Perugia” really means that Matteo came from this city. Relatively well documented, however, is his compositional work: all the compositions that are attributable with certainty to Matteo have survived in the same Codex. Nearly a third of the collection nowadays preserved in the parchment manuscript (Signature ? ?. 5. 24) in the Biblioteca Estense in Modena is made up of Matteo’s compositions. Besides several Mass movements and a motet, Matteo’s oeuvre consists predominantly in secular, two- to three-voice songs: Rondeaux, Virelais and Ballades. Apart from two Italian Ballate, all other songs are French in text, form and style, and essentially are the latest manifestation of the so-called Ars Subtilior. At a time in which the ideal of a personal fusion between poet and composer – which dates back to the era of troubadours, trouvères and minstrels – had already been long abandoned, and in which most composers of later art song were setting to music texts already written, Matteo still stands out in the tradition of courtly love.