Vincenzo Bonizzi’s 1626 collection contains highly elaborate viola bastarda versions of well-known pieces such as Douce memore.
Bonizzi’s music is only innovative in terms of the terms of the technique of playing the viola bastarda. It is essentially music from the tail-end of an improvisatory tradition, and this is reflected in the choice of models. Doulce memoire, goes back a long way. Not only was the chanson itself published in the 1530s, but Diego Ortiz’s Tratado de glosas of 1551 contains several different versions for viol and chordal instrument, and a viola bastarda version by Girolamo Dalla Casa was published in 1584. We do not know how many musicians worked out their own viola bastarda versions of this piece, which has a harmonic language rather similar to that of some of the standard grounds (passamezzo antico, Romanesca, etc). One cannot help feeling that Bonizzi might have thought his version was the one to end them all, the mother of all Douce memore settings.
Alcune opere di diversi Auttori volume II (REP19 ↣)
