Coperario: Two Italian pieces à5 (viols)

Dolce mia vita – Passa madona. John (Giovanni) Coperario (1770-1626) was originally named Cooper or Cowper, but changed his name to Coperario to appear Italian, as Italian music was all the rage in his time.  His music is certainly expressive in an Italian way.  He left a large number of madrigal-like pieces: as these have mostly survived without text, we don’t know if they are really madrigals, or just instrumental pieces composed in an Italian style.