Azzaiolo: Six Villotte à4

An important feature of Azzaiolo’s songs is their use of dance tunes and other popular melodies of the period; Al di dolce ben mio has a refrain ( fa la section) that is based on the well-known galliard Lagamba (also known as La cara cosa)  1. And his Libro secondo contains what is probably the earliest setting of the Girometta melody.  2. The harmonic language of many of the songs, especially such pieces as Chi passa and Gentil madonna is very close to that of the ground basses like the passemezzo antico or romanesca, and indeed this particular piece was used by many composers as a basis for variations in just the same way as the passemezzo. For this reason it is not always clear whether Azzaiolo was using a pre-existent melody, or simply providing the basis for a later dance arrangement: in most instances the latter seems to have been the case.