Published in Music in Middle Ages and Early Modernity

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Throughout the sixteenth century, especially in some Italian cities, instrumental cult music began to develop with certain autonomy in relation to vocal music. The human voice was still considered the most expressive and perfect way for musical practice, but the instruments, constantly improved, became more valued, especially when they emulated the voice. In this paper we will demonstrate that the ricercare for melodic instruments came from the transposition of vocal into instrumental music. We begin with a brief history of this genre; we continue with a description of the main compositional procedures used at the time for vocal music, in order to find some paralells with the diminutions in Signor mio Caro (Cipriano de Rore) and with the Ricercate Terza and Quarta, musics from the manual Ricercate, passaggi et cadentie (Veneza, 1585), by Giovanni Bassano (c. 1560-1617). We try to demonstrate that Bassano uses certain devices present in vocal music of the period to create pieces that already indicate an instrumental character, such as the conscious choice of musical intervals and rhythmic figures for building soggetti (little themes) and subsequent development on virtuosic ornamentation. We conclude supposing that the lack of text on ricercatas does not eliminate the presence of a hidden voice, originated by pure intonation, without words that give it a literal meaning, but related to current expressions of some affetti.