Gastoldi composed several books of
madrigals, a variety of sacred vocal music, and a few instrumental works. Particularly noteworthy among his secular vocal works is his ''Quarto libro de' madrigali a cinque voci'' (1602), which consists almost entirely of settings of texts from Battista Guarini's hugely popular "pastoral tragicomedy"
Il pastor fido (The Faithful Shepherd). According to Gastoldi himself, at least one of the pieces from this collection was included in a Mantuan court performance of the play in November 1598, which was staged as part of the festivities accompanying a visit of the queen of Spain.
Balletti His two sets of
balletti, a strophic vocal dance, however, are the most prominent and influential. These were written for five voices, and contained passages of nonsense syllables (e.g. "fa la la") which seemed to personify a type of lover and love-making. As a whole, Gastoldi's
balletti were a musical ''
commedia dell'arte, and included the following compositions: Contento
(The Lucky One), Premiato
(The Winner), L'Inamorato
(The Suitor), Piacere
(Pleasure), La Bellezza
(Beauty), Gloria d'Amore
(Praise of Love), L'Acceso
(The Ardent), Caccia d'Amore
(Love-Chase), Il Martellato
(The Disdained), Il Bell’humore
(The Good Fellow), Amor Vittorioso
(Love Victorious), and Speme Amorosa
(Amorous Hope). His balleti'' music basically had a simple chordal texture, fast declamation and rhythmic accents at the expense of
contrapuntal display, as is to be expected from their close relationship to dance music. Gastoldi's
Balleti a Cinque Voci was published in
Venice in 1591, and immediately became a "best seller." Within a short time, the collection was reprinted ten times, not only by their original publisher but also in other countries as well. Composers like
Vecchi,
Banchieri,
Hassler, and
Morley were greatly captivated by this musical creation (compare Morley's
ballett Now is the Month of Maying for a clear example of Gastoldi's influence). It is certain that many
frottole,
villancicos, and
chansons francaises were intimately related to dance, but it seems true that Gastoldi was the first scholarly author, presumably since the thirteenth century, to compose songs for dancing which were modeled on instrumental patterns, and were perfectly apt for instrumental performance alone. The title page of the
balletti bestows the title "Maestro di Cappella del Serenissimo Signor Duca di Mantova" to Gastoldi. However, this has no slightest intention of masking sophistication behind the spontaneous naivete of Gastoldi's works, because the entire content is a collection of simplicity, healthy playfulness, communicative carefreeness, and gaiety. The common trait is, of course, the Fa-la refrain, (which incidentally became "lirum-lirum "in
Gloria d’amore) with skipping rhythms, clear lines, and frank tonality. Gastoldi sought to vary his compositions from
ballet to
ballet by sometimes writing in triple time, in double or by the alternate use of major and minor. Otherwise, it cannot be said that he at all attempted a psychological differentiation between the several "characters" depicted.
Works in translation Gastoldi's Italian works were enormously popular in the
Netherlands in Dutch
contrafacta. ==References==