The composer Johann Hieronymus Kapsperger (1580-1651) is the focus of the main essay in this edition of our magazine. Known today for his solo work for theorbo and lute, Kapsperger is perhaps one of the most enigmatic figures of early 17th-century Italy, as Daniel Zulueta explains in his excellent article. Italy then was far from being a homogenous entity and was mainly under the domination of the Spain of Felipe III, but it was still an endless source for Europe’s musical avant-garde.
Goldberg Magazine has now reached both its fiftieth issue and its tenth anniversary, definitely two special and important landmarks for our publication, and cause for celebration, particularly with our subscribers and readers.
The first prize in the 1st Goldberg Musical Essay Competition, which attracted more than two hundred entries in Spanish, English, French, German and Italian, has been won by Benjamin Narvey’s “Robert de Visée’s Musical Gravestones: The End of Grandeur & the Death of the French Lute”.
