Missa Loquebantur – Vespertina Psalmodia

A urelio Signoretti was chapel-master in Reggio Emilia dome since 1612 until his death, occured before 1635; already before 1612, this musician was in the Reggio chapel as a chorister, in the same milieu in which he had with almost certainty his musical training.
Among the works by Signoretti, are left two motets (two- and five-part and organ, respectively) in the collection by Serafino Patta, published in anthological form in 1615, the nine-part with continuo Vespertinae Psalmodiae of 1629 and, finally, seven four-part Magnificat and three Masses in manuscript form.
The presence of two compositions in the mentioned collection by Serafino Patta should recall the environment of the followers and imitators of Claudio Merulo, who certainly influenced this musical area at the dawning of the seventeenth century.
Despite the lack of notes, the modern scholar will find information on Signoretti and his time in the nice article by Giancarlo Casali, published in the 2nd issue of volume 8 of the Rivista Italiana di Musicologia, 1973. Among the most representative compositions of this composer from Reggio, it is the four-part Missa Loquebantur, parody Mass, built on the thematic matter of the motet Loquebantur variis linguis apostoli by Palestrina.
The union of the proprium (canto piano) for the Pentecost (to which the mentioned motet is dedicated) with the polyphonic ordinarium –presented in the form of missa brevis– was re-created in the reconstruction; within this latter, some episodes have been performed by four solo voices, either for simple alternating (Christe, Agnus Dei II), or for variation or peculiar expressive effectiveness (Qui tollis, Et incarnatus est, Et in Spiritum Sactum, Benedictus). Indeed, the manuscript, drawn up in separate parts and not in the score, does not report any dynamical nor agogical indication: concerning these aspects, the interpretative choices are alleged by the research of an oratorial and emotional adhesion to the various moments of the liturgical text.
Finally, all the Mass seems to be linked to the Palestrinaean conception not only for explicit statement, but much more deeply for the contrapuntual and structural behaviour, totally respectful of the tradition, probably a result of the juvenile period of our composer.