CALETTI G.B.-BALLIS O.

G.B.Caletti, called the Bruno and known to be the father of the composer Francesco Cavalli, has been choirmaster at the cathedral of Crema for more than forty years and from 1625 to 1642 held the appointment of organist at the same cathedral.
The composer was well integrated in the vivid musical activity of the city in the fifteenth and sixteenth century.
We know that all the musicians living in Crema surely knew and appreciated all the works and collections of the period auctoritates such as Claudio Monteverdi, G.P.Da Palestrina, Luca Marenzio, Andrea Gabrieli, Carlo Gesualdo Principe di Venosa.
The entire collection of Caletti witnesses all the innovations commonly indicated with the term seconda pratica in a background widely linked to the late-Renaissance concept of madrigal.
The composer Oliviero Ballis from Crema (Crema,1540 – Cèneda,1616) started his education as a chorister at the cathedral in Crema, once called the Major Church.He published the only work which has reached us complete, the Canzonette amorose spirituali for three voices printed in Venice in 1607.
The printing of this work is to be considered a real unicum inside the repertoire of canzonets of the seventeenth century thanks to the metric and poetic choices made by the composer and to the upright level of the whole work, features rarely noticed even in the highest repertoire of the spiritual madrigal.