A voce sola. The rediscovered motets of Alessandro Grandi

On Saturday 28 March 2026 at 5.30 pm, as part of the Wunderkammer: The Museum of Wonders series, the Bologna Music Museum presents a live performance of A voce sola, featuring Tommaso Maggiolo, musicologist. Live Resonare Consort: Maria Chiara Ardolino, soprano; Benedetta Ceron, cornetto; Matteo Rozzi, violin; Stefan Sandru, theorbo.

The presentation of the CD A voce sola (DaVinci, 2026) brings to light a surprising chapter in early 17th-century sacred music, reviving some forgotten works by Alessandro Grandi, a composer too often relegated to the ranks of the ‘minor’ figures of his time. Yet, upon exploring his motets, a composer of great originality emerges, capable of renewing the sacred musical language with insights that paved the way for the concertato style destined to dominate the second half of the 17th century.

The project focuses on the three books of motets with instruments published in Venice between 1621 and 1637: a fascinating repertoire not only for its intense vocal lyricism, but above all for the then-innovative use of obbligato instruments that engage in a close dialogue with the solo voice.

Many of the pieces presented are unpublished and are being performed for the first time in a modern setting, thanks to the transcription work carried out by Maria Chiara Ardolino. The sources used come from the Library of the Museum of Music in Bologna and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, precious custodians of a heritage that remains largely unexplored.

Alongside the motets, the programme also includes contemporary sonatas, which help to recreate the musical atmosphere in which Grandi worked. Active primarily in Venice — where in 1621 he became assistant chapel master at St Mark’s — and later as chapel master at Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, Grandi published numerous works before dying prematurely, a victim of the plague of 1630, at the age of just forty.

A voce sola is therefore an invitation to listen to a voice from the 17th century which, though it remained in the shadows, contributed significantly to the transformation of Italian sacred music. A rediscovery that combines research, interpretation and historical memory.