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The turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) marks a remarkable time of musical developments in Habsburg lands – a period married inextricably to extreme social and political upheaval and holding significant consequences for musical practices. The Catholics replaced the exiled or executed Protestant nobility with a new German Catholic aristocracy who eagerly imported Italian musicians and musical styles into the Habsburg lands, particularly to wealthy courts in Austria (Vienna), Bohemia and Moravia. The music of this recording features music for contralto, violins, cornettos, sackbuts, theorbo and organ by composers trained in Italy or influenced by Italian musical styles yet connected to the courts of the Hapsburg Emperors Ferdinand II and Ferdinand III and to surrounding courts and chapels. I located most manuscripts and prints through archival visits but also gratefully received materials from Bruce Dickey, Catherine Motuz, and Howard Weiner.

The surviving music manuscripts and prints reach across time to resonate with the regions of their origin. The Arcibiskupský zámek, Hudební sbírka archive (Archbishop’s Castle, Music Collection) in Kroměříž, Czech Republic (CZ-KRa) houses all of the manuscripts of works recorded here, with the exception of those by Georg Piscator held in Wolfenbüttel, Germany (D-W) and Giovanni Sances in the University Library in Uppsala, Sweden (S-Uu). The works by Giovanni Valentini, Massimiliano Neri, and Giovanni Battista Buonamente, printed in Venice in the early decades of the seventeenth century, represent a physical connection with the Italian tradition that would become so influential in Habsburg lands.