Alfonso dalla Viola

Alfonso dalla Viola (also della Viola) (c. 1508 – c. 1573) was an Italian composer and instrumentalist of the Renaissance. He was the principal composer at the Este court in Ferrara for about four decades in the middle sixteenth century, and was renowned as a player of several instruments, including the viola d’arco. While much of his incidental music, composed for court entertainments, is lost, several books of his madrigals have survived. His position as court composer in Ferrara paralleled that of Francesco Corteccia in the competing city of Florence. Biography Alfonso was one of a large family of musicians active at the court of Ferrara, including Andrea and his brother Zampaulo dalla Viola, active from the 1470s to shortly after 1500; Agostino, son of Andrea, a singer and instrumentalist who is documented from around 1497 to 1522; and the younger Alfonso and Francesco, whose exact relationship to the other three has not been firmly established. Few details have emerged about Alfonso’s early life. He was born in Ferrara, and his father may have been Agostino dalla Viola. If true, Alfonso was born out of wedlock. In 1528 he was already leading the Duke of Ferrara’s private music