Pomponio Nenna - Music and Influence

Music and Influence

Nenna followed the Neapolitan stylistic trends of the time. He borrowed from the work of Giulio Caccini, and certainly he exchanged musical ideas with Gesualdo. Some of Nenna's madrigals also make use of the antiphonal style of Andrea Gabrieli.

Nenna wrote eight books of madrigals; however, copies of the second and third books are no longer extant. Because of this, the change from his earlier style as exhibited in the first book of madrigals to that of his more mature style of the fourth might appear startling.

His use of chromaticism and a highly imitative musical language is experimental for its time, and mirrored in the work of Gesualdo, indicating a close working relationship between the two. Nenna uses dissonance to build tensions that intimately reflect the passions expressed in the texts, and he employs imitative melodic and rhythmic patterns among the parts as they move towards points of conflict that then frequently resolve suddenly.

The chromatic structures are sometimes surprising, as in the beginning of "La mia doglia s'avanza", whose opening chords move from G minor to F-sharp major then D minor and finally C-sharp major, commencing a series of descending chromatic figures. In "L'amoroso veleno", the voices use small, chromatic ascending scales to mimic the poison which slowly creeps up to the victim's heart.

Interestingly, in more than one madrigal, he uses a repeated musical phrase, composed to the text, "Vita de la mia vita" (Light of my Life), apparently as a kind of aural signature, or perhaps as a veiled reference to a specific individual.

The fifth book of madrigals was dedicated to Nenna's patron, Fabritio Branciforte, while the sixth was dedicated to Diana Vittoria Carafa, the spouse of the seducer of Gesualdo's wife. The eighth book, published in 1618, was edited by Ferdinando Archilei, a doctor of laws, amateur musician and friend of Nenna's in Rome, and this fact might suggest that Nenna did not live to see its publication.

He also wrote sacred choral music, including Tenebrae responsories for use during Easter and a psalm setting, all of which show a dignified and restrained approach, much in keeping with the Neapolitan style for liturgical music, and reflective of the work of the brothers Anerio and Gesualdo.