Antonio Valente

Antonio Valente (c. 1520 – 1601) was an Italian Renaissance organist and composer. He was blind from childhood and served as organist of Sant'Angelo a Nilo in Naples in 1565–80. During that time he published two collections of keyboard instruments music: Intavolatura de cimbalo (1 fantasia, 6 ricercares, Salve regina, 3 intabulations, 6 sets of variations, and 3 dances; 1575) and Versi spirituali (43 versets; 1580).

Valente's second collection is historically important as one of the earliest instances of liturgical music free from any ties with the chant. Versi spirituali provides a wealth of diverse, freely composed pieces that cover the entire liturgy—the Mass and the Daily Offices. Valente's first collection of 1575 is also a major landmark in the history of Italian keyboard music, as together with Rocco Rodio's Libro di ricercate (1575) it constitutes the earliest work of the so-called Neapolitan school, which later produced composers such as Ascanio Mayone and Giovanni Maria Trabaci.

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