Alberto Lazari

Alberto Lazari was an Italian composer of the first half of the seventeenth century, born in Perugia. The sources documenting him are scarce: his activity is recorded between 1635 and 1637, a brief period that places his work within the sphere of religious music in northern Italy, where many second-rank masters adopted the small-scale concertato motet for modest churches.

Lazari entered the Carmelite order and in 1635 held the post of organist at the collegiate church of Massa Lombarda. He also belonged to two cultural academies in nearby cities: the Accademia degli Spennati in Faenza and the Accademia degli Offuscati in Cesena, where he was admitted in 1637. His two known publications, printed in Venice in 1635 and 1637, consist exclusively of sacred music, including litanies of the Virgin, masses and motets, some of them with dialogues.

Modern critics credit him with a competent but uneven craftsmanship. His masses and litanies follow the small-scale style, although when he writes for larger forces his writing becomes less skilful and his melodies lack inventiveness. By contrast, the duet In sanctitate fulgida (1637) shows an expressive motet typical of its time, with ornamentation that shapes the melody and passages in triple time approaching the arioso.