Giandominico La Martoretta

Giandomenico La Martoretta, also known as Il Martoretta, was an Italian composer of the second half of the sixteenth century, active in the publication of madrigals between 1544 and 1566. His birth is placed in Calabria, although the exact date is not known with certainty, so his early biography is known only in broad outline.

Before 1554 he travelled to the Holy Land. On his return he spent a period in Cyprus, where he was the guest of the nobleman Piero Singlitico. Einstein described him as apparently ecclesiastical, and in 1552 he is referred to with the title 'Dottor in musica'.

His publishing activity was concentrated in Venice. Jan Nasco supplied the Accademia Filarmonica of Verona with some five-voice madrigals of his authorship, now lost. His second book of four-voice madrigals bears the title 'madrigali cromatici', which indicates that they were written in the C time signature, also called misura breve. The third book includes a work on a Greek text, O pothos isdio, which he probably brought back to Venice after his stay in Cyprus.

His legacy consists mainly of four-voice madrigals and a book of five-voice Sacrae cantiones, published in 1566, which bear witness to a composer with an interest in the Venetian polyphonic repertoire of the mid-century.