subtilior; indeed the Ferrarese scene is reminiscent of certain 20th and 21st century movements. Agostini was fond of musical enigmas, puzzles, surprise and double-entendre, and his many musical collections display this. Enigmi musicali and L'echo, et enigmi musicali are canons to be solved by riddles, full of unusual chromatic progressions, instrumental interpolations, and other musical curiosities. Some of his books of madrigals are written in a virtuoso singing style obviously intended for the three current members of the concerto di donne (Laura Peverara, Anna Guarini, and Livia d'Arco). His third book of madrigals, for six voices (1582), appears to be the earliest collection of the actual repertory of this ensemble. Agostini was also a composer of accompanied solo song; since many of the performers at the court were instrumentalists in addition to singers (for example Livia d'Arco was a virtuoso player of the viol) he wrote for both lute and viol as accompaniment to solo singers. While no liturgical music by Agostini has survived (none may have been written), one of his last compositions is Le lagrime del peccatore, a setting of poems by Luigi Tansillo, as a set of madrigali spirituali; it is similar in intent, if not in musical means, to the set Lagrime di San Pietro by Orlando di Lasso, also based on poems by Tansillo. Agostini died in 1590, and in 1598 Alfonso died and Ferrara was absorbed into the Papal States, effectively ending the musical experimentation there. References and further reading External links Dangerous Graces: Female musicians at the courts of Ferrara and Parma, 1565-1589 Contains biographies of Agostino and Luzzaschi, as well as extensive information on the members of the concerto di donne. 1534 births 1590 deaths Musicians from Ferrara Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Renaissance composers Italian male singers 16th-century Italian musicians