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The Triumphs of Oriana is a book of English madrigals, compiled and published in 1601 by Thomas Morley, which first edition[1] has 25 pieces by 23 composers (Thomas Morley and Ellis Gibbons have two madrigals) for 5 and 6 voices. The first 14 madrigals are for 5vv, the last 11 for 6vv. It was said to have been made to honour Queen Elizabeth I. Every madrigal in the collection contains the following couplet at the end: “Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana: long live fair Oriana” (the word "Oriana" often being used to refer to Queen Elizabeth) though some of the composers wrote variants of this refrain.
It is based on Il Trionfo di Dori by Italian composer Angelo Gardano.[2]
Recently, the attribution of "Oriana" to Elizabeth has come into question. Evidence has been presented that "Oriana" actually refers to Anne of Denmark, who would become Queen of England alongside James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) in an apparently failed early attempt to remove Elizabeth in order to restore England to Catholicism.[3] In his book 'The English Madrigalists', Edmund Fellowes, the most prolific of madrigal editors of the earlier 20th century, disapproved of the theory.[citation needed]
- ^ "ProQuest | Better research, better learning, better insights".
- ^ Duffin, Ross (2010). Cartwright, Kent (ed.). A Companion to Tudor Literature. John Wiley & Sons. p. 90. ISBN 978-1444317220.
It's name was based on an Italian collected encomium entitled Il Trionfo di Dori (1592) that was known in England through Giovanni Croce's contribution to Yonge's second volume of Musica Transalpina in 1597, Ove tra l'herbe.
- ^ Jeremy L. Smith, "Music and Late Elizabethan Politics: The Identities of Oriana and Diana." Journal of the American Musicological Society, vol. 58, pp 508-558 (Fall, 2005).