Pomponio Nenna was born in Bari in 1556 and studied there under Stefano Felis. He then moved to Naples, where he began his career as a composer in a stimulating spirit of emulation; Nenna and Carlo Gesualdo each influenced the other's madrigal style in their treatment of text, dissonance, and chromatic modulation. Nenna's vocal works are complemented here by a number of organ pieces by local composers such as Giovanni Maria Trabaci and Giovanni di Macque, transcribed here for a consort of viols.
