Ars canendi 3
Giovanni Felice Sances was born in Rome about 1600. Already at the early age of fourteen he appeared as a singer on stage of the Palazzo della Cancelleria. Later he worked as a musician in Bologna, Venice and Padua. Like many other known composers of the 17th century he moved to Vienna in April 1637 where he continued his musical career. The eight-part work for two choirs, four voices each (SATB), is influenced by the use of the polychoral style of the Wiener Hofkapelle. The two choirs facing each other initiate a musical dialogue based on imitation and text interpretation achieved by musical means. The chief characteristics of this work are the concise elaboration of motifs and the great variability of style.