Giovanni Nasco

Giovanni Nasco (c.1510-1561) is considered to be a significant "minor" composer of the sixteenth century, more recently relegated to the footnotes of the history of Italian Renaissance music. During his own lifetime, however, Nasco was considered to be a composer of great skill, showing a strong inclination for chordal homophony, some daring chromaticism, and a modern conception of harmonic effect. While known best as a composer of secular music (canzonetta, madrigals etc.), Nasco was also accomplished as a composer of sacred pieces, having written scores of motets and several masses, most of which were destroyed by bombing during World War II.