Niccolò da Perugia (Niccolò del Proposto also spelled as Nicolò. Latin, Magister Sere Nicholaus Prepositi de Perugia) (fl. second half of the 14th century) was an Italian composer of the Trecento, the musical period also known as the "Italian ars nova". He was a contemporary of Francesco Landini, and apparently was most active in Florence.
Life and career
Little is known for certain about his life; only a few biographical details are verifiable from extramusical sources. He was probably from
laude in 1393. One of his compositions, La fiera testa, was likely written against the Visconti family when Florence was at war with Milan
between 1397 and 1400; Niccolò may have been in Perugia then.
A total of 41 compositions of Niccolò have survived with reliable attribution, the majority of them in the
cacce
. The madrigals are all for two voices, except for one which uses three, and all are in a relatively conservative style, uninfluenced by contemporary French practice (thereby differing from the similar works of Landini). Sacchetti's records of his poetry that was set to music includes the titles of several other pieces by Niccolò that do not survive.
One peculiarity of Niccolò was the genre of the tiny ballata, the 'ballatae minimae'. These pieces are very short, consisting of a single moralizing line of text, much different from the amorous love poetry set by other contemporary composers such as Landini.
Il megli' è pur tacere
