Biography
This Italian composer, singer, and lutenist spent roughly three decades in service at the Mantuan court, although his works circulated across a considerably wider area. Secular pieces formed the bulk of Cara’s output, consisting chiefly of lute-accompanied songs preserved in intabulation, and he emerged as the leading figure in shaping the frottola, the inclusive genre that embraced sonnets and odes alike. Uniform rhythms characterized his writing, while northern Italian conventions governed the overall idiom, placing the principal melody almost invariably in the soprano line. By contrast, the inner voices received notably polyphonic treatment.