Tarquinio Merula (1595–1665) was an innovative composer of keyboard, string, and vocal music, as well as a virtuoso organist, choirmaster, and violinist. Merula’s Curtio precipitato et altri capricii (1638) contains virtuosic, lyrical compositions for voice and continuo, ranging in tone from deep piety to playful irreverence.

The first work in the volume, “Curtio, ove vai?” could well be a parody of Monteverdi’s Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda: while the pieces are musically similar, the...