This Italian song has been attributed for years to Busnoys, but recently its autorship has been challenged on stylistic grounds and reattributed to one «Ser Felice» of Florence. I do not know who actually composed this song, but it is certainly odd that Busnoys would use an Italian text for one of his compositions.

This is the original text:

Fortuna desperata,
iniqua e maledecta,
che de tal dona electa,
la fama hai denigrata.

O morte dispietata,
inimica e crudele,
che d'alto più che stelle,
l'hai cusì abassata.

«Fortuna desperata» was one of the most famous song of the early Renaissance and gave rise to about 30 further polyphonic elaborations. Usually, composers would take one to three voices of the original setting and add to them their own lines. Let us see how the compositions listed below were conceived.

• Agricola's. Added three new parts to the original parts (six-part composition).
• Two anonymous settings. In both cases a new middle line has been added to the original three parts.
• Isaac's. He retained the original tenor, transposed it a fifth up, placed it on top and added to it two new lower parts.
• Josquin's. He retained the two original upper parts and added to them a brilliant bass line.
• Martini's. He retained the original upper part and added to it three quite unusual lower parts.
• Pinarol's. This setting is conceptually similar to the Isaac one. Pinarol retained the original upper line, transposed it down an 11th (a fourth plus an octave) and added to it three new upper parts. In doing this, he also changed the modal key from F with a flat to C.
• Senfl's. This is quite a complex setting. The song is played twice; of the original parts, only the tenor was retained and to it were added three new parts mainly based on ascending or descending exachord scales; hence the title «Fortuna ad voces musicales».
• Spinacino's. This setting was conceived for two lutes. All the parts bear challenging divisions in the composer's particular style. I have also to point out the fact that this is the only setting of this song by an Italian composer. This fact could be a detriment for the attribution of it to an Italian composer.