barges venerated his teacher and friend willaert, and mentioned him glowingly in the dedication to his first book of villotte ("di antonino barges maestro di cappella alla casa grande di venetia il primo libro de villotte a quatro voci con un'altra canzon della galina novamente da lui composte & date in luce", venice: gardano, 1550): "l'unico inventore della vera e buona musica" ("the sole inventor of music which is true and good.") indeed, friendship is a theme of the dedication: in addition to the reference to willaert, barges characterizes his relationship with girolamo fenaruolo, the dedicatee, as a friendship, and mentions their mutual friends stefano taberio and marco silvio. if barges's dedication is to be believed, these men were among the first to hear and sing his songs, but the songs might also have found a home in domenico venier's salon.