Chapter 8home.lagrange.edu/mturner/musichistory/Chapter_8.pdf · 2012. 10. 21. · Sacred Music • Heinrich Schütz Singet dem Herren ein neues Lied-shows the inﬂuence of Monteverdi

Chapter 8Vocal Music1600-1650

Sunday, October 21, 12

Secular Song Italy: The Madrigal

• through-composed setting of freely structured verse

• a cappella settings; and newer monodies for solo voice and basso continuo

• concertato madrigals - any number of voices combined with instruments



• Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

- published nine books of madrigals

- reflect all manifestations of the genre

- used unconventional musical techniques, asserting the text demanded it



• Monteverdi Cruda Amarilli

- “Cruel Amaryllis”

- part of the seconda prattica

- Monteverdi traced this new style to Cipriano de Rore and Adrian Willaert

- text painting used as the rationalization for the dissonances and breaking of the older Renaissance rules for dissonances

- Artusi (Italian composer and theorist) objected to the improper treatment of dissonances

- see m. 12: F and F# used in close proximity

- see m. 13: the A in the canto is unprepared against the basso’s G



• Monteverdi T’amo mia vita (1605)

- “I love you, my life”

- concertato madrigal (madrigals with a mix of voices and basso continuo)

- far more homophonic texture



• Monteverdi Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti (1630)

- “The west wind returns and with soft accents”

- concertato madrigal

- by 1630 the concertato madrigal was quite elaborate



• Francesca Caccini Lasciatemi qui solo

- “Leave me in solitude here”

- strophic monody

- daughter of Giulio Caccini

• Barbara Strozzi Tradimento

- “Betrayal”

- arietta (small aria) with a ritornello (brief return)


Secular Song France: The Air de cour (courtly air)

• French academicians sought to recreate magical powers of ancient music suited to the French language

• Jean-Antoine de Baïf (1532-1589) and his followers at the Academy of Poetry and Music developed a system called “music adapted to ancient measure” that is, prosody



• tried to adapt French verse to quantitative principles of Greek and Latin poetry

• syllables are differentiated by length (duration) rather than by weight (accent)

• musical accompaniment did not rest on basso continuo but on notated tablature for lute or other similar instruments



• like the madrigal, air de cour was first polyphonic but evolved into favored vehicle for solo voice and lute accompaniment

• Etienne Mouliniè Enfin la beauté que j’adore

- “At last, the beauty whom I adore”

- homophonic texture

- primary melody with lute acc.

- published in 1624


Secular Song Opera

• drama sung in its entirety from beginning to end

• monody - permitted a single voice to represent an individual character on stage


Secular Song Opera

• recitative permitted solo voices to declaim large quantities of text in rapid, comprehensible manner

• recitative is largely syllabic singing with emphasis on declamation of text over creation of a melodic line

• recitative more nearly approximates inflection of spoken speech while indicating specific pitches and rhythms to be sung


Secular Song Opera

• Giacopo Peri, Giulio Caccini, Emilio de’ Cavalieri

• all three composers associated with:

• the Florentine Camerata

• emergence of the seconda prattica

• central roles in creating the new genre of opera


Secular Song Opera

• mix recitative with polyphonic madrigals, arias (settings of strophic texts), choruses and instrumental interludes

• first opera acknowledged to achieve satisfying musical and dramatic intergration of recitative was Monteverdi’s Orfeo from1607


Secular Song Opera

• Monteverdi Orfeo (1607)

- recording is an extended excerpt from Act II

- ritornellos

- recitative

- focus on melody line and basso continuo accompaniment


Secular Song Opera

• Monteverdi Orfeo links:

• Act I prologue:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwndvoeCXos

• Act II excerpts:

- http://youtu.be/7VyksYcGJGk

• The entire video is here:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ_mjTTDM5A


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwndvoeCXos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwndvoeCXos

http://youtu.be/7VyksYcGJGk

http://youtu.be/7VyksYcGJGk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ_mjTTDM5A




Venice, 1638. The city was the heart of the Venetian Republic, which prided itself on its perptuation of the best traditions of

ancient Rome. The Basilica of San Marco is visible near the center of this image.


Secular Song Opera

• Monteverdi L’incoronazione di Poppea (1642-43)

- this opera written for Venice’s more “public”opera (Orfeo written for the Duke of Mantua)

- Orfeo is serious throughout, Poppea mixes high seriousness with comic scenes (Bonds p. 222)

- not written for the lower classes; rather its audience was the lesser nobles, business men, and visiting dignitaries (Bonds p. 223)


Sacred Music

• composers applied principles of seconda prattica to sacred music

• Claudio Monteverdi

• Heinrich Schütz - like Monteverdi, he never abandoned the prima prattica


Sacred Music

• Heinrich Schütz Singet dem Herren ein neues Lied

- shows the influence of Monteverdi (Bonds p. 223)

- Schütz studied in Venice with G. Gabrieli (Grout p. 340)

- brought the Italian seconda prattica style back to Germany

- from Symphoniae sacrae II

- Baroque traits (seconda prattica):

- two primary lines (melody and basso continuo)

- the two violins act like their own group creating a kind of antiphonal “choir”

- shows the influence of concertato madrigal


Sacred Music

• Heinrich Schütz Saul, was verfolgst du mich?

- polychoral motet

- shows many traits of the seconda prattica

- basso continuo throught

- recitative (monody) style in mm. 24-33

- Schütz thought it important to know the prima prattica style of composing too


Documents

Chapter 8home.lagrange.edu/mturner/musichistory/Chapter_8.pdf · 2012. 10. 21. · Sacred Music • Heinrich Schütz Singet dem Herren ein neues Lied-shows the inﬂuence of Monteverdi