4. Stile Antico
• also called prima
prattica
• vocal polyphony
• music over text
• Josquin, di Lasso,
Palestrina, Willaert
5. Stile Moderno
• also called seconda prattica
• effective expression of text
• allowed for breaking of rules
• Gesualdo, Rore, Caccini,
Monteverdi
• affections
• voices and instruments
• monody: solo melody with
basso continuo
accompaniment
• tonality
• rhythm
(metered/unmetered)
• notation (barlines, time
signatures)
6. Florentine Camerata
• 1570s and 1580s; meetings
of powerful, intellectual,
musical people in Florence @
Count Bardi’s palace.
• Giulio Caccini, Vincenzo
Galilei (Galileo’s father)
• planned to revive Greek
opera
• stile rappresentativo—text
setting with solo melody
which approximated natural
speech inflection (recitative)
• ex. Caccini’s Amarilli, mia bella
Florence, Italy
Theatre of Dionysus, Athens, Greece
7. Giulio Caccini (1551-1618)
• Italian composer,
teacher, singer,
instrumentalist
• Le nuove musiche
– monody
– madrigals and arias
• aria—strophic; high-
voice melody with
figured bass
accompaniment
• madrigal
– Amarilli, mia bella
– Vedro ‘l mio sol
– preface contained
advice on elaboration
8. Opera
An opera is a sung drama with accompaniment.
Opera combines several art forms, including:
11. Theatre
Like actors in a play,
singers represent
specific characters.
Opera developed
from the
intermedio, a
musical interlude
performed
between the acts of
a play.
17. • Dafne—1st opera, by Peri
– Italian
– only libretto (by Rinuccini) is extant
– important as model for later operas:
• 1. prologue: character who tells
audience central theme of opera
• 2. story from classic mythology
• 3. pastoral scenes, characters
• 4. moving prayer sung by main
character, answered through deus ex
machina
– cupid shoots Apollo w/arrow; Apollo falls
in love w/Dafne
– Dafne prays she will escape him; Dafne is
turned into a laurel tree
• 5. solo song
• 6. choral singing at end
• L’Euridice—Peri/Caccini, text by
Rinuccini
– Nel pur ardor, aria
– Per quel vago boschetto, recitative
Jacopo Peri (1561-1633)
19. Sacred Music
• teens, early 20s
– stile antico
• 1590s—1st decade of 1600s:
– worked at Gonzaga court
in Mantua
– stile antico and stile
moderno
• 1613—to Venice, St. Mark’s
maestro di cappella
– after death of Gabrieli,
wrote similar polychoral
works
St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice, Italy
Cathedral, Cremona, Italy
Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, Italy
20. Madrigals
• Early Madrigals in the Renaissance Style
(1580s and 90s)
• 5th book (1605)
– seconda prattica, solo melody w/figured
bass
– Artusi conflict
– Cruda Amarilli
• 8th book (1638)
– Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
• stile concitato—agitated style
– tremolo/pizzicato
– represents warlike action
• over 20 min. long
• accompanied recitative
• arioso (recit passage is in aria style)
Giovanni Artusi
Monteverdi
21. Opera
• L’Orfeo (1607, published 1609)
– 1st great opera
– Vi ricorda o boschi ombrosi, aria/canzonetta
– Mira, deh mira Orfeo, song
– Ahi, caso acerbo, dialogue in recitative; Tu se’ morta, rectitative; Ahi,
caso acerbo, choral madrigal
• L’incoronazione di Poppea (1642)
– smaller ensembles
– Act I, scene III
22. What’s so great about Orfeo?
Many operas after Orfeo use many of
the same techniques:
• text/plot drawn from classical antiquity/ancient
history; noble/divine figures, moral lesson
• 5 acts, each w/song by Orfeo, commentary by
choir
• soloists accompanied by continuo
• large group of diverse instruments
• contrasting styles—duets, dances, madrigals,
ballettos
• special effects
23. aria
strophic dance songs
simple rhyme schemes
regular metrical schemes (ex.—8 syllables)
emotional response to recitative
2 types include:
strophic variation—muse at opening; Orfeo in
act III
dance-like arias
recitative
7-11 syllable lines
no regular rhyme scheme
elements of seconda prattica:
dissonance
modulation (ex. messenger informs of
Euridice’s death—E major to g minor)
chorus—comments on scene
townspeople, etc.
instrumental passages
ritornello—played before a stanza; same
music before each stanza
sinfonia—other instrumental music
functions:
1. introduce scene—sets tone
2. introduce opera (overture)
3. accompany stage action
4. accompany changes of scene
4 types of
music in Orfeo
24. Opera in the Middle 1600s
Venice
•public performances of opera
•older features:
–classical story
•newer features
–castrato
–3 acts
–chorus and dance eliminated
–more arias
–combine serious and comedic
–ex. Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione
di Poppea (1643)
Rome
• clearly defined recitatives and arias
• castrati
– females prohibited from singing, castrated males sang female roles
Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676)
•leading composer of Venetian opera, mid-
17th c.
•Monteverdi’s student
•organist @ St. Mark’s
•33 operas, including Giasone (Jason and the
Golden Fleece)
•lament over ostinato bass
Antonio Cesti (1623-1669)
•Cavalli’s rival
•Oronteo
•E che si fa, recitative
•Intorno all’ idol mio, aria
Italian opera became popular throughout Europe:
26. • arias, madrigals,
motets, cantatas
• was not allowed to be
an opera composer or
church musician
• music for private
gatherings
• cantata
– secular vocal music for
solo voice
– serious setting of Italian
poetry
– like opera scene with
no staging
– recit-arioso-aria
– Lagrime mie
Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677)
27. • born in Rome
• choir director
• wrote oratorios and cantatas
• oratorio (also called “concertato motets” or “dialogus”)
– dramatic work on a sacred subject/biblical stories
– sung during Lent
– voice/continuo
– 5 or 6 soloists—soloists also perform together as
choir
– 10 to 30 minutes long
– not staged
– not part of a church service
– sung in an oratory
• structure in Italy used for quasi-religious
services
• held several hundred people.
• used to present sacred music outside of service
– Latin
– castrati
– Histoire di Jephte
• recitative: Plorate colles
• Chorus: Plorate filii Israel
– (the first oratorio was written by Emilio de Cavalieri)
Giacomo Carissimi
(1605-1674)
28. Heinrich Schütz
(1585-1672)
• most important German composer of 17th century
• organist
• wrote 1st German opera
• Sacred concertos (also called “Symphoniae Sacrae”)
– polychoral
– written in the concertato style
• concertato: voices and instruments
together
• specific instrumentation
– in German
– O lieber Herre Gott
– Saul, was verwolgst du mich
• passion: a setting of the crucifixion
• studied w/Gabrieli, heard Monteverdi’s music
– stile antico aspects of Gabrieli’s music:
• polychoral
– stile moderno aspects of Monteverdi’s music:
• dissonance
• voices and instruments together