Music History I

1
Music History I

• Lecture Notes 7

2
Cruda Amarilli by Monteverdi

• á5 with mix of homophony polyphony
• Mode 7 with internal cadences on Mode 12
• Range each voice within the 8ve generally
• Unity variety in overall rhythmic design
• Several short imitative passages
• Unusual harmonic devices (m. 12, m. 32)
• Other analytical observations?

3
Orfeo, Act II

• The Ritornello, a unifying element
• Orfeos solo gentle rise and fall with
  descending motion overall ( of repetitions?)
• Compare the solos of the shepherds and the
  messenger
• How different now is the solo of Orfeo?
• The role of the chorus

4
The Coronation of Poppea

• How is it stylistically different from Orfeo?
• Comic scenes
• Basic requirements of accompaniment and set
  design
• Real true-to-life characters
• Historical vs. mythical
• Public opera as opposed to courtly opera
• Some analytical observations

5
Two works by Schütz

• How much Venetian influence?
• Sing to the Lord A New Song
• Saul, Why Do You Persecute Me?

6
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

• Son of Baldassare and Maddalena Zignani
• Studied with Ingegneri
• Chapel Master, Cremona cathedral
• Teen age publications motets, madrigals,
  canzonettas
• Famous as a composer, leader in use of modern
  techniques
• Wife, Claudia died 11/10/1607 Orfeo premiere
• Enthusiastic reception of LArianna 5/28/1608
• Raised standard of musical production at St.
  Marks

7
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)

• Second of 8 children of Albrecht and Euphrosyne
• By consent of his father joined the court of
  Landgrave Moritz of Hessen-Kassel (1599) as a
  choirboy
• University of Marburg (1608) to study law
• To Venice to study with Giovanni Gabrieli (1609)
  excelled as composer organist
• Gabrieli died in 1612 Schütz back to Germany in
  1613
• Earliest extant polychoral works composed in 1616
• Sent his music to Kassel over the next 30 years
• Duties included musical training of choirboys,
  staffing the chapel, living arrangements for his
  pupils, music for events in Dresden including the
  centennial celebration of the Reformation in 1617

8
Schütz (continued)

• Married Magdalena Wildeck (1619) Psalms of David
  in wedding invitations wife died in 1625
• To Venice in 1628 influenced by Monteverdi
• Back to Dresden decline in musical activities at
  the court (30 Years War)
• Chapel Master at court of King Christian IV of
  Denmark (1633)
• To Dresden (1635) Denmark Wolfenbüttel Dresden
• Christmas Story among his best known works

9
Whats New?

• 3 kinds of vocal music madrigal, opera, sacred
  music to synthesize text, melody and rhythm
• French secular song Air de cour
• Concertato madrigal voices with instruments,
  basso continuo alone or with other instruments a
  kind of synthesis between single-voiced monody
  and multi-voiced a cappella polyphonic madrigal
• Traditional or concertato for Monteverdi? Both
• Originators of the new practice according to
  Monteverdi Cipriano de Rore and Adrian Willaert

10
Artusi vs. Monteverdi

• Artusis objections repeating suspended notes,
  descending after a sharpened tone, rising after a
  flattened tone, vertical dissonances,
  cross-relations, unprepared dissonances, too many
  cadences in the 12th mode (C plagal)
• Monterverdis response nothing done by chance,
  new way to treat dissonance and consonance
• Monteverdi defended by his younger brother,
  Giulio Cesare
• Monteverdi not the first to use unconventional
  approaches to the treatment of dissonance

11
Define These

• Ground bass A short phrase in the lowest voice
  repeated over and over (see the Monteverdi
  example, 74, p. 161)
• Arietta A small aria
• Ritornello (brief return) Opening musical idea
  that returns at certain places in the work
• Ritornello principle in the hands of Baroque Era
  composers set a framework of repetition and
  variation, important in the development of the
  concerto

12
Francescas Claim to Fame

• Francesca Caccini (1587-ca. 1641), first woman to
  compose an opera
• A well-known singer
• A poet
• Became highest paid musician in the family
• Composed other works for the court
• Music and voice teacher to the women of the court

13
Psychology

• Modern-day psychology has its roots in the 17th
  century
• René Descartes (1596-1650), the most prominent of
  early writers on the passions, identified six
  basic passions
• Admiration
• Love
• Hate
• Desire
• Joy
• Sadness

14
Another Monteverdi Technique

• Genere concitato
• Rapid fire repeated notes intended to suggest an
  agitated or warlike manner
• Developed by Monteverdi and used by other
  composers

15
Baïf, et al

• Adapted French verse to quantitative principles
  of Greek and Latin poetry
• Syllables are differentiated by length rather
  than by weight
• Advocated musical settings in which long and
  short syllables were consistently declaimed in a
  ratio of 21

16
More Basic Facts

• Basso continuo became standard ca. 1680
• Air de cour evolved from a polyphonic work into a
  popular vehicle for solo voice and accompaniment
• Madrigal comedies (late 16th C.) A cycle of
  madrigals connected by a dramatic theme probably
  performed with spoken plays
• Obstacle to composing opera Absence of a
  technique permitting a single voice to represent
  an individual character on stage the solution
  found with monody and recitative
• Recitative Syllabic style of singing that gives
  greater emphasis to the declamation of text than
  to the creation of a melodic line allowed
  composers to approximate the inflections of
  speech with pitches and rhythm

17
It was me. No, it was me. No, me.

• Peri, Caccini and Cavalieri all claimed to be
  first in the creation of opera.
• Early operas (i.e. before Monteverdis Orfeo)
  were not exactly barn burners to the theater
  going public
• We generally give Jacopo Peri credit for
  composition of the first opera (Dafne, Florence,
  1598)

18
Whos Who of Early Opera

• Giovanni De Bardi met at his place
• Vincenzo Galilei father of Galileo studied with
  Zarlino
• Jacopo Peri a leading musician in Florence
  first opera
• Giulio Caccini singer father of Francesca

• Jacopo Corsi patron of the arts in Florence
  continued tradition of Camerata
• Ottavio Rinuccini poet and librettist
• Emilio De Cavalieri Producer of opera
  composer active at court of Florence

19
More on Monteverdi

• With Orfeo he integrated the new style of singing
  (recitative) into a work that was both musically
  and dramatically satisfying
• Orpheus, the celebrated musician of ancient myth,
  with his music was able to persuade the gods of
  the underworld to release Euridice from the realm
  of the dead
• The central plot of Orfeo A pastoral scene
  interrupted by the death of his beloved Caron
  gives permission to cross the River Styx to
  rescue her the opera ends with the descent to
  rescue the hero
• Timbral contrast Contrasting sounds among
  instruments
• His opera instrumentation large number for that
  time and his specifications for their use
• Two operas one serious, the other a mix

20
Growth of Opera

• After Orfeo, rulers used opera to promote lavish
  productions at court
• Technology in production became more important
• Emphasis on poetic and musical sophistication
• First public opera house Venice, 1637

21
Orfeo and Poppea

• Orfeo serious throughout mythic, allegorical
  characters
• Poppea mix of serious and comic scenes very
  little in the way of chorus or orchestra no
  elaborate sets or machinery more realistic
  (human characters) appealed to a broader, less
  aristocratic segment of society (lesser nobility,
  businessmen, bankers, visiting dignitaries)

22
Sacred Music and the New Practice

• Composers used the same techniques as those found
  in secular music
• Instruments became an essential part of the
  structural design
• Use of solo and basso continuo
• Demand for excellence (even virtuosity) in
  performance

23
Singet dem Herren ein neues Lied

• Text source Psalm 961-4
• 26 singers all reading from the same music stand?
• Where is Schütz?