The Blog

THE BAROQUE ERA (CA 1600- 1750)

FLORENTINE CAMERATA
• A group of intellectuals, poets and musicians
• Met in Florence, Italy in last decades of 16ht
• Members: Giulio Caccini – singer and composer; Jacopo Peri- singer and composer; Vincenzo Galilei- composer, theorist and father of Galileo Galilei; and Count Giovanni de’Bardi- in whose Florentine home they met.
• Discussed poetry, music and the sciences
• Their desire to re-create ancient Greek drama led to the invention of opera
• Developed monody, a musical texture that consisted of a vocal melody unfolding over a bass line supported by a simple chordal accompaniment
• Oldest surviving opera L’Euridice was performed in 1600.

LE NUOVE MUSICHE (1602)
• Monadic style
• Italian for “The New Music”
• Title page dated 1601 but not actually published until 1602
• Publication by Florentine composer Giulio Caccini
• Contains musical examples and prose descriptions of monody, illustrating the newly emerging musical texture
• Amarillli mia bella solo songs that demonstrated the new “expressive style”

OPERA IN ITALY
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI (1567- 1643)
MUSICAL STYLE:
• Embraced elements of baroque style such as the use of figured bass, major/minor tonality , monody , and “doctrine of the affections”
• Used chromaticism as an expressive device
• Used word painting in madrigals and operas
• Increase emotional intensity though the use of stile concitato
• In this operas, he increased the role of instruments to create moods and characters
• Differentiated between recitative and aria style in operas
• Increased the role of ensembles; established the love duet.
• His music is emotional passion.


GENRES AND TITLES:
• Madrigals: over 250 in 9 books
• Operas: L’Orfeo, L’Arianna , Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, and L’incoronazione di Poppea
• Sacred music: masses, magnificants and Vespers

April 13, 2014 0 Comments