Chapter 7 The New Practice
Searching for the secrets of Ancient Greek Music difficult to recover music of classical antiquity ancient Greek musical notation was poorly understood debate on ancient Greek scales, instruments, manner of singing and manner of combining poetry and music in drama
A view of the musical cosmos, 1650. The work is an allegorical representation of the way music manifests itself throughout the cosmos - from the heavens on high to the earth below. The allegory draws on symbols from Christianity and classical antiquity. (see Bonds p. 197)
Searching for the secrets of Ancient Greek Music Composers increasingly embraced these ideas: - music should be driven by the word - the affect of a text - its predominant emotion - should be heightened by expressive musical devices
Searching for the secrets of Ancient Greek Music composers and theorists preferred a transparent polyphonic style clearly projecting the text
The Florentine Camerata ca. 1573-1587 group of poets, musicians and noblemen camerata means club or society debated ways to recreate the style of singing used by ancient Greeks in their drama Greek Chorus - http://youtu.be/r0nrjc4rpeg
The Florentine Camerata Jacopo Peri Dunque fra torbide onde - Thus over troubled waters - the 5th intermedio of Il Canto d Arione (The Song of Arion) - these intermedi were musical pieces performed between the acts of a play (comedy La Pellegrina) written for the wedding of Ferdinando de Medici and Christine de Lorraine - shows the new style being developed by the Florentine Camerata - moving toward a homophonic texture (principal melody line with subordinate accompaniment)
The Seconda Prattica rhythms of music should be modeled on the rhythms of speech: - at times flowing - at times halting - with points of punctuation - with cadences of varying strength
The Seconda Prattica works placed a solo vocal line above an instrumental line supporting instrumental line was known as the basso continuo (continuous bass) basso continuo provided harmonic framework for the solo voice above it the term figured bass comes from the appearance of basso continuo music (see Bonds p. 205 on how to read fig. bass) the net result is a musical texture with two primary lines (soprano and bass)
The Seconda Prattica basso continuo could be performed by any chordal instrument such as harpsichord, organ, lute bass line was often reinforced with lowrange instrument such as bass viol or bassoon
The Seconda Prattica basso continuo ensemble: - instrumentation was flexible and rarely specified - ideally, would combine a sustaining bass instrument with one or more chordal instruments to support the solo voice
The Seconda Prattica basso continuo allowed for projections of sung text through a single voice solo singing resulted in the new genre of opera - sung drama - in which individual singers assume role of individual characters
The Seconda Prattica Monody monody emerged by 1630s combination of solo voice and basso continuo singers declaim text in style that is measured and free, lyrical yet rhythmically fluid lies between song and speech
The Seconda Prattica Monody Giulio Caccini Sfogava conle stelle - He vented to the stars - example of monody - homophonic texture - figured bass (it is realized in our score) - from Caccini s Le nuove musiche (1602) - monody allows for great flexibility in tempo and expression of the emotion in the text - See Bonds p. 205 for score as published in 1602
Music in the Baroque Era: A Stylistic Overview greater rhythmic freedom greater allowance of virtuosity differentiation between vocal and instrumental styles See Bonds p. 207 for summary of stylistic changes from Renaissance to Baroque style