The Florentine Camerata was a group of humanists, musicians, poets and intellectuals
in late Renaissance Florence who gathered under the patronage of Count Giovanni de' Bardi
to discuss and guide trends in the arts, especially music and drama. Their gatherings had the
reputation of having all the most famous men of Florence as frequent guests.
After first meeting in 1573, the activity of the Camerata reached its height between 1577
and 1582. While propounding a revival of the Greek dramatic style (Greek tragedy and Greek
mythology), the Camerata's musical experiments facilitated the composition of dramatic music
and the development of opera. Known members of the group besides Bardi included Giulio
Caccini, Pietro Strozzi, and Vincenzo Galilei (the father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei).
Member Jacopo Peri composed the very first opera, Dafne, in 1597 (most of the music is
lost today, but the libretto by Ottovio Rinuccini survives). They wrote a second opera, Euridice,
with additional music by Guilo Caccini in 1600. It survives but is seldom performed. (Caccini
also set the libretto of Euridice to his own score in 1600). The "orchestras" for these operas
were very small (less than 12 players).
Unifying the Camerata members was the belief that music had become corrupt, and by
returning to the forms and style of the ancient Greeks, the art of music could be improved,
and thereby society could be improved as well.
The criticism of contemporary music by the Camerata centered on the overuse of polyphony
at the expense of the sung text's intelligibility. Excessive counterpoint offended the ears of the
Camerata because it muddled the affetto (the "affection") of the important visceral reaction in
poetry. It is the composer's job to communicate the affetto into an audible, comprehensible
sound. The Camerata pioneered the monodic style with the basso continuo.
The Camerata gained an indirect influence on the flow of music history, as Galilei chal-
lenged artists to rethink the palette of sound they had been utilizing for decades. The greatest
innovation to emerge from the Camerata was not a piece of music or aesthetic ideal, but rather
a door opened for further composition of dramatic music.
Giulo Caccini (1551 - 1618) influenced early opera.
Caccini was predominantly a composer of monody and solo song accompanied by a chordal
instrument (basso continuo), and it is in this capacity that he acquired his immense fame. He
published two collections of songs and solo madrigals, both titled Le nuove musiche, in 1602
(new style) and 1614 (the latter as Nuove Musiche e nuova maniera di scriverle). Most of the
madrigals are through-composed and contain little repetition; some of the songs, however, are
strophic (they have repeated sections).
Among the most famous and widely disseminated of these is the madrigal Amarilli, mia
bella. It uses stile recitivo, a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas)
in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech. Recitative does not
repeat melody lines as formally composed songs do. It resembles sung ordinary speech
more than a formal musical composition.
Amarilli, mia bella, Amaryllis, my beloved,
Non credi, o del mio cor, Do you not believe
dolce desio, Sweet desired one,
D’esser tu l’amor mio? That you are my love?
Credilo pur: Believe only this:
e se timor t’assale, And if fear assails you,
Prendi questo mie strale Take one of my arrows
Aprimi il petto. Open my breast
e vedrai scritto in core: And see written in my heart,
Amarilli, Amarilli, Amarilli Amaryllis, Amaryllis, Amaryllis,
è il mio amore. Is my beloved.
Dolcissimo Sospiro (Sweetest Sigh) (1602) (2:45)
Sweetest sigh that comes out of that mouth where every sweetness fades of love,
deh, comes to sweeten my bitter pain,
here I open my heart, but crazy to whom I say my martyr
to a sigh wandering who perhaps flies in sen to another lover.
to discuss and guide trends in the arts, especially music and drama. Their gatherings had the
reputation of having all the most famous men of Florence as frequent guests.
After first meeting in 1573, the activity of the Camerata reached its height between 1577
and 1582. While propounding a revival of the Greek dramatic style (Greek tragedy and Greek
mythology), the Camerata's musical experiments facilitated the composition of dramatic music
and the development of opera. Known members of the group besides Bardi included Giulio
Caccini, Pietro Strozzi, and Vincenzo Galilei (the father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei).
Member Jacopo Peri composed the very first opera, Dafne, in 1597 (most of the music is
lost today, but the libretto by Ottovio Rinuccini survives). They wrote a second opera, Euridice,
with additional music by Guilo Caccini in 1600. It survives but is seldom performed. (Caccini
also set the libretto of Euridice to his own score in 1600). The "orchestras" for these operas
were very small (less than 12 players).
Unifying the Camerata members was the belief that music had become corrupt, and by
returning to the forms and style of the ancient Greeks, the art of music could be improved,
and thereby society could be improved as well.
The criticism of contemporary music by the Camerata centered on the overuse of polyphony
at the expense of the sung text's intelligibility. Excessive counterpoint offended the ears of the
Camerata because it muddled the affetto (the "affection") of the important visceral reaction in
poetry. It is the composer's job to communicate the affetto into an audible, comprehensible
sound. The Camerata pioneered the monodic style with the basso continuo.
The Camerata gained an indirect influence on the flow of music history, as Galilei chal-
lenged artists to rethink the palette of sound they had been utilizing for decades. The greatest
innovation to emerge from the Camerata was not a piece of music or aesthetic ideal, but rather
a door opened for further composition of dramatic music.
Giulo Caccini (1551 - 1618) influenced early opera.
Caccini was predominantly a composer of monody and solo song accompanied by a chordal
instrument (basso continuo), and it is in this capacity that he acquired his immense fame. He
published two collections of songs and solo madrigals, both titled Le nuove musiche, in 1602
(new style) and 1614 (the latter as Nuove Musiche e nuova maniera di scriverle). Most of the
madrigals are through-composed and contain little repetition; some of the songs, however, are
strophic (they have repeated sections).
Among the most famous and widely disseminated of these is the madrigal Amarilli, mia
bella. It uses stile recitivo, a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas)
in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech. Recitative does not
repeat melody lines as formally composed songs do. It resembles sung ordinary speech
more than a formal musical composition.
Amarilli, mia bella (madrigal, 1602) (4:00)
Amarilli, mia bella, Amaryllis, my beloved,
Non credi, o del mio cor, Do you not believe
dolce desio, Sweet desired one,
D’esser tu l’amor mio? That you are my love?
Credilo pur: Believe only this:
e se timor t’assale, And if fear assails you,
Prendi questo mie strale Take one of my arrows
Aprimi il petto. Open my breast
e vedrai scritto in core: And see written in my heart,
Amarilli, Amarilli, Amarilli Amaryllis, Amaryllis, Amaryllis,
è il mio amore. Is my beloved.
Dolcissimo Sospiro (Sweetest Sigh) (1602) (2:45)
Sweetest sigh that comes out of that mouth
deh, comes to sweeten my bitter pain,
here I open my heart, but crazy to whom I say my martyr
to a sigh wandering who perhaps flies in sen to another lover.
No comments:
Post a Comment