Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

4. 17th century.

The new style ‘invented’ about the turn of the century by Giulio Caccini consisted of vocal melodies unconditioned by any contrapuntal interplay and supported by a bass line that was subservient to them – the continuo – to be sparingly realized as full chords by the accompanying instrumentalist (possibly the singer himself). This combined the advantages of harmonic function and flexible adjustment to the expressive needs (sprezzatura) of the singer’s rendition. Caccini correctly claimed that what is called accompanied monody was the same as the stile rappresentativo or recitativo used by Peri, his colleague and rival at the Florentine court, in the first operas (pastorali tutte in musica), Dafne (1598) and Euridice (1600; fig.6). In both cases the composer set out to ‘represent’ the emotions of characters reacting to dramatic situations, although those of Caccini’s madrigals and arias were merely hinted at by the texts. In fact this kind of dramatic projection through a chamber recital, which had had many precedents in the polyphonic madrigal, now became typical and often adopted the striking, emotional harmonies of Peri’s and Monteverdi’s operas. In time this extremely popular genre, fostered by many composers, evolved into an even larger production of cantatas.

Operas, on the other hand (of which the recitative aspects are now given too much emphasis over the melodious singing, choruses and instrumental colour), were connected with infrequent court events. In Florence, where they began, there was often a reversion to spoken plays with intermedi, or to spectacles, ‘tutti in musica’, of a choreographic rather than dramatic nature, after the model set in the 1590s by Cavalieri. After the Mantuan performances that included Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Arianna (1607–8), both court events, the lead was taken by Rome, especially with the custom instituted by the Barberini family, relatives of Pope Urban VIII (1623–44), of holding operatic performances in their palaces during Carnival. The opening of the first public opera house in Venice in 1637 was a turning-point; within a few years operas were offered from December to Lent, and again in the spring, by four or five theatres in Venice, while the custom quickly spread to Bologna, Milan, Genoa, Lucca and Naples, and even in Rome opera was given in semi-private theatres (against the will of various popes). Although the tradition of performance at court was never completely broken, opera in the 17th century was practised either as an entertainment in the academies (thus continuing the Renaissance tradition of music at such events) or in smaller centres, performed by touring companies in connection with local celebrations. Already in the Barberini operas the plots, drawn from Tasso’s epic poetry or from saints’ lives, had begun to expand and sharpen the distinction between recitative sections (in the modern sense) and self-contained arias and choruses. Later librettos, starting with Busenello’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643) for Monteverdi, drew freely from the whole range of history, juxtaposing in a cavalier fashion highly dramatic moments, arbitrarily inventing amorous effusions and scenes of ludicrous comedy. The music, however, often succeeded in making all incongruities plausible with a flexible, far from formalized, handling of recitative and aria, the former attaining on occasion highly dramatic effects, the latter avoiding stagnation in the compelling drive of the plot. The most effective and widely performed operas were those of Cavalli (1602–76). Towards the end of the century a new ornamental style of singing led to the appearance of virtuosos who practised what became known as bel canto. At the same time the comic element disappeared from operatic plots, leading to the appearance of the intermezzo, performed by actors who were also singers, at the beginning of the 18th century.

Lesser genres, such as extended cantatas or serenatas, expressed their dramatic content through purely auditory means, as also did opera’s sacred counterpart (usually given in Lent), the oratorio, born from the spiritual exercises of Philippine oratories, from which the genre acquired its name. Cavalieri’s allegorical Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo, fully staged in Rome at the Oratorio del Crocifisso in 1600, was an exception; more typical were G.F. Anerio’s dialoghi, published in his Teatro armonico spirituale (1619), in which a choral narrative introduced the words of the main characters sung by soloists. This type, using vernacular texts, had a wide diffusion through the Philippine congregation, showing, however, a tendency to assimilate dramatic techniques from opera, with more emphasis on solo recitatives and arias and developing more complex plots. Giacomo Carissimi (1605–74), who wrote his works (historiae) on Latin texts with a greater display of choruses and instruments, represents a somewhat different trend established by the Jesuits. As a teacher at the Jesuit Collegio Germanico in Rome, Carissimi had considerable influence on German composers.

In the oratorio, to a greater extent than in the opera, accompanied monody was often incorporated in the new stile concertato which had developed from earlier polyphony, giving much greater differentiation to the various elements and a pointed expressive and sonic distinction to each, be it a voice, an instrument or a choral or instrumental group. The stile concertato had had its first important representative in Venice with Giovanni Gabrieli (c1554–7–1612), followed by Monteverdi, who used it at first in sacred pieces (beginning with the Vespers of 1610) and later in a number of madrigalian works. Instruments tended to be more sparingly used in the Roman school, where the stile concertato often took the shape of large-scale polychoral pieces supported by organs, the most representative being those by Orazio Benevoli (1605–72). These stylistic trends also characterize much of the sacred music composed at this period.

The free play of harmonic feeling to which both accompanied monody and concertato music instinctively tended did not open the way to an immediate assertion of the so-called tonal system. In the first place, the new vogue for harmonic surprise based on chromaticism, used (and abused) for emotional purposes, had to take its full course. Composers still relied on elementary harmonic functions, or on such traditional basses as the romanesca and passamezzo, or on new ones, such as the descending Dorian tetrachord and its many variants. Whole compositions, sometimes the most dramatic arias, could be based on a ground bass of some sort. Only gradually did the precise feeling of how each chord related to the tonal centre of its key begin to take shape. It had become clearly outlined in the operas and oratorios of Alessandro Stradella (1639–82) and even more so in those of Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) and in the instrumental works of Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713), although theoretical treatises still continued to expound the system of the church modes.

Instrumental practice, increasingly flourishing and autonomous, may have played a greater part than vocal music in the development of modern harmony with a language richer in figurations outlining full chords. Furthermore, at least part of it had inherited the elementary but powerful tonal drive of dance music. The warm, brilliant sound of the new violins built by famous makers in Brescia and Cremona lent itself to accompanied monody in the form of solo sonatas with continuo, such as those of Biagio Marini (c1587–1663). Most instrumental music, however, belonged to the concertato type. Here, too, the variety of instrumental colours in Giovanni Gabrieli’s canzonas in eight to 15 parts (published in 1597 and 1615) gradually gave way to an almost absolute prevalence of strings. A most successful combination proved to be that of two violins with continuo (the latter doubled by a violone or cello), the sonata a tre of which Corelli’s opp.1–4 were to become the best-known and most influential examples. Corelli was the first significant composer to devote himself entirely to instrumental music. His works became the model for string compositions in the first half of the 18th century. In larger ensembles recourse was first made during the second half of the century to an interplay of a group of soloists and a larger tutti; from it developed the concerto grosso, best represented, once more, by Corelli, in his op.6, most of which had been composed for performance during Roman festivities at least 25 years before its publication in 1714. The canzona per sonar was a composition of some length, alternating contrapuntal sections and chordal or melodic ones, generally played during Mass; in time (by about 1650) such pieces were called sonatas and were more sharply divided into various movements, so called from their changing time signatures and tempos. Canzonas and sonatas were also used for secular entertainment, and many were given titles referring to the noble dedicatees for whom they had been played. Only late in the century was a distinction made (though seldom stated) between sonatas da chiesa and da camera, which was probably meant to indicate the inclusion in the latter of dance movements rather than works specifically destined for either church or chamber.

The distinction is hardly clearer in keyboard music, although the transfer of organ pieces to the harpsichord was much more likely than the performance on a church organ of partitas (variations) or dance suites intended for harpsichord. Composers of organ music reacted to the general trends of the time in peculiar ways. Expressive goals, analogous to those that had led to accompanied monody, were achieved in pieces of the toccata type, with their abrupt changes of texture, unexpected harmonic turns and, above all, the agogic flexibility of performance as emphatically recommended by Frescobaldi in his prefaces, especially that to his second book of toccatas. The organ had only limited potential as a concertato instrument; but contrapuntal pieces like the ricercare, elaborating on themes of more pointed individuality and secular flavour than those of the preceding period, slowly evolved towards the tonal fugue.

Theoretical writing was on the whole less intensive and polemical during the 17th century than in the Renaissance. It was essentially concerned with the practical consideration of problems of composition or performing practice; the works of Banchieri (1568–1634) and Cazzati (1616–78) are particularly valuable as a source of information about the views and criteria adopted by musicians in a time of rapid change.

Italy, §I: Art music