1. New Genres and Styles in the Age of Rationalism

2. Three styles of vocal music
Marco Scacchi (ca to ca. 1685) — writer on music, classified types of vocal music in letter of 1648:
stylus ecclesiasticus — church music
stylus cubicularis — chamber music
stylus theatralis — opera

3. The creation of opera Predecessors Greek drama Liturgical drama
Madrigal dialogue and madrigal comedy
Pastoral — poetic play with music, popular in sixteenth century
Intermedio between acts of dramas — included songs, pantomime, dances
theatrical context allowed for very elaborate stagings
poets also important madrigal poets
Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) — Aminta (1573)
G.B. Guarini (1538–1612) — Il pastor fido (1590)

4. Studies of Greek drama
Camerata in Florence under leadership of Count Bardi
Girolamo Mei in Rome concluded Greeks sang throughout dramas
Style was understood to be monophonic and speechlike
Plots taken from Greek mythology

5. Early operatic experiments
Jacopo Peri (1561–1633) — first completely composed drama — Dafne (1594, perf. 1598)
pastoral by Ottavio Rinuccini (1562–1621)
only fragments extant — two by Jacopo Corsi (1561–1602), Peri’s patron, and four by Peri
Emilio de’ Cavalieri (ca. 1550–1602) — first extant, completely composed play — Rappresentativo di anima e di corpo (Rome, 1600)
sacred allegory, idealized drama, first score printed with figured bass

6. Euridice, 1600 First intact, genuine opera
Original production for wedding in Florence of Henry IV of France and Maria de’ Medici (commemorated in paintings by Rubens)
Pastoral text by Rinuccini
Music by Peri, who probably sang Orfeo’s role
Produced by Corsi
Staged by Cavalieri
Some music inserted by Caccini

7. The music of Euridice Structure — five acts, modeled on Greek drama
Vocal style — stile rappresentativo, recitative
free rhythm, like speech, to suit affect and meaning
pitch controlled by affect more than by meaning — rhetoric rather than word painting
monodic texture — basso continuo accompaniment, scoring not specified
harmony — dynamic created stress by chord changes

8. Claudio Monteverdi, Orfeo (1607)
Libretto by Alessandro Striggio (1573?–1630)
Five acts
1 — rejoicing over wedding
2 — news of Euridice’s death
3 — Orfeo goes to Hades
4 — release and second loss of Euridice
5 —Apollo takes him to Olympus (in early version Orfeo chased away by Bacchantes)
Instrumental pieces
early and unusual example of specific orchestration
function for articulation of drama, unifying ritornelli
Choral madrigals, dance pieces
Solo singing
stile rappresentativo for dramatic passages
separate songs for expressive monologue

9. Vocal chamber music Madrigals
vocal and unaccompanied, as in sixteenth-century style
Monodies and ensemble vocal pieces with basso continuo
trend to chamber duet
title might be madrigal, but more precise for soloistic pieces would be aria or cantata
Works with additional concertato instrumental parts accompanying
introductory sinfonias or recurring ritornellos
quasi-dramatic depictions

10. The importance of stylus cubicularis
Development of musical forms — problem of writing extended vocal works without dramatic plot to give coherence
Aria changed from strophic or strophic-bass form to closed-form piece in which music dominated text
Cantata began to mean a piece that employed a variety of styles and eventually a work planned as a series of movements

11. Styles of sacred music in the early seventeenth century
Stylus gravis, or stile antico — older Zarlino/Palestrina style
Polychoral vocal scoring
multiple choral forces — may also include organ
prima pratica harmony
Concerted style
choirs, organ, instruments
Motets and concertos in seconda pratica — for solo portions of liturgy
solo voices and b.c.
motet — without obbligato instruments (cf. monodic madrigal, duet)
concerto — with obbligato instruments

12. Oratorio
Derived from narrative texts treated as motets or sacred concertos
Name taken from oratorio or prayer hall, space separate from sanctuary, where such works were performed
Intended for devotional observances of Christian confraternities, but not liturgical
Features narrator, called testo or historicus (in Passion oratorios “evangelist”)

13. Dramatic and musical gestures of oratorio
Concert work (not worship music) for chorus, solo singers, and orchestra
Not staged or costumed
Based on biblical story
Uses musical techniques of opera — recitative, affective/rhetorical solos, chorus, instrumental accompaniment
Likely to feature chorus
no logistical problem in costuming, staging
musical word painting replaces visual scenery

14. in the early seventeenth century
Instrumental genres
in the early seventeenth century

15. Building on Renaissance genres
Increased importance in musical life
Doctrine of affects provided justification for expression — musical style as rhetorical even without text
Structural advances — concertato scoring, tonality, form
Conception based on instruments
farther from vocal models
idiomatic writing
Dynamics — terraced

16. Improvisatory types Toccata, prelude
Often paired or interwoven with section or passages in fuga

17. Imitative types Ricercar, fantasia
Featured polyphonic imitation, concentrating on one subject — unity of affect
Free form, tendency to continuity rather than frequent sectional divisions

18. Sonata Successor of canzona by separation of sections into movements
Key unity maintains central affect, but sections contrast in material, tempo
Almost always with basso continuo — trio texture (two parts and b.c.) becomes most important

19. Variation types Partita (series of partes)
Cantus firmus variation — especially of chorale
Ornamentation of melody line
Variations over repeating bass
similar to vocal strophic variations
standard types — chaconne, passacaglia, ruggiero, romanesca, etc.

20. Dance types Stylized dance types for independent pieces Binary form
Suite
relation to variation set — partita
key unity stabilizes affect while dance rhythms give affective variety
standard order — allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue

21. Questions for discussion
What historical factors let to the distinction between church, chamber, and theatrical styles in seventeenth-century music? How have more recent periods maintained or forsaken the separation of styles by social function?
In what sense is early opera dramatic? In what senses is it not dramatic?
How did the appearance and development of the oratorio resemble or differ from that of the liturgical drama?
What factors contributed to the increasing important and sophistication of instrumental music in the seventeenth century?