Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 17

Cavalieri and Early Monody

Author(s): Murray C. Bradshaw


Source: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Spring, 1991), pp. 238-253
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/763554
Accessed: 30-10-2018 18:25 UTC

REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/763554?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to The Journal of Musicology

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Cavalieri and Early
Monody

MURRAY C. BRADSHAW

o ne of the key features of earl


music that distinguished it decisively from Ren
monody, solo singing with one, two, or perhaps t
accompanied by a continuo part. The result was a
ferent in concept from that of the late Renaissan
century interplay of individual lines was abandone
238 single top line supported by a solid bass was sub
yielded to homophony. It was a change "avec viole
sique polyphonique et le style madrigalesque en
Such a revolutionary change in texture was not
the new music evolving around 1600. A growing f
dissonances, sectional structures, concertato wr
ideas opposed to the sixteenth-century's generally
of dissonances, its on-going flow of sound with f
points, and colla parte instrumental accompan
brought about dramatic changes in the music of t
monody with its emphasis on bass and soprano th
forever changed the sound and texture of Wester
Many assumptions have been made about mo
have always been associated with the city of Flo
song, and madrigal, and with the desire to exp
affective and highly charged emotional way. Ga
and, later, Monteverdi are always mentioned as the
the new style. In sacred monody, it is only the "con

Volume ix * Number 2 * Spring 1991


The Journal of Musicology ? 1991 by the Regents of the Uni

1 Henriette Martin, "La 'Camerata' du comte Bardi et la m


XVIe sicle," Revue de musicologie XLII (1932), 63.

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
CAVALIERI AND EARLY MONODY

Viadana that are usually mentioned, a music


that some authors do not even consider it to be "echte Monodie."2
Yet, a new picture of monody is gradually beginning to emerge
with the publication of several early editions and manuscripts of sa-
cred music--three volumes of Salmi passaggiati (1601-1603) by Gio-
vanni Luca Conforti, an earlier collection of Sacri concerti (1600 and
later) by Gabriele Fattorini, and, most important, a manuscript in the
Biblioteca Vallicelliana in Rome (MS o 31) containing lamentations
and responsories by Emilio de' Cavalieri.3 All three collections show
that the technique of monody was not only applied to sacred music at
a very early date, but was furthermore very likely used there well
before it appeared in opera and song. They prove, too, that monody
also appeared in a wide geographical area-Fattorini worked in the
Veneto, Conforti in Rome, and Cavalieri in Rome and Florence-and
was, furthermore, not limited to a single, affective declamatory style.
Finally, it is the Vallicelliana manuscript that changes completely the
historical view of Cavalieri as a mere spear-carrier in the history of
early monody.4 It reveals Cavalieri as very much the forward-looking
composer, one well aware of the fundamental changes taking place in
the music of his day, and one who, moreover, wrote in many different 239
kinds of monodic styles. It reveals, too, that it was in sacred music that
the new technique of monody was first extensively used. In short, all
three volumes but especially the Vallicelliana manuscript prove that
many of the usual assumptions about Cavalieri and about monody are
no longer valid.
Cavalieri was close to the development of monody throughout all
its early history. Born of a noble family in Rome circa 1560, his home,
during the 157os and 158os, was directly across from that of Girolamo
Mei, the famous classical philologist in whose correspondence with
Vincenzo Galilei (late 1520s-1591) the ideas of the technique of solo
singing with continuo accompaniment first began to germinate and

2 Blume, Das monodische Prinzip in der protestantischen Kirchenmusik (Leipzig, 1925;


repr. Hildesheim, 1974), pp. 74-75; Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era (New York,
1947), p. 124; Eggebrecht, "Arten des Generalbasses im friihen und mittleren 17.
Jahrhundert," Archiv fiir Musikwissenschaft XIV (1975), 63.
3 Giovanni Luca Conforti, "Salmi passaggiati" (1601-1603) (Miscellanea 5/I; Amer-
ican Institute of Musicology, 1985); Gabriel(e) Fattorini, "I sacri concerti a due voci" (1600)
(Miscellanea 5/II; American Institute of Musicology, 1986); Emilio de' Cavalieri, the
Lamentations and Responsories of 1599 and 1600 (Biblioteca Vallicelliana Ms 0 31) (Miscel-
lanea 5/III; American Institute of Musicology, 1990).
4 Pirrotta, for instance, claims that Cavalieri "only simulated the external features
of continuo writing but missed its 'recitative' flexibility and chordal rather than con-
trapuntal meaning"; "Early Opera and Aria," New Looks at Italian Opera (Ithaca, 1968),
p. 49, n. 29.

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

come to fruition.5 In 1581 Galilei published his Dialogo, w


among other things, a severe attack on the polyphonic styl
sixteenth century. In the following year, 1582, Galilei tried
a practical way the ideas of his Dialogo by composing the l
and responsories of Holy Week in a new style-the very co
that Cavalieri was later to set in a similar style.6
In short, by the early 158os a new technique of m
evolved, and Cavalieri was more than likely aware of it. It
that Cavalieri in 1599 and 1600 was to set the same texts
had in 1582, but that he also seems to have been carrying
experiments at the oratory of the Most Holy Crucifix, in th
San Marcello in Rome. Alaleona speculated that it is here t
alieri made his first try at the new style" and Ghisi noted t
also performed laudi spirituali by having soloists accompa
struments, that is, in pseudo monody.7 It is significant, to
musical highpoint of the year at San Marcello was Holy W
as Smither noted, "one sang . . . especially the lamentation
sponsories."8 A further close tie between Galilei and Caval
interest both had in enharmonic tuning. During his Flore
240 Cavalieri built enharmonic organs,9 and actually notat
monic passage in one of the lamentations in the Vallicellia
script (see concluding measures of Example ib below). The
between Galilei, the first exponent of the "new style," an
are so extremely close that one can securely affirm that
style of monody may well reflect that of Galilei.lo
In 1588 Cavalieri became director of all artistic activiti
Medicean court in Florence, in effect, arbiter elegantiaru
Grand Duke. He probably continued his close association w
until the latter's death in 1591, and at that time assumed

5 The basic study of this correspondence is by Palisca, Girolamo Mei


Letters on Ancient and Modern Music (2nd ed.; Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 197
6 Galilei also set the long lament of Count Ugolino in Dante's Comm
this music has survived but it was probably an example of "pseudo m
singing but with all the accompanying parts written out.
7 Alaleona, Storia dell' oratorio musicale in Italia (Turin, 1908; repr. M
104; Ghisi, "La tradition musicale des fetes florentines et les origines
D. P. Walker, Les Fetes du mariage de Ferdinand de Medicis et de Christin
Florence 1589, I (Paris, 1963), xv.
8 A History of the Oratorio, I (Chapel Hill, 1977), p. 79.
9 Instruments that permitted the playing of intervals smaller tha
were described by Nicola Vicentino in his L'antica musica ridotta alla mo
(1555), and Descrizione dell' arciorgano (1561).
10 Kirkendale has noted that Cavalieri's lamentations "can be regard
dants of the earliest Florentine monodies: Vincenzo Galilei's lost settings
of Dante's Ugolino and the Lamentations of Jeremiah"; see "Emilio d
Roman Gentleman at the Florentine Court," Quadrivium XII/2 (1971), 16

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
CAVALIERI AND EARLY MONODY

in the field of monodic writing. As Solerti put


of 1589 [celebrating the marriage of the Gra
of Lorraine] the true animator of reform [in
the years immediately following was Cavalier
of his music written during the 159os has be
ued his experiments in the evolving techniqu
Guidiccioni, the mother of Cavalieri's favorite
iccioni, twice spoke of "la camerata del signor
dated 31 December, 1590, wrote of an "altr
l'ordinario."12 In the dedication to the Rap
Alessandro Guidotti stated that Cavalieri "fel
manner, as was seen at different times on several occasions." He
added that three of Cavalieri's pastorals were performed ("recitate")
during the 159os and were received "with great admiration and merit,
[such music] never having been seen or heard before that time by
anyone." Peri, the composer of the first surviving opera, Euridice,
wrote that "Signor Emilio del Cavalieri, before any other of whom I
know, enabled us with marvelous invention to hear our kind of music
upon the stage."'3 Finally, in November of 1600, Cavalieri himself
stated that "this [technique of monody] was invented by me, and 241
everyone knows this, and I find myself having said so in print."'4 One
important and often overlooked point is that "the earliest dramatic
productions reflecting the thoughts of the Camerata [the operas Dafne
and Euridice] were performed in Florence outside the sphere of the
Camerata," that is, under the direction and inspiration of Cavalieri.'5
All of this emphasizes the fact that Cavalieri was the one musician who
throughout the 158os and 1590s had consistently been experimenting
with solo singing.
Cavalieri left Florence in 1600 and spent much of the last two
years of his rather brief life in Rome. His opus magnum, the Rappre-
sentatione di anima, et di corpo, was first performed in Rome at the
Chiesa Nuova (in Vallicella) in February, 1600. It is this his most
famous work which, with its decidedly conservative monodic style,
accounts for Cavalieri's lack of status among the early composers of
monody. The lamentations of the Vallicelliana manuscript, however,
with their more forward-looking monodic style, completely change
this traditional viewpoint.
" Angelo Solerti, Gli arbori del melodramma, I (Milan, [1904-05]), 50.
12 Ibid., 50-51, and "Laura Guidiccioni Lucchesini ed Emilio de' Cavalieri,"
Rivista musicale italiana IX (1902), 813.
13 Strunk, Source Readings in Music History (New York, 1950), p. 373.
'4 Palisca, "Musical Asides in the Diplomatic Correspondence of Emilio de' Ca-
valieri," The Musical Quarterly XLIX/3 (1963), 354.
15 Smither, op. cit., p. 78.

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

Recent scholars, such as Kirkendale and Marx, have dated the


manuscript as 1599 and the place of composition as Pisa, whereas
earlier scholars, such as Alaleona and Damilano, gave a later date,
1602, and a different place of composition, the Vallicella in Rome.16
1602 seems too late; Cavalieri died in March of that year and there is
also no evidence on his part of musical activity comparable to the
surge of effort that he put forth in the early months of 1600. 1601 is
almost certainly not the year of composition. On January 19 Cavalieri
wrote that "although I have felt a great desire for music, since being
in Rome I have not heard anyone except a woman of the Duke of
Traietto. I also have not played anywhere." In April he complained of
ill-health, of his house being half in ruin, and of the necessity of
paying 12,000 scudi in debts, adding that "believe me, this has even
taken all thoughts of music out of my head."'7
1600 is a likely date. Palisca noted that in that year Cavalieri "may
also have supervised the music for Lent and Holy Week there [at the
Vallicella], for in a letter to Accolti on April 14, he excuses himself for
having so little news, having done little visiting: 'I have attended to my
house and to my devotions,' he says."'8 The manuscript is closely tied
242 to Rome and the Vallicella: the copyist was the Oratorian, Giovenale
Ancina;'l Cavalieri was in Rome between December, 1599, and April,
1600; on February, 1600, he scored a great triumph at the Chiesa
Nuova with the two performances of his Rappresentatione; and his
disciple, Duritio Isorelli, had been chapel master of the Vallicella for
almost a year, since May, 1599 (Isorelli also wrote some music for the
manuscript).20 During the last years of his life, then, Cavalieri's ties to
the Vallicella were extremely close.

16 Marx, "Monodische Lamentationen des Seicento," Archiv fur Musikwissenschaft


XXVIII/1 (1971), 3-4; Kirkendale noted Alaleona's "unconvincing attempt to assign
the works to a later date because of their style"; op. cit., 16; Damilano described the
manuscript and dated it as 1602 in his Giovenale Ancina (Florence, 1956), p. 54.
17 Palisca, "Musical Asides in the Diplomatic Correspondence of Emilio de' Ca-
valieri," 344.
i8 loc. cit.
19 Marx, op. cit., pp. 3-4, n. 15. Ancina was born in Piedmont in 1545, studied
medicine and philosophy in France and Italy, became a priest of the Oratory in 1582,
helped establish a house of the Oratory in Naples in 1586, and returned to Rome in
1596. He left Rome in 1597 to avoid being made a bishop by Pope Clement VIII but
came back again at the insistence of the Pope. He was consecrated bishop of Saluzzo on
26 August, 1602, and died apparently from poisoning in 1604. The basic study is by
Piero Damilano.
20 Isorelli (1544-1632) was with Cavalieri at San Marcello during the 158os
accompanied him to Florence where he participated in the festivities of 1589. He
have joined the Oratory on 1 May, 1599, and was maestro di cappella from 1599 to
Isorelli may have collaborated with Cavalieri on the Rappresentatione, although t
no proof of this.

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
CAVALIERI AND EARLY MONODY

But it seems, too, that Cavalieri had pr


Holy Week music a year earlier, in 1599, and
Writing from Rome on April 5, 1600, he wa
said that ... the lamentations were better thi
last-all this does not surprise me at all .
imagined such malignity, such trickery, and t
things, and it has even reached the musici
performed in Pisa, then, held a special place
when one links his statement to some of the music in the Vallicelliana
manuscript, it seems almost inevitable that part of the music was
written for Pisa early in 1599 (the Medici family celebrated Holy
Week at Pisa) and the rest for the Chiesa Nuova in Rome early in
16oo.

The manuscript itself was compiled between 1600 and 1602, and
was put together probably with the aim of publishing it as a third
volume in the series of Ancina's laude.22 On the title page the copyist
was listed as Giovenale Ancina who was appointed bishop of Saluzzo
on August 26, 1602, and died in 1604. Neither Cavalieri nor Ancina
was able to see the manuscript through to its final publication. The
title page reads 243
LAMENTATIONES / HIEREMIAE PROPHETAE / CVM RE-
SPONSORIIS / OFFICII HEBDOMADAE MAIORIS / ET NOTIS

MVSICIS / scriptae / A Venerabili Dei Seruo / IVVENALE


CINA FOSSANEN / Congr. Oratori Romani Presb.? / deinde
tiarum Episcopo.

The manuscript falls into four clear sections. 1) The


folios 5r-3 iv, consists of the "Lamentationi del S. Emilio de
(fol. 5v), settings of nine lessons for the tridnum sacrum of
2) This is followed by nine responsories for the same d
31v-43r), also by Cavalieri. 3) A second set of lamentatio
sons) for Thursday and Friday in Holy Week are next in th
script (folios 43v-58r). The composer is again Cavalieri
incomplete lesson by Duritio Isorelli. 4) The last section
twelve substitute choral verses and letters for the lamentati
3; Cavalieri is possibly the composer, with one piece ascrib
tanzo Festa (c. 1490-1545). The music of this fourth section
crucial importance, and, although part two (containing res

21 Palisca, "Musical Asides in the Diplomatic Correspondence of Em


valieri," 349, and Kirkendale, op. cit., p. 16.
22 Marx, op. cit., 3.

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

for Holy Week) was written in 1600 the emphasis in this paper will
on the lamentations of parts one (written in 1600) and three (1599
There is such a clear distinction in style and text between t
music of parts i and 3, that it can safely be maintained that the mu
for the former was written in 1600 for performance in Rome at t
Vallicelliana, and the latter for Pisa in 1599. It is this last section th
contains the very earliest significant collection of monody that ha
survived. Yet, both sets alter considerably our traditional view of t
development of monody.
One striking difference between the two sets of compositions
that the texts used for the lamentations at Rome (part i) are the on
prescribed by Guidetti's Directorium Chori of 1582 (and found in
Liber Usualis), although not all verses are set, whereas the texts for
lamentations used in 1599 for the private chapel of the Medici at P
are very free. The table below shows the biblical texts prescribed
Guidetti for the three lessons of Thursday along with the texts us
for Pisa and for Rome. Although by no means decisive proof, it wo
seem likely that the liturgically "correct" texts in part one would ha
been used at the Vallicelliana, only a few miles from the Vatican,
244 the looser texts of part three for the private chapel of a powe
prince celebrating the services in his own chapel.

TABLE

Biblical Texts Prescribed by Guidetti


Lesson Guidetti Lamentations Lamentations (Pisa)
(Rome)

1 1:1-5 1:1-3 I:1-2


2 1:6-9 1:6-8 1:4, 13 (letter only), 12 (last
half)
3 I:lo-14 I:lo-12 I:18 (letter), 20 (incomplete),
7 (letter), 12 (incomplete

A second difference between the two lamentations lies in their


structure. The second set, written in 1599, is simpler than the ope
set. The music in part 3 consists only of choruses (scored exclusiv
for soprano-alto-tenor-tenor-bass; see Example 2b) and monod
the first, written in 1600, not only has choruses (scored usually
soprano-soprano-alto-tenor-bass, but also for a few other combin
tions; see Examples la and 2a) and monodies but a profusion
ensembles (duets, trios, quartets), all flowing one into the other of
after very short intervals. The structure is far more assured and

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
CAVALIERI AND EARLY MONODY

phisticated in the first part of the manuscript t


assurance and sophistication that may well h
practical performance of the latter one year
example of the short sections found in the f
(1600; see Example la), the first verse of the
Friday opens with a 2-bar solo monody for t
one for soprano, followed by a trio of 3 bars
(scored SSATB), a very brief soprano passage,
ody for bass voice. The example from the ea
(1599; see Example lb) is a long soprano m
writing is typical for this part of the manu
the structure seen in the writing of 1600 can
It is a distinct break with the continuous flow of traditional Renais-
sance polyphony and a turning to that sectionalism of structure char-
acteristic of much early Baroque music.
A third distinction between the two sets of lamentations can also
be seen in the first example. The monodies in the third part are all
scored for unfigured basso continuo and make use of text repetition
(see Example ib). Both are conservative features that Cavalieri aban-
doned a year later when he composed the first part of the manuscript 24
which has a figured continuo (placed above the bass line, just as in the
Rappresentatione) and hardly any text repetition. The repetition of "in
sinu" (Example la, bars io-1 1) is one of only four brief examples of
text repetition that Cavalieri used in the later settings, whereas it was
a common feature of the earlier works (as Example ib shows). Rep-
etition of text is a common feature in sixteenth-century polyphony
but not in the new monody.
The monodies of the third and earlier part are also scored exclu-
sively for soprano (Example lb), whereas those intended for Rome
have a variety of scorings (see Examples la and 2a). The monodies of
1599 were very likely written for Vittoria Archilei (1550-162os or
later) whose name occurs only in this part of the manuscript. She had
been associated with Cavalieri from the 158os on, coming with him to
Florence in 1588, and, as Kirkendale has noted, she "often sang in
Medicean music for the Holy Week, at which time the court was
usually at Pisa."23 She was a brilliant singer who was renowned not
only for her fine voice but for her skill in embellishment, one who
would also have been perfectly capable of singing not only all the

23 Kirkendale, op. cit., XII/2 (1971), 16. It is also known that she met Filippo Neri,
the founder of the Oratorians and the Chiesa Nuova (in Vallicella) during the 1590s.
She remained at the Medicean court until her death; see Alessandro Ademollo I Teatri
di Roma nel secolo decimosettimo (Rome, 1888; repr., Bologna, 1969), pp. 217-18

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

EXAMPLE 1. a) Good Friday, Second Lesson (1600), ff. 19

Solo [soprano]

( - I - 1IJ Jilj j U- bi est tri- ti-cum et vi- num?


Solo [tenor]

r'- r r rJ IJ J | | I
Ma- tri-bus su- is di- xe- runt:

[basso continuo] 4_ 'i

:-J J I-tT r r!'it#~~


J IfIfr
J 11 10
J
[soprano]

Iyrr hqrrlw1r Ir- j^


cum de-fi- ce rent qua-si vul ne-ra- ti in pla- te- is ci-vi- ta- tis: cum ex-ha-la-rent
II] . [soprano]

' FTi I w ]
cumde-fi-ce- rent qua-s
246 [alto]

qua-si vul- ne- ra- ti in pla- te- is ci-vi- ta- tis:

| -_ ~ [tenor]

in pla- te- is ci-vi-

[bass]

3: a - I - i- Eumr rtr - r - in pla- te- is ci-vi- ta - tis:

iR : 6J [Li - I I-
- ni- mas su- as

Solo

1-, 4 Fr i_' "r Ir ir 1 o 2in si- nu in si- nu ma- trum su- a- rum.

:b r r r rf u' rr r I 1r f lo 11
3 6 6 676 7
40 P P 6 6 I
# #

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
CAVALIERI AND EARLY MONODY

b) Holy Thursday, Second Lesson (1599), ff.

v > J lJ 'fK IJ 0 LB
Vi- a Si- on lu- gent vi- a Si- on lu- gent

# r r f r r IJ r ' r I jriJf

e- o quod e- o quod non sint qui ve- ni-ant ad so-

9' ,1 F I1' -~ ' ILJ F F F 7 I If

-cr w r r IT iij iiip i'r r


WJJ f If r t ' rr r X ItlJ f
lem-ni- ta- tem: o- mnes por-tae e jus de- stru- ctae: sa
247

9'1 ' A b J J |DJ J. }|J r


tes: vir- gi- nes e- jus squa- li- dae, et i- psa et i-

,,pr rJ- -r J \ nJ Ir
(2) Henarmonico / i

=b ^ |rJ ) r lr I r Ir!1 r
psa op- pres- sa a- ma- ri- tu- di- ne.

4 ):r r I r qr'#r r"


Translations: a) Lamed. They said to their m
wine, when they fell as though wounded in
when they gave up their spirits in the arms
b) The ways of Sion weep because no one wi
her gates are destroyed, her priests lament
mourning, and she herself is oppressed wit

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

monodies but also the striking enharmonic passage in the earlier


entations (see Example ib, conclusion). This passage was pr
intended to be accompanied by one of the enharmonic organs C
lieri was building at Florence and Pisa.24 The enharmonic no
volved lie between c'-c'#, e-f, and a-a'#, and are indicated
manuscript and our example by a slash.
There are also differences in the chant melodies used in the two
lamentations, even though borrowed melodies do not play a big rol
in this music (there is no hint, for instance, of a borrowed melody
Example i). In the first group, hints of Gregorian melodies occur on
here and there and were never used in a thoroughgoing manner. Y
their presence, however small, in this set of lamentations parallels t
use of the liturgically prescribed texts. An example of the paraphra
ing of a Gregorian melody is given below (Example 2a; asterisks in
dicate the borrowed melody). The second set of lamentations has n
hint at all of the Gregorian melodies, but many are based on a risin
three-note figure that may well be a melody borrowed from a sour
other than Gregorian chant (see Example 2b). Again, there is a par-
allel relation: the second lamentations with their non-liturgical tex
248 and unusual cantus firmi mirror a tradition different from that of the
first group.
Finally, and perhaps most important, Cavalieri made greater use
of a new kind of monody in his later set of lamentations, one he had
used only now and then in the earlier set. In 1640 Giovanni Battista
Doni discussed three different kinds of "recitative," and all three are
found in Cavalieri, although the distinction between them is not al-
ways clear.25 Cavalieri used two kinds of monodies in both sets, one
that could be called "expressive," characterized by chromatic melodies
and harmonies, cross relations, direct contrasts of major and minor,
and another that can be called "lyrical," characterized by a song-like
vocal melody and a regular, clear musical pulse. There is, however, a
third recitative or monodic style that can be described as "declama-
tory" or "falsobordone-like" (Doni called it "special"), which Cavalieri
used only once in the third section of the manuscript, but used many
times in the first part. This style is characterized by a series of re-
peated notes (a recitation or recitative) followed by a cadence and is
exactly like the falsobordone style derived from the part singing of

24 Kirkendale, op. cit., 1o-11; see also H. Prunieres, "Une lettre inedite d'Emilio
del Cavalieri," La revue musicale IV/8 (1923), 132, and Pirrotta, "Temperaments and
Tendencies in the Florentine Camerata," The Musical Quarterly XL/2 (1954), 181. The
"henarmonico" ending is one of three alternate endings Cavalieri wrote for the com-
position in Example ib.
25 Giovanni Battista Doni, Annotazioni (Rome, 1640), pp. 60-62 and also 284 and
359; see also Theodor Gollner, "Falsobordone-Anklange in Prologen und Auftritten
der frtihen Oper," Kongressbericht Bonn (Kassel, 1971), pp. 179-83.

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
CAVALIERI AND EARLY MONODY

EXAMPLE 2. a) Holy Thursday, Third Lesson


[soprano]x x (3

[~]gr
Jod Jod
OR'
[soprano]

X^ 'A-x x 'AfrTrrx 1'11


- T-OJ.i alJ IId
Jod Jod

[alto]

lo lo "fi"-" I'J o o o o1
Jod Jod
[tenor]

Jod

Solo [alto]@ X
^ x X X X X X X X -

J ji J iJ3
IJ jij!j.
i J11
bJ_]JlJ. JJJJ
Ma-num su- am mi-sit ho- stis ad o- mni-a de-si-de-ra-bi- li-a e- jus. 249

J J IJ ri IJ J IJ J pJ I J I
Translation: Jod. The enemy has put his hand on all
her possessions.

b) Good Friday, Third Lesson (1599), ff. 54v-55r.


[soprano] X

^ I I1I- -r __, Ghi- - mel

[alto]

4 1 ^J j ii^j 1 i! J I j
Ghi- - mel Ghi- mel Ghi- - mel
[tenor]

CI" IU I j. # ,J !j
Ghi- mGhi- mel Ghi- - mel

[tenor]

=0 1 1IiL I -J JJ J' Ghi- - mel Ghi-

[bass]

1 IGhi-J Frmel Ghi- -G


Ghi- mel Ghi- - mel Ghi-

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

psalms.26 For G. B. Doni "its rightful place was 'in church'" ("il
suo luogo e il pulpito").27
The examples given above show the dominance of this declam
tory or falsobordone style in the music of the later lamentations
selection (Example la) begins with two declamatory recitatives (1
3-4), moves to a lyrical style for the trio (5-7), returns to th
sobordone style for the chorus (7-9), and, after a brief soprano
tion that fits into none of Doni's categories (although it is a
example of word painting), ends with an "expressive" bass mono
The brief alto monody in Example 2a (8-12) is a perfectly
example of the falsobordone type. Although all three styles occ
the lamentations of 1600, the declamatory or falsobordone style
inates. In the selection from Pisa (Example ib), however, Cav
starts with the expressive style (1-6), turns to the lyrical style (
makes a brief and rare turn to the falsobordone style (14-17
ends with a lengthy passage in the expressive style (18-29). The
selection is dominated by the expressive and lyrical styles.
All of this -both stylistic analysis and what we know of the liv
Cavalieri, Ancina, Archilei, and Isorelli-make it almost certain that
250 the first part of the manuscript was written for Rome in 1600 and the
third part copied by Ancina from another manuscript that had been
used a year earlier for the performance at Pisa. There is even a
general pattern of mensuration that adds more proof to the dual
nature of the manuscript-alla breve being used for the earlier music
at Pisa and tempus imperfectum cum prolatione imperfecta for
Rome.28

Ancina placed the newer music first because it was, after all, the
music that was written exclusively for performance at the Vallicella.
Why, though, did he add a second set of lamentations to the manu-
script, and, indeed why did he add a fourth part containing substitute
choral sections for the monodies in part 3 (and, also, only for those
monodies that contain the liturgical texts prescribed by Guidetti)?
The likely answer is that he was preparing the volume for publication.
As mentioned, Marx has theorized that it was to be the third part of
a series of laude edited by Ancina, the first volume having appeared in
1599 and a second in 16o0.29 Such laude were an important part of

26 . .. the essence of falsobordone style is the repetition of one chord followed by a


cadence"; Bradshaw, The Falsobordone (American Institute of Musicology, 1978), p. 89.
For further information on falsobordone style in Renaissance and early Baroque music,
see ibid., pp. 88-94 and 116-122.
27 Op. cit., pp. 60-61.
28 Only a few exceptions occur in this general pattern.
29 Marx, op. cit., 3. The two volumes are RISM 15996 and i6oo5; see also Smither,
"Narrative and Dramatic Elements in the Laude Filippine, 1563-1600," Acta Musico-
logica X/1 (1969), 188 and 193.

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
CAVALIERI AND EARLY MONODY

the essercizi dell' oratorio inaugurated by Fili


entations, too, with their "non-liturgical" te
easily have become a part of these "spiritual ex
ones would have fit perfectly into liturgicall
such, the music would have made a fitting thi
Cavalieri's lamentations were the first and f
only monodic settings of Jeremiah's texts. Th
lished and impressive tradition of Renaissanc
but as can be seen they were a sharp break wit
in technique but also in style. They had no im
the next monodic lamentations did not app
years later, in 1620, and another thirty years
collection appeared in 1650.31 The main reaso
lack of influence is probably that the projec
lieri's settings never took place. Knowledge o
was limited to a small circle.
Yet, the music of this manuscript sheds a great amount of light
not only on the history of early monody but also on Cavalieri's place
in that history. First, monody must be seen not as a single style-as the
comments by Doni on recitative clearly prove-but as many styles 25
unified by one technique (solo singing with continuo accompani-
ment). When Peri wrote that it was Cavalieri who "enabled us with
marvelous invention to hear our kind of music upon the stage," he
nonetheless continued by saying that "as early as 1594, it pleased
... Jacopo Corsi and Ottavio Rinuccini that I should employ it in
another guise [that is, in a different style of monody] and should set
to music the fable of Dafne ... to make a simple trial of what the music
of our age could do."32 Performances of Dafne took place in 1598 and
1599, and by this time, too, some of Caccini's songs, published in
1602, had already been written and performed, probably between
1589 and 1592.33 Viadana's sacred concertos, published in 1602, had
also received earlier performances in Rome in 1597 or 1598.34 Cava-
lieri's Rappresentatione was performed in February of 1600 at the Val-
licelliana in Rome (and published in September of the same year).35

30 Although the non-liturgical meetings of the Oratory were famous throughout


Rome, they did not supplant the regular liturgical services of Mass and Office. For
information on these services, see Alaleona, op. cit., pp. 26-28; Smither, A History of the
Oratorio I, pp. 48-52; Damilano, op. cit., pp. 32-35.
31 See the list of monodic lamentations in Marx, op. cit., 14-22.
32 Strunk, op. cit., p. 373.
33 See H. Wiley Hitchcock, Giulio Caccini, "Le nuove musiche" (Madison, WI, 1970),
p. 45, n. 14; Joyce, The Monodies of Sigismondo d'India (Ann Arbor, MI, 1975), p. 256,
n. 70.
34 Strunk, op. cit., p. 421.
35 In the dedication Alessandro Guidotti said that the Rappresentatione "was put on
last February in Rome, in the Oratorio of the Vallicella, with great success and ap-

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

The lamentations probably came a few weeks later, on Wedn


Thursday, and Friday of Holy Week, March 29-31, 1600. In
some "sacred concertos" by Gabriele Fattorini were also publ
and on October 6 Cavalieri himself produced Peri's Euridice a
rence (Caccini's version was published in December, 1600, and Pe
in February, 160 1).36 Between 1601 and 1603 Conforti had his
volumes of embellished falsobordoni published. Despite the grea
versity of style in all of this early music-from the conserv
sixteenth-century writings of Fattorini and Viadana to the e
lished recitatives of Conforti, the lyricism of Caccini, and the aff
declamation of Cavalieri and Peri-it was all monody, solo sin
with continuo accompaniment.
Second, it was during the 1590s, with Cavalieri as arbiter ele
tiarum at the Florentine court, in charge of all artistic activities
the ideas of monody after almost twenty-five years of though
experiment coalesced and came to fruition for the first time. A
all, these attempts were at last written down, and not, as is com
thought, for opera or song but rather for the emotionally-char
lamentations of Jeremiah the prophet. This took place fully a y
252 and a half before the performance of Euridice at Florence in
of 16oo. Cavalieri's role in all of this development was hardly p
eral. He was at the very center of all the activity.
Finally, the chromatic and expressive style of many of
monodies-as well as the choruses and ensembles-along with
numerous declamatory (or falsobordone) monodies prove th
composer was certainly part of the avant garde of that tim
Cavalieri was unwilling to limit himself to one or two styles of m
or of music. He once wrote that people had thought the mu
Euridice "tedious-like the chanting of the Passion."37 When he
a similar "falsobordone" style for the singing of his lamentatio
used it with caution, as only a part of the musical scene, along
"lyrical" and "expressive" monodies, and frequent ensemble
choruses.38 Even Cavalieri's use of polyphony alongside mo

plause, and clearly proved that this style of music can move people to devot
1640, della Valle wrote that Cavalieri was "the first who gave to Rome a sample
style in a Rappresentatione, presented in the Oratorio of the Chiesa Nuova .
Solerti, Le origini del melodramma, pp. 162-63.
3i See Palisca, "The First Performance of 'Euridice,' " Queen's College Twenty
Anniversarv Festschrift (1937-1962) (New York, 1964), pp. 2-3.
37 In a letter dated 24 November, 1600; see Palisca, "Musical Asides in th
lomatic Correspondence of Emilio de' Cavalieri," 351.
38 The choruses of Vallicelliana Ms. o 31, which lie outside the scope of this
are as affective as the monodies. Frank D'Accone, for instance, has described them as
"radical" and "as audacious in many respects as Gesualdo's celebrated settings, and

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
CAVALIERI AND EARLY MONODY

would not have been rejected by Galilei who "


tween counterpoint as he understood it and
monody."39 Cavalieri's lamentations and respo
the whole movement of early monody, from it
and correspondence of Mei and Galilei in th
three decades of trial and experimentation a
Florentine court, to the final flowering of this
services sung at Pisa and Rome in 1599 and

University of California, Los Ang

certainly as impressive"; "Marco da Gagliano and the Fl


Week Music" (to be published).
39 Palisca, "Vincenzo Galilei's Counterpoint Treatise:
Prattica," Journal of the American Musicological Society IX/

253

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.74 on Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:25:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi