Weeks 41-42: Music for Chamber and Church in the Early 17th Century (Part I)

1. Stuff done these weeks
- Studied from Burkholder et al. (2014); please find my notes below.
- Recorded two songs with Crimson Inc..
- Trying to find a temporary place for my wife and child. In January we have to leave our apartment, which has been sold. Both excited and anxious. Our new house - which shall be built next year - will be great, I'm sure.
- Getting the paperwork sorted for the mortgage.
- Training for a new system (ServiceNow) for my work. I need to review my old lessons on JavaScript.
- Trying to write "Red Wing" (traditional) in music notation. My teacher let me listen to this beautiful version by Mark Howard: https://open.spotify.com/track/35nTsH8eLzlCLLwqKhBybY. I am writing down the melody played by the mandolin. It is coming along nicely. This exercise is good ear training and helping me practice music notation.
- Practicing "Arkansas Traveller" , "Saint Anne's Reel" and "Little Rabbit" - all traditional old time fiddle tunes - to expand my repertoire. Her is an early version of "Little Rabbit": https://www.instagram.com/p/Bay6nVnn4tB/. I love the old time tunes, the melodies are just great.

2. Listening done this week
When listening to Baroque music, I came across this performance by contralto Marian Anderson of "Es ist vollbracht" from the St John Passion by Bach. I am just moved by the rich and smooth quality of her voice...impeccable technique! I have listened to more of her recordings of classical music but also beautiful renditions of spirituals. I can really recommend listening to her work.

Marian Anderson sings "Es ist vollbracht" by J.S. Bach

3. What I have learned

Italian Vocal Chamber Music

Opera by mid 17th century had become the focus of musical life in Venice, but elsewhere it was still an extraordinary event. In Italy, canzonettas, ballettos, villanellas and other light strophic songs were very popular. Vocal chamber music for the elites appeared in many forms and styles, often combining elements of the madrigal, monody, dance songs, dramatic recitative, and aria.

Innovations were first discerneable in Venice, where a polychoral style of competing choirs and/or instrumental ensembles devloped during the late 16th century. This style would become very characteristic for Baroque music and was known as "concertato style" (Italian: "stile concertato"). The style can be heard in all forms of composition: choirs, instrumental groups, vocal soloists, solo instruments and even two hands on the clavicle would "battle" against eachother.

Contrast is a dominant style aspect of Baroque music. During the Renaissance, all voices were more or less equal, but in Baroque music the soprano and bass voices dominate, while the middle register voices are less emphasised. The typical texture of Baroque music is a richly ornamented soprano line over a repeating and strict bass pattern (basso continuo).

The concertato medium allowed varying textures and composers used ritornellos, repeating bass patterns, and contrasts of style to create large scale forms and enrich the expressive resources of their  music. Three developments in Italy were most significant for the future of music: concertato works, basso ostinato and the cantata.

Secular works in concertato style with ostinato basses

Italian composers wrote many pieces for solo voice or small ensemble with basso continuo, sometimes including other instruments. The concerto medium was of great importance. The very popular madrigal became a concerted madrigal with instrumental accompaniment.

Many of the works used basso ostinato ("persistent bass") This is a bass pattern which repeats, while the melody above it changes.

An example is the descending tetrachord pattern (series of four notes separated by three smaller intervals) which Claudio Monteverdi used in his stunning madrigal "Lamento della ninfa" (Lament of the Nymph). The falling contour and constant repetition convey a sense of endless, inescapable sorrow.

"Lamento della Ninfa" - Claudio Monteverdi"

Notice the dramatic and symbolic, clashing dissonance on "(...) suo dolor" ( Italian: "(...) her grief/pain") (0:44), expressing the confusion that comes with the extreme sadness the nymph is feeling at the loss of her lover. Also notice the the imagery of a field of beautiful flowers dramatically contrasting with the inner darkness and turmoil of the protagonist:

"Hither and thither she went,Stumbling through flowers,Grieving the love she had lost: Hear me, O Love, she begged the heavens,–  stock still now, rooted to the spot –What happened to that traitor’s vow,‘Togetherness and trust’? I just want him back,But as he was before.If you cannot  – then kill me;I cannot bear this agony."

 "Lamento della Ninfa" (translated from Italian)- Claudio Monteverdi"

The Spanish chacona (ciaccona in Italian), a vivacious dance, provided another bass pattern, with is a simple repeating pattern ideally suited for cheerful music; please listen to the example "Ciaccona del Paradiso e del Inferno".

"Ciaccona del Paradiso e del Inferno" - anonymous

Cantata

A new genre of vocal chamber music emerged in Italy during the 17th century: the cantata.

It refers to a secular composition with continuo, usually for solo voice, on a lyrical or quasi dramatic text, consisting of several sections that included both recitatives and arias. Most cantatas were composed for private performances for the aristocracy. Barbara Strozzi's (1619 - 1677) "Lagrime mie" is representative of the solo cantata and contains sections of recitative, arioso, and aria.

 "Lagrime mie" - Barbara Strozzi (1619 - 1677)

Catholic Sacred Music

Church composers used theatrical elements for church music, setting religious texts in sacred concertos that incorporated basso continuo, the concertato medium, monody, and opera styles from recitative to aria. The idea was to convey the church message in a persuasive and rhetorically effective way. Polyphony in the style of Palestrina was not abandoned. Composers were still trained in the old contrapuntal style, known as stile antico, which co-existed with the contemporary stile moderno. Composers might utilize both styles in a single composition, as Monteverdi did sometimes.

Large scale sacred concerto

Major feast days were celebrated on a grand scale in large wealthy churches. For such occasions, composers wrote Vespers, psalms, mass movements, and other works for many voices with instruments, often using cori spezzati (divided choirs). A spectacular example is "In ecclesiis" by Giovanni Gabrieli. This performance is by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge together with the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. 

"In ecclesiis" by Giovanni Gabrieli

I found a comprehensive analysis of this composition, which really helped me appreciate it.

A revision guide to Gabrieli's "In Ecclesiis"

Small sacred concerto

Few places had the resources to support large-scale polychoral works, but the small sacred concerto, with one or more soloists accompanied by organ continuo and often by one or two violins, was within the means of even small churches. Lodovico Viadana (ca. 1560 - 1627) was a pioneer of the small vocal concerto for church music. He adapted the melodic style and imitative textures of 16th century polyphony to the reduced forces of one to four singers with continuo. "Exsultate Deo" is a fine example and aims to suggest more voices than are present. The voice imitates the bass, then both voice and bass repeat the same figure at another pitch level, creating a four-voice effect even if one voice is omitted.

"Exultate Deo" by Lodovico Viadana

Oratorio

Italy had a long tradition of religious music outside church services. In 17th century Rome, a new genre of religious dramatic music emerged, combining narrative, dialogue, and commentary. Towards mid-century these works became known as oratorios. They are rather similar to opera's in that they feature recitatives, arias, duets and instrumental preludes and ritornellos. But, contrary to opera, the subject of oratorios was religious and they were seldom staged, as action was mostly not acted out. There was often a narrator and a chorus, where each voice would have a part. The singers could each take on various roles, ether dramatic or narrative.

Oratorios were both sung in Latin or vernacular Italian; the latter was functional to spread the Roman Catholic faith under the common people.The Latin oratorio was, expectedly, more cherished among the church elites. Stylistic differences between oratorio and opera became rather blurred, even though the more mundane operas were often deemed sinful by the church. However opera singers were employed for oratorios and vice versa. Stylistic purity was in fact not so much the aim; many styles of secular and religious origin were used to convey the church's message to the listeners. The liturgy was central and its dramatic decalamatrion was valued most in oratorios.

The leading composer of Latin oratorios was Giacomo Carissimi (1605 - 1674). His composition Jephte (ca. 1648) exemplifies the midcentury oratorio. It relates the story of Israelite general Jeptha, who vows that if the Lord grant him victory in battle, he will sacrifice whatever creature first greets him on his return home. Tragically, after defeating the Ammonites, his daughter is first to greet him. Songs of rejoicing for victory are set as solo arias, duets, and ensembles, followed by a diologue in recitative between father and daughter. The chorus tells how the daughter goes to the mountains with her companions to bewail her approaching death. In the final scene she sings a lament, a long affecting recitative. Two sopranos, representing her companions, echo some of her cadential flourishes. The response by the six voice chorus employs polychoral and madrigalistic effects, including the descending tertrachord bass associated with laments.

"Jepthe" by Giacomo Carissimi, part 3

In the sacred concertos, oratorios and other sacred music, we see composers using a wide variety of styles with both secular and religious origins to convey the church's message to the listeners. Rhetorical effectiveness was prized above stylistic purity. Primacy of text and its dramatic declamation was most important.

4. Sources

argevigno (2011) Lodovico da Viadana - (1560-1627) - Exultate Deo - Guido Reni, Youtube, viewed 20th of November 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2M8JMcVBnE>

BURKHOLDER, J, GROUT, D. and PALISCA, C. (2014) A History of Western Music, 9th edition, New York: W.W. Norton.

civileso (2008) Monteverdi - Lamento della Ninfa - Kirkby, Youtube, viewed 23rd of October 2017,<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3ZX5hFN-is>.

civileso (2008) Carissimi: Jephte (3/3) Le Parlement de Musique, Youtube, viewed 20th of November 2017,<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0GNdPKFFGI>.

Homoclassicus (2008) Marian Anderson sings "Es ist vollbracht", Youtube, viewed 20th of November 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuzYE3E0Nfk>


JohannesFire (2011) G.Gabrieli In Ecclesiis, Youtube, viewed 20th of November 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2BOBnAD1Es>

oltre il barocco (2012) "Ciaccona del Paradiso e del Inferno" - Philippe Jaroussky, Fulvio Bettini, Youtube, viewed 23rd of October 2017,<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-7V3dnDN1I>.

Reigate Grammar Music (2012) A revision guide to Gabrieli: In Ecclesiis - Edexcel A2 Music 2017 Youtube, viewed 20th of November 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXpz0lbuLqY>

umlmusichistory (2012) Lagrime mie, Youtube, viewed 23rd of October 2017,<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avMPpDW-UFI>.