Music History Exam 3 - Listenings

Cruda Amarilli

Claudio Monteverdi

late 1590s, Italy

Madrigal

Vedrò 'l mio sol

Giulio Caccini

1590, Italy

Madrigal

L'Euridice excerpts

Jacopo Peri, 1600, first ever opera!!

Orfeo, excerpts from Act II

Claudio Monteverdi

1607, Italy

wider range of styles and genres and used the contrasts to shape both the music and the drama

Like his madrigals - expressive text-setting and intensedrama!• Large and varied instrumental group• Monody: arias and recitative- Strophic variation• Ensemble pieces: duets, dances, ensemble madrigals

L'incoronazione di Poppea, Act I, Scene 3

Claudio Monteverdi

1642, Venice

Written at the end of his life

Instrumentation much sparer than Orfeo

Frequent changes in style reflect the drama and characterizations

As in Orfeo, every musical element serves to heighten the emotional expression

Textual content over poetic form

Lagrime mie

Barbara Strozzi

1650s, Italy

Solo cantata!

includes recitative, aria, and arioso

focus of unrequited love (like chansons!)

changes style and figuration frequently to capture the moods and images of the text

listen for: beginning long descending line

Saul was verfolgst du mich

Heinrich Schütz

1632, Germany

large scale concerto

Saul, on the way to Damascus to fetch Christian prisoners, is stopped by a blinding flash of light and the voice of Christ calling to him, "Saul, why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:1-9 and 26:12-18)

composed this sacred concerto during the Thirty Years' War

concerto draws an implicit parallel to the situation of Schütz's Lutheran listeners, who saw themselves as persecuted by the Catholic Church and regarded their military triumph as the result of divine intervention.

listen for: "Saul"

Toccata No. 3

Girolamo Frescobaldi

1615, Italy

For harpsichord or organ

succession of brief sections, each focused on a particular figure that is subtly varied

Some sections display virtuoso passagework, while others pass ideas between voices

Each section ends with a cadence, weakened harmonically, rhythmically, or through continued voice movement in order to sustain momentum until the very end

Frescobaldi made it so that any section could be played separately, and the piece would be ended at any of the cadential points

role in worship

Ricercare after the Credo from Mass for the Madonna

Girolamo Frescobaldi

1635?, Italy

skillful handling of chromatic lines and the subtle use of shifting harmonies and dissonances, revealing a quiet intensity that characterizes much of Frescobaldi's organ music

subject has a strong profile marked by leaps and a slow chromatic ascent, making it easy to hear the subject on each entrance, while the faster diatonic countersubject offers contrast

Armide, overture

Jean-Baptiste Lully

1686, France

entry of the King!

two sections, each played twice

The first is homophonic and majestic, marked by dotted rhythms and figures rushing toward the downbeats

The second section is faster and begins with imitation, then usually returns at the end to the tempo and figuration of the first section.

Dido and Aeneas, conclusion

Henry Purcell

1688, England

Recitative

portrays the dying Dido through a slow, stepwise, meandering descent tinged with chromaticism.

Where Lully might use naturalistic declamation to convey emotions, Purcell composed florid passages to illustrate the text, as in Italian recitatives: upward rushes on "storms" and "fierce," and martial dotted rhythms on "valour."

Praeludium in E Minor

Dieterich Buxtehude

late 17th century, Germany

Exuberant character, lots of contrasts and color

Excellent vehicle for virtuosic display

Five free, improvisatory-style sections

Four fugal sections

Subjects related, inspired by a Lutheran chorale