A voce sola con sinfonie

Thursday 29 August at 7pm

Furio Zanasi, baritone 

Luca Guglielmi, organ 

The birth of monodic vocal and instrumental repertoire, with or without accompaniment has a common origin. At the very beginning it was simply an arrangement of a motet or a madrigal in which one voice or melodic instrument played the upper line (of a poliphony of 3, 4, 5 or 6 voices) and a keyboard instrument (organ, harpsichord or, more seldom, a clavichord) "reduced" the remaining poliphonic texture into a realization that later will be properly defined as the basso continuo.

This common practice developed then into two clear directions: the vocal and instrumental diminution as well as the free monodic composition, the instrumental canzona or sonata and the vocal monodic motet.

The concert of this evening "tells the story" of the birth of the sacred monodic vocal repertoire and the instrumental solo piece with accompaniment. Through the wonderful examples of the vocal motets by Merula, Frescobaldi and Monteverdi, we will be able to appreciate the fast development from the early examples of poliphony "reduced" to one voice and organ, for example Frescobaldi, through the more concertante style by Merula, until the most matures gems of the baroque virtuoso monodic writing.

In this last case, particularly in the Salve Regina and O quam pulchra by Monteverdi, we are faced to a clear influence from the secular secondaprattica applied to the sacred realm. The extreme liberty into the treatment of the voice, the symbolic way in which the melodic shape underlines the climax of the text, are all elements that contributes to make these compositions the repertoire's milestones.

Now, it is fairly possible to discover a similar process applied to the instrumental monodic repertoire. First of all we have such sonatas/canzonas to be performed per ognisorta di strumenti (for every kind of [melodic] instruments), then we see a more defined writing, according to the nature of the instrument: cornetto, recorder or violin.

The compositions by Cesare, Riccio and Castello shows a direct knowledge and virtuoso practice of the instrument, as well as a more and more experimental attitude into the compositional form of the piece. From the simple Canzona by Riccio to the more articulated Sonatae by Merula and Castello, one can see how denitely the vocal repertoire mirrors itself into the instrumental one.

Luca Guglielmi

Programme

Salomone Rossi (1570ca–1630)
Sonata Duodecima sopra la Bergamasca, Libro Quarto, 1642

Tarquinio Merula (1595–1665)
Gaudeamus omnes, Pegaso op.11, 1640

Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)
Nigra sum, Vespro della Beata Vergine, 1610

Tarquinio Merula
Intonatione cromatica del nono tono
Sonata Seconda a Cornetto & Basso

Claudio Monteverdi
Salve Regina

Tarquinio Merula
O Gloriosa Domina

Giovanni Battista Riccio (XVI c.– post 1621)
Canzon a un Flautin overo Corneto, Il Terzo Libro delle Divine Lodi Musicali, 1620

Giovanni Martino Cesare (1590ca–1667)
La Foccarina, Musicali Melodie, 1621

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583–1643)
Canzon dopo la Pistola, Messa della Madonna Fiori Musicali, 1635
Exsultavit cor meum
Christe I, Messa delli Apostoli Fiori Musicali, 1635
Aspice Domine
Toccata avanti il Ricercar & Recercar con obligo di cantar la quinta parte senza toccarla, Messa delli Apostoli Fiori Musicali, 1635

Dario Castello (1602–1631)
Sonata Prima

Claudio Monteverdi
O quam Pulchra
Sanctorum meritis secondo, Selva Morale, 1640

Furio Zanasi CV

Luca Guglielmi CV