Performance Practice in the Seconda Prattica Madrigal Author(S): Rinaldo Alessandrini Source: Early Music, Vol
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Performance Practice in the seconda prattica Madrigal Author(s): Rinaldo Alessandrini Source: Early Music, Vol. 27, No. 4, Luca Marenzio (1553/4-99) (Nov., 1999), pp. 632-639 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3128763 . Accessed: 04/04/2011 12:41 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oup. 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Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Early Music. http://www.jstor.org Performingmatters RinaldoAlessandrini Performancepractice in the secondaprattica madrigal Seconda prattica, de la quale e statto il primo rinovatore ne nance (Monteverdi, Marenzio), chromaticism and nostri caratteri il Divino Cipriano Rore ... seguitata, & ampli- contrapuntaldaring (Gesualdo), and the use of basso ata ... dal Ingegneri, dal Marenzio, da Giaches Wert, dal Luz- continuo and obbligato instruments (Monteverdi zasco, & parimente da Giacoppo Peri, da Giulio Caccini, & But these were not achieved. da li elevati & intendenti de la vera arte, again). changes easily finalmente spiriti piui The theorist GiovanniMaria Artusi casti- intende che sia quella che versa intorno alla perfetione de la Bolognese melodia, cioe che considera l'armonia comandata, & non gated these novelties as offences against nature and comandante, & per signora del armonia pone l'oratione.1 reason.2 And although Artusi ended up as an admirerof Monteverdi we are to believe the claim Second Practice, which was first renewed in our notation (if By Monteverdi made in his letter 22 by Cipriano de Rore ... was followed and amplified ... by of October 1633 Ingegneri, Marenzio, Giaches de Wert, Luzzasco, likewise by to Giovanni BattistaDoni),3 the Artusi-Monteverdi Jacopo Peri, Giulio Caccini, and finally by loftier spirits with controversy epitomized the same conflict between a better of he understanding true art, understands the one authority and empiricism as the period's most that turns on the perfection of the melody, that is, the one famous the that considers not but commanded, literary quarrel, controversy regarding harmony commanding, the of Guarini's and makes the words the mistress of the harmony. stylisticpropriety pastoraltragicom- edy IIpastor fido.4 ONTEVERDI'S inclusion of Marenzio in his This was the period when composers and per- M list of composers of the secondaprattica is formers took upon themselves the responsibilityof recognition of his place among those who initiated a continuallyrenewing the rules and of creatinga new radicalreform of musical languageat the end of the and comprehensive artistic expression encompass- 16th century and the beginning of the 17th.The sec- ing meaning, word and music. One of the most ondaprattica expounded by Monteverdi(or, at least, important changeswas in fact the emergenceof two his brother) favoured the primacy of orazioneover distinct (though not necessarilyopposed) spheresof armonia, reversing what he perceived as being the competence, those of the composer and the per- priorities of the prima prattica. The new claims of former, the first requiredto translateinto music the rhetoric and the importance granted to the poetic contents of the poetic text, the second to translate text not only transformedthe madrigalbut also had that synthesisof text and music into sound and emo- an impact on the younger generation of poets-- tion. Nicola Vicentino emphasizes that the music Guarini, Chiabrera, Marino-who, resolving to should correspond to the mood and affects of the meet the aspirations of these new aesthetic trends, words: thus rapid note-values are equated with set out to enchant and astonish the public with their cheerfulness, while a slow pace, soft progressions virtuoso technique and use of surprise (meraviglia), (gradimolli) and minor 3rdsand 6ths are associated- audacioussimiles and paradox. with melancholy, and he complains that composers The changes in musical direction were accompa- often introduce devices contrary to the meaning nied by explorationof the emotional power of disso- of the words.5 Luzzaschi (or rather Alessandro RinaldoAlessandrini is the directorof the ensembleConcerto Italiano, which has a particularlyhigh reputationfor its interpretationsof Monteverdi.He alsofollows an internationalcareer as a conduc- tor of opera. EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1999 633 ,, ? -. .. ." ,. ..' " ?...." •-.. ,. ; .. ". .I -.% ..??. yt.. ...N ..................... .\ 0?;r N , ,1Y.Its ., .; <,,- ~ ..•. •A..,,'k r~ ....L- ,t..•,•:- ,.?-- ? ..,•J ,-•'_•.. I :i:;;;;' ', ,'t: ? .:... ..... ;•'1.... ,.;p l ..... .. .-. ,,;•••'" ',,•.• "" ":'" ...•"""..i,:-!':••;:'•"••. - -t.. 632 EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1999 Guarini,ghost-writing for the composer) spells out should sing the words in keeping with the composer's inten- in considerable detail the primacy of words over tion, so as to leave the audience satisfied. He should express music in the dedication to his Sesto librode' madri- the melodic lines, matching the words to their passions- now joyful, now sad, now gentle, and now cruel-and adhere a gali cinque voci (Ferrara, 1596): to the accents and pronunciation of the words and notes. ... se il Poetainalza lo stile,solleva eziandio il Musicoil tuono. Sometimes a composition is performed according to a cer- tain method that cannot be written such as Piagne,se il versopiagne, ride, se ride, se corre,se resta,se down, uttering and or fast and or the measure priega,se niega,se grida,se tace,se vive,se muore,tutti questi softly loudly slow, changing in with the so as to show the effects of affetti,& effetti cosi vivamente da lui vengonespressi, che quella keeping words, the and the The of the orator can par quasiemulazione, che propriamente rasomiglianza de dirsi. passions harmony. experience be if observe the he follows in his Quinciveggiamo la Musicade nostritempi alquanto diversa da instructive, you technique oration. For he now loud and now now slow and quella,che gia fu ne' passati,percioche dalle passate, le Poesie speaks soft, modernisono altresi diverse. now fast, thus greatly moving his listeners. This technique of changing the measure has a powerful effect on the soul. For ... if the poet raises his style, the musicianalso raises his this reason music is sung from memory, so as to imitate the tone. He criesif the versecries, laughs if it laughs;if it runs, accents and effects of the parts of an oration.8 stops, implores,denies, screams,falls silent, lives, dies, all theseaffects and effectsare so vividlyexpressed by musicthat The early madrigal presented very few technical what should properlybe called resemblanceseems almost difficulties from the standpoint of performance. Thereforewe see in our times a music some- competition. Rather,the focus was on the composer'ssubtle han- whatdifferent from thatof the past,for modernpoetic forms of and texture,and are similarlydifferent from those of the past.6 dling counterpoint performance seems to have had little or no bearing on how the As for the performer, it was no longer enough work as such was assessed. Thus in 1592 Lodovico simply to convey, as pure sound, the melodic lines of Zacconi contraststhe 'antichi' (Josquin, Gombert), a madrigal;there was also an obligation to demon- who obtained their effects from 'points of imitation strate,if not display,technical and artisticexpertise. and other observations[of the rules]' ('fughe,& altre Thus for Giovanni Maria Trabacia performanceof osservationi') with the 'new and graceful effects' either vocal or instrumentalmusic cannot succeed ('nuovi, & vaghi effetti') of Willaertand Rore;like- 'unless there is a very gracefulhand, a mature and wise he observes that the singers of old 'sang their detailed study, and those touches of elegance and parts as they were written in the books, without those accenti which this music requires'.7And a adding a single accentoor giving them any touch of much earlier source for the new style of singing, a grace,since they were intent only on pure and simple passage from Nicola Vicentino's L'antica musica modulatione'.9 ridotta alla moderna prattica (Rome, 1555), is worth However, things were changingaround 1600. The quoting at length: madrigalwas the polyphonic vocal genre par excel- ... & s'avvertirache nel concertarele cosevolgari a volerfare lence in this period. The market conditions for the chegl'oditori restino satisfatti, si de cantarele paroleconformi genre were favourable,given that it could cater for all'oppinionedel Compositore;& con la voceesprimere, quelle all tastes and