History and Perfromance of the Siciliana Dance Style for The
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
History and Performance of the Siciliana Dance Style for the Bassoon Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Mayer, Lisa Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 28/09/2021 17:07:58 Item License http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/625088 HISTORY AND PERFROMANCE OF THE SICILIANA DANCE STYLE FOR THE BASSOON By LISA MAYER ____________________ A Thesis Submitted to The Honors College In Partial Fulfillment of the Bachelors degree With Honors in Music- Instrumental Studies in Bassoon THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA M A Y 2 0 1 7 Approved by: ____________________________ Dr. William Dietz Professor of bassoon, Fred Fox School of Music HISTORY AND PERFROMANCE OF THE SICILIANA DANCE STYLE FOR THE BASSOON: PROJECT STATEMENT ABOUT LECTURE-RECITAL In order to accurately perform a piece of music, it is important to consider its historical context. This provides insight into both technical elements, such as articulation, ornaments, or tempo, and more artistic ones such as phrasing, style, and intent. For this reason, music history is a required area of study for all music majors, though to truly understand the context for any given piece, additional research is required. This is especially true for those learning about a less popular work or style or those attempting to apply these ideas to a specific instrument. This project focuses on the history and performance practice of a dance style called the siciliana with a focus on how this translates to bassoon performance. It is composed of two main parts: a formal paper and a lecture-recital. The paper represents the summary of research findings, including both the discoveries and analysis of historians and this author. It includes material about the siciliana from its postulated origins, to its formal creation in the baroque era, through the modifications made to its sound and purpose during the classical and romantic eras, and finally to its fade from popular use. General trends in the sicliana’s use are mentioned, then elaborated using specific examples. The research was used to write a lecture including interpretations and analysis of four sicilianas that were performed and discussed at a lecture recital that occurred on April 1, 2017. The lecture included some historical context for each piece including background information about the era and composer and analysis of each piece demonstrating how it fit within the characteristics of the siciliana at each time period. After describing the work and its significance, it was performed by this author with help from other musicians. This was done for each of four sicilianas, each meant to show a different aspect of the siciliana and how it changed throughout time. This project is considered a success because the author completed a research project and performed a lecture-recital in keeping with musical traditions. The lecture- recital presented information that was easily understood by the audience and included well-practiced performances, both of which presented the unique research of the author. The paper represents the summary and synthesis of the author’s research and that of other historians. Abstract The siciliana is a dance style that has been used in a wide variety of musical contexts, from simple woodwind duets to classical symphonies. Its origins and history are somewhat vague and complex, but can be traced through the works of composers from the 1600s to modern times. Considering the history of these works provides valuable insight for the performer and musical scholar, giving context to the pieces being prepared and aiding in accurate representation of the composers’ true intentions. The ancient ancestors of the siciliana, folk music of southern Italy, gave rise to a style used to evoke images of the simple pastoral throughout the baroque, classical, romantic, and modern eras. Though it had humble origins, the siciliana rose to great significance and popularity during the baroque era. Classical composers took this tradition and modified it for their own purposes, straying slightly from the baroque traditions of sound, instrumentation, and use. The romantic era produced siciliana that were even further from their roots, adding new harmonies and significance in new types of works. A working definition of the siciliana A useful definition for identifying a siciliana focuses on its most fundamental musical characteristics. The most prominent of these is rhythm. Sicilianas are renowned for their inclusion of dotted rhythms, particularly dotted eighth or quarter notes, followed by a shorter note. This is emphasized by their time signatures, which are nearly always 6/8 or 12/8, though other meters, particularly 2/4 or 3/4, are fairly common. Tempi tend to be moderate to slow, depending on the era and function of the siciliana. The style can further be defined by function. It tends to be used to cause listeners to imagine pastoral scenes of shepherds, farmland, and the rolling hills of rural Italy. This can be expanded to include more general scenes of nature such as trees, rivers, and animals with various emotional implications. Though function changes based on time period and context of the siciliana, these themes and those related are ubiquitous. This definition is not always easy to apply. There are works that can be considered sicilianas even without one or more of the musical characteristics or absent the pastoral purpose. Additionally, there can be works that fit all or part of this definition but cannot be considered sicilianas. Origins There is no one source of the siciliana style, but historians have uncovered several possible musical traditions which may have influenced early writers of siciliana. The name “siciliana” means “Sicilian” or “from Sicily,” but there is only weak evidence that the style actually was born there. This moniker may have come from the close proximity between early composers of sicilianas and the possible folk origins. Unfortunately, many of the aforementioned characteristics by which a siciliana can be recognized were pervasive throughout musical works of the baroque era, making it challenging to distinguish early siciliana that may not have been specified as such by the composer. It is thought that a portion of the connection to Sicily comes from the use of strambotto verse in early Baroque siciliana arias. This verse pattern consists of “one stanza with either six or eight hendecasyllabic (11-syllable) lines” and was popular in Sicily and other regions in southern Italy (Encyclopædia Britannica "Strambotto"). Unfortunately, the aria siciliana may not be a direct link to the wider use of sicilianas in instrumental music; the degree of difference between the operatic and instrumental histories differs for various historians, but one obvious difference is their tendency to be written in duple meters (Monelle 215). Another folk tradition that may have led to siciliana writing belongs to the Abruzzi shepherds who lived on the central east coast of Italy. In particular, their pifferari music may have been a precursor to early siciliana. The name of this style is specific to the musical genre, but may have come from names for a horn or flute player. This music shared the tempi, rhythmic figures, and time signatures of sicilianas, but differed in two key ways; accompaniment by a drone bass and religious text about Christmas. Both of these may have leaked into siciliana writing. Some works that would otherwise be considered pure siciliana contained a drone bass throughout the work or in parts of it. Additionally, early siciliana writing was closely associated with religion, especially those written by J.S. Bach who used them to represent Christmas themes and Christian heaven. This could be a remnant of the pifferari tradition (Monelle 230-232). Baroque Siciliana The first official sicilianas appeared in Italy in the 1600s at the beginning of the baroque era. This is when the style began to coalesce, though it retained some qualities of the folk origins. The drone bass of pifferari origins became less common, 12/8 time signatures were the most popular by far, and the association with the dance and pastoral themes became almost universal. Siciliana were often played on instruments associated with pastoral themes, such as oboes, horns, flutes, and recorders. These factors plus the simple harmonic texture served to reinforce their pastoral themes. Alessandro Scarlatti was probably not the first person to write sicilianas, but was the first popular composer to do so. His use of aria siciliana in his operas gave the style a new platform from which to reach other composers and musicians. Though the connection between operatic sicilianas and instrumental ones is debated, at this juncture, the establishment style itself is the most important aspect of their respective histories, allowing for them to be considered rooted in the same very early source. This is evidence in that Scarlatti’s aria siciliana were often written in 12/8, performed at a slow or relatively slow tempo, and included dotted rhythms, likening them to the later instrumental sicilianas. Notably, these aria siciliana also lacked a drone bass and included texts that were very emotional, considered “lamenting, or melancholy” by one historian (Monelle 217). The missing drone bass demonstrates the departure from folk tradition and the use of emotional texts both distinguished the style from those previous and sets the stage for future siciliana writing that will become even more emotionally focused. Additionally, Scarlatti lived and worked in southern Italy, around Rome and Naples, where it is likely that he was exposed to the traditional elements mentioned previously such as strambotto and pifferari (Encyclopædia Britannica "Alessandro Scarlatti”).