Early Basso Continuo Practice: Implicit Evidence in the Music of Emilio de’ Cavalieri Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät der Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg Vorgelegt von Elam Rotem aus Basel 2015 2 Erstgutachter: Professor Dr. Andreas Haug Zweitgutachter: Professor Dr. Ulrich Konrad Tag des Kolloquiums: 14/11/2016 3 Contents Preface .......................................................................................................................................................... 5 Terminology, abbreviations, and comments ................................................................................................ 9 Chapter I – Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 11 1.1 Early basso continuo ......................................................................................................................... 11 1.1.1 State of research ........................................................................................................................ 11 1.1.2 The difficulties in reconstructing the practice of early basso continuo ..................................... 17 1.1.3 The insufficient knowledge regarding continuo in the first generation of the stile rappresentativo ................................................................................................................................... 21 1.2 Emilio de’ Cavalieri ............................................................................................................................ 24 1.2.1 General ....................................................................................................................................... 24 1.2.2 The music of Emilio de’ Cavalieri ............................................................................................... 27 1.2.3 Modern literature about Cavalieri’s continuo ........................................................................... 29 Chapter II – The main sources of the early continuo and the notation systems of the first monodies ..... 31 2.1 Continuo sources .............................................................................................................................. 31 2.1.1 Explicit textual sources concerning early continuo ................................................................... 31 2.1.1.1 Prefaces to the first pieces of monodic music .................................................................... 31 2.1.1.2 Prefaces to liturgical music collections ............................................................................... 34 2.1.1.3 Treatises on basso continuo ............................................................................................... 40 2.1.1.4 Il Corago—treatise of opera productions ........................................................................... 56 2.1.2 Practical implications of the sources and relevance to the accompaniment in the stile rappresentativo ................................................................................................................................... 58 2.2 Notation systems of the first monodies ........................................................................................... 62 2.2.1 First category ............................................................................................................................. 63 2.2.2 Second category ......................................................................................................................... 65 2.2.3 Third category ............................................................................................................................ 67 2.2.4 Fourth category .......................................................................................................................... 69 Chapter III – Emilio de’ Cavalieri’s musical sources and Basso continuo .................................................... 74 3.1 Musical sources ................................................................................................................................. 74 3.1.1 Godi turba mortal—a monody from the 1589 festivities .......................................................... 74 3.1.1.1 The Chitarrone .................................................................................................................... 80 3.1.2 Lamentations and Responsories for the holy week .................................................................... 81 3.1.2.1 The complete set of Lamentations and Responsories: part I and II of the manuscript ...... 82 3.1.2.2 The incomplete set of Lamentations – Part III of the manuscript ...................................... 87 4 3.1.2.3 Seconda prattica ................................................................................................................. 88 3.1.2.4 Special features of the continuo line .................................................................................. 93 3.1.2.6 Polyphony VS. Monody ....................................................................................................... 97 3.1.3 Rappresentatione di anima e di corpo ..................................................................................... 100 3.1.3.1 The continuo instruments ................................................................................................. 102 3.1.3.2 Temperament ................................................................................................................... 104 3.1.3.3 Seconda prattica ............................................................................................................... 104 3.1.4 Comparison between the Lamentations and the Rappresentatione ....................................... 107 3.2 Basso Continuo ............................................................................................................................... 117 3.2.1 Cadences .................................................................................................................................. 118 3.2.1.1 Basics ................................................................................................................................. 118 3.2.1.2 Variants ............................................................................................................................. 128 3.2.1.3 The seventh ....................................................................................................................... 132 3.2.1.4 Preparamento ................................................................................................................... 138 3.2.2 The Harmony ......................................................................................................................... 154 6 3.2.3 Additional4 issues ...................................................................................................................... 163 3.2.3.1 Finalis ................................................................................................................................ 163 3.2.3.2 Positions, texture, range etc. ............................................................................................ 164 3.3 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................................... 168 Chapter IV – Cavalieri’s continuo in context ............................................................................................. 171 4.1 Comparison with the common sources .......................................................................................... 171 4.2 Past and future: the suspension and the preparamento ............................................................. 176 6 4.2.1 The suspension4 in the late Renaissance madrigal ................................................................. 176 6 4.2.2 The 4development of the preparamento: case study of Monteverdi’s Lamento d’Arianna ..... 179 4.3 Implications for contemporaneous music ...................................................................................... 184 4.3.1 Cavalieri’s Lamentations .......................................................................................................... 184 4.3.2 Peri’s and Caccini’s Euridice ..................................................................................................... 186 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................... 190 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................. 192 Primary sources..................................................................................................................................... 192 Secondary sources ................................................................................................................................ 194 5 Preface Reconstructing performance practices from historical sources is a great challenge. In the field of basso continuo, the reconstruction of 18th century practices in general was made possible thanks to a substantial collection of treatises, examples, and music sources, and thanks to the fact that 18th century music is an integral part of contemporary music education. However, this is not the