Improvisation around 1600 - Introduction

FOOTNOTES

1 [03:10] Giulio Caccini, Nuove Musiche (Florance, 1602) [link], preface.

2 [03:50] See Bonnie J. Blackburn & Edward E. Lowinsky, “Luigi Zenobi and his letter on the perfect musician”, in Studi musicali, 22 (1993), pp. 61-114 [link]. See also in Anne Smith, The performance of 16th-century music (Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 138-143. In addition, Dalla Casa gives written-out examples of diminutions in an ensemble, where the singers each ornament in turns (see in the sources below).

3 [04:58] For examples of cadenze per finale, see Francesco Rognoni's Selva di varii passagi secondo l’uso moderno (Milano 1620) [link].

4 [06:17] The melody "la Monica" is found in different sources with different names. Significant ones, apart from the Italian "la Monica", are the French version - "Une jeune fillette", and the Lutheran German version - "Von Gott will ich nicht lassen". See more info in the Grove music online article "Monica" [link]. The “Aria di Firenze [/Fiorenza]” melody is also known as “Ballo del Gran Duca” and “Ballo di Palazzo”.

5 [06:32] Diego Ortiz, Trattado de Glosas (Rome, 1553) [link], see the second book, p. 48 and onwards.

6 [08:40] Girolamo Frescobaldi, Arie Musicali libro I (Florence, 1630), p. 32.

7 [09:08] Claudio Monteverdi, Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi… libro ottavo (Venice, 1638).

8 [09:42] Claudio Monteverdi, L’incoronazione di Poppea, Facs. della partitura di Napoli (Ricordi, 2011), Atto terzo, Scena VIII, p. [214] [Napoli, Biblioteca del Conservatorio S. Pietro a Majella, Rari 6.4.i.]. A similar situation happens in another famous opera - Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, where the libretto specifically mentions a chaconne for guitars towards the end of the first act, but none of the surviving sources contains a written piece of that kind. To be sure, Purcell did compose quite sophisticated chacones, with counterpoint and all, but any guitar player in his orchestra was expected to be able and improvise a simple chaconne.

9 [11:35] "dove non si sente altro che zuppa, e confusione, cosa dispiacevole, et ingrata, à chi ascolta."; "se sono in compagnia, bisogna haversi riguardo l'un l'altro, dandosi campo, e non affendendosi; e se sono molti, aspettar ogn'uno il suo tempo: e non far come il paßernio, tutti in un tempo, et à chi può più gridare." Agazzari, Del Sonare Sopra'l Basso (Siena, 1607).

10 [13:06] The special signs are accidentals that can be set next to the notes in different positions, expressing either an accidental on the note, accidental on the tenth, or accidental on the sixth.

Adriano Banchieri, l’organo suonarino (Venice, 1605) [link]

11 [15:52] Antimo Liberati, Epitome della musica, ca. 1666, ms. I-BC, D92A, p. 45.

12 [16:30] Heinrich Faber, Compendiolum musicae, 1548 [link].

13 [16:34] Nicola Vicentino, L’antica musica ridotta alla moderna pratica (Rome, 1555) [link], f. 83v. Another negative criticism on this practice is given half a decade later by Ercole Botrigari, who wrote that the errors produced when improvising counterpoint over a cantus firmus are both "hideous and ridiculous". Ercole Bottrigari, Il desiderio (Venice, 1594) [link], p.51. The quotes from this footnote and the above two footnotes are mentioned and translated in Philippe Canguilhem, "Toward a stylistic history of Cantare super librum", in Studies in Historical Improvisation: from Cantare super Librum to Partimenti, ed. Massimiliano Guido (Routledge, 2017), pp. 57-58.

14 [17:53] “Si apre il libro di Cappella et a sorte si trova un principio di Kyrie, ovvero di Mottetto, et si copia, mandandolo all' Organista che concorre, il quale sopra quel sugetto ne l' istesso organo vacante deve sonar di fantasia regolatamente, non confondendo le parti, come che quattro cantori cantassero.” Francesco Caffi, Storia della musica sacra (Venice, 1854) [link], p.28. Quoted also in Arnaldo Morelli, "Concorsi Organistici a San Marco e in area Veneta nel cinquecento", in La cappella musicale di San Marco nell'eta moderna (Venice, 1998) [link], p. 265.

15 [18:51] Tomas Santamaria, Arte de Tañer Fantasia (Valladolid, 1565) [link].

16 [20:41] For example, Giovanni Gabrieli published intonations and toccatas for the different modes, composed both by him and by his uncle Andrea Gabrieli: Intonazione d'Organo (Venice, 1593).

17 [20:50] Michael Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum III (Wolfenbüttel, 1618) [link], p. [25/23].

18 [21:33] André Maugars, “Response to an Inquisitive Person on the Italian Feeling about Music” (letter translated in C. MacClintock, Readings in the History of Music in Performance [Indiana Uni. press: 1979]).

SOURCES MENTIONED IN THE VIDEO:

[Note: this is not a bibliographical list for sources regarding improvisation, it is merely a list of the sources mentioned in the video]

Ornamentation & diminutions:

Sylvestro Ganassi, Fontegara (Venice, 1535) [link]

Girolamo Dalla Casa, Il vero modo di diminuir (Venice, 1584) [link]

Giovanni Bassano, Ricercate, passaggi et cadentie (Venice, 1585) [link]

Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, Regole, passaggi di musica (Venice, 1594) [link]

Riccardo Rognoni, Passaggi per potersi essercitare nel diminuire terminatamente / Parte Seconda: Il vero modo di diminuire (Venice, 1594) [link]

Giulio Caccini, Le Nuove Musiche (Florance, 1602) [link]

Francesco Rognoni Taeggio, Selva de varii passaggi (Milan, 1620) [link]

Luigi Zenobi, Letter on the perfect musician, see in Bonnie J. Blackburn & Edward E. Lowinsky, “Luigi Zenobi and his letter on the perfect musician”, in Studi musicali, 22 (1993), pp. 61-114 [link]. See also in Anne Smith, The performance of 16th-century music (Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 138-143.

Variation pieces:

Diego Ortiz, Trattado de Glosas (Rome, 1553) [link]

Girolamo Frescobaldi, Del Primo Libro di Toccate e Partite d’Intavolature di Cimbalo (Rome, 1615; latest edition in 1637) [link]

Girolamo Frescobaldi, Arie Musicali libro I (Florence, 1630)

Claudio Monteverdi, Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi… libro ottavo (Venice, 1638) [link]

Christopher Simpson, The Division Viol, or the Art of Playing upon a Ground (London, 1659) [link]

Pieces based on a given melody:

Tomas Santamaria, Arte de Tañer Fantasia (Valladolid, 1565) [link]

Girolamo Frescobaldi, Fiori musicali (Venice, 1635) [link]

Basso continuo & partimento:

Agostino Agazzari, Del Sonare sopra'l basso con tutti li stromenti (Siena, 1607) [link]

Adriano Banchieri, l’organo suonarino (Venice, 1605) [link]

Cantare super librum:

Antimo Liberati, Epitome della musica (MS, ?1666, I-Bc, Rvat)

Heinrich Faber, Compendiolum musicae, 1548 [link]

Nicola Vicentino, L’antica musica ridotta alla moderna pratica (Rome, 1555) [link]

Ercole Bottrigari, Il desiderio (Venice, 1594) [link]

Preludes / toccate:

Andrea Gabrieli: Intonazione d'Organo (Venice, 1593) [link]

Michael Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum III (Wolfenbüttel, 1618) [link]

Credits:

Created by Elam Rotem.

Special thanks to Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, Anne Smith and Alon Schab.