Rebecca Cypess
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226319445
- eISBN:
- 9780226319582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226319582.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Early modern composers distinguished themselves from their predecessors by referring to their work as “modern”; these assertions of modernity reflect a growing historical consciousness—a desire to ...
More
Early modern composers distinguished themselves from their predecessors by referring to their work as “modern”; these assertions of modernity reflect a growing historical consciousness—a desire to distinguish the present moment from the past. The clearest manifestation of such historical sense outside of music was in the ars historica of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Music, too, had its ars historica—the work of theorists and composers who sought to separate themselves from earlier traditions. Monteverdi’s seconda prattica (“second practice”) represents one example, but another lies in the purely instrumental works by Dario Castello, which he called Sonate concertate in stil moderno (Concerted sonatas in the modern style). Castello’s sonatas use the older genre of the canzona as a template, but depart from that genre in their application of distinctly modern techniques. These techniques are governed above all by the habitus of the performer, and Castello’s sonatas thus bring the performer’s physical, bodily sense to bear on the articulation of the modern style. These sonatas thus constitute an artisanal contribution to the ars historica.Less
Early modern composers distinguished themselves from their predecessors by referring to their work as “modern”; these assertions of modernity reflect a growing historical consciousness—a desire to distinguish the present moment from the past. The clearest manifestation of such historical sense outside of music was in the ars historica of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Music, too, had its ars historica—the work of theorists and composers who sought to separate themselves from earlier traditions. Monteverdi’s seconda prattica (“second practice”) represents one example, but another lies in the purely instrumental works by Dario Castello, which he called Sonate concertate in stil moderno (Concerted sonatas in the modern style). Castello’s sonatas use the older genre of the canzona as a template, but depart from that genre in their application of distinctly modern techniques. These techniques are governed above all by the habitus of the performer, and Castello’s sonatas thus bring the performer’s physical, bodily sense to bear on the articulation of the modern style. These sonatas thus constitute an artisanal contribution to the ars historica.
Rebecca Cypess
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226319445
- eISBN:
- 9780226319582
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226319582.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Italy in the early seventeenth century witnessed a revolution in the composition of instrumental music. Large, varied, and strikingly experimental in nature, this new repertoire constituted arguably ...
More
Italy in the early seventeenth century witnessed a revolution in the composition of instrumental music. Large, varied, and strikingly experimental in nature, this new repertoire constituted arguably the first significant body of independent, idiomatic instrumental music in the western tradition. In an age most widely known for its innovations in vocal music, Galileo Galilei explained that, in fact, it was instrumental music that was most effective as a means to “awaken the secret affetti of our soul.” In their new approach to instruments, musical composers were not alone. Instruments of all kinds stood at the center of changes in systems of knowledge in the early modern era. The telescope, the clock, the barometer, the pen—these were the tools of the natural philosopher, the collector, the patron, the early modern thinker. Scholars in the history of science have shown that in this period, the very notion of an instrument changed dramatically. No longer merely used to re-make an object, or to repeat a process already known, instruments were now increasingly seen as tools for open-ended inquiry that would lead to new knowledge. Although the instrumental music of this period has long been recognized as foundational to the Western tradition, the impulses that gave rise to it have never been adequately understood. This interdisciplinary study argues that the new instrumental music grew out of the early modern fascination with instruments of all kinds—scientific and artisanal tools that served as mediators between individuals and the world around them.Less
Italy in the early seventeenth century witnessed a revolution in the composition of instrumental music. Large, varied, and strikingly experimental in nature, this new repertoire constituted arguably the first significant body of independent, idiomatic instrumental music in the western tradition. In an age most widely known for its innovations in vocal music, Galileo Galilei explained that, in fact, it was instrumental music that was most effective as a means to “awaken the secret affetti of our soul.” In their new approach to instruments, musical composers were not alone. Instruments of all kinds stood at the center of changes in systems of knowledge in the early modern era. The telescope, the clock, the barometer, the pen—these were the tools of the natural philosopher, the collector, the patron, the early modern thinker. Scholars in the history of science have shown that in this period, the very notion of an instrument changed dramatically. No longer merely used to re-make an object, or to repeat a process already known, instruments were now increasingly seen as tools for open-ended inquiry that would lead to new knowledge. Although the instrumental music of this period has long been recognized as foundational to the Western tradition, the impulses that gave rise to it have never been adequately understood. This interdisciplinary study argues that the new instrumental music grew out of the early modern fascination with instruments of all kinds—scientific and artisanal tools that served as mediators between individuals and the world around them.
Rebecca Cypess
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226319445
- eISBN:
- 9780226319582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226319582.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This volume has presented a new way of understanding instrumental music in early modern Italy as a product of “instrumentality.” Such understandings open the way for further interpretations situated ...
More
This volume has presented a new way of understanding instrumental music in early modern Italy as a product of “instrumentality.” Such understandings open the way for further interpretations situated within a broad, inter-disciplinary perspective.Less
This volume has presented a new way of understanding instrumental music in early modern Italy as a product of “instrumentality.” Such understandings open the way for further interpretations situated within a broad, inter-disciplinary perspective.
Rebecca Cypess
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226319445
- eISBN:
- 9780226319582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226319582.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Theorists connected musical works with visual portraits, which preserved the memory of the subject for posterity. I argue for a new understanding of instrumental works with character-trait titles ...
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Theorists connected musical works with visual portraits, which preserved the memory of the subject for posterity. I argue for a new understanding of instrumental works with character-trait titles (e.g. “The Gracious One”) with portraits in other media, including Giambattista Marino’s poetic collection La galeria (“The [portrait] gallery”). Some pieces with character-trait titles are dance works, which may interpreted alongside the multi-media portraiture advocated by Fabritio Caroso’s dance manual Nobiltà di dame (1600). Other works with such titles are sonatas, which use the quickly changing idiom of the stile moderno to portray the affetti in a complex manner. Instruments of music functioned as instruments of portraiture, expressing the affetti of the subject as clearly as the painter’s brush.Less
Theorists connected musical works with visual portraits, which preserved the memory of the subject for posterity. I argue for a new understanding of instrumental works with character-trait titles (e.g. “The Gracious One”) with portraits in other media, including Giambattista Marino’s poetic collection La galeria (“The [portrait] gallery”). Some pieces with character-trait titles are dance works, which may interpreted alongside the multi-media portraiture advocated by Fabritio Caroso’s dance manual Nobiltà di dame (1600). Other works with such titles are sonatas, which use the quickly changing idiom of the stile moderno to portray the affetti in a complex manner. Instruments of music functioned as instruments of portraiture, expressing the affetti of the subject as clearly as the painter’s brush.
Rebecca Cypess
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226319445
- eISBN:
- 9780226319582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226319582.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Earlier understandings of instrumental music as an imitation of vocal music were complicated in the seventeenth century by a new aesthetic, which embraced artifice as much as the “natural.” Seicento ...
More
Earlier understandings of instrumental music as an imitation of vocal music were complicated in the seventeenth century by a new aesthetic, which embraced artifice as much as the “natural.” Seicento theorists such as Giambattista Marino and Galileo Galilei inverted the hierarchy of vocal and instrumental music, arguing that instrumental music was more effective at arousing the affetti (emotions) of the listener. The stile moderno instrumental music of early seventeenth-century Italy explored an essential opposition between the material nature of instruments and the ephemerality of the emotions that they sought to represent and elicit. It was in consideration of this paradox that artists and artisans could arouse the sense of wonder so essential to the early modern aesthetic experience.Less
Earlier understandings of instrumental music as an imitation of vocal music were complicated in the seventeenth century by a new aesthetic, which embraced artifice as much as the “natural.” Seicento theorists such as Giambattista Marino and Galileo Galilei inverted the hierarchy of vocal and instrumental music, arguing that instrumental music was more effective at arousing the affetti (emotions) of the listener. The stile moderno instrumental music of early seventeenth-century Italy explored an essential opposition between the material nature of instruments and the ephemerality of the emotions that they sought to represent and elicit. It was in consideration of this paradox that artists and artisans could arouse the sense of wonder so essential to the early modern aesthetic experience.
Rebecca Cypess
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226319445
- eISBN:
- 9780226319582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226319582.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
A need exists for a thorough reassessment of the revolutionary instrumental repertoire of early 17th-century Italy. Rather than considering instrumental music on its own or in relation only to vocal ...
More
A need exists for a thorough reassessment of the revolutionary instrumental repertoire of early 17th-century Italy. Rather than considering instrumental music on its own or in relation only to vocal music, this chapter argues for engagement with recent work on artisanship and technology in the history of science, literature, and visual art.Less
A need exists for a thorough reassessment of the revolutionary instrumental repertoire of early 17th-century Italy. Rather than considering instrumental music on its own or in relation only to vocal music, this chapter argues for engagement with recent work on artisanship and technology in the history of science, literature, and visual art.
