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| Music of Italy | ||||||||
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| Gregorian chant | ||||||||
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The modern state of Italy did not come into being until 1861, though the roots of music on theItalian Peninsula can be traced back to themusic of ancient Rome. However, the underpinnings of much modern Italian music come from theMiddle Ages.
Italy was the site of several key musical developments in the development of the Christian liturgies in the West. Around 230, well before Christianity was legalized, theApostolic Tradition ofHippolytus attested the singing ofPsalms with refrains ofAlleluia inRome. In 386, in imitation of Eastern models,St. Ambrose wrote hymns, some of whose texts still survive, and introducedantiphonal psalmody to the West. Around 425,Pope Celestine I contributed to the development of theRoman Rite by introducing theresponsorial singing of aGradual, andCassian, Bishop of Brescia, contributed to the development of the monasticOffice by adapting Egyptian monastic psalmody to Western usage. Later, around 530,St. Benedict would arrange the weekly order of monastic psalmody in hisRule. Later, in the 6th century,Venantius Fortunatus created some of Christianity's most enduring hymns, including "Vexilla regis prodeunt" which would later become the most popular hymn of theCrusades.[1]
The earliest extant music in the West isplainsong,[2] a kind ofmonophonic, unaccompanied, early Christian singing performed by Roman Catholic monks, which was largely developed roughly between the 7th and 12th centuries. AlthoughGregorian chant has its roots in Roman chant and is popularly associated with Rome, it is not indigenous to Italy, nor was it the earliest nor the only Western plainchant tradition. Ireland, Spain, and France each developed a local plainchant tradition, but only in Italy did several chant traditions thrive simultaneously:Ambrosian chant inMilan,Old Roman chant inRome, andBeneventan chant inBenevento andMontecassino. Gregorian chant, which supplanted the indigenous Old Roman and Beneventan traditions, derived from a synthesis of Roman andGallican chant inCarolingian France. Gregorian chant later came to be strongly identified with Rome, especially as musical elements from the north were added to theRoman Rite, such as theCredo in 1014. This was part of a general trend wherein the manuscript tradition in Italy weakened and Rome began to follow northern plainchant traditions. Gregorian chant supplanted all the other Western plainchant traditions, Italian and non-Italian, except for Ambrosian chant, which survives to this day. The native Italian plainchant traditions are notable for a systematic use of ornate,stepwise melodic motion within a generally narrower range, giving the Italian chant traditions a smoother, more undulating feel than the Gregorian.[3] Crucial in the transmission of chant were the innovations ofGuido d'Arezzo, whoseMicrologus, written around 1020, described themusical staff,solmization, and theGuidonian hand. This early form ofdo-re-mi created a technical revolution in the speed at which chants could be learned, memorized, and recorded. Much of the European classical musical tradition, includingopera andsymphonic andchamber music can be traced back to these Italian medieval developments inmusical notation,[4] formalmusic education and construction techniques formusical instruments.
Even as the northern chant traditions were displacing indigenous Italian chant, displaced musicians from the north contributed to a new thriving musical culture in 12th-century Italy. TheAlbigensian Crusade, supposedly to attack Cathar heretics, brought southern France under northern French control and crushed Occitan culture and language. Mosttroubadours fled, especially to Spain and Italy. Italy developed its own counterparts to troubadours, calledtrovatori, includingSordello ofMantua.Frederick II, the last greatHohenstaufen Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily, encouraged music at the Sicilian court, which became a refuge for these displaced troubadours, where they contributed to a melting pot of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim musical styles. Italian secular music was largely the province of these jongleurs, troubadors, and mimes.[5] One important consequence of the troubadour influence during this period, in Italy and across Europe, was the gradual shift from writing strictly inLatin to the local language, as championed byDante in his treatiseDe vulgari eloquentia; this development extended to the lyrics of popular songs and forms such as themadrigal,[6] meaning "in the mother tongue." Also around this time, Italianflagellants developed the Italian folk hymns known as spirituallaude.
Between 1317 and 1319,Marchettus of Padua wrote theLucidarium in artae musicae planae and thePomerium artis musicae mensuratae, major treatises onplainchant andpolyphony, expounding a theory of rhythmic notation that paved the way forTrecento music (Italianars nova). Around 1335, theRossi Codex, the earliest extant collection of Italian secular polyphony, included examples of indigenous Italian genres of theTrecento including earlymadrigals,cacce, andballate. The early madrigal was simpler than the more well-known later madrigals, usually consisting of tercets arranged polyphonically for two voices, with a refrain called aritornello. The caccia was often in three-part harmony, with the top two lines set to words in musical canon. The early ballata was often a poem in the form of avirelai set to amonophonic melody.[7] The Rossi Codex included music byJacopo da Bologna, the first famous Trecento composer.
TheIvrea Codex, dated around 1360, and theSquarcialupi Codex, dated around 1410, were major sources of late Trecento music, including the music ofFrancesco Landini, the famous blind composer. Landini's name was attached to his characteristic "Landini cadence" in which the final note of the melody dips down two notes before returning, such as C–B–A–C. Trecento music influenced northern musicians such asJohannes Ciconia, whose synthesis of the French and Italian styles presaged the "international" music typical of the Renaissance.
During the 15th century, Italy entered a slow period in native composition, with the exception of a few bright lights such as the performer and anthologistLeonardo Giustinian. As the powerful northern families such as thed'Este andMedici built up powerful political dynasties, they brought northern composers of theFranco-Flemish school such asJosquin andCompère to their courts. Starting in the last decades of the century, Italian composers such asMarchetto Cara andBartolomeo Tromboncino wrote light, courtly songs calledfrottole for theMantuan court ofIsabella d'Este. With the support of the Medici, theFlorentine Mardi Gras season led to the creation of witty, earthy carnival songs calledcanti carnascialeschi.
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The 16th century saw the advent of printed polyphonic music and advances in instrumental music, which contributed to the international distribution of music characteristic of the Renaissance. In 1501,Ottaviano dei Petrucci published theHarmonice Musices Odhecaton, the first substantial collection of printed polyphonic music, and in 1516, Andrea Antico published theFrottole intablate da sonari organi, the earliest printed Italian music for keyboard. Italy became the primary center of harpsichord construction, violin production started inCremona in the workshop ofAndrea Amati, and lutenist Francesco Canova da Milano earned Italy an international reputation for virtuosic musicianship.[8]
Music achieved new heights of cultural respectability.Castiglione'sThe Book of the Courtier recommended proficiency at music as a courtly virtue, andSanta Maria di Loreto, the first music conservatory, was built inNaples.Adrian Willaert developed music for double chorus atSt. Mark's inVenice. This tradition of Venetian polychoral music would reach its height in the early baroque music ofGiovanni Gabrieli. Unlike the earlier, simpler madrigals of theTrecento, madrigals of the 16th century were written for several voices, often by non-Italians brought into the wealthy northern courts. Madrigalists aspired to create high art, often using the refined poetry ofPetrarchan sonnets, and utilizing musically sophisticated techniques such as text painting. Composers such asCipriano de Rore andOrlando di Lasso experimented with increasingchromaticism, which would culminate in themannerist music ofCarlo Gesualdo. In 1558,Gioseffo Zarlino, the premier musical theorist of the period, wrote theIstitutioni harmoniche, which addressed such practical musical issues as invertiblecounterpoint. Lighter music was represented by thevillanella, which originated in popular songs ofNaples and spread throughout Italy.
Music was not immune to the politically charged atmosphere of Renaissance Italy. In 1559, Antonio Gardano publishedMusica nova, whose politically pro-republican partisan songs pleased the northern Italian republics and riled the Church.[9] In 1562/1563, the third portion of theCouncil of Trent addressed issues of music in the Church. Most paraliturgical music, including all but fourSequences were banned. An outright ban on polyphonic music was debated behind the scenes, and guidelines were issued requiring that church music have clear words and a pure, uplifting style. Although the tales ofGiovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina "rescuing" polyphony with theMissa Papae Marcelli are no longer accepted by scholars, Palestrina's music remains the paradigm of the musical aesthetic promoted by the Church.[10] Shortly afterwards, in 1614, theEditio medicea (Medicean Edition) of Gregorian chant was released, rewriting the Gregorian chant repertory to purge it of perceived corruptions and barbarisms, and return it to a "purer" state closer in style to Palestrinian melodies.
In the late 16th century and early 17th century, composers began pushing the limits of the Renaissance style. Madrigalism reached new heights of emotional expression and chromaticism in whatClaudio Monteverdi called hisseconda pratica (second practice), which he saw originating withCipriano de Rore and developing in the music of composers such asLuca Marenzio andGiaches de Wert. This music was characterized by increased dissonance and by sections ofhomophony, which led to such traits of the early baroque as unequal voices where the bass line drove the harmonies and the treble melody became more prominent and soloistic. This transitional period between the Renaissance and baroque included the development of the Sicilian polyphonic school in the works of Pietro Vinci, the first extant polyphony written by women, the fusion of Hebrew texts and European music in the works ofSalomone Rossi, and the virtuosic women's music ofLuzzasco Luzzaschi performed by theConcerto delle donne inFerrara.
The exact nature ofancient Greek musical drama is a matter of dispute. What is important, however, for the later development of Italian and European music is that poets and musicians of theFlorentine Camerata in the late 16th century thought—in the words of one of them,Jacopo Peri—that the "ancient Greeks sang entire tragedies on the stage".[11] Thus was born the musical version of the Italian Renaissance: paying tribute toclassical Greece by retelling Greek myths within a staged musical context—the first operas. The works emerged in this period with relatively simple melodies and the texts about Greek mythology sung in Italian. (Opera may have deeper roots in the Tuscanmaggio drammatico tradition.[12][13] Three cities are especially important in this period in Italy:Venice, as the birthplace of commercial opera;Rome, forPalestrina's school ofRenaissance polyphony; andNaples, as the birthplace of church-sponsoredmusic conservatories. These conservatories evolved into training grounds, providing composers and musicians for Italy and, indeed, Europe as a whole.Claudio Monteverdi is considered the first great composer of the new musical form, opera, the person who turned Florentine novelty into a "unified musical drama with a planned structure."[14]
The years 1600 to 1750 encompass themusical Baroque. A new dominance of melody within harmony at the expense of text led to great changes, including the expansion of instrumental resources of the orchestra. The keyboard was extended, and the making of stringed instruments byAntonio Stradivari became a great industry inCremona. Instrumental music started to develop as a separate "track," quite apart from the traditional role of accompanying the human voice. Instrumental forms include such things as thesonata,symphony, andconcerto. Important names in music within this period in Italy areAlessandro Scarlatti, andAntonio Vivaldi, representing the importance of Naples and Venice, respectively, within this period.
The physical resources for music advanced greatly during the 18th century. The great opera houses in Naples and Milan were built: theTeatro di San Carlo andLa Scala, respectively. It is the age, as well, of the rise to prominence of the Neapolitan—and then Italian—Comic opera. Important, too, is the restoring of balance between text and music in opera, largely through the librettos of Pietro Trapassi, calledMetastasio.[15]
Important Italian composers in this century are:Domenico Scarlatti,Benedetto Marcello,Giovanni Battista Pergolesi,Niccolò Piccinni,Giovanni Paisiello,Luigi Boccherini,Domenico Cimarosa, andLuigi Cherubini. It is also the age in which Italian music became international, so to speak, with many Italian composers beginning to work abroad.
The 19th century is the age of Romanticism in European literature, art, and music. Italian opera forsakes theComic opera for the more serious fare of Italian lyric Romanticism. Although the generally light-hearted and ever-popularRossini was certainly an exception to that, Italian music of the 19th century is dominated at the beginning by the likes ofBellini andDonizetti, giving to Italian music the lyrical melodies that have remained associated with it ever since. Then, the last fifty years of the century were dominated byGiuseppe Verdi, the greatest musical icon in Italian history. Verdi's music "sought universality within national character";[16] that is, much of what he composed in terms of historical themes could be related to his pan-Italian vision. Verdi was the composer of the ItalianRisorgimento, the movement to unify Italy in the 19th century. Later in the century is also the time of the early career ofGiacomo Puccini, perhaps the greatest composer of pure melody in the history of Italian music.
Perhaps the most noteworthy feature of Italian musical form in the 19th century, and that which distinguishes it from musical developments elsewhere, is that it remained primarily operatic. All significant Italian composers of the century wrote opera almost to the exclusion of other forms, such as the symphony.[17] There are no Italian symphonists in this century, the way one might speak ofBrahms in Germany, for example. Many Italian composers, however, did write significant sacred music, such as Rossini aStabat Mater and his latePetite messe solennelle and VerdiMessa da Requiem andQuattro pezzi sacri.
Romanticism in all European music certainly held on through the start of the 20th century. In Italy, the music of Verdi and Puccini continued to dominate for a number of years. Even the realistic plots and more modern compositional techniques of the operas of Italianverismo, such asMascagni'sCavalleria rusticana, did not greatly affect the extremely melodic nature of Italian music.
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