Download Claudio Monteverdi Words by Giovanni Battista Guirani

Claudio
Monteverdi
Words by Giovanni Battista Guirani
Ohime, se tanto amate.
Monteverdi 1567 - 1643
• A very important composer of the late Renaissance, early
Baroque.
• Developed a new style of Homophonic music, making the
harmony, rather than the polyphonic texture, the means
for expression.
• This was called Monody.
• He belonged to a new movement who made demands
on all forces in the music to express the text as naturally as
possible. “Oratio Harmoniae Domina absolutissima.”
• He was one of the earliest composers of opera.
• A prolific composer of madrigals, of which he wrote 9
books.
Madrigals
• Vocal music developed in Italy in the Renaissance.
• Secular work.
• Usually for two to six parts for mixed voices.
• Generally unaccompanied.
Voices
• The music is written for five solo voices.
• The top line has the words canto (melody) and
quinto (fifth part), refer to the first soprano and
second soprano.
• The vocal technique required to perform this work
suggests it is one for trained singers.
• It would possibly be performed to an audience of
wealthy and trained connoisseurs in the
sophisticated courts of Italian nobility.
Ohime, se tanto amate
Structure
• The madrigal is through-composed. ie. Each
phrase has new music, Structure is determined
by the words.
• Coherency is achieved by the recurring falling
third motif
Giovanni Battista Guirani - Text
• This madrigal is typical of late serious Italian types, in which
composers sought to express every nuance of the text.
• This is known as the ‘representational style’.
• For example the word ‘ohime’ can mean ‘alas’ as in
Shakespeare or the sigh of a lover.
Tonality
• The tonality is G minor but the music refuses to settle in a fixed
key. This reflects the turbulent emotions of the text.
• Example of modulation bars 1-6 where it is in C minor, the
subdominant minor.
•
Another example of this reluctance to settle can be seen in bars 7-13.
G minor
Implied
Modulation
F major, leading note
major
to D
C major, dominant major
Word Setting
•
Word setting is syllabic.
•
Monteverdi constructs his music to mirror the speech rhythms of
the Italian language
•
Repeated falling thirds repeated over and over again in
sequence to represent the thousand sweet ‘Ah’s” of love.
Melody
• The melody is mainly conjunct.
• Monteverdi uses free crossing of parts so as not to hinder
the highly melodic nature of the parts.
• The melody includes intervals that were almost never
heard in previous styles.
• Bar 12 - a tritone in the cantus part
• Bar 16 - falling minor 7th in the bass line
Other examples are:
1.
Octave fall in the tenor at bar 20.
2.
Downwards minor 7th in the tenor bar 25.
3.
Downwards minor 7th in the bass bar 35.
4.
These intervals are generally avoided in choral writing as they are
difficult to sing.
5.
Monteverdi uses them with great affect to represent the implied
pain and passion of the text.
Dissonance
•
Monteverdi also uses dissonance to reflect the mock agony of
the poem.
•
For example; bars 2 and 4 the unprepared 9th between bass
and quinto.
• Bar 16-17
Example of False Relation
• In Bar 38 and 39 the false relationship between the B
natural in the Tierce de Picardie and B flat in bar 39.
• This is cliché of many 16th century styles.
• The most incredible example of false relation in
this piece is in bars 49-51.
Texture
Harmonic devices
•
Appoggiaturas, echappee, passing notes, auxiliary notes and anticipation.
•
The final cadence is preceded by a dominant pedal.
•
The last two chords form an unusual variant on a perfect cadence - chord IIIb of
G minor (with a B rather than a B ) is used instead of chord V. The final chord is
another Tierce de Picardie.
•
The result allows both soprano and tenor a final weary falling 3rd on Ohime.
Tierce de Picardie
Dominant pedal
Cadence IIIb - I
Tonality
Vocabulary
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Monody
Word painting
Modulation
Sequence
Tritone
Syllabic
Imitative
Homophonic
Dominant pedal
Through composed
Chromatic
Stylistic features of ‘Ohime, se Tanto Amate’
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
The use or the old terms canto and quinto is a feature of vocal music
from this time.
Syllabic setting to ensure clarity of text and stress natural speech
patterns.
Word painting used throughout.
Musical motifs.
Homophonic texture with counterpoint
Dominant pedal in the bass prior to a cadence.
Part movement is highly conjunct with some consonant skips.
Whilst the piece is minor only one flat is employed as a key signature,
the other being used as an accidental. This is a common occurrence
in music of this period as the transition between modal traditions and
the more modern diatonic, functional harmony took place.
Unpredictable use of tonality and modulation a feature of late
Renaissance and early Baroque.
Tierce de Picardie as a harmonic device.
Prepared and unprepared dissonance. Suspensions are common.
False relations
MADRIGAL
SONG
VOICES
5 PARTS
INTERWEAVING
THROUGHCOMPOSED
STRUCTURE
PHRASES
FALLING THIRD
MUSICAL IDEAS
HOMOPHONIC
CHORDAL
POLYPHONIC
TEXTURE
MONOPHONIC
TIERCE DE PICARDIE
MAJOR
MINOR
CHORD
FALSE RELATION
FALSE RELATION
CHROMATIC
ADJACENT
FLAT, NATURAL, SHARP
SYLLABIC
MELISMATIC
ONE WORD
SYLLABLES
MODULATION
KEY
CHANGE
MAJOR
MINOR
SEQUENCE
PITCH
SAME IDEA
REPEAT