realized continuo accompaniments from florence c1600 john ... · although concordances establish...

Realized Continuo Accompaniments from Florence c1600

John Walter Hill

Early Music Vol 11 No 2 (Apr 1983) pp 194-208

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John Walter Hill

Realized continuo accompaniments from Florence c1600

Historical instruction books for continuo realization are plentiful but in general they leave modern per- formers with three major problems Beyond the inter- pretation of the figures and rules of part-writing given in nearly every one they leave much in doubt concerning the texture rhythm and melodic features appropriate to accompaniments As a body they leave many geographical and chronological lacunae con- centrated as they are in Germany and France and in the late 17th and 18th centuries And they are over-whelmingly written from the standpoint of keyboard practice providing little guidance for the use of other instruments It is a stroke of fortune (though no accident) therefore that nearly 60 of the earliest Florentine monodies survive with both basso continuo lines and fully written-out realizations some in lute tablature others for keyboard done at a time and place very close to those of their composition These realizations give us valuable guidance for the performance of solo songs by Giulio Caccini and Jacopo Peri and by extension of songs by Monteverdi and other monodists and perhaps of portions at least of the earliest operas

The principal Florentine manuscripts that contain these realized continuo accompaniments are 1 Brussels Bibliotheque du Conservatoire Royal de Musique Codex 704 [B704] a 127-folio manuscript with 140 songs all but one for solo voice and basso continuo All the identified pieces are by Florentine composers They range chronologically from Piero Strozzis Fuor dellhumido nido sung by Caccini in a celebration of 1579 through excerpts from the famous Florentine intermedi of 1589 fragments of the first opera La Dafne (Florence ~1594-7) by Jacopo Corsi and Peri to songs later published in Caccinis two monody collections (1602 and 16 14) The repertoire places the collections origin in Florence Three factors suggest that its main body the work of Porters copyist a was created ~1594-1600 the latest datable compositions are the fragments from Dafne since we know that many of Caccinis songs were published well after they were composed and since the same might be true

of the song by Francesco Rasi published in 1608 which is in the manuscript the manuscript contains nothing from Euridice or I1 rapimento di Cefalo the operas performed at celebrations in Florence in 1600 excerpts from which would presumably have been included if it had been copied after that date and the early versions of Caccinis songs that it contains would have been rendered obsolete by the more fully orn- amented and rhythmically detailed versions published in Le nuove musiche of 1602 In B704 45 songs have fully realized accompaniments in Italian lute tablature in addition to the basso continuo and vocal lines in staff notation The other pieces have six-line staves on which the intabulated realizations were never written Another indication that work on this manuscript was not completed is the number of errors in the tablature although many were corrected some remain for the modern editor to rectify 2 Florence Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Magl XIX30 [FXIX30] a 43-folio manuscript bearing the date 12 May 1595 and containing 36 dances and vocal compositions entirely in lute tablature without staff notation The composers named in it are Santino Garsi (1542-1604) and one Giovanni Galletti Concordances show that at least three of its songs are by Caccini and another three are found anonymously in the earliest Florentine monody manuscripts where they also have basso continuo accompaniment^^ The date written in the manuscript is corroborated by the fact that one Caccini song in it which appears in the 1602 Nuove musiche seems to be a pre-publication version The manuscript lacks a vocal line to go with the words that are written in and even the rhythms are not notated for some of the intabulations These songs could have been played and sung only by a musician already familiar with the pieces presumably a Florentine musician 3 Florence Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Magl XIX 115 [FXIX 1 151 a keyboard manuscript of 15 folios containing 24 songs and dances 15 items seem to be vocal compositions including five arias for singing terze rime sonnets and other standard textual forms

194 E A R L Y MUSIC A P R I L 1983

Another five pieces are found also in the earliest Florentine monody manuscripts where they have only a basso continuo line as accompaniment The only composer named in the manuscript is Santino Garsi although concordances establish Caccini and Peri as composers of other items3 Again a pre- 1602 version of a Caccini song helps to date this manuscript additional evidence is supplied by the watermarks on the paper which seem to have been made by the same forms as those that made the paper for a household account book belonging to Jacopo Corsi in Florence and begun in 15934 4 Florence Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Magl XIX 138 [FXIX 1381 a 48-folio keyboard manuscript with 23 songs and dances Seven of these pieces have text underlaid while another two seem either because of the rubric Terza rima or because of the title given to be vocal compositions One of the texted pieces is found in B704 and in two other early Florentine monody manuscripts where a basso continuo line only is added to the vocal part5 Again the only composer named is Santino Garsi The manuscript was once part of the library of the Tuscan grand dukes which tends to support the hypothesis of Florentine origin

In addition there are two manuscripts that seem to be Florentine and have important similarities to one or more of those already mentioned but have no known concordances in basso continuo manuscripts 5 Florence Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Magl XIX168 [FXIX 1681 a 58-folio manuscript containing 26 songs and dances entirely in lute tablature without staff notation Three pieces have text underlaid while another three have titles suggesting vocal models including Ancor che col partire by Cipriano de Rore One page carries the date 10 May 15826 The paper bears the same watermark as FXIX 1 15 (no3 above) and the Corsi account book (see fn4) 6 Florence Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Magl XIX109 [FXIX 1091 a 58-folio manuscript containing 29 titled songs and dances entirely in lute tablature 17 of these pieces have text underlaid and another two seem because of rubric or title to be song accompaniments The manuscript was once part of the Tuscan grand dukes library

There are three further manuscripts that while not Florentine in origin contain realizations of continuo accompaniments to the earliest monodies They can be used for comparison 7 Modena Biblioteca Estense e Universitaria Mus

msCS11 a 55-folio manuscript containing 132 items mostly solo songs with voice lines in staff notation and accompaniments in lute tablature This collection was begun on 4 November 1574 in Munich by the Florentine Cosimo Bottegari (1 554-1 620) whose own compositions dominate the manuscript After he returned to Florence in the early 1580s Bottegari continued to add to the manuscript It contains one song by Caccini and two others found in B704 also with realized accompaniment^^ 8 London British Library Egerton 2971 a 37-folio manuscript of English origin whose earliest owner was one Robius (Robert) Downes Along with some 20 English continuo songs by Nathaniel Giles (~1558- 1634) Robert Jones w1597-16 15) and others and four instrumental pieces it contains five Italian monodies withvocal line and accompaniment in French-English lute tablature Two of these monodies (Dolcissimo sospiro and Amarilli mia bella) are by Caccini All five are written with considerably more ornamentation than Caccini used in his printed collections The lute accompaniments are thinner and more contrapuntal than those in the Florentine manuscripts 9 Tenbury Wells St Michaels College 1018 [T1018] a mixed manuscript of 48 folios containing some ten motets arranged for solo voice and instrumental consort another ten untexted motets for consort performance 21 English continuo songs by Robert Johnson (~1583-1633) Alfonso Ferrabosco (1 578- 1628) and others 30 Italian monodies by Ferrabosco Caccini and others with continuo accompaniment one English partsong and one Italian monody (Se di farmi morire) the vocal line of which is accompanied by a French-English lute intabulation somewhat more in the Florentine style than those in the preceding manu~cript~ 10 Tenbury Wells St Michaels College 1019 six folios that may once have been part of the preceding item Along with 13 English lute songs one ascribed to John Coprario (c15708amp1626) and three English continuo songs it contains one Italian monody Occhi stelle mortale by Caccini with an intabulated lute accompaniment similar to the one in T1018 11 Brussels Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique Codex I1 275D a 98-folio book of lute tablatures begun by one Raffaello Cavalcante during the 1590s It contains a lute intabulation accompaniment to Piero Strozzis Fuor dellhumido nido which Caccini sang in 1579 as mentioned earlier a song that also survives with basso continuo accompaniment lo

E A R L Y MUSIC A P R I L 1983 195

These manuscripts containing realized continuo accompaniments have been known to researchers in some cases since the early years of this century but their significance has been recognized only recently no transcription from any of the Florentine sources has been published or described until now The Brussels manuscript (B704) was first reported by Alfred Wotquenne in 1900 (see fn I) and Johannes Wolf in 1919 gave its contents as songs with basso continuo and lute Wolf also listed FXIX 109 as Italian songs with lute FXIX 168 as a lute manuscript containing songs and FXIX115 without comment under the heading Italian organ and keyboard tablature l1 Sig- nificantly Wolf did not mention these sources in his chapter on scores and Generalbass Instead he and other writers on continuo sources and practice from the pioneers Riemann (1 907-1 3) Kinkeldey (1 9 10) and Schneider (1918) to the authors of the major surveys between Arnold (1931) and Williams (1970) uniformly conceived of basso continuo as a figured bass part implicitly to be realized on a keyboard instrument l2

Even Quittards early description (1910) of members of the lute family as continuo instruments relied on

descriptive evidence without mention of musical manuscripts the same is true of Neemanns article (1934) on the same subject l3 Only B704 among these sources was used in Fortunes very important survey of Italian monody in 1954 though he did offer the first recognition of the significance of the continuo realizations in that manuscript A few songs have survived in manuscripts with realized accompaniments the texture of these accompaniments is always chordal I have come across a few [printed] song-books which provide a tablature for the chitarrone and they tell the same story14

The first study to present all these manuscripts as sources of monody accompaniment was William Porters excellent dissertation of 1962 Less summary and more cautious than Fortune he left only this evaluation Undoubtedly much can be learned concerning lute accompaniment from the many tablatures found in Brus Bottegari and Cavalcante An adequate appraisal of these accompaniments however must wait for a complete transcription of all these tablature~~ The complete transcription has not appeared so that in 1970 when Joan Myers wrote about Robert

1 Ciulio CaccM Udite udite amanti (Le nuove musiche 1602) from FXIX30 E25r

--

196 EARLY MUSIC APRIL 1983

131 Giulio Caccir Udite udite amanti from Le nuove musiche (Florence 16021 with intabulations from FXIX30 and B704

U -d i - te u-di- te a - m a n - i i u - di - te 6 f e - re e - r a n - t i 0 cie-lo bstel- le A lu-na 6 so - le Donna e don-zel- le I- - V U V - - -

Transcription of tablature FXIX30 rhythms added

I

Tablature FXIX30

f 2 5 ~

I MSl

Transcription of tablature 8704

I I I P I r I I I I I I

Tablature 8704p81

I le mie pa-ro - ie E s i ra-gion mi

do-glio Pian-ge - t ~ a l mio cor-do-glio p ian- ge - te al p- cor - do - glio

i I

ine in B704p81 and bass in 8704p81

- - - - - -MS 2 lines

EARLY M U S I C APRIL 1983 197

- -

Dowlands realization of the accompaniment to two of Caccinis monodies she incorrectly stated unfort- unately no written-out Italian models of the period exist for us to emulate16 And when Hitchcock pro- duced the first critical editions of Caccinis two printed collections in 1970 and 1978 he did not list FXIX30 or FXIX 1 15 under manuscript versions of the songs and used only Dowlands intabulations as models for his own continuo realizations l7

As we shall see Dowlands intabulations are sig- nificantly different from the early Florentine realizations Likewise unreliable as models for continuo realizations for Florentine monody are Luzzasco Luzzaschis keyboard accompaniments to his solo madrigals (1601) as Newcomb pointed out in 196918 Schiitzs organ realizations transmitted by his pupil

Ex2 Giulio Caccini Tamo mia vita 8704 pp9-10

I 1

IF Ta - mo mia vi - ta la mia

of tablature I I I F r

Tablature

MSI

ly - a - ve ~ a - r o- la Par che tras-for - me lie-ta - en-til co

Bernhard and Viadanas instructions for accompanying motets-though Williams offers all three as guideslg

The examples chosen

To illustrate the typical features of these early Florentine continuo realizations I have chosen three examples Caccinis Udite udite amante (ex 1) shows the extent of agreement between two different intabulated realizations from Florentine manuscripts (B704 and FXIX30 (illus 1)) These realizations represent what is usual in accompaniments of simple metrical dance-like strophic arias within this manuscript repertoire The harmonizations in them call be compared with Caccinis figured bass as printed in 1602

The second example Tamo mia mita is from B704 (illus2) Slightly different versions of this song are

I

ca-ra vi - ta Mi di - ce ein que-sta so - la Si s o -

0 I

MS 3 lines

- - - re per far - me-ne si - gno - re


2 Giulio Caccini Tamo mia vita 8704 p9

1 NFS

EARLY MUSIC APRIL 1983 199

Ex3 Jacopo Peri 0 miei giomi fugaci from Le vane musiche (Florence 1609) with keyboard harmonization from FxIx115

FXIX 115 f f 9v-1Ov

I Oi - - me gia sei spa-ri - la Cia sen - to 0 vi - - la

sen - tir- par - mi La r i -go- ro - sa trom - ba da-van - ti a te Giu - sto S i - gnor chia -mar --

Gia nel cor mi ri - bom - ba il fo r -mi-da - - bil suo - no Mi - se - re - re di

200 E A R L Y M U S I C A P R I L 1983

mi - se - re - re di me Si - gnor S i - gnor - per - do - no

3 Jacopo Ped 0 mta gromt fugaci (Le varie mustche 1609) from FXKI 15 L9v

--T---- -

- l i - r I I 1 - 1 -+ I 1 1 0 I C A t I - t- -

-

8--7+4-4 7-

t - +3~~ A Q pttn br~ k A C-

K rLC I

Y L I - I I C I

--- (amp(___-- I

found in Florence Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Magl XIX66 and T1018 with only unfigured bass accompaniments In the latter manuscript the madrigal is ascribed to Giulio Romano that is Giulio Caccini This piece never before published is chosen to illustrate the realization of an unfigured bass and the style of accompaniments used for madrigalian songs

The third example is a keyboard harmonization of Jacopo Peris spiritual madrigal 0 mieigiomifugaci in a

presumably early version that differs in rhythm and ornamentation from the one printed in his Varie musiche (Florence 1609) This example comes from FXIX115 (illus3) and like the other pieces in this manuscript it includes both the vocal melody and the accompaniment on two staves Since only the incipit of the text is provided it may have been intended for performance on a harpsichord alone However other pieces in this manuscript that are entirely untexted


seem to have been intended as accompaniments for singing as is suggested by the rubic Terza rima The absence of full texting would therefore seem no certain indication of purely instrumental performance Furthermore FXIX 138 contains similar keyboard harmonizations with melody included but here the full texts of the songs have been written in under the music as if to be sung The main purpose of this third example is to show that some features of the intabulated accompaniments for instruments of the lute family are not necessarily the result only of the idiom technique and limitations of these instruments since they are shared by all the keyboard harmonizations in these manuscripts as well

The instruments

The choice of instruments in this group of continuo realizations seems significant Most by far are in lute tablature The two most important of the manuscripts B704 and FXIX30 call for an instrument with up to four unfretted diatonically tuned contrabass strings in addition to the classical six courses of the Renais- sance lute (A-d-g-b-el-a or G-ef-a-dl-g) Most of the intabulations require either G or A tuning (both are used in each manuscript) in order to match the voice and bass parts written in staff notation in B704 one accompaniment would require tuning based on B and another D tuning in order to match But the actual absolute pitch used in performance would have been a matter of simple agreement between singer and accom- panist if they were indeed two individuals The bass line is included in all these intabulations and there is no reason to suggest that any melodic bass instrument should be added in performing these accompaniments

Judging from the disposition of the chords and the distribution of notes in runs these intabulations were probably made with an instrument in mind that had its first two courses tuned as on a lute not an octave lower as some sources give for the chitarrone or theorbo Although Banchieri in 1609 reported that the first two courses of a chitarrone could be tuned to the upper octave20 both Spencer and Smith have recently argued that an instrument with this lute tuning and added contrabass strings ought to be called an arch- lute2 Still early 17th-century usage was not con- sistent and the instrument that the Florentine in- tabulators had in mind may be no different from the one that Caccini called a chitarrone the instrument more suitable for accompanying the voice especially the tenor voice than any other22

Large instruments of the lute family whether called chitarrone tiorba arciliuto or liuto attiorbato continued to be favoured by Florentine monodists Jacopo Peri Francesca Caccini Vittoria Archilei Marco da Gagliano Giovanni Battista da Gagliano and others accompanied themselves on them And they continued to be the instruments of accompaniment most frequently named on the title-pages of printed monody collections through the 1 6 3 0 ~ ~

Texture of the accompaniments

Fortune was correct in describing these realizations as chordal In general all the voices in them move to the rhythm of the bass as is most easily seen in Udite udite amanti The most common exceptions are places where the upper line takes instead the rhythm of the vocal line where the bass line contains passing notes and where cadences are elaborated by suspensions anticipations and added sevenths over the dominant chord (eg Tamo mia vita bar 7 Udite bar 12) Other cases are rare and ex4 represents the extreme limit of contrapuntal texture in these accompaniments Ex5 shows a passage from Robert Dowlands realization of the accompaniment to Caccinis Amadlli mia bella and ex6 the simpler one from B704 which is typical of that manuscript

The keyboard harmonizations are really no more elaborate than those for archlute except that the vocal melody included in them contains some ornamentation as in 0 miei giomi fugaci It is primarily only the inclusion of the bass part and some variety of chord voicing that distinguishes the archlute accompaniments from the strummed rasgueado guitar accompaniments to monodies which have recently been studied by Robert S t r i z i ~ h ~ ~ As with the guitar accompaniments these archlute realizations show very little concern about giving the upper line a distinct melodic shape Indeed many of them are as disjunct as the two versions of Udite udite amanti given here In general ease of fingering and fullness of sonority seem to have weighed more than smoothness of line in the judge- ment of these Florentine musicians A simple chordal texture free of the counterpoint that Vincenzo Galilei maligned for obscuring the text and free of rhythmic complication that might inhibit the singers sprezzatura (rhythmic freedom) was their ideal

Parallelisms No modern editor would dare to write the parallel 5ths and octaves that confront us in the first two bars of


Ex4 Anon Poi chel mi0 largo pianto B704p35 bars 10-15

I 0

a - sciut-ti mai que- sVoc - chl non ve - dra - i - fin-che non man-di fuo - re -I -Continuo

Tran -scription of tablature

F r Tablature

Ex5 Robert Dowlands accompaniment to Ciulio Caccinis Amarilli mia beNa (Le nuove musiche 1602) from A MusicalBanquet (London 1610) no19 bars 1 4

I A - ma- ril - li mla be1 - la Non cre - di o del mlo cor do1 - c e d e - S I -V

Tran-script~on of tablature

I I I I I I I r ~ F r r F F F F

Tablature

1 - 6 Des - ser tu pa-mor mi - o

EARLY MUSIC APRIL 1 9 8 3 203

Ex6 Giulio Caccini Amarilli mia bella B704 p46ban 1-5

1 - A - m a - ril - li m1a be1 - la Non credi o del mio cor do1 - ce a e - s i - o Des - ser tu Pa-mor mi - a-

Tran-scrlption of tablature

I ~ r t F ~ r

Tablature

Tamo mia vita or in 0mieigiornifugaci bar 6 Yet these parallelisms are found frequently in nearly every one of these Florentine realizations whether for archlute or keyboard It is often overlooked that even Viadana the church musician wrote in 1602 The organ part is never under any obligation to avoid two 5ths or two octave^^ Guidotti in his preface to Cavalieris Rap-

presentazione di anima et di corpo (Rome 1600) says two 5ths are taken as occasion demands Caccini in his preface to Euridice (Florence 1600) writes I have not avoided the succession of two octaves or two 5 th~ Vincenzo Galilei in his Dialogo of 158 1 26 had advised them all that two or more perfect consonances con- secutively are to be allowed when three or more parts are sounding advice upon which he elaborates in a treatise of c1590 in this way The law of modern contrapuntists that prohibits the use of two octaves or two 5ths is a law truly contrary to every natural law of singing [solo song^]^

Melodic relationship of accompaniment to vocal line

While the vocal line is included in the Florentine keyboard harmonizations it is generally avoided in the archlute realizations which for the most part remain below the vocal line if it is in the soprano range In this respect these Florentine archlute manuscripts record a practice that corresponds to the earliest continuo instructions given by Viadana and Agazzari (1607)28 However Viadanas rule that the leading note must be played in the accompaniment in the same octave in which it is sung is often ignored in these realizations Likewise ignored is Francesco Bianciardis (1 607) suggestion that the fullness and

r F P F I r

range of the accompaniment be varied according to the range and expression of the voice part29

Dissonances

Generally these realizations confine dissonances to the elaboration of cadences mentioned earlier Un- prepared suspensions such as that in Tamo mia vita bar 7 are not uncommon Even more common is the leap to the seventh The fourth always appears with the fifth above the bass in suspensions never with the sixth

Choice of chord

One of the striking features of these realizations is that often a third and fifth are put above the bass note where modern editors would have written a third and

Ex7 Giulio Caccini Dovro dunque rnorire (Le nuove rnusiche 1602) B704 p45bars 1-2

I Do-vi6 dun - que mo - ri - re

Continuo

Tran-scription I ot tablature

I

I F F r I r I -

Tablature


sixth Examples of this can be found in the cadential formulas of Udite udite amanti bars 4 and 5 and in the first two chords in bar 1 1 The same is often found at what would have seemed to be Phrygian half-cadences as is illustrated at the end of the first phrase in ex6 above In other cases a new root-position triad is used where a simple change of inversion of one triad might seem to have been implied (ex7) On the other hand sixths are normally used over the third and seventh degrees of major scales and when the bass descends by a whole step at cadences In this respect these manuscripts support the instructions given by Bian- ciardi and Banchieri (1 6 1

Preference for major chords

In all these manuscripts there is a surprising preference for major triads Not only are the thirds raised in all cadential dominant chords but usually in all chords followed by a bass note (root) a 4th above or 5th below except when cross-relations in the voice line would result Examples of such non-cadential raised thirds are found in Tamo mia vita bars 2 5 and 6 Again this corresponds to rules given by Bianciardi and Banchieri But further these realizations have a raised third in the final chord of every cadence and of nearly every phrase-ending where possible This is shown in Tamo mia vita bars 1 and 3 and in Udite udite amanti bars 67 and 10 Occasionally internal tonic cadences in minor- mode songs end without any third perhaps because the minor third was insufficiently consonant while the major third would have seemed too final In other songs open 5ths occasionally replace triads when the major third is in the voice when a major third might have seemed too jarring (eg Uditebar 2) or in place of the dominant chord in a few slow G-Dorian songs with melancholv affect

Treatment of passing notes in the bass

Generally notes written as crotchets and shorter durations that are dissonant with the vocal line are left to move under sustained chords in these realizations This corresponds with Agazzaris instructions Only very rarely are rapidly descending basses accompanied by parallel lOths in the way Bianciardi suggests In a few rapid passages bass notes that might have been accompanied by chords are left to sound alone In no case does this choice seem to be related to text expression or the range and power of the voice Other cases of unaccompanied bass notes are octave leaps and changes of root under sustained upper voices

Stock chords

Most printed monody collections with Montesardos letter notation indicating chords to be strummed rasgueado fashion on a five-course Spanish guitar also include a table showing each of the chords in tablature with its letter above bass notes arranged as an ascending scale Such a table for the archlute is found as a later addition to B704 and FXIX30 has three of them Oddly however these tables are neither complete nor accurate The form of chords most commonly found in the early realizations is often replaced in the tables by a thinner or less easily fingered version of the same harmony And when a presumably later scribe tried to apply these stock chords to realizations of songs added at the end of B704 by Porters scribes b and c the results were silly Still such a table can quite easily be assembled from the older realizations in B704 and FXIX30 I here include one each for G and A tuning (Tables 1 and 2) they include virtually every chord used in the manuscripts Since the early Floren- tine accompaniments are largely a series of chords adhering to the norms I have described it is relatively easy to imitate them using these tables and making adjustments for bass motion other inversions and upper voice motion especially at cadences I have done this and heard my accompaniments professionally performed with complete success And why not This was evidently the way monodies were accompanied in Caccinis Florence

A postscript on Kapsbergeis chitarrone realizations

Johannes Hieronymous (Giovanni Girolamo) Kaps- bergers chitarrone realizations of the continuo accompaniments in his Libro primo di arie passeggiate (Rome 16 12) represent the next chronological step after the early Florentine realizations and they are remarkably similar to their predecessor^^^ The instrument intended is evidentally a chitarrone with at least seven perhaps 12 contrabass strings33 A transcription of his accompaniments shows that the first course of this instru ment seems to have been tuned down an octave from a to a while the second course remained at the lute pitch e As in the Florentine realizations the texture is overwhelmingly homophonic independent voice movement is practically confined to cadential elaboration The upper voices of the accompaniments are less disjunct than in the Florentine realizations partly because of the tuning of the first course but it is no more melodious or contoured In general the part- writing is somewhat smoother and the parallelisms


Table 1 Chord forms found in the intabulated continuo realizations in B704 and FXIX30 with G tuning

1 0 1 I I A A I r I I I I I I I1 2 1 3 I 2 1 4

1 1 - 1 1 1 1 Chords on D wlth the 3rd In the lower oc ta e are very common In these manuscrlpts and when the D major chord is used as the dominant in a cadence on G the

reso lu t~on of the l e a d l n ~ note 1s often found in the upper o c t a v ~ In thls connection it should be remarked that many 16th-century lutes have a n octave split on the fourth

ds wpil as ~n the i ~ f t h and s ~ x l h courses

less flagrant The sound of the accompaniment is Kapsberger varies his textures to match the intended fuller because of the more liberal use of contrabass expression of the text strings the lower-octave first course the greater In general Kapsbergers realizations make somewhat demands on left-hand technique and the design of greater demands on the accompanists technique a chords using mostly adjacent courses to be strummed little more exploitation of expanded range and al- with the thumb (as shown by the sign ) Although the together a bit more polish and sophistication To a fullness of chords seems partly governed by the speed certain extent they may be a sign of the drift away from of the bass line there may be instances in which extreme concentration on expressive vocal declamation


Table 2 Chord forms found in the intabulated continuo realizations in 8704 and FXIX30 with A tuning

- I rr 1s i - - a

Again as in G tuning the possibility of an octave split on the fourth course should be considered when interpreting these chords

of the text towards greater interest in features of purely musical design and expression a drift that is detectable generally in monody beginning in the second decade of the 17th century But Kapsbergers accompaniments are nevertheless simpler and more discreet than those to be found in most modern performing editions H~

Agazzaris that a in-strumentlike the archlute or chitarronemust maintain

a solid sonorous sustained harmony and that the consonances and the harmony as a whole are subject and subordinate to the words not vice versa34

A Wotquenne Notice sur le manuscrit 704 (ancien 8750) de la Bibliotheque du Conservatoire Annuaire du Conservatoire Royale de Musique de BmxeNes 24 (1900) pp178-207 W V Porter jr The Orinins of the Barooue Solo Sonn a Studvof Italian ManuS~ri~tS and prints from 1590-i610 ( P ~ Ddiss ale u1962) pp2s4-jo


2Porter op cit pp306-7 omits reference to one of the Caccini concordances Udite udite amanti The date in the manuscript was missed by both Porter and Bianca Becherini (Catalogo dei manosmfti musicali deNa Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze (Kassel 1959) pp 12-1 3)

]Porter op cit pp320-21 Becherini op cit p50 4Florence Archivio di Stato Guicciardini-Corsi-Salviati libro

409 second fascicle Porter op cit pp322-3 Becherini op cit pp59-60 6Porterop cit pp310-11 Becherini op cit p72 C MacClintock

Notes on Four Sixteenth-Century Tuscan Lutebooks Journal of the Lute Society of America 4 (1971) ppl-8

Porter op cit pp308-9 Becherini op cit pp44-5 MacClintock op cit

C MacClintock A Court Musicians Songbook Modena MS C31 JAMS 9 (1956) pp177-92 C MacClintock ed The Bottegari Lutebooh Wellesley Edition 8 (Wellesley Mass 1956) Porter op cit pp3 12-1 9

9N Maze Tenbury Ms 1018 a Key to Caccinis Art of Embellish- ment JAMS 9 (1956) pp61-3 H W Hitchcock Vocal Ornament- ation in Caccinis Nuove Musiche M Q 56 (1970) pp389-404 N Fortune Italian Secular Song from 1600 to 1635 The Origins and Development of ampcompanied Monody (PhD diss U of Cambridge 1954) appendix pp55-6 Both Tenbury 1018 and 1019 can be seen at the Bodleian Library Oxford where they are on indefinite loan

loporter op cit pp301-5 llJ Wolf Handbuch der Notationshunde 2 (Leipzig 19 19) pp70

275 12H Riemann Handbuch derMusihgeschichte 211-3 (Leipzig 1907-

13) 0 Kinkeldey Orgel und Klavier in der Musih des 16 Jahrhunderts (Leipzig 1910) pp187-221 M Schneider Die Anfange des Basso Continuo undseinerBezifferung (Leipzig 1918) F T Amold The Art of Accompaniment from a Thorough-bass a s Practised in theXVIIth amp XVIIIth Centuries (London 193 1) P Williams Figured Bass Accompaniment (Edinburgh 1970)

13H Quittard Le theorbe comme instrument daccompaniment Societe Internationale de Musique revue musicale mensuelle 6 (1910) pp221-37 362-84 H Neemann Laute und Theorbe als General- bassinstrumente im 17 und 18 Jahrhunderf ZeiBchTiftfiir Musih- wissenschaft 16 (1934) pp527-34

Fortune op cit p16 lSPorterop cit p202 16J Meyers Caccini-Dowland Monody Realized Journal of the

Lute Society of America 3 (1970) pp22-34 17G Caccini Le nuove musiche ed H W Hitchcock Recent

Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era 9 (Madison 1970) G Caccini Nuove musiche e nuova maniera di smiverle (1614) ed H W Hitchcock Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era 28 (Madison 1978)

IsAnthony Newcomb (The Musica Secreta of Ferrara in the 1580s (PhD diss Princeton U 1969) p122) finds Luzzaschis keyboard parts busier with more imitation than Caccinis basso continuo accompaniments

19Williamsop cit 1 pp66-7 That Viadanas organ continuo parts are different from Caccinis monody accompaniments in historical background style function and intent is the burden of H H Eggebrecht Arten des Generalbasses im friihen und minleren 17 Jahrhundert Archive f i r Musihwissenschaft 14 (1957) pp61-82 Bemhards realizations have a third-hand relationship with Monte- verdis practices removed by time nation and Schiitzs mediation see J M Miiller-Blanau Die Kompositionslehre Heinrich Schutzens in der Fassung seines Schulers Christoph Bernhard (Leipzig 1926)

20A Banchieri Conclusioni del suono dellorgano (Bologna 1609) p53

2LR Spencer Chitarrone theorbo and archlute EM 414 (October 1976) pp41amp17 D A Smith On the Origin of the Chitarrone

JAMS 32 (1979) p458 Some of the issues treated by Spencer and

Smith have been reopened on a broader basis in F Hellwig The morphology of lutes with extended bass strings EM 914 (October 198 l) pp447-54

22CacciniLe nuove musiche ed Hitchcock p56 231n addition to Quinard Neemann Spencer and Smith cited

above see T Borgir The Performance of the Basso Continuo in Seventeenth Century Italian Music (PhD diss U of California at Berkeley 197 I) pp 190-220 N Fortune Continuo Instruments in Italian Monodies GSJ6 (1953) pp10-13 and M Materassi Teoria e pratica del suonare sopra I basso nel primo Seicento I1 Fronimo Rivista mmestmle di chitana e liuto (October 1979) pp24-32

24R Strizich Laccompanimento di basso continuo sulla chitarra barocca I1 Fronimo(January 1981) pp15-26 (April 1981) pp8-24

2TLViadana A benigni lenori Centi concerti ecclesiastici (Venice 1602) For a translation and commentary see Arnold op cit pp 1-5 9-33 esp18-19

26V Galilei Dialogo deNa musica antica et della modema (Florence 1581) Eng trans in 0 Strunk Source Readings in Music History (New York 1950) p310

2C V Palisca Vincenzo Galilei and some Links Between Pseudo-Monody and Monody M Q 46 (1960) p357

28A Agazzari Del sonare sopra I basso con tutti li srromenti e delluso lorn nel consorto (Siena 1607) the 1609 version is transcribed in Kinkeldey op cit pp216-2 1 Eng trans in Strunk op cit pp424-31 commentary in Arnold o p cit pp67-74

29F Bianciardi Breve regola per imparar a sonar sopra il basso con ognisortedistrumento (Siena 1607) extensive trans and commentary in Arnold op cit pp74-80

OA Banchieri Dialogo musicale del R P D Adriano Banchieri Bolognese con un amico suo che desidera suonare sicuramente sopra un basso continuo in tune le maniere Lorgano suonanno (Venice 21161 1) trans and commentary in Arnold op cit pp82-90

31P~rter The later intabulations are in 8704 op cit pp259-70 pp201-35 the chord table is on p209 The tables in FXIX30 are on ff2-3

I2James Forbes (The Nonliturgical Vocal Music of Johannes Hieronymous Kapsberger (1 580-165 1) (PhD diss University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1977) pp85-91) discusses these chitarrone intabulations as evidence of the composers harmonic style and of the harmonic structure of the arias but not as evidence of continuo realization practice

33Tablature symbols for contrabass strings in this collection are thefollowinge= G8= FX(IO)=D 11 =C 14= Gsharp and 18= F sharp

34See fn29 I believe that the instruments of melodic ornamentation as opposed to instruments of chordal foundation which Agazzari describes are appropriate mostly to the realization of the continuo in ritornellos sinfonie dances and perhaps in choruses ensembles and some metrical arias in operas concerted madrigals and cantatas oratorios and liturgical music of the early Baroque but not in simple monodies or passages in stile rentativo which evidentially require the very discreet accompaniments of a single instrument as shown in the tablatures discussed here I wish this point had been made in G Rose Agazzari and the Improvising Orchestra JAMS 18 (1965) pp382-93


John Walter Hill

Realized continuo accompaniments from Florence c1600

Historical instruction books for continuo realization are plentiful but in general they leave modern per- formers with three major problems Beyond the inter- pretation of the figures and rules of part-writing given in nearly every one they leave much in doubt concerning the texture rhythm and melodic features appropriate to accompaniments As a body they leave many geographical and chronological lacunae con- centrated as they are in Germany and France and in the late 17th and 18th centuries And they are over-whelmingly written from the standpoint of keyboard practice providing little guidance for the use of other instruments It is a stroke of fortune (though no accident) therefore that nearly 60 of the earliest Florentine monodies survive with both basso continuo lines and fully written-out realizations some in lute tablature others for keyboard done at a time and place very close to those of their composition These realizations give us valuable guidance for the performance of solo songs by Giulio Caccini and Jacopo Peri and by extension of songs by Monteverdi and other monodists and perhaps of portions at least of the earliest operas

The principal Florentine manuscripts that contain these realized continuo accompaniments are 1 Brussels Bibliotheque du Conservatoire Royal de Musique Codex 704 [B704] a 127-folio manuscript with 140 songs all but one for solo voice and basso continuo All the identified pieces are by Florentine composers They range chronologically from Piero Strozzis Fuor dellhumido nido sung by Caccini in a celebration of 1579 through excerpts from the famous Florentine intermedi of 1589 fragments of the first opera La Dafne (Florence ~1594-7) by Jacopo Corsi and Peri to songs later published in Caccinis two monody collections (1602 and 16 14) The repertoire places the collections origin in Florence Three factors suggest that its main body the work of Porters copyist a was created ~1594-1600 the latest datable compositions are the fragments from Dafne since we know that many of Caccinis songs were published well after they were composed and since the same might be true

of the song by Francesco Rasi published in 1608 which is in the manuscript the manuscript contains nothing from Euridice or I1 rapimento di Cefalo the operas performed at celebrations in Florence in 1600 excerpts from which would presumably have been included if it had been copied after that date and the early versions of Caccinis songs that it contains would have been rendered obsolete by the more fully orn- amented and rhythmically detailed versions published in Le nuove musiche of 1602 In B704 45 songs have fully realized accompaniments in Italian lute tablature in addition to the basso continuo and vocal lines in staff notation The other pieces have six-line staves on which the intabulated realizations were never written Another indication that work on this manuscript was not completed is the number of errors in the tablature although many were corrected some remain for the modern editor to rectify 2 Florence Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Magl XIX30 [FXIX30] a 43-folio manuscript bearing the date 12 May 1595 and containing 36 dances and vocal compositions entirely in lute tablature without staff notation The composers named in it are Santino Garsi (1542-1604) and one Giovanni Galletti Concordances show that at least three of its songs are by Caccini and another three are found anonymously in the earliest Florentine monody manuscripts where they also have basso continuo accompaniment^^ The date written in the manuscript is corroborated by the fact that one Caccini song in it which appears in the 1602 Nuove musiche seems to be a pre-publication version The manuscript lacks a vocal line to go with the words that are written in and even the rhythms are not notated for some of the intabulations These songs could have been played and sung only by a musician already familiar with the pieces presumably a Florentine musician 3 Florence Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Magl XIX 115 [FXIX 1 151 a keyboard manuscript of 15 folios containing 24 songs and dances 15 items seem to be vocal compositions including five arias for singing terze rime sonnets and other standard textual forms












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realized continuo accompaniments from florence c1600 john ... · although concordances establish...

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