One of the things I like to do on a Saturday afternoon is browse the Tower Records Bargain Annex. I’m looking for new composers (new to me) and new labels (new to me). Somewhere I’d always heard of Caccini, but if you quizzed me I couldn’t tell you where. As to madrigals, if you quizzed me all I could say is Monteverdi. Anyhow, Tower had an Arion two-disque set of Giulio Caccirti’s Nuove Musiche Integrate Des Madrigaux and Arias Vol 2. New composer, new repertoire, new label – irresistible combination. I bought it, and this article is proof that I was not sorry.
The madrigals, and the arias for that matter, are performed by Maurizia Barazzoni and accompanied by Sandro Volta on the chitarrone (guitar). This in itself struck me as odd because, from what I remembered of Monteverdi, there were multiple voices and diverse instruments. For this article I started pulling and playing all my madrigal discs and was shocked to learn that, not only did I have Monteverdi madrigals, but Marenzio and Gesualdo madrigals. All of my madrigal discs are multi-voiced and multi-instrumental. So, apparently in this regard Caccini is probably different. However, all of these men are contemporaries. I say men because Caccini’s daughter, Francesca, gained fame both as a composer and performer of madrigals.
Even though they were contemporaries, I assumed that Caccini was Jess modern that Monteverdi, I guess on the theory that less (solo voice) is older than multi-part voice, Denis Arnold, writing about Monteverdi in Groves, compares him to all the madrigalists, mainly Marenzio. However, all he has to say about Caccini and Monteverdi is that [One] artist found Monteverdi’s use of dissonance highly original, but they are less revolutionary than those suggested by Caccini. Shows you what I know! Now let’s take a minute to tell you what I heard. Maurizia Barazzoni’s voice sounds almost other-worldly. The guitar plays softly in the background. While she breathes, the guitar solos – beautiful.
The booklet that comes with it has excellent translations, but is not that informative about Caccini, Once again, dear Groves, unto the breach, although the article in Groves appears unsigned. Caccini was a singer, composer and teacher. Like the Bach family, all the Caccinis appear to have been successful. Besides the daughter, Francesca, there was another daughter, Settimia, and two wives. Like many successful composers of that day, he served in the Court of the Medicis. The “Nuove Musiche” is his most famous and imitated work.
Jacopo Peri’s Dafne is considered by scholars to be the first opera. Peri’s Euridice, written about 1600, is considered to be a significant advance over Dafne. Caccini was jealous of Peri, so he rushed his own Euridice opera into print. He claimed to have composed a Dafne also. No score exists. It is unclear from Groves if Caccini’s Euridice score exists. There was a recording of Peri’s Dafne, but it is no longer available. Some ambitious record company is going to have to get on both. What is clear is that opera grows out of the madrigal. It is only seven years from both Peri’s and Caccini’s Euridices to Monteverdi’s Orfeo. Denis Arnold says: “The music of L’Orfeo is a mixture of monody, madrigal and instrumental music of various kinds.” We are present at the creation.
Now, let’s just back up for sources. Marenzio’s madrigals are available on a Harmonia Mundi disc by Concerto Vocale led by Rene Jacobs. Monteverdi’s madrigals can be had on many labels, by many performers. My Schwann doesn’t list a complete set, though I know there was one. Gesualdo madrigals are available from many artists and labels. I have Anthony Rooley and the Consort of Musicke doing book 5. Thomas Walker, who wrote the notes for the Marenzio booklet states: “The 16th century madrigal was a principal medium for the appreciation of verse, from Dante to doggerel.” In addition to Dante, there was Tasso, Petrarch, Sannazaro and Guarini. An Italian soiree of that period was a dignified “hell” of a way to spend an evening. The early opera was an extremely intellectual drawing room affair, but it rapidly found its way to the people and eventually the opera house. Caccini was there at the creation. If you find these two discs, you will be, too. The question for me is where do I find Vol. I. For that matter, what other madrigal composers would I enjoy if I only knew about them?