Music As We Know It

There were many composers who claimed to invent a new musical genre - the opera. But, possibly the true inventor was an Italian composer Jacopo Peri. He was born in Rome in 1561 and studied music in Florence. Then he worked in a number of churches as a singer and an organist until he landed a great job at the famous Medici court.He became rather popular there growing from the position of the first tenor and organist to the pedestal of a famous composer of the court madrigals and music for plays. His style of music writing is ranging from the late Renaissance to early Baroque music.

Jacopo Peri would probably spent his life by writing incidental music for the court but in the 1590s he got acquainted and became friends with Jacopo Corsi, who at the time was the leading patron of music in Florence.

Soon they found that they share common interests. They both were living in the transitional period between the Renaissance and Baroque styles and thought highly of Greek and Roman works. In fact, they felt so strongly about the ancient art that they hold it in higher esteem than contemporary art.

The urge to return to the times of antiquity made our two composers full of desire to recreate Greek tragedy the way they understood it. They created the music and invited then popular poet Ottavio Rinuccini to write a text. At the end of their labors a first opera Dafne was born in 1597, which did not survive to our days.

Obviously, this joint work had some success because Jacopo Peri and Ottavio Rinuccini started creating their second work that they named Euridice. Unlike Dafne, Euridice survived to the present day. We can see that it was a far cry from ancient Greeks understanding of the classical tragedy. Yet, during the development of both operas they introduced first recitatives and arias as the integral part of the play.

Eruidice was first staged on October 6, 1600. Jacopo Peri created a number of other operas and more pieces for court entertainment. However, he quickly went out of fashion while the star of the young reformist composer Claudio Monteverdi rose up and began to shine. Peri quietly died in 1633 in Florence, and his death was hardly noticed by any of his fellow citizens.

Even now, nobody stages Peri’s operas. His operatic style is looked upon as some kind of musical curiosity. However we are all indebted to him, because his influence on young Baroque composers was immense and, after all, he was the inventor of the opera.

Giulio Caccini, one of the earliest great Baroque composers was a very unusual and extraordinary man. His contribution to music and to the development of music history is invaluable.  Giulio acquired his tremendous fame as a composer of innovative solo songs that were a gigantic step from Renaissance music. He was great music teacher that trained dozens of famous musicians who started singing in this new baroque style. One of them sang in Orfeo which was first opera created by the composer Monteverdi.

Giulio Caccini is credited as one of the founders of the genre of opera and an extremely influential creative force of new Baroque music. He was of not of noble origin and was born in 1551 in the family of a simple carpenter in Rome. Five years later his brother Giovanni was born who was destined for fame too as he would become a famous sculptor and architect.

Young Gulio played lute, viola and the harp but his greatest talent was tenor singing that impressed influential family of Medici who brought him to their court in Florence.  He had various engagements there including participation in entertainments like intermedi - one of the precursors of the opera. Gulio sang at the weddings and statesmen meetings accompanying himself on the viol.

He belonged to the close circle of humanists who dedicated their lives to recovering lost masterpieces of antiquity.  We know that Caccini toured Italy too. He visited Rome where music school was still very conservative, yet his singing and music started changing the direction of music there too.

However, with all the mix of intellect and talents, Giulio Caccini was a simple human being easily motivated by greed, jealousy and envy. He also played a terrible part in the tragedy related to the family of Medici.

Pietro, one of the sons of Cosimo Medici married his first cousin Eleonora di Garcia de Toledo.  In the marriage she was having an a love affair. Caccini notified Francesco Medici who became next Duke of Tuscany about the adultery.  Pietro killed Eleonora and then murdered her imprisoned lover Bernardino Antinori.

Caccini was also highly competitive using all means for his career advancement with Medici family. He was the main reason why great composer Cavalieri was kicked out of Florence. He also prohibited his singers to participate in the production of the rival composer Jacopo Peri who is often named as the inventor of the opera.

Giulio Caccini died in Florence in 1618 but he left us another great genius - his daughter Francesca.  She grew to become a famous composer like her father. In fact, Francesca is the most famous and influential female European composer in any genre, between Hildegard of Bingen in the 12th century and the 19th century.  Francesca Caccini was also responsible for creating the first opera by a woman composer.

In my previous blog entries I promised to continue telling you about lost in the history famous composers of the transitional era.  Although, they were extremely popular at the late medieval times, their heritage either vanished throughout the years or brought us some minimal but significant evidence about their talents.

Fate played one of the most peculiar tricks on famous Italian composer of the late medieval times Giovanni Mazzuoli. In fact I found during my web analytics research that there was the second name assigned to him  - Giovanni degli Organi.  Giovanni Mazzuoli was famous not only as a composer but also as a great musician organist  during his life from around 1360 till 1426.

Giovanni learned to play the organ from his father Niccolo. The latter trained his son while he was also serving as an organist of the church of Orsanmichele until 1376.  Thanks to his gift and intensive training, Giovanni was handed over the very same position after the death of his father in 1379.  He also played the organ in several other churches and cathedrals and taught his son Piero as his father did. Pieró assisted Giovanni during his last years of service.

When we say, that Giovanni was a famous composer we actually telling a little white lie.  None of his works reached our times. There are several works attributed to him, but specialists can not claim them his for sure.  So, how can serious web analysts judge his works and write his name to posterity?

An important source of medieval Italian music - Squarcialupi Codex -  is the illuminated manuscript compiled in Florence, Italy in the early 15th century. It consists of  216 parchment folios. Most of them are well-preserved and they are, in fact, in a great condition. There is a large section in Squarcialupi Codex dedicated exclusively to the musical pieces created by Giovanni Mazzuoli. The section is marked out under his name and a portrait is presented at his head. But for unknown reasons, the pages are blank. There is absolutely no music written there. All pages are decorated around the edges but left blank otherwise.

Another Italian manuscript San Lorenzo discovered not so long ago does contain his musical compositions.  Unfortunately, the paper of the manuscript is in such poor condition that the pages with Mazzuoli music are essentially unreadable.  Curiously, though, his son Piero Mazzuoli, who also created music is also included in this manuscript. And over a dozen of his musical pieces survived. Basically, this is one of the rare cases when a great composer is best remembered for the absence, rather than the presence of his musical compositions.

It will probably be very hard to answer who Antonello da Caserta was, as we know nothing about this great man, except that he was a famous medieval Italian composer in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.  Some musicologists advanced a theory that da Caserta was from Naples and created there. But eventually, this conclusion provided to be wrong, becuase most of composer’s surviving works are in northern Italian manuscripts. Anyways, there is nothing that I could find either from the archives of my local web analytics company.

There are some hints that Antonello was a monk. Yet, even this scarce information provides us with nothing, because we don’t know which monastic orders of that time he belonged to.  Other hints place Antonello in Pavia in 1402, it looks like at some certain point of his life he worked for the Italian noble dynasty Visconti in Milan, which they ruled from  1277 to 1447.  So far we don’t even know the exact name of Antonello, as different sources also name him Anthonello or Antonellus Marot.

It seems that da Caserta was heavily influenced by French musical models which was quite unusual for those times. He even set texts both in French and Italian.

Antonello was famous for his ballades that tell us about courtly love. His surviving works show that Antonello was very famous among other composers of the generation after Guillaume de Mauchet. While his Italian songs are simpler, his creations in French are more complex ballads that use the proportional rhythms that became popular in much later periods.

Famous composer Donato da Cascia undoubtedly was an integral part of the Early Italian Renaissance period, that we know as Trecento. He created his music in the second part of the fourteenth century. As in many other cases related to that period, we know nothing about this famous composer, his life, his date of birth or death. I did not find anything in the annals of my local web analytics company either. So, I can only suppose that he was from Florence or a place called Cascia, near Florence, as his last name says.

The only picture that specialists discovered, shows him in the typical robes of the Benedictine order, so we may assume that he was a monk or a priest. But here lies the mystery: out all his surviving music, there is not even a bit of religious music. It is all completely secular. All the sources of his music with just one exception were found in Tuscany.

Jacopo da Bologna most likely had some influence on Donato da Cascia’s works. We know about most of Donato’s music, thanks to Squarcialupi Codex - the illuminated manuscript compiled in Florence, Italy in the early 15th century. Even though, his music was written in the typical style of mid 14th century, it has exceptional virtuosity. All surviving madrigals created by Donato da Cascia represent the peak of virtuoso singing.

The beginning of the Renaissance in Italy started somewhere in the14th century. In Italian this historical period is called the Trecento from the phrase “mille trecento” which is translated as 1300. The list of famous names related to that period, that I found through search engines and in my local web analytics company, is practically endless. And, in addition to this list, we can add famous composers and musicians, artists and writers who published their works anonymously.

The Trecento, as you may well know it, was the period of heightened activity in art, literature and music. This is when Dante wrote his Divine Comedy, painter Giotto di Bondone used for the first time perspective in art. The list of Renaissance giants is huge and include famous creators as Boccaccio, Petrarch, Adnrea da Firenze and others.

Music had also changed drastically during Trecento. Partially, because a lot of troubadours was fleeing from the Southern France, mostly Provence, to Italy. Troubadours had a huge impact on Italian music of Renaissance period. Famous composers and musicians that used to write only religious music started writing secular songs. Francesco Landini, Paolo Tenorista, Maestro Piero and others created not only polyphonic music for all powerful Catholic Church but also love lyrics for everyday people.

From what we know, instrumental music was also widespread during Trecento. Unfortunately, not much of it survived, just few notated examples. The rest of the sources come to us from the area around Florence. We also know that some of the poetry of Dante was set to music, but none of it survived either.

Although Walther von der Vogelweide was one of the most famous composers, poets and singers in medieval Germany, there are practically no contemporary records about him. By doing a lot of guesswork, specialists came to the conclusion that he was of noble birth but did not belong to the aristocracy or even higher nobility. His place of birth is unknown, but there are dozens of books with all kinds of theories about it. Some secondary evidence also points that he occasionally used a nickname, which was quite usual for the poets of the times during which he lived.. Generally, everybody agrees, that he period of life was overall from about 1170 to 1230.

We know that Walther mastered his craft at the court of Vienna because of his beautiful lyrics dedicated to the death of his patron, duke Frederick, who was a patron of poetry and art. Since his sponsor’s death Walther’s happy period of life had ended. He started wandering from court to court, singing for bed and bread. Even though famous composer was hoping that some new patron would notice and give him a shelter, he was not exactly suited for that type of life, mostly due to his poetry. It contained very emotional and scathing criticism of men and manners of the times, which made uncomfortable rich nobility. Thanks to his lyrics, he lost a position at the court of duke Bernhard of Carinthia and later was kicked out of the court of Dietrich I of Meissen, where as he mentions, he did not get neither money nor praise.

Yet, Walther’s poems give us the picture not only of a great artistic genius, but of a strenuous, passionate, very human and very lovable character. His talents and strong views became required by German society, when empire and papacy started their struggle in 1197. Walther took side with German independence and unity which gave him a place of significance in history. Till the end of his days, Walther remained a faithful Catholic, which is confirmed by religious poems. Nevertheless, he was fervently opposing the extreme claims of the Roman popes, whom he attacked with bitterness, expressing his deep patriotic feelings.

Walther never switched sides and a highly intelligent new emperor Frederick II held in high esteem poet’s genius and zeal. Thus, Walther received desired recognition and even a small fief in Franconia, that gave him a home and fixed position. Yet, he was complaining that this fief had little value. There is some evidence, that Frederick made Walther the tutor of his son, but this evidence based on one of his lyrics is disputed by modern researchers.

Walther von der Vogelweide did not stay immediately at his new fief long, he traveled for a while and only then settled at his new place. From there he was urging German princes to take part in the Sixth Crusade in 1228 but, did not participate in it himself, or at least did not go further than Tirol. In a beautiful poem he paints the change that had come over the scenes of his childhood and made his life seem a thing dreamed. When he was dying in 1230, he put in his will the request to feed the birds at his tomb every day.

Nobody in our modern times was able to figure out which medieval English monarch was hiding behind the nickname Roy Henry. There is certain amount of certainty among specialists that it was one of the kings with the name Henry, probably either Henry V who ruled from 1413 to 1422 or his father Henry IV, who was a king of England from 1399 to 1413.

Two compositions that reached our modern times came from the best source for English music of the late Medieval era. It is called Old Hall Manuscript. Today Old Hall Manuscript is considered the largest, most complete and most significant source of English sacred music of the late 14th and early 15th centuries.

The reason why, we are not certain which Henry wrote the music is that both kings were alive at the time. Henry IV, also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was fading slowly at the time when the music was composed. He did not have the reputation of an accomplished musician as his son which still does not allow us to exclude him completely. Besides, his music could have been compiled later.

But if the music was compiled later, that means that it could be Henry V who ruled from 1413 to 1422. Naturally, the scribe would call him Roy even if he was not exactly a king when the music was composed. Most of musicologists think, this Henry V is the most possible composer of this music anyways. Even great William Shakespeare alluded to this.

Recent research shows that compositions were written for the death of Duke Clarence, who was a brother of Henry V. Whoever Roy is, hj seems to be a famous composer because the music itself is skillfully written. It is extremely lucky that the compositions and Old Hall Manuscript survived at all, because most of catholic sacred music manuscripts were destroyed when Henry VIII disbanded monastic communities and confiscated their property from 1536 to 1541.

Not all famous troubadours were of aristocratic origin. Some of them had came from lower class families like great composer and poet Giraut de Bornelh. He was born around 1138 in Limousin and started writing music and poems at quite an early age. Soon his fame spread around and his fans gave him for his skills a very prestigious name - Master of the Troubadours.

And Giraut was a Master, indeed. He invented the new, light style of troubadour’s music, won a lot of poetical debates. We got a rare chance to observer his contribution because around ninety poems and four of his melodies survived to our modern times.

When another great troubadour Raimbaut of Orange unexpectedly died, Giraut created one of his best pieces - a lament on the Raimbaut’s death. This song became famous, especially during Third Crusade. Giraut accompanied Richard the Lionheart and his own patron Aimar V of Limoges and even stayed in the Holy Land for a while. Specialists say, that it is quite possible that Giraut made a piligrimage there even before the beginning of the Third Crusade. He lived a long life and died in 1215.

Once upon a time, or to be more precise, in the eleventh century there was a woman full of wisdom and numerous talents. Seeking the answers, Popes of Rome, kings and statesmen and even some Catholic saints  visited her for just a piece of advice.  Many abbots and abbesses asked her for prayers and opinions on various matters.  Her name was Hildegard of Bingen.

She traveled widely and was the only woman in Middle Ages who had her preaching tours.  Hildegard is the first composer with existing biography and she wrote an opera which did not survive to our days.  It is easier to say what she did not do. I believe, she showed her genius in everything. In addition to creating music, Hildegard was visionary, artist, author, counselor, linguist, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, activist.

Hildegard was the tenth child from the family of free nobles in Germany. She was born in 1098 and did not have a robust health.  Since her childhood till the end of her days, Hildegard was experiencing visions.  She could predict many things or simply describe something that would only happen in future. Many centuries later we can only guess whether Hildegard was a true psychic or had telepathic abilities.  But in the medieval times, her parents, due to her unusual abilities offered her to a church under the care and tutelage of a highly popular nun Jutta.

These were happy times for Hildegard, because a couple of centuries later, she would definitely be burnt in a fire accused to be a witch like Jeanne d’Arc.   After passing of Jutta who had many followers, Hildegard was elected to be a leader of her sister community or as they called it then - “magistra”.

Hildegard thought that her visions were some kind of instructions from God. She confided in Jutta, telling her about the visions, but she was still in doubt whether she should record them. But when suddenly she became gravely ill, she overcame her fear and was more open about her visions that continued to get throughout her life.  In the end accounts of them were compiled in three books and the work was still in progress when she passed away in 1179.

In addition,  to creating music, poetry and writing, Hildegard wrote many medical, botanical and geological works. She was the first woman in Europe to write about feminine sexuality and the first to describe scientifically origin of  female orgasm. There is no use to go through accounts of her books and treatises, because one blog entry would not be enough for that. She founded several monasteries and was respected throughout all medieval Germany. She remained at the level of beautification and her name was was taken up in the Roman martyrology at the end of the sixteenth century.  There were four attempts to canonize her as saint, but the process was never completed. Yet, she is considered a saint in the whole nation of Germany. Her feast day is September 17.