Le Nuove Musiche | instilemoderno

Giulio Caccini kicked the seventeenth century off with a bang with his 1601 publication Le Nuove Musiche (“the new music”). In this seminal work, Caccini decries the then-common polyphonic style of composition, with interweaving voices vying for the audience’s attention and obscuring the clarity of the text. Caccini’s new style of music for single voice and continuo quickly replaced the polyphonic madrigal as the favored way to set poetic text to music. This program focuses on the music of Caccini, along with those influenced by him, including Sigismondo d’India, Tarquinio Merula, and Jacopo Peri.

Personnel:

Agnes Coakley Cox, soprano

Nathaniel Cox, cornetto and theorbo

Simon Martyn-Ellis, theorbo and baroque guitar

and/or

John McKean, harpsichord and organ

Works drawn from:

Giulio Caccini: Le Nuove Musiche (1601)
Jacopo Peri: Varie Musiche (1609)
Sigismondo d’India: Le Musiche (1609)
Alessandro Piccinini: Intavolatura di liuto et di chitarrone (1623)

Next >