Giulio Caccini: Fountainhead of Music Baroque

Title Page of Le Nuove Musiche   1602

Source: Wikipedia

Launching the baroque section of the HMR Project is Giulio Caccini. Though Jacopo Peri is credited with writing the first opera ('Dafne' in 1597), Caccini quickly followed with operas of his own. Born on 8 Oct in 1551 in Italy, Caccini was the elder brother of sculptor, Giovanni Caccini, and father to baroque composer, Francesca Caccini. The Baroque period is generally considered to commence in 1600 AD to stretch well beyond 100 years into 18th century. Caccini's place in the origination of baroque is per his publication of 'Le Nuove Musiche' ('The New Music') in 1602. Containing 12 madrigals and 10 arias, the notable 'Le Nuove Musiche' presented the earliest examples of baroque composition. In that work Caccini presented the continuo, providing a bass line to accompany melody (basso coninuo). That was to be supplied by cello or harpsichord, two instruments of recent invention in the 16th century. The harpsichord had had a century to develop by the time of 'The New Music', having been invented about 1500. The cello had arrived in 1535 only about fifteen years before Caccini's birth. Be as may, the continuo could and would be developed to include multiple instruments of various groups.

Giulio had studied lute, viol and harp as a child in Rome. Some time during the sixties Grand Duke Francesco de' Medici brought him to Florence to study music there. Thought to have begun composing about 1570, by 1579 he was employed as a tenor vocalist at the Medici court. During Caccini's years with the Medici family he became involved with the Florentine Camerata, a group of humanists, intellectuals, musicians and poets who oft met at the home of Count Giovanni de' Bardi. Another important member of that sphere was Caccini's older contemporary in Florence, Vincenzo Galilei, father to the astronomer, Galileo, the latter born when Caccini was 12 years old in 1564. Among the more consequential concerns of the Camerata was its flight from the complicated contrapuntal polyphonies to which the music of the Renaissance had arrived, replacing such with a return to monody, particularly that of ancient Greece. Such the interest in ancient drama and music would be thematically pursued for the next few hundred years by various composers and intellectual societies, notably in terms of the heroic, such as Wagner's tragedies.

Such the setting in which Caccini became a teacher in great demand in Florence during the eighties. Caccini spent his entire career in Florence with the exception of one brief trip back to Rome (where born) as secretary for the Count in 1592 (following the death of Galilei in '91). Caccini then discovered that his own music was not disliked there, though Rome belonged to Palestrina at the time. Nor did Caccini's music spread throughout Europe as well as Palestrina's. Florence, however, was Caccini's ground w the Florentine Camerata his greater circle.

Among the members of the Florentine Camerata was the slightly younger contemporary of Caccini's, Jacopo Peri, generally credited with having written the first opera, 'Dafne', in 1597. Three days after Peri premiered his 'Euridice' on 6 October 1600 in Florence, Caccini's 'Il rapimento di Cefalo' ('The Abduction of Cephalus') was performed on 9 October 1600 before 3800 guests at the wedding of King Henri IV of France and Marie de' Medeci, that in Florence as well. Also contributing to music in that were Stefano Venturi del Nibbio, Luca Bati and Piero Strozzi. The libretto was supplied by Gabriello Chiabrera. Much of that opera is lost, surviving in fragments:

'Caduca fiamma' ('Falling Flame')   Composition by Giulio Caccini

Fragment from 'Il rapimento di Cefalo'   Premiere in Florence on 9 October 1600

Recording: 'Le Poème Harmonique: Firenze 1616'

Direction by Vincent Dumestre   Issued on Alpha 1200 in 2007

It was July of 1602 that Caccini published his 'Le Nuove Musiche' mentioned above. Though ready for publishing in 1601 that was delayed. That "new music" was the fountainhead of the baroque readdressing the madrigal and aria forms. Librettos were supplied by various including Ottavio Rinuccini, none specified below:

'Amor, Io Parto'   Madrigal composed by Giulio Caccini

No.4 of 23 from 'Le Nuove Musiche' published July 1600

Soprano: Montserrat Figueras    Continuo: Baroque Guitar: Hopkinson Smith

'Amarilli, mia bella'   Madrigal composed by Giulio Caccini

No.8 of 23 from 'Le Nuove Musiche' published July 1600

Soprano: Johanette Zomer   Continuo: Therobo: Fred Jacobs

'Aria ottava: Odi, euterpe'   Aria composed by Giulio Caccini

No.21 of 23 from 'Le Nuove Musiche' published July 1600

Soprano: Maurizia Barazzoni   Continuo: Luth: Sandro Volta

On 5 December of 1602 Caccini premiered his own version of 'Euridice' at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. That was a new setting to the libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini in Peri's original of 1600.

'Euridice'   Opera composed by Giulio Caccini

premiere in Florence at el Palazzo Pitti on 5 December 1602

This performance: Soprano: Silvia Frigato (Euridice)   Baritone: Furio Zanasi (Orfeo)

Conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini on 23 August 2013 in Innsbruck at the Tiroler Landestheater

In 1614 Caccini published 'Nuove Musiche e Nuova Maniera di Scriverle', another book of madrigals containing 36 songs with librettos by various, not specified below:

'Amor ch'attendi'   Madrigal composed by Giulio Caccini

No.29 of 36 from 'Nuove musiche e nuova maniera di scriverle' published July 1614

Soprano: Montserrat Figueras   Continuo: Lute: Chitarra Barocca

Caccini died on 10 Dec 1618, his main contribution to music being theory, by which he sparked the baroque period in music. His early operas are thus of note as well. Though Caccini left this existence just as the baroque was beginning to bud, the period itself would extend another hundred years into the eighteenth century as it further developed throughout Europe.

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