Favola in Musica

A Favola in Musica (German: “Fable, set in music”) is an early form of the musical genre of opera . Text and music are equally important; the name came up when Claudio Monteverdi called his opera L'Orfeo that way.

The Favola in Musica mainly uses solo vocals (see monody ), which was rarely used in music before. Because of the greater importance of the text in the Favola in Musica, complicated musical accompaniment is dispensed with - the music during the singing is viewed as a support for the text. In order to correspond to the nature of the Favola in Musica, the composers only had the solo voice accompanied by a group of instruments that were limited to playing chords . According to the traditional music theory of the time, the composers also made typographical errors and were criticized by traditional composers.

In order to distinguish the new compositional style of Favola in Musica from the old polyphony- determined compositional style, Monteverdi called the conventional style "Prima pratica", the new compositional style " Seconda pratica ".

With the Favola in Musica, opera began to move towards its conception as a total work of art .