Il Canto delle Dame di Ferrara

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Il Canto delle Dame di Ferrara , also Concerto delle Donne , were three and sometimes more professional women singing and making music - individually, in pairs and "A Tre Soprani" with continuo accompaniment - at the court of Duke Alfonsus II d'Este in Ferrara (1533 –1597) at the time of the late Renaissance . Her work is passed down and illustrated in particular by Luzzasco Luzzaschi's twelve madrigals from 1601, written for her . The chordal continuo part was sometimes played alternately by themselves. Tarquinia Molza was the fourth virtuoso for five years .

history

Title impression
Title page of Madrigali a uno, e'doi, e'tre 'soprani by Luzzasco Luzzaschi , Roman print from 1601

In 1601, a magnificent edition of twelve madrigals by Luzzasco Luzzaschi (1545–1607) for one to three sopranos and harpsichord accompaniment was published in Rome , commissioned by Duke Alfonsos II. D'Este di Ferrara. The duke had died in 1597; During his lifetime he had reserved this “Madrigali secreti” for his “almost daily” evening concerti delle Donne (private concerts in front of a select audience in his wife's apartments). In February 1579 he married fifteen-year-old Margherita (1564-1618) from the Gonzaga ducal family in Mantua , who - like him - was very music-loving.

Within the rich musical tradition at the Estensischer Hof in Ferrara, these twelve madrigals, which were first printed “ già serenissima Duca ” (German: “after the Duke's death”), are a unique memorial to a nearly 20-year heyday of the Canto delle Dame on the way to a new one Lecturing art for which terms such as Seconda pratica and “ Monodie ” were / are being discussed in parallel . This on Textverdeutlichung and emotional expression gave seconda pratica solved during the late Renaissance , the Prima pratica of polyphonic (polyphonic) composing under the rules of counterpoint from.

The contemporary poet and musician Tarquinia Molza (1542–1617) from Modena played an important role as an artist for several years in connection with the Ferrares Concerto . From 1583 to 1589 she was employed at the Ferrareser court with high pay, the years before that she stayed there as a guest. A bass player and other artists also worked in previous years.

The virtuoso art of women

The special thing about the “Canto delle Dame di Ferrara” is the singing with few voices in the same high register; the compositions were specially composed for these singers, who are still known by name today (by no means for castrati ).

There was a long madrigal tradition at the Ferrareser Hof, as well as the “Concerto grosso” with many participants. In contrast to the five- and multi-part (mixed) ensemble works of the Ferrarese ensemble of the genre madrigal for soprano , alto , tenor and bass , Luzzaschi's volume from 1601 only contains madrigals for low-voiced or solo instrumentation in soprano range (three unison, four two-part and five three-part) sung only by women.

Luzzasco Luzzaschi, 2nd page of the 8th madrigal O dolcezz'amarissime d'Amore (three soprano
parts , written ornaments, exposed figured bass)

In the score of 1601 of Luzzaschi's twelve madrigals, the ornate decorations such as diminutions (the dissolution of long notes into many small ones ), passagi , suggestions and trills , which are usually improvised, are precisely noted - and that is what is really special. This makes their execution authentically repeatable and enables a precise idea of ​​what made the Ferrarese singers so famous at the end of the 16th century.

Employed as ladies-in-waiting of the Duchess, they were paid in this way for their art; how professional they were, adds the report by Alessandro Striggio , according to which they could sing the most difficult works without rehearsal with all the embellishments on sight. Vincenzo Giustiniani names vocal effects like accenti, effetti and gruppi .

The names of the singing "Donne principalissime", the hard core of the singers, have been passed down: Laura Peperara, Livia d'Arco and Anna Guarini. The latter was the daughter of the poet and Ferrarese court secretary Giovanni Battista Guarini , to whom most of the madrigal texts go back. According to the title, the madrigals are composed “per cantare, et sonare” (for singing and playing). For the instrumental accompaniment, Signora Guarini (lute), Signora Livia (viol) and Signora Laura (harp) are named in a parallel source , who are identical to the singers mentioned.

madrigal

The madrigal was a vernacular, variable, lyrical form of Italian poets and musicians. In collaboration with the ducal sheet music printer Vittorio Baldini (from 1580) the tradition of the “Ferrareser Madrigalschule” developed at the Estensischer Hof; it attracted prominent guests such as the Munich court conductor Orlando di Lasso or the singer and composer Giulio Caccini and other members of the Camerata Fiorentina , especially through the singing skills of the Concerto delle Donne . As is well known, this academy played a key role in the development of the opera .

Interesting in this regard is a passage from Ferdinand's travel diary of January 29, 1579, who visited the Duke of Ferrara shortly before his wedding to Margeritha Gonzaga:

“Afterwards [after a“ stately dance ”] four gentlemen went to the Duchess Camer, there and in [them] a music was served, aine had struck on an instrument, and all four of them sang to it, even at times alone . The same voices and Colloraturn [= decorations], I never heard. "

This eyewitness account comes from the time shortly before the formation of the vocal trio. It is also proof of the (lively) sounding of an instrument ("uff ainem instrument struck" [Tarquinia Molza?]) With which a "gentleman" accompanied the song. "Striking" was used back then for playing the lute or a keyboard instrument. According to the description, the instrument (lute or harpsichord) was particularly eye-catching, "and all four of them in between" [...] "sang in it". Sung “in it” means in common harmony; As to be deduced, there were monodic passages: “even at times aine alone”, that is, solo singing with thoroughbass [= harmonic] accompaniment.

In February 1583, an important member of the Florentine initiators of Italian opera raved about the singers with the following words

"[...] tre Dame, anzi tre Angioli di paradiso, per che cantano cosi miracolosamente che non mi pare p [er] quanto io ne intendo"

- Giulio Caccini

(Three ladies sang like the angels in Paradise, which in my opinion could not be more wonderfully singed).

meaning

The singers of the Ferrares Concerto Laura Peperara (approx. 1545–1601), Livia d'Arco (1565–1611) and Anna Guarini (1563–1598) as well as Tarquinia Molza (1542–1617) are the first virtuoso, professional singers in music history in the 16th century, before the castrati began to dominate the field of high-pitched song.

Castello Estense, orange garden

Her program, of which we received a printed example from Luzzaschi, shows her on the path of the stile moderno , the groundbreaking seconda pratica for opera . Even before the turn of the century you were involved in the development of accompanied single singing (called "monody"). The chordal accompaniment of his 1-, 2- and 3-part madrigals for equal voices, which tends towards homophony - which can be seen on the music edition from 1601 - marks the beginning of the developing bass practice that Luzzaschi noted . The chords are written out exactly here (a rarity among the musical sources) and show how the baseline becomes a support that is both harmonic and tonal as well as stimulating.

With their concerts, the singers at the Court of Ferrara gave decisive impulses to this style of performance, which was imitated throughout Italy. Her skill lay in the emotional treatment of the voice, both the melodic line and the swinging, homophonic harmony of three high voices. With the finest or most intense colors, they designed the tone that was held or decorated it in an intertwined manner in line with the content of the text. In the literature there is talk of " crescendo " and "decrescendo" (the so-called " messa di voce ") and quiet passages with "esclamazioni" (sobs). These affetti were followed by the associated facial expressions. A special effect was the savoring of the dissonance before its resolution into the basic chord with three-part homophonically sung trills, a technique that is reminiscent of at least technically similar piano moments of the late Beethoven. Luzzaschi must have written his madrigals "on their voices" for the singers. The height of this art of singing was only reached again by the later castrati.

literature

  • CD Luzzasco Luzzaschi: Concerto delle Dame di Ferrara. Harmonia mundi France, 1901136, 1985 (booklet: Lorenzo Bianconi).
  • Danielle Roster: Musicians and Composers in the Renaissance. In: the same: The great women composers, life reports. Insel Verlag Frankfurt / M. 1995, ISBN 3-458-33816-0 , pp. 41-46.
  • Anthony Newcomb: The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579–1597. Volume I: Text , Volume II: Notes. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1980, ISBN 0-691-09125-0 .
  • Anthony Milner: Late Renaissance. In: Alec Robertson, Denis Stevens (eds.): History of Music. 3 volumes, German edition Prestel Verlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-88199-711-3 , Bans 2, p. 152.
  • Gunther Morche : Luzzasco Luzzaschi. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): Music in the past and present . 2nd, completely revised edition. Personal section Volume 11: Lesage – Menuhin. Bärenreiter-Verlag Kassel and J.-B.-Metzler-Verlag Stuttgart, 2004.
  • Allessandro Roccatagliati: Ferrara. (Translator: Jutta Raspe). In: Music in the past and present. 2nd Edition.
  • Professional musicians. In: Linda Maria Koldau : Women - Music - Culture, a manual on the German language area of ​​the early modern period. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna, ISBN 3-412-24505-4 , pp. 549-577.
  • Isabelle Putnam Emerson: Five centuries of women singers (= Music Reference Collection. No. 88). Praeger, Westport, Connecticut London 2005, ISBN 0-313-30810-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. Luzzasco Luzzaschi: Madrigali per cantare e sonare a uno, due e tre soprani (1601). Edited by Adriano Cavicchi. Monumenti di musica italiana. Series II, Vol. II. Kassel, 1965.
  2. Ferrara. In: Music in the past and present. 2nd edition, 3rd volume, col. 403-405.
  3. Ferrara. In: Music in the past and present. 2nd edition, volume 3.
  4. Whether Luzzaschi was a pioneer of this style has been and is controversial in musicological literature. Compare the articles Luzzaschi in MGG 1, Volume 8 by Denis Arnold and MGG 2, Volume 11 by Gunther Morche . <The page number is not essential in alphabetical lexica! - please be more precise, more precisely which volume and which pages ??? ->
  5. Danielle Roster: Musicians and Composers in the Renaissance. 1995, p. 44.
    Anthony Newcomb: The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579-1597. Volume I, which contains biographical details of the singers, instrumentalists and composers involved in the Ferrareser Hof, as well as the prominent guests of the concerts.
    Lorenzo Bianconi's booklet text for the CD of the Harmonia mundi label.
  6. ^ Anthony Newcomb: The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579–1597. Volume II, music samples; see also the list of the Ferrares notes in Anthony Newcomb: The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579–1597. Volume I, Appendix IV pp. 251-255.
  7. ^ Anthony Newcomb: The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579–1597. Volume I, p. 271, Appendix V, Document 63.
  8. ^ Anthony Newcomb: The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579–1597. Volume I, p. 51.
  9. Gunther Morche: Luzzasco Luzzaschi. In: Music in the past and present. 2nd edition, Volume 11, Col. 666.
  10. ^ Anthony Newcomb: The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579–1597. Volume I: Dictionary of Musicians who visited the Court of Ferrara (1579-1597). Pp. 191-211, Appendix II.
  11. ^ Koldau: Professional musicians. P. 570.
  12. ^ Anthony Newcomb: The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579–1597. Volume I, Appendix II, p. 199.
  13. On these singers, especially Peperara, see Isabelle Emerson: Five Centuries of Women Singers. London 2005;
    Anthony Newcomb: The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579–1597. Volume 1, Princetown 1980.
  14. Milner: Late Renaissance. P. 152, after Vincenzo Giustiniani.
  15. E.g. Piano Sonata in E major op. 109, 3rd movement, Variation VI, Cantabile .