A bit of history
Throughout the sixteenth century music was primarily dominated by polyphony. Toward the end of the century, the need was felt for a new musical style that would be capable of stirring the emotions, moving the listener (“muovere gli affetti”), while at the same time achieving intelligibility of the poetic text (which had obviously suffered from the complexities of polyphony). The explicit aim of this “renewal” was the revival of the magical symbiosis between poetry and music attributed to Greek drama and lyric poetry: the writing was simplified and there was a formal move towards accompanied monody, i.e. compositions for solo voice and bass (“voce sola con il basso”), Music was now to become the “servant of oration” (“serva dell’orazione”), and melodic invention was intended to magnify the emotional content of the text without compromising its intelligibility. This new style, which was closely tied to theatrical declamation, came to be known as “recitar cantando”.
About the musical scores
The seventeenth-century musical score is schematic, exceedingly sparing of indications concerning performance, and the orchestration is not defined.
