Description
The style of these passionate solo songs with chordal accompaniment is commonly termed monody, for the invention of which Caccini (1551-1618) claimed the credit. Caccini began his musical career as a boy treble at the Capella Giulia in Rome. Later he was associated with the Medici court in Florence and attracted the patronage of Giovanni de Bardi and his associated of the Florentine Camerata, Girolamo Mei and Vincenzo Galilei. Their interest in the music of the ancients deeply influence Caccini in developing his style. Resisting several attractive offers, Caccini remained in Florence expanding his circle of pupils (including Franceso Rasi). In about 1600 Caccini began to alienate other composters such as Jacopo Peri and Emilio de Cavalieri, fighting a petty battle about the authorship of the new monodic style, i.e. speech-like declamation of the text above a single bass line. The title of Le nuove musiche (track 1,2,4 on this CD) as the first published set of monodies was meant to be provocative in this context, but Caccini’s plan backfired when the publication was delayed and was thus preceded by a few months by Domenico Maria Melli’s Musiche. However, in his preface Caccini claims that the compositions contained in his set had been written by him since the 1580s.
Nico van der Meel – tenor
Paulina van Laarhoven – viola da gamba, lirone
Mike Fentross – chitarrone, baroque guitar
