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Order Number 8721967
Perform ance practice considerations in the m adrigals o f Claudio

M onteverdi
Jessie, Mark Newman, D.M.A.

The University of Oklahoma, 1987
C opyright © 1987 by Jessie, Mark N ew m an . All rights reserved.
U-M-I
300 N. Zeeb Rd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
GRADUATE COLLEGE
PERFORMANCE PRACTICE CONSIDERATIONS IN THE
MADRIGALS OF CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI
A DOCUMENT
SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of
DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS
By
MARK NEWMAN JESSIE
Norman, Oklahoma
1987
A DOCUMENT
APPROVED FOR THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC
l X a/vua
Dr, Dennis Shrock, Chairman
Dr. Eugene Enrico
x.
Dr. Irvin Wagner
1O i't*
r. Jacob Larso
Dr. Walter Kelley ~3~
© 1987
MARK NEWMAN JESSIE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to express sincere appreciation to Dr. Dennis Shrock for
his influence in several major areas. First and foremost for his guidance in supervising the
writing of this document. More than once his patience was tested. However, through it
all, I learned valuable lessons in the area of scholarship. In addition, I would like to
express my appreciation to him for the enlightenment I gained during my tenure as his
student. His approach to musical style, in particular, is a gift for which I will always be
thankful.
The writer also wishes to express his sincere appreciation to the committee—Dr.
Eugene Enrico, Dr. Irvin Wagner, Mr. Sean Daniel, Dr. Jacob Larson, and Dr. Walter
K elley-for their valuable help in this study as well as for their support in and out of the
classroom.
A debt of gratitude must be given to my wife, Becky, for her moral support
thoughout the pursuit of this degree. In addition, I would like to thank my parents and my
brother, David, and his family for their concern and support. My colleagues in the choral
conducting program at Oklahoma are also in my thoughts for their friendship and words of
advice over the years.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.........................................................................iv
ABSTRACT.................................................................................................vi
PREFACE................................................................................................. .viii
CHAPTER I PERFORMING FORCES............................................................... 1
CHAPTER H SOUND QUALITY........................................................................18
CHAPTER HI ORNAMENTATION.....................................................................31
CHAPTER IV RHYTHMIC FORM......................................................................79
CHAPTER V MESSA DI VOCE..........................................................................94
CHAPTER VI ACCENTUATION.......................................................................124
CHAPTER VD ARTICULATION........................................................................ 152
CHAPTER V m TEMPO........................................................................................ 157
CHAPTER IX EXPRESSION.............................................................................194
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF APPLICABLE TREATISES............................... 204
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................. 209
ABSTRACT
BY: MARK NEWMAN JESSIE
MAJOR PROFESSOR: DR. DENNIS SHROCK
This document concerns itself with aspects of performance practice in Italian,
secular, vocal compositions; the emphasis is with the madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi,
whose eight books were published in Venice between the years 1587 and 1638. Many
performance conventions of the late Renaissance and early Baroque should be given
consideration when works such as these are presented. Each of the nine chapters of this
document presents English translations of primary source information in support of various
performance conventions. Musical examples, where appropriate, are provided from
Monteverdi's madrigal books.
Chapter One, "Performing Forces," deals with appropriate combinations of voices
and instruments with guidelines for performance, while Chapter Two, "Sound Quality,"
deals with the nature of the sound of the voices and instruments. Chapters Three, Four,
and Five deal with aspects of performance versus notation. Chapter Three,
"Ornamentation" discusses applications of various ornaments in the context of
Monteverdi's madrigal output. Chapter Four, "Rhythmic Form," discusses the practice of
altering written rhythms while Chapter Five, "Messa di voce," is concerned with this
ornament of expression. Chapter Six, "Accentuation," deals with the important
vi
consideration of strong and weak beats and its effect on performance. Chapter Seven,
"Articulation," explores a basic approach to articulation. Chapter Eight, "Tempo," deals
with the selection of appropriate tempos and the need for fluctuations of tempo. Chapter
Nine, "Expression," discusses the relationship of text and music.
This study is intended to be a practical handbook for performers of late
Renaissance and early Baroque music. Primary sources are provided as evidence of the
validity of these conventions and musical examples are provided to illustrate the
conventions.
v ii
PREFACE
In recent years there has been a movement toward the performance o f pre-
twentieth-century music in authentic styles. The general consensus among scholarly
performers is that "authentic" refers to music of older styles being performed according to
specific performance conventions of the time during which the music was composed.
Donington even suggests use of the expression, "doctrine of historical authenticity."1
These performance conventions are generally quite different from their modern
counterparts.
Traditions in the interpretation of notation serve as examples. Many performance
conventions of earlier eras were not expressed through notation; one's understanding of
the notation was reflected in the performance of the music. Ornamentation, articulation, and
metric accentuation are primary examples of such unnotated performance traditions.
Modem notational conventions also imply performance traditions. Phrasing, for example,
is a convention of performance which is often not notated, but understood nevertheless
from what one might consider the sense of the music.
Thurston Dart identified this problem of differences in notation in The
Interpretation of Music:
. . . the musical notation in use today is the logical development of that used in earlier
times, but the present-day significance of the symbols may be, and very often is,
utterly different from their significance in eighteenth-century France or sixteenth-
century England or fourteenth-century Italy.. . .
R o b ert Donington, The Interpretation of Early Music. New Version (London:

Faber and Faber, 1975), p. 37.
v iii
A twentieth-century composer uses notation in accordance with the conventions of his
own time, and there is therefore little chance that a twentieth-century performer will
misunderstand him. A composer of the eighteenth or the sixteenth or the fourteenth
century also used notation in accordance with the conventions of his own time, but
there is therefore every chance in the world that a twentieth-century performer will
entirely misinterpret his music through an inadequate knowledge of these conventions,
for the most part long obsolete and forgotten.2
In the quest for authenticity in the performance of music from past eras, many
conclusions can be drawn from evidence available to us. This evidence primarily consists
of musical treatises which are invaluable regarding the implications of notation, the nature
of the sound of instruments and voices, and other performance conventions. This
document is intended to be used as a practical manual for the performance of Monteverdi's
madrigals as well as other music from the late Renaissance and early Baroque. The table
below lists Monteverdi's eight books of madrigals with location and date of publication:
Book I (Venice, 1587)
Book II (Venice, 1590)
Book III (Venice, 1592)
Book IV (Venice, 1603)
Book V (Venice, 1605)
Book VI (Venice, 1614)
Book VII (Venice, 1619)
Book Vni (Venice, 1638)
Each chapter in the document will deal with a specific category of performance
practice. Performing forces, sound quality, ornamentation, rhythmic form, messa di voce,
accentuation, articulation, tempo, and expression will be the chapter topics. Primary
source information in English translation relating to performance during the years in which
2Thurston Dart, The Interpretation of Music (London: Hutchinson University

Library, 1967), p. 13.
ix
Reproduced with permission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Monteverdi's eight books of madrigals were published will be provided. In addition, this
author will provide performance suggestions, based on the collective information supplied
from the treatises, for selected madrigals. Representative works will include:
Book I Arsi e alsi a mia voglia

Book II Ecco mormorar I'onde
Book III O come &gran martire
Book IV Si, ch'io vorei morire
Book V O Mirtillo
Book VI Lagrime d'Amante al Sepolcro dell'Amata
Qui rise Tirsi
Book VII Al lume delle stelle
Book Vni Ma per quel ampiolRiedi
Performance considerations for each of the nine categories may or may not remain
consistent as later madrigals are compared with earlier ones. Greater differences will be
noted regarding the categories of performing forces and ornamentation, while the remaining
categories will exhibit more consistency. For example, Books I through IV provide no
obligatory accompaniment while Books V through VIII utilize two types of
accompaniment—the obligatory basso continuo and the optional basso seguente (which
will be discussed in greater detail later in the paper). Book V requires a basso continuo
accompaniment for the last six madrigals; all other madrigals are notated with the basso
seguente. Book VI also contains madrigals with both types of accompaniment. Books VII
and V m utilize basso continuo throughout. These and other matters of performing forces
will be discussed.
Similarly, through an examination of ornamentation, it will be seen that a different
concept is appplied to the later madrigals. In addition to a basic change in the nature of the
ornaments, which will be discussed later in more detail, Monteverdi began to notate to a
greater degree the basic ornamental framework in his madrigals. In discussing
Monteverdi's notated ornaments Eva Pinter has stated:
The great demands made on vocal technique by Monteverdi's volumes of concertos

show that the composer draws amply upon the flourishing practice of ornamentation of
the day. From Madrigal Books HI and IV onwards, the same virtuoso colorature and
ornaments replete with emotion that the Caccinis employed appear in his
compositions.^
3Eva Pinter, "New Elements of Vocal Style in the First Half of the Seventeenth
Century: Monteverdi and his Contemporaries," Studia Musicologica 22 (Fall 1980): 217.
xi
CHAPTER I
PERFORMING FORCES
The first important aspect of performance of Monteverdi's madrigals is that of
appropriate performing forces. This chapter will discuss both vocal and instrumental
options. There are three types that must be considered: a cappella, basso continuo, and
basso seguente madrigals. The a cappella madrigals are included in Books I through IV
(published between 1587 and 1603), which are scored for voices alcne and are currently
found in the complete works of Monteverdi by Malipiero and in the new editions from the
Fondazione Claudio Monteverdi. Book IV, however, was reprinted in 1615 with the
addition of an organ part intended to duplicate the lowest sounding voice. The basso
continuo madrigals include all of Books VII and VIII (published in 1619 and 1638,
respectively), the last six madrigals from Book V (published in 1605) and six madrigals
from Book VI (published in 1614), which are scored for voices and basso continuo. The
basso seguente madrigals include the first thirteen madrigals of Book V and the twelve
remaining madrigals from Book VI which are scored for voices and a single instrumental
line doubling the lowest sounding voice.
The discussion of performing forces will include the use of vocal consorts as
compared with larger choral ensembles, instrumental doubling as it relates to the a cappella
madrigals, and the selection of accompanying instruments and appropriate guidelines as

1
related to both the continuo and seguente madrigals. Decisions regarding vocal forces for
each of the three types of madrigals must be made.
The first factor to consider is the appropriateness of boy, female, or adult male
sopranos. Discussion of the use of boy sopranos in early music is common, such as the
chapter entitled "Method of Teaching Chapel Boys to Sing in the New Italian Style"1 from
Syntagma Musicum. Vol. Ill (1619) by Praetorius. However, as this title implies, boys
were traditionally used in multi-voiced sections in the performance of sacred music. On the
other hand, it is well documented that female singers performed as soloists in secular
compositions such as dramatic works and madrigals. For example, paylists for singers at
the Mantuan court during Monteverdi's day include the names of many female singers,
such as Signora Lucia Pelizzari, Signora Isabella Pelizzari, and Signora Lucretia Urbana.2
Further, there are many references to the "three ladies of Ferrara:" Laura Peverara, Anna
Guarini, and Livia d'Arco. Extensive discussion of this trio, referred to as the concerto
delle donne, is found in Anthony Newcomb's The Madrigal at Ferrara. 1579-1597. For
example, Newcomb states:
In February 1579 Duke Alfonso, a man of forty-five who had been for eight years a
widower, took as his third wife Margherita Gonzaga, the energetic, extroverted
fifteen-year-old daughter of the Duke of Mantua. Partly to please Margherita's thirst
for music, dancing, and general festivity, partly to please his own dreams of musical
splendor, Duke Alfonso attracted to the court during the following year three new
sopranos, Laura Peverara, Anna Guarini, and Livia d'Arco, who became ladies in
waiting to the young Duchess. These three ladies, joined for a brief period by a
fourth, Tarquinia Molza, established the wide fame of the Ferrarese concerto delle
donne.
Although there had been singing ladies in the Ferrarese court before 1580, the new
group was significantly different from the group of singing ladies that had preceded it.
!Michael Praetorius, "Translation of 'Syntagma Musicum,"' Vol. Ill, translated

by Hans Lampl (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California, 1971), pp. 367-
385.
2Denis Arnold, "Monteverdi's Singers," The Musical Times 111 (Oct. 1970):
982.
3
The first group was made up of courtiers who happened to sing, the second of singers
who, because of their musical ability, were made courtiers 3
Newcomb stresses that the practice of hiring male sopranos was abandoned in Ferrara
almost three decades prior to Monteverdi's first book of madrigals:
The Bustamente brothers, hired in the late 1550's, were the last male sopranos to be
recruited for the Ferrarese court. While later efforts to recruit musicians are numerous
and well financed, they are directed toward instrumentalists, female sopranos, and
basses.4
The reader is referred to footnote number 10 of this chapter and further reference to the
concerto di donne during Monteverdi's Mantuan years and the importance of female voices.
For these reasons, this author recommends that female sopranos be used in twentieth-
century performances of the madrigals.
Although the use of female sopranos seems preferable in all three types of
Monteverdi's madrigals, this consideration does not universally apply to the alto parts.
Most of the alto parts will be more appropriately performed by males, and the range of the
part for a particular madrigal is the most salient determining factor. Praetorius suggested a
range for the alto voice that extends from E below middle C to the B-flat above,5 and to
this author it implies a male singer as the range of a female alto is approximately a third
higher. Two examples from Monteverdi's madrigal output illustrate opposing strategies in
the selection of an alto singer. The first, O come £ gran martire from Book III, calls for an
alto part with the same range as the two soprano parts. Further, the upper three voices are
set apart from the lower voices in the manner of the concerto delle donne. For these two
reasons, it seems obvious to this writer that a female voice should be used for each part.
3Anthony Newcomb, The Madrigal at Ferrara. 1579-1597 (Princeton: Princeton

University Press, 1980), p. 7.
4Ibid., p. 31.
5Michael Praetorius, The Syntagma Musicum. Vol. II, translated by Harold

Blumenfeld (New York: Barenreiter, 1962), p. 20.
However, in the second, Si, ch'io vorei morire from Book IV, the range of the alto
(quinto) part is much more appropriate for a male voice as. the lowest note is E below
middle C and the highest note extends to the A above.
The next important vocal decision is that of the size of the ensemble to be used.
Although it is well documented that choral ensembles existed during the years of
Monteverdi's madrigals, these ensembles were more commonly used in performances of
sacred music. For example, in reference to performances of sacred music in De Musica
(1574), Hieronymus Cardanus stated: "Choral groups usually contain various numbers of
singers, from twenty-four, or forty, to even sixty persons."6 Praetorius (1619) made
reference to the chapel choir at the royal court of Bavaria at the time of Lasso which
consisted of 12 bass singers, 15 tenors, 13 altos, 16 boy singers, and 5 or 6 castrati.7
It was also common to find solo consorts in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. Two references prior to Monteverdi's madrigal books establish the existence of
such consorts. According to Maffei in his letter on singing (1 5 6 2 ),"... when four or five
people sing together, while they sing, one should yield to another; because if two or three
should make diminutions at the same time the harmony would be disturbed."8 A similar
statement was made by Finck in his Practica musica (1556): "At the beginning, let those
who practice music see whether the music is in four or more voices, and that each voice be
assigned to a select and suitable singer."9 Regarding Monteverdi, Denis Arnold states:
As for singers, Monteverdi had at Mantua [c. 1592-1612] a consort that was among
the finest of its time. It was probably modelled on the concerto di donne of Ferrara,
6Hieronymus Cardanus, De Musica. translated by Clement A. Miller (American

Institute of Musicology, 1973), p. 215.
7Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum. Vol. n, trans. Blumenfeld, p. 17.
8Carol MacClintock, Readings in the History o f Music in Performance

(Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1979), p. 53.
9Ibid., p. 62.
where small groups of noblewomen were taught to perform the upper parts of
madrigals using elaborate embellishments___
The Friday night madrigal concerts in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palazzo Ducale were
therefore sung by a virtuoso consort, and there is no suggestion that a choir was ever
used.10
Further support for the performance of Monteverdi madrigals by a solo consort
can be drawn from the fact that many of the later madrigals are far too rhythmically and
ornamentally complex for performance by more than one voice per part. Many pieces,
beginning with the last six madrigals from Book V, fall into this category. Specific
examples include E cosi a poco a poco from Book V, Qui rise Tirsi from Book VI, and AI
lume delle stelle from Book VII.
Following the aforementioned guidelines would preclude performances of
Monteverdi's madrigals by high school and college choral ensembles and this would be
unfortunate. For this reason, many of the madrigals, especially the earlier ones, could be
performed by larger ensembles. The size of the ensemble is not the primary determining
factor in attempting a "stylistically accurate" performance. For example, a small ensemble
or even a consort of solo voices may not perform a Monteverdi madrigal according to
performance conventions of the time while a large ensemble may be very faithful to such
practices. Therefore, this author believes that a more important issue than size of the
ensemble is the careful consideration of stylistic factors to be discussed in this document
(i.e., sound quality, accentuation, messa di voce, or tempo). In some cases a combination
of solo voices and full ensemble may be appropriate, and Qui rise Tirsi is such an example.
This madrigal contains many small sections, a fundamental compositional technique in
early Baroque works, which are clearly delineated. Solo voices could be used throughout
10Denis Arnold, "Performing Practice," In The New Monteverdi Companion,

edited by Denis Arnold and Nigel Fortune (London: Faber and Faber, 1985), p. 322.
6
the majority of the piece, with the full ensemble in use during the homophonic sections at
repetitions of the text, "O memoria felice, O lieto giomo."
The notation of Monteverdi's a cappella madrigals does not provide any indication
of added instruments. However, the madrigals could have been performed by a keyboard
instrument accompanying voices by playing a reduction of the polyphony, by instruments
doubling the vocal lines, by instruments playing some vocal lines while singers performed
others, or even by instruments without voices. In his Synopsis Musicae Novae (1612),
Johannes Lippius clearly and succinctly stressed these options for performance in this
statement: "The piece may be rendered vocally, instrumentally, or in a combination of
both."11 Imogene Horsley's article on embellishment in Renaissance polyphony provides
further insights into the options of performing forces. Although written in 1951, it remains
highly regarded.
These compositions were performed in numerous ways: in different combinations of

melody instruments and voices; as vocal or instrumental solos accompanied by
keyboard instruments or lute; as pieces transcribed for keyboard or lute; or as solos
for stringed instruments in which the single line was built up of fragments from the
individual voice parts. The concept of one authentic performance did not yet exist.12
In his discussion of the Renaissance from The Interpretation of Music. Thurston
Dart concurred with Horsley by stating these options:
Instruments could be used more or less at the discretion of the musical director of any
particular performance; they might replace the voices or they might double
them .. . . 13
11Johannes Lippius, Synopsis Musicae Novae, translated by Benito V. Rivera

(Colorado Springs: The Colorado College Music Press, 1977), p. 51.
12Imogene Horsley, "Improvised Embellishment in the Performance of

Renaissance Polyphonic Music, " Journal of the American Musicological Society 4 (Sprinc
1951): 3.
13Dart, Interpretation of Music, p. 135.
Dart also makes the point that, "A cappella singing and playing was certainly in use, but to
nothing like the extent that the musical sources would at first sight suggest."14 Although
written sixteen years later than Horsley's article, this source is not as highly regarded.
This assertion is further supported by Bottrigari in his II Desiderio (1594) and
Guidotti, writer of the preface to Cavalieri's Rappresentazione di Anima. et di Corpo
(1600). In the first citation, Bottrigari suggested that the doubling instruments be from the
same family. The second citation implies a mixing of instruments from differing families.
So, if one wishes to double or triple the parts of a chorus one should take (according
to my way of thinking) the greatest care never to mate instruments of different species;
that is, winds and strings.16
In the beginning, before the curtain falls, it will be suitable to have a full symphony
with voices doubled and a large quantity of instruments. The madrigal no. 86, 0
Signor santo e vero for six voices, will serve very well.16
Michael Praetorius provided similar information through the listing of seven
different combinations17 of instruments and voices for the performance of the Lassus
motet, Quo properas, originally written for ten voices in two choirs. Although specifically
dealing with sacred repertoire, this list presents several possible options of instrumental
doubling.
Choir I Choir II
1. comet or voice, 4 trombones comet or voice, 4 trombones
2. voices alone comet, 4 trombones
3. voices alone 5 viols da braccio
4. voices alone 2 flute, 2 trombones, bassoon
14Ibid., p. 141.
15Ercole Bottrigari, II Desiderio. translated by Carol MacClintock (American

16MacClintock, Readings, p. 185.
17Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum. Vol. II, trans. Blumenfeld, p. iii.
8
5. 5 viols da braccio flute, 4 trombones
6. 5 viols da braccio 2 flutes, 2 trombones, bassoon
7. 2 flutes, 2 trombones, bassoon comet, 4 trombones
Praetorius very clearly stated, however, that when instruments are doubling voices it is the
voices which are of greater importance. He also discussed the placement of the instruments
in relation to the voices.
Some finally speak of capella. when an instrumental choir is added to the vocal choir.
In such a case the instrumental choir is to be posted away from the vocal choir, or on
the opposite side [of it], or at a higher or lower place. The vocal choir [containing all]
the principal [parts], can do justice to [the music] without the assistance of instruments
though there should be an organist with a positive or regal. [Therefore the
instrumental choir], being less essential, could be left out in the absence of
instrumentalists.18
With regard to specific instruments that could be used to accompany a cappella
madrigals, there are many options. Donington states, "The tendency of the sixteenth
century was to complete the existing families of instruments."19 Full (i.e., unmixed)
consorts of strings (viols or violins), brasses (cometti, sackbuts, or modem trombones), or
woodwinds (recorders, transverse flutes, shawms, or bassoons) would be one possibility.
Broken (i.e., mixed) consorts using various combinations of instruments from different
families would be another. The accompanying keyboard instrument could be harpsichord
or organ with the option of using some type of lute or chittarone. For modern
performances a guitar would be suitable. Francis Bacon described several favorable and
unfavorable combinations of broken consorts in Svlva Svlvarum (1626):
In that Musick, which we call Broken Musick, or Consort Music; Some Consorts of
Instruments are sweeter than others.. . . As the Irish Harp, and Base Viall agree
well: The Recorder and Stringed Musick agree well: Organs and the Voice agree
well, etc. But the Virginalls and the Lute; Or the Welch-Harp; and the Irish-Harp; Or
18Praetorius, "Syntagma Musicum," Vol. in, trans. Lampl, p. 198.
19Donington, Interpretation of Early Music, p. 583.
the Voice and Pipes alone, agree not so well; But for the Melioration of Musick there is
yet much left (in this Point of Exquisite Consorts) to try and enquire.20
Related to Horsley’s discussion, this author suggests the following instrumental
combinations. Arsi e alsi a mia voglia from Book I could be performed with a consort of
strings doubling the voice parts. O come 2 gran martire from Book III would be very
effective as a vocal solo on the canto part with lute accompaniment. O Mirtillo from Book
V could be transcribed for the keyboard with the option for a considerable amount of
ornamentation.
It has been established that instruments were used to double the vocal lines in
compositions of the time and some writers suggested that the instrumental parts be
unadorned when doubled. An example of this is found in L'antica musica ridotta alia
modema prattica (1555) by Nicola Vicentino:
. . . it will be more satisfactory if, during the diminution, the instruments that are
playing the piece play it as it is notated, without embellishments,. . . 21
The basso continuo madrigals require instrumental accompaniment, and the
appropriate instruments have traditionally been divided into two groups which separate
their respective functions--the foundation instruments and the ornamental instruments. In
Del sonare sopra il basso (1607) Agostino Agazzari described the function and listed the
instruments included in each group:
Like a foundation are those which guide and support the whole body of the voices and
instruments of the consort; such are the organ, harpsichord, etc., and similarly, when
there are few voices or solo voices, the lute, theorbo, harp, etc. Like ornaments are
those which, in a playful and contrapuntal fashion, make the harmony more agreeable
and sonorous, namely, the lute, theorbo, harp, lirone, cithern, spinet, chitarrino,
violin, pandora, and the like.22
20Ibid.
2201iver Strunk, Source Readings in Music History (New York: W. W. Norton

and Company, 1950), p. 424.
10
Agazzari continued by describing the manner in which instruments of both groups should
be played:
The instruments being divided into two classes, it follows that they have different
functions and are differently used. An instrument that serves as foundation must be
played with great judgement and due regard for the size of the chorus; if there are
many voices one should play with full harmonies, increasing the registers, while if
there are few one should use few consonances, decreasing the registers and playing
the work as purely and exactly as possible, using few passages and few divisions,
occasionally supporting the voices with low notes and frequently avoiding the high
ones which cover up the voices, especially the sopranos or falsettos.
These instruments [ornamental], which are combined with the voices in various ways,
are in my opinion so combined for no other purpose than to ornament and beautify,
and indeed to season the consort. For this reason, these instruments should be used in
a different way than those of the first class; while those maintained the tenor and a
plain harmony, these must make the melody flourishing and graceful, each according
to its quality, with a variety of beautiful counterpoints."
Similarly, Praetorius provided this description of the two categories in Volume III
of Syntagma Musicum (1619):
Foundation [continuo] instruments, such as: wind organ; positive [chamber organ];
regal [small reed organ of special type]; great harpsichord.
Ornamenting [melodic] instruments, such as: viols; violins; cometti; flutes; recorders;
shawms; trombones; comamusas; crumhoms; curtals [bassoons]; etc.
Instruments in common [sharing in either function], such as: spinet; lute; theorbo [lute
with extended bass strings]; double cittern [bass cittern]; harp; lyra [da braccio];
chitarrone [bass lute].24
Praetorius also provided instructions for the reinforcement of the bass line:
One must also bear in mind that when only two or three voices sing to a thorough
bass, played by an organist or lutenist, it is very good—even necessary—to have this
thorough-bass also played on a bass instrument, such as bassoon, dulcian, or
trombone, or, best of all, a bass viol.25
Reinforce the bass-line with a double-bass or a contra-bassoon, which will give body
to the tone. The inner parts may be doubled at the unison or upper octave by an
23Ibid„ pp. 427-428.
25Praetorius, "Syntagma Musicum," Vol. Ill, trans. Lampl, pp. 247-248.
11
instrument, for the same reason. Try performing a madrigal once on voices, once on
instruments, and finally on both in combination/6
Praetorius also discussed the appropriate texture played by the keyboardist in
relation to the number of voices present:
When there are few voices singing, few keys [notes] should be touched, as c g e1,
d a f, c c1 e 1 etc., so that the voices can be heard clearly and distinctly above the
organ; but when more voices begin to sing, more keys and fuller harmony should be
used.27
Further, Praetorius cited Viadana's rules28 discussed in Cento Concerti
Ecclesiastici (1602) for the accompanying of the voice parts by an organ:
He should play from the thorough-bass or score in quite a plain style and as cleanly
and correctly as possible just as the notes follow one another, without using many
runs, especially in the left hand, which carries the foundation. But if he wishes to
employ some faster movement in the right hand, as in delicate cadences or other
similar passages, it has to be done with particular moderation and restraint. Otherwise
the ensemble singers are impeded and confused, and their voices covered up and
drowned out.
L. V. Lodovico Viadana demands that on the organ the cadences be played in the same
place and in the same part as they are sung by the singer.
When in such a concerto all voices join in together at times—which the Italians call
"ripieni concerti"—after a few voices have first sung with organ accompaniment alone,
one should indeed use both manual and pedal of the organ simultaneously. But one
should not add other stops, for the delicate and soft tone of the singers would
otherwise be smothered by the heavy sound of the many organ stops and then the
organ would be more prominent than the singers.
. . . when a tenor or bass [part] is sung, the organist should not move up into the
discant [range], but always remain below. But when there are high discant voices, he
should not remain in the low, but in the high [range], though he may use the lower
octaves in the cadences because this makes the melody more agreeable.
A. A. Agostino Agazzari, however, demands that the high and bright stops should be
entirely left out on the fundamental instruments, because otherwise they occupy [the
range of] the voice parts, especially the discant and falsetto voices. He also wants one
to avoid playing the notes [which are] simultaneously sung by the discant, in order to
keep from doubling and interfering with the ornamentation a good singer adds in
28Praetorius, "Syntagma Musicum," Vol. HI, tra.ns. Lampl, pp. 235, 237-240.
12
executing tirate and runs. Therefore nothing better can be done than that one play, as
suggested before, quite strictly and with moderation and restraint.
Therefore, it seems obvious that the clear audibility of the voices is of primary importance.
The accompaning instruments are intended to provide harmonic and rhythmic support for
the vocal lines.
Continuo madrigals such as Qui rise Tirsi from Book VI, Al lume delle stelle
from Book VII, or Riedi from Book VIII, should follow the guidelines stated above. In a
recent performance of these works, this author used organ, cello, and guitar as foundation
instruments.
As a result of the popularity of the basso continuo, many unaccompanied
madrigals of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries were re-issued with an added
basso continuo part.29 In a publisher's note to Ouinto libro de madrigali (1625) by
Giovanni Valentini, it is stated that:
Although it is the intention of the author that this third part of the madrigals for six
voices should be sung without the accompaniment of any instrument, I have
nevertheless taken the authority to satisfy many by printing the basso continuo ad
libitum.30
To further illustrate this point, Cesare Zoilo prefaced his Madrigali a cinque il primo (1620)
by stating:
The author composed these madrigals with the intention that they should be sung by
five voices alone, and without any accompaniment of any kind of instrument, and thus
he wishes and begs that they be sung. Notwithstanding all this, he wanted to add the
basso continuo in order to conform to the custom of the time.31
Seventeenth-century performers and composers viewed the practice of the late
sixteenth century as an a cappella tradition. This viewpoint is revealed through many
29Gloria Rose, "Polyphonic Italian Madrigals of the Seventeenth Century," Music

and Letters 47 (April 1966): 157.
30Ibid.
31Ibid., p. 158.
13
treatises. In 1638 Mazzocchi prefaced his Partitura de' madrigali a cinque voci, e d'altri
varii concerti with this statement:
If anyone should have the taste (this being different in everyone) to accompany
likewise with instrument those which do not require it, he may be able to do so
without effort. And for the distinction o f this, I have placed a basso continuo under
the concerted ones, but the others I have left bare and plain, just as I wish them to be
sung.32
In the dedication to a set of unaccompanied madrigals in 1647, Lodovico Cenci defended
his omission of basso continuo:
I do not provide you with a basso continuo because the harmony of human voices
alone is in my opinion much more delicate than a mingling with instrumental ones, the
human voice in effect surpassing in sweetness every other sound.33
Another example can be found in Domenico dal Pane's dedication to II secondo libro de'
madrigali a cinque voci (1678):
Among all musical compositions, the unaccompanied madrigal has always kept first
place in the academies. It is the most sublime of all the others, since in it one can find
the essence of harmony conjoined together with a most accomplished study, a
matchless beauty of melody which expresses vividly the essence which is peculiar to
poetry to the extent of deeply affecting the listener in different ways.34
A final example from 1678 appears in Bononcini's Partitura de madrigali a cinque voci:
Although there have been valuable subjects (soggetti) for unaccompanied madrigals
which have always been and (always) will be admired and held in great esteem by
connoisseurs, both for the great knowledge expressed in them, such as the observance
of good rules, and for the precepts of the art; nonetheless, although little
knowledgeable in this profession, I took courage to appear on the world's stage with
these madrigals of mine.35
The remaining group of madrigals rely upon an accompanimental practice known
as basso seguente, which predates the basso continuo. The Harvard Dictionary of Music
32Ibid.
33Ibid., p. 155.
34Frederick Albert Hall, "The Polyphonic Italian Madrigal: 1638-1745," (Ph.D.

dissertation, University of Toronto, 1978), p. 11.
35Ibid., p. 12.
14
defines basso seguente as "An early type of thoroughbass, which merely duplicated
(usually on the organ) whatever part of the vocal composition was the lowest at a given
tim e."36 In concept these two practices differ in that a basso seguente is merely an
instrumental line doubling the lowest notes, while the true basso continuo is an independent
part adding harmonic support that continues throughout the entire composition regardless
of the presence or absence of the voices.
An early example of an added seguente part occurs in G. Croce's Motetti a otto
voci in 1594.37 According to Alfred Einstein:
. . . this custom [basso seguente] that can be traced from about 1595 until far into the
seventeenth century is not a real basso continuo. A real basso continuo stands in
relation to the upper voice or voices as an opposite pole; it is a firm instrumental
foundation; it 'releases’ the upper voices and sets them free.. . . 38
The popularization of the expressions basso seguente and basso continuo seem to
have arisen in similar ways. Each expression was used in the title of a collection that
indicated the type of accompaniment desired. The former expression first appeared in the
title of Adriano Banchieri's Ecclesiastiche sinfonia . . . per sonare et cantare et sopra un
basso seguente in 1607.39 The latter expression first appeared in the title of Lodovico
Grossi da Viadana's Cento concerti ecclesiastici . . . con il basso continuo (Venice,
1602).40
36Willi Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music. Second edition, revised and enlarged
(Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1973), p. 85.
37Ibid.
38Alfred Einstein, The Italian Madrigal, translated by Alexander H. Krappe,

Roger Sessions, and Oliver Strunk (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949), p. 850.
39Stanley Sadie, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 6th ed.,
Vol. II, (London: MacMillan Publishers Limited, 1980), p. 279.
40Ibid., Vol. IV, p. 685.
15
As previously stated, Books I through IV of Monterverdi's madrigals allow for
the optional addition of instrumental doubling of the vocal polyphony. On the other hand,
Books VII and VIII clearly specify the obligatory basso continuo. Books V and VI contain
some madrigals that require the use of basso continuo and others that provide for the
optional basso seguente. This is clearly indicated in the subtitle to Book V of the
madrigals: "For the harpsichord, bass lute, or some similar instrument; designed
particularly for the last six pieces and available for the others as desired," (Col basso
continuo per il Clavicembano, Chittarone, od altro simili istromente; fatto particolarmente
per li sei ultimi & per li altri a beneplacito).
It is common to find similar subtitles that recommend varying possibilities for
instrumental accompaniment in the madrigal books of other early seventeenth-century
Italian composers. One example is Nicolo Rubini's Madrigali a cinque voci (1615), which
contains the following subtitle: "With the accompanied bass to serve for the theorbo,
harpsichord, and similar instruments ad libitum, but necessary for the six last ones."41
Another example is Sigismondo d'India's II terzo libro de madrigali a cinque voci (1615').
with the subtitle: "With the basso continuo to play with various body instruments ad
libitum, but indispensably for the eight last ones."42 A final example is the subtitle from
Francesco Pascale’s Madrigali a una. due, tre. quattro e cinque voci (1627): ". . . with the
basso continuo indispensable for the majority of them."43
Malipiero, the editor of Monteverdi's complete works, omitted the basso seguente
parts in Books V and VI in the complete works of Monteverdi, and Einstein cited the
41Rose, "Polyphonic Italian Madrigals," p. 156.
42Ibid.
43Ibid.
16
omission as "most misleading."44 It is vital that modem performers know of the option of
performing all of the madrigals (not specified with basso continuo) from Books IV, V, and
VI with a basso seguente accompaniment. New editions of the madrigals with their
original scoring (including the added basso seguente parts for Book IV) are available in the
Opera Omnia from the Fondazione Claudio Monteverdi in Cremona. At the present time
Books I, II, IV, and V have been completed. Facsimiles from the first editions (Books I
and II were first published by Angelo Gardano, and Books IV and V were first published
by Ricciardo Amadino) are included in this collection.
The performance of basso seguente madrigals forces the conductor to make two
decisions—first, whether or not to use any accompanying instruments and, second, which
combination of instruments to choose. Madrigals in Books IV, V, and VI which are not
specifically indicated as basso continuo compositions by Monteverdi, present this option.
The fact that Malipiero's editions omitted the basso seguente line in these books implies, to
many performers, that the madrigals are only to be performed a cappella.
The madrigal cycle, Lagrime d'Amante al Sepolcro dell'Amata from Book VI, is
such an example. It may be performed without instrumental accompaniment, if desired.
The options for accompaniment are the same as for basso continuo madrigals-the use of
fundamental instruments and optional ornamental instruments. Regardless of the nature of
the accompaniment, if fugal or other imitative entrances are present, specific guidelines
were provided. Viadana stated in Cento Concerti Ecclesiastici (1602) that, "When a
concerto begins after the manner of a fugue, the organist begins also with a single note,
and, on the entry of several parts, :t is at his discretion to accompany them as he pleases."45
A similar aspect of this can be seen in the opening of Incenerite spoglie from this cycle.
Êinstein, The Italian Madrigal, p. 862.
45Strunk, Source Readings, p. 422.
17
The tenor voice in the first measure and a half should be doubled on the organ with single
pitches only. It is even appropriate to omit the other instrument(s) until all of the voices
have entered in the second measure. Similar occurances can be found throughout this
cycle.
In conclusion, there are three categories in which accompanying instruments can
be used--a cappella compositions, such as Books I-IV of Monteverdi's madrigals; basso
continuo compositions, such as Books VII-VIII; and basso seguente compositions, such
as Books IV-VI. Within each of these categories decisions must be made concerning the
number and specific types of instruments used. In addition, if the instruments are doubling
the vocal lines, the consistency of the doubling and the question of ornamentation becomes
a factor. Regarding the role of text in instrumental substitution, the reader is referred to
Chapter IX on Expression which discusses the importance of text.
It is critical that the modem performers of Monteverdi's madrigals and other
similar vocal compositions know of these options in the use of accompanying instruments.
The freedom of selection of instruments during the early Baroque correlates with the wide
variety of performance situations in high schools and college choral programs. It is likely
that in most cases, today's performers will have some combination of instruments
available.
CHAPTER II
SOUND QUALITY
An important aspect in the attempt to recreate an authentic performance of
sixteenth- or seventeenth-century music is that of timbre, or sound quality. Both voices
and instruments of these centuries produced sounds quite different from their modern
counterparts. Upon examining primary source material from the late-sixteenth and early-
seventeenth centuries, a conception of the sound quality of voices and instruments can be
determined, and through these citations it can be seen that writers of both centuries were
consistent in their descriptions. This chapter will examine sources appropriate to the time
frame of Monteverdi's madrigals with the purpose of establishing performance guidelines.
Treatise writers commonly described the approach to vocal sound, and, as early
as 1523 Pietro Aaron listed several types of vocal qualities and concluded by stating his
conception of the perfect voice:
Smooth voices are subtle, dense, clear, and high. Clear voices are those which are
drawn from further away, in such a manner that they are incontinently full, like the
sound of a trum pet.. . .
A hard voice is one which sends forth its sounds violently, like the sound of cannon or
of anvils when the hammer strikes the hard iron___
A perfect voice is high, smooth, and clear; high so that it may be sufficient in the upper
register, smooth so that it may caress the souls of the listeners, clear so that it fills the
ears. If any of these is lacking, it cannot be called a perfect voice.1
P ie tro Aaron, Toscanello in Music. Vol. I, translated by Peter Berquist

(Colorado Springs: The Colorado College Music Press, 1970), p. 17.
18
19
Similarly, Giovanni Camillo Maffei characterized the desirable and undesirable qualities of
a voice in a lengthy letter on singing style in 1562:
However, to make things clearer, by the "flexible" voice you must understand (as it
were) a pliable voice, that is, one that is varied sweetly, so that the ear is satisfied. By
the "rigid" voice should be understood a hard one that varies in no way, so the ear is
disturbed when it hears it.
So if the throat is soft, it will produce a flexible, pleasing, and variable voice, but if it
chances to be hard, it will produce a rigid and harsh voice. When the instrument is
hard it cannot yield (as would be necessary); and when it is soft, yielding easily, it can
form and imitate every sort of voice.2
Corvat's Crudities (1611) provided this description of an admired voice:
Besides it was for the more excellent because it was nothing forced, strained, or
affected, but come from him with the greatest exactitude that ever I heard. Truly I
think that had a nightingale been in the same room, and contended with him for the
superiority, something perhaps he might excell him, because God granted that little
bird such a privilege for the sweetness of his voice, as to none other; but I think he
could not much.3
Selection of the word "sweet," which was used by Carol MacClintock in the
previous two citations, is commonly found in translations. Even though the original
language is often omitted from translations, the consistent usage by various translators of
Italian, German, and French treatises suggests to this author a viable performance
consideration. Although the word "sweet" can be somewhat nebulous regarding
performance interpretation, it would seem to imply timbres which are soft, pure, and
pleasant. Giovanni de' Bardi stressed the importance of this type of quality with repeated
usage of the word in Discorso mandato . . . a Giulio Caccini detto Romano sopra la musica
antica e'l cantar bene (c. 1580):
3Ibid„ p. 116.
20
From these things one may gather that music is pure sweetness and that he who would
sing should sing the sweetest music and the sweetest modes well ordered in the
sweetest manner.4
Many other sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writers made use of expressions
which have been translated as "sweet." In addition to Carol MacClintock, the following
citations were translated by Nigel Fortune, Albert Seay, Lee Garrett, Ruth Rowen, Gloria
Rose, and Austin Caswell. As early as 1552 Coclico's Compendium musices contains two
references: "Even if they [mathematicians] understand the force of this art and also
compose, they do not honor the smoothness and sweetness of song" and " . . . a musician
truly is held to be and is one who sings learnedly and sweetly . . . "5 In 1594 Ercole
Bottrigari made the following observation upon hearing the so-called three ladies of Ferrara
: " . . . they almost always use their most sweet and sonorous voices in singing . . . "6 In
1611 Thomas Coryat provided this description of singers:
Of the singers there were three or four so excellent that I think none in Christendom do
excell them, especially one, who had such a peerless and (as I may say) such a
supernatural voice for sweetness.7
In 1628 Giustiniani stated:
The Cardinal Ferdinand de' Medici was then followed by Cardinal Montalto, who took
no less pleasure in music, for in addition he played the Cembalo excellently and sang
in a sweet and sensitive manner. . . 8
4Nigel Fortune, "Italian Seventeenth-Century Singing," Music and Letters 35

(July 1954): 212.
5Adrian Petit Coclico, Compendium musices. translated by Albert Seay (Colorado

Springs: The Colorado College Music Press, 1973), pp. 8 and 16.
6Bottrigari, II Desiderio. trans. MacClintock, p. 57.
8Vincenzo Giustiniani, Discorso sopra la musica de' suoi tempi, translated by

Carol MacClintock (American Institute of Musicology, 1962), p. 71.
21
In his Conclusioni nel suono dell'organo (1609), Adriano Banchieri states: "From those
words one must understand the sweetness which should be used, additionally making sure
that the faithful are hearing soft and sweet harmony . . . "9
The word "sweet" has also appeared in translations describing the combined
sound of instruments and voices. In L'Artusi overo Delle Imperfettioni della Modema
Musica (1600), a performance from 1598 was described in a discourse entitled "A Well
Unified Concert:"
After everyone was quiet, cometts, trombones, violins, viole bastarde, double harps,
lutes, comamuse, flutes, harpsichords, and voices were all heard at the same time with
such sweetness and delicacy of harmony, that the place seemed like Mt. Parnassus or
Paradise itself, not like anything human.10
Further, in the preface to Cavalieri's Rappresentazione di Anima. et di Corpo (1600), a
reference is made to "a sweet-toned organ."11 In 1606 Agazzari's letter on singing style
discussed the desired consistency of sound quality between voices and instruments:
The voices, when they concert with the organ, should be governed by the ear and by
good judgement, being careful that one does not overshadow the other but are sung
equally, with sweetness and elegance.12
A late example can be found in the preface to a set of unaccompanied madrigals by
Lodovico Cenci, published in 1647:
I do not provide you with a basso continuo because the harmony of human voices
alone is in my opinion much more delicate than a mingling with instrumental ones, the
human voice in effect surpassing in sweetness every other sound.13
9Adriano Banchieri, Conclusioni nel suono dell'organo. translated by Lee R.

Garrett (Colorado Springs: The Colorado College Music Press, 1982), p. 13.
10Ruth Rowen, Music Through Sources and Documents (Englewood Cliffs:

Prentice Hall, 1979), p. 134.
1MacClintock. Readings, p. 184.
12Ibid., p. 131.
13Rose, "Polyphonic Italian Madrigals," p. 155.
22
The basic sound quality advocated throughout this chapter is one that is pleasant,
pure, and free. Descriptions of body movements, mouth position, and vowel sounds are
consistent with this approach. An example of the incorrect approach was indicated in
Musicae active micrologus written in 1515 by Andreas Omithoparcus but translated and
published in 1609 by John Dowland: "The uncomely gaping of the mouth, and ungracefull
motion of the body, is a sign of a mad singer."14 A moderate opening of the mouth as well
as advice on body movements, is further supported in Maffei's letter on singing in 1562:
The fourth [rule] is to make no movement in any part of the body except in that
cimbalare cartilage, because if those people appear ugly to us who, when they sing,
shake their heads, tremble in their legs, or move their hands and feet, we must be sure
that we appear ugly to others when we do the same thing.
The seventh [rule], that you should keep your mouth moderately open, no wider than
when you are conversing with friends.16
In addition, Hermann Finck provided this description from a chapter entitled, "On
the Art of Singing Elegantly and Sweetly," from Pratica musica (1556):
Then, lest one voice blunt or disturb another by its own sound, it should be seen to
that the discantus and the alto not rise higher than they should, or that no singer strains
his voice; for many singers change their tone colors, becoming black in the face and
come to the end of their breath. I myself have seen with indignation excellent singers
become debased and deformed, with distorted and gaping mouths, with head tossed
back, and with bleating and barbaric cries, which (with preconceived opinion) they
hold bellowing and singing to be one and the same thing, they rani anu deform the
most beautiful music. What a deplorable sight!16
In his Institutioni harmoniche (1573), Zarlino offered the following advice: "Further, they
should refrain from bodily movements and gestures that will incite the audience to laughter
as some do who move—and this is also true of certain instrumentalists—as if they were
15Ibid., p. 45.
16Ibid., p. 62.
23
dancing."17 Lastly, there is corroboration from Ottavio Durante's Arie Devote (1608) and
from Ignatio Donati's Secondo libro de' Motetri a voce sola (1636) in the listing of rules for
the art of singing:
. . . [the singer should] not make gestures with his body or his face while he is
singing; but if he really wants to he must do so gracefully and in accordance with the
sense of the words.
Hold the head high and look straight ahead, with your mouth half open so as not to
lose too much breath; try not to arch the eyebrows, to move the lips or to make
unseemly gestures with your face.18
Lengthy discussions of the proper usage of vowels in singing were provided by
Maffei (1562) and Zacconi (1592). According to Maffei:
. . . I say that there are five vowels (as everyone knows), among which some, like U,
strike the ear with a frightful tone, so that when you ornament on it you seem indeed to
be imitating a howling wolf.
And some, like the I, when you use it in diminutions, sound like a little animal bleating
because it has lost its mother. However, we may grant that for the sopranos many
diminutions on this vowel would be less ugly than for other voices. The other vowels
that remain can be used without scruples, but when you make comparisons among
them, I say that 0 is the best, because with it the voice is made rounder;. . . 19
In Zacconi's Prattica di musica (1592) the suggestions for vowels agree with regard to the
necessity for roundness. However, the two writer's disagree regarding the appropriateness
of some vowels, particularly U and I.
He should also take care to sing the syllables as bright and round as he would if he
were sol-fa-ing them, or singing only a syllable of some word.
It is necessary then that in every example or piece he sing all the five vowels, which
are A E I O U; because some of them must be pronounced closed, as I and U,
others half open, as E and 0 , and one wide, as A. He will find that / and U are
17Gioseffo Zarlino, The Art of Counterpoint, translated Guy Marco and Claude
Palisca (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), p. 111.
18Fortune, "Italian Singing," p. 214.
24
easily said, and that with a bit of work one can master E and 0 ; but that the A demands
more breath than all the others and one works harder to pronounce it.20
Primary sources seem to indicate that the volume of sound of instruments and
voices in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was relatively soft, and it is logical to
conclude that the basic volume of sound would have been less than that which is common
today. From descriptions of performances in which instruments doubled or accompanied
the voices, it can be surmised that the volume level of the instruments was quite soft.
Thurstan Dart has provided many citations of performances between the years 1539 and
1589 in which the balance of voices and instruments is noteworthy. For example, he refers
to a 1567 presentation of an open-air masquerade in six parts performed by a dozen voices
accompanied by two cometts, two crumhoms, and two trombones.21
The following two citations, although in reference to sacred performances, also
support the premise that instruments of the day would have played more softly than their
modem counterparts. Thomas Coryat (1611) described a concert in which instruments
accompanied the voices:
Sometimes there sung 16 or 20 men together, having their master or moderator to keep
them in order; and when they sung the instrumental musicians played also. Sometimes
16 played together upon their instruments, 10 sagbuts, 4 cornets, and 2
violdegamboes of an extraordinary greatness;.. .22
As previously discussed, Michael Praetorius (1619) provided various options23 for
combining instruments and voices in the performance of a motet originally written for ten
voices in two choirs:
20Ibid., pp. 72-73.
22MacCIintock, Readings, p. 115.
^Praetorius, Syntagma Music im. Vol. II, trans. Blumenfeld, p. iii.
25
Choir I Choir E
1. voices alone comet, 4 trombones
2. voices alone 5 viols da braccio
3. voices alone 2 flute, 2 trombones, bassoon
The proper balance between instruments and voices in these examples would have been
difficult had the instruments not played with a relatively soft sound. This author believes
that although written at the end of the seventeenth century, the following statement from
Roger North's Memoirs of Music (1695), is also appropriate to earlier performances: "I
cannot but comend the double base, or standing viol, for plaine bases, especially for
accompanying voices, because of its softness joyned with such a force as helps the voice
very much."24 In discussing the viol family, Donington concurs with this belief: "The
viols are more lightly constructed and strung than the violins. They have, therefore, a more
freely resonant but less powerful tone."25
Many writers of the time advocated soft singing. For example, in his Micrologus
(translated by Dowland in 1609), Omithoparcus stated:
Let a singer take heed, lest he begin too loud, braying like an Ass, or when he hath
begun with an uneven height, disgrace the song. For God is not pleased with loud
cryes, but with lovely sounds.26
A particularly revealing reference was provided by Thomas Coryat (1611) in a discussion
of the music at Scuola di San Rocco, a few years prior to Monteverdi’s arrival in Venice,
which suggested that singers produced a very small volume of sound:
26
. . . Sometimes two singular fellowes played together upon Theorboes, to which they
sung also, who yeelded admirable sweet musicke, but so still that they could scarce be
heard but by those that were very neare them.27
In his D iscorso. . . of 1580 Giovanni de' Bardi stated:
. . . the nice singer will endeavor to deliver his song with all suavity and sweetness in
his power, rejecting the notion that music must be sung boldly, for a man of this mind
seems among other singers like a plum among oranges.28
Lastly, Adriano Banchieri's Conclusioni nel suono dell'organo (1609) states: "From those
words one must understand the sweetness which should be used, additionally making sure
that the faithful are hearing soft and sweet harmony . . . "29
In many writings there is especially strong support for soft singing in the high
range of the voice. Hermann Finck’s Practica musica of 1556 provides such evidence:
For no song is embellished by roaring and screaming; rather with spirit and
understanding must the voices be united: the higher a voice rises the quieter and
lovelier should the note be sung; the more it descends, the richer the sound,. . . 30
Assuming that the basic volume of sound during this time was overall less than
that commonly found today, a hierarchy of loud and soft can be determined. Many writers
discussed the appropriateness of various volume levels in various situations. For example,
an excerpt from Zarlino's Instituzioni Harmoniche (1558) supports this thesis:
A singer should also not force the voice into a raucous, bestial tone. He should strive
to moderate his tone and blend it with the other singers' so that no voice is heard above
the others. Such pushed singing produces more noise than harmony. For harmony
results only when many things are tempered so that no one exceeds the other. The
singer should know too that in church and in public chapels he should sing with full
voice, moderated of course as I have just said, while in private chambers he should
use a subdued and sweet voice and avoid clamor. Singers in such places should use
good taste, so as not to leave themselves open to rightful censure.
27Arnold, "Monteverdi's Singers," p. 982.
29Banchieri, Conclusioni. trans. Garrett, p. 13.
27
But to leave these matters, I shall conclude by saying that if the composer and singer
observe those things that pertain to their respective offices, there is no doubt that every
composition will be sweet, soft, and harmonious, and the listeners will be pleased and
grateful.31
This advice supporting louder singing in a church is further supported by Cesare
Crivellati in Discorsi musicali ( 1 6 2 4 ) : . . in churches you sing differently from music -
rooms; in churches you sing with a loud voice, in music-rooms with a subdued voice."32
It is important to keep in mind Zarlino’s statement, however, which implies that loud
singing in churches is simply louder than in chambers and is still basically a soft sound.
Monteverdi's madrigals would have been performed in "private chambers" or "music-
rooms" and, therefore, are subject to soft singing. Giovanni Puliaschi provided further
evidence of this in Musiche varie a una voce (1618) with the advice that even when a singer
is singing loudly, " . . . his voice should not lose its sweetness."33 In another of Zarlino’s
treatises. Sopplimenti Musicali (15881. there is additional support for soft singing: "But I
do not say that the singer ought either to shriek or to shout while singing, because these
things have neither proportion nor propriety."34
Vibrato is another aspect of sound quality. It is frequently believed that early
music should not employ vibrato, but it did exist to some degree. Robert Donington, a
recognized authority in the performance of Baroque music states that " . . . baroque vibrato
differs from romantic vibrato in being less intense, less sustained, less insistent in every
way, but certainly not in being altogether absent."35 Vibrato and another effect known as
31Zarlino, Art of Counterpoint, trans. Marco and Palisca, p. 111.
33Ibid.
34Rowen. Music Through Sources, p. 132.
35Robert Donington, Baroque Music: Style and Performance (New York: W. W.

Norton and Company, 1982), p. 36.
28
tremolo were considered ornaments in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries
and, in many of the treatises, were discussed with regard to other aspects of ornamentation.
According to Donington, tremolo refers to a fluctuation in intensity that sometimes results
in the reiteration of the note, (trillo) while vibrato refers to a fluctuation o f pitch in which
the frequency oscillation is small enough so as not to result in a change of note.36
Praetorius provided this explanation of the tremolo:
Tremolo, or Tremulo: is nothing other than a trembling of the voice on one note; the
organists call it Mord.an.ten or moderanten. And this is used more on organs and
quilled instruments than by human voices.37
In his Prattica di musica (1592), Ludovico Zacconi advised that tremolo, in moderation, is
a necessary tool in the execution of ommentation.
I say also that the tremolo, that is, the trembling voice, is the true gate to enter the
passages and to become proficient in the gorgia; because the boat moves with greater
ease when it is first pushed, and the dancer leaps better if he first prepares for the leap.
The tremolo should be short and beautiful, for if it is long and forceful it tires and
bores.38
In Svntagma Musicum. Volume III (1619), Praetorius supported the belief that vibrato in
moderation is desirable:
The requisites are these: first, the requirement that a singer must have a pleasantly
vibrating voice (not, however, as some are trained to do in schools, but with particular
moderation). . . . 39
Representing the virtual elimination of vibrato, Christoph Bernhard, in Von der
Sing-Kunst oder Manier (1650), stated:
The fermo or holding firm of the voice is required on all notes excepting where the
trillo or the ardire is used. The ornament of the fermo must particularly be thus
understood because the tremulo (except on the organ, on which all the voices can
tremulo together, where for the sake of variety it sounds well) is an offense. By older
36Donington, Interpretation of Earlv Music, p. 229.
38Ibid., p. 73.
39Ibid., p. 164.
29
singers it is not applied for art's sake, it creeps in because they can no longer hold the
voice firm. Whoever desires more testimony on the disadvantages of die tremulo
should hear an old tremulo-er singing alone and he will be able to judge why the
tremulo of this singer is not used for the ardire. which will be discussed later. (The
ardirel is allowed to basses in some places with the stipulation that it is used seldom,
especially on short notes.40
Bernhard continued with an explanation of the ardire:
The ardire is a tremolo that is made on the last note of a phrase. This ardire is used by
few except basses. It is well to remember that on the last note o f a piece which is
called the final it should not be used 41
These statements by Bernhard do not represent a major contradiction from those
of Zacconi and Praetorius. They support the concept that vibrato was to be used sparingly
as an ornament. In drawing conclusions for modem performances of the music of this era,
it is probably wise to temper Bernhard's advise. To eliminate vibrato entirely will greatly
diminish the natural beauty and freedom of the voice. Therefore, in the performance of
compositions of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, it seems logical to limit
significantly the amount of vibrato often used by twentieth-century performers. The
application of vibrato can be for ornamental purposes. For modem performers who are
accustomed to singing with a considerable amount of vibrato, this significant limitation may
give the feeling o f a complete elimination of vibrato. The effect may undoubtedly be
drastic, however, a modicum of vibrato will help the tone retain its vibrancy.
The primary source evidence presented in this chapter provides strong support for
a quality of sound in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century music which is quite different from
our twentieth-century concept. Further, it should be kept in mind that there is no basic
difference in the concept of sound quality between the late Renaissance and early Baroque.
Singers and instrumentalists are strong!}' encouraged to consider three primary aspects
40James Paul, "Vitalizing Elements in the Performance of Baroque Choral and

Instrumental Music as Revealed in the Study of Baroque Performance Practice,"
(D. M. A. dissertation, University of Washington, 1966), p. 18.
41Ibid., p. 23.
30
when performing music of this time: the basic nature of and approach to the sound, a
reduction in the amount of volume, and a limitation in the amount of vibrato used.
CHAPTER m
ORNAMENTATION
This chapter will discuss various aspects of ornamentation appropriate to
sixteenth- and seventeenth-century compositions. Among these aspects will be the basic
characteristics o f ornamentation; examples of specific ornaments, particularly those
advocated by Maffei, Caccini, Praetorius, and Bernhard; the execution of these ornaments
from the throat; the excesses in ornamentation commonly discussed in the late-sixteenth and
early-seventeenth centuries; and the degree of instrumental ornamentation when doubling
vocal lines. In addition, the suggested placement of appropriate ornaments in selected
madrigals of Monteverdi will be provided.
It is a commonly-acknowledged tradition that the music of the Baroque was to be
ornamented. However, the existence of vocal and instrumental embellishment in the
sixteenth century is not as widely known and is even less frequently found in modern
performances. As an aid in establishing conventions of ornamentation prior to
Monteverdi's eight books, Thurston Dart made this statement regarding performances of
Florentine madrigals between the years 1539 and 1589:
. . . madrigals of this kind could be performed in two entirely different manners, the
one straightforward, the other highly coloured and including additional extemporised
harmony and counterpoint. If we gauge the worth or effectiveness of these works on
performances of them in their simple form alone, we may easily misjudge their
composers.1
^ a r t . Interpretation of Music, pp. 139-140.
32
As early as 1535 in Opera intitulata Fontegara. Sylvestro di Ganassi provided
elaborate examples of ornamentation for the recorder. He stated that his examples were
suitable for other instruments as well as for the voice. The nature of Renaissance
ornamentation primarily consisted of rapid scale passages commonly called passaggi
(passages) or diminuzioni (diminutions). These divisions of longer notes are melodic
ornaments. For example, in his book on performance practice, Gotthold Frotscher
includes nine examples2 from treatises (1535-1613) illustrating possible embellishments for
the interval of a fourth. The last three examples fall within the scope of Monteverdi's
madrigals:
2Gotthold Frotscher, Performance Practice of Earlv Music, translated by Kurt

Michaelis (New York: Heinrichschafen Edition, 1981), pp. 139-140.
33
Example 1
Sylvestro di Ganassi, 1535:
Adrianus Petit Coclico, 1552:
jl L - j L j - i 11
Diego O rtiz, 1553:
Tomas de Santa Maria, 1565:
* M FI 1 1 M P1 f 1 11 II a■ II
Giovanni Luca Conforti, 1593:

» - II . ! I = - | | , 1, i i
ft lu • - 11 J, J 1. ' J " '
Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, 1594:
I ..... II • 1 1 "If H
V O---------- --------- d td ‘‘ o------ J.—
=*- ■=». , SB II ■ ■- , r s = s 4=3

11*^------ ^ J J — H-j—t Is P ^ hMI
Pietro Cerone, 1613:
Howard M. Brown provides examples3 of four different versions of passaggi
applicable to a madrigal by Cipriano de Rore. These four examples were notated by Della
Casa (d. 1601), a treatise writer, Bassano (d. 1617), a composer; and two voice teachers,
Rogniono (d. 1620) and Bovicelli (fl. 1592-1594).
Example 2
Rore ‘Anchor che eo’l partirc’
The original version
chor che co'l par
Bassano
Rogniono
Bovicelli
m
Ti k Io
= * = -J-/*..* » 4 ,-* r il
.........
= * -
# =
..........
b u s - r 3J - - t e a
3Howard Mayer Brown, Embellishing Sixteenth-Centurv Music. (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1976), pp. 43-46.
35
Example 2 (continued)
$
** mi
--------1------------------------------------
sen ta
= * = F = -------- -------- ., , ..
1 - ~
1 ;
------------
J-J-J —-— p------ p —
Hi J- j " ~ L L M a
re
36
Giovanni Maffei included an example of a fully-ornamented madrigal and rules
for the application of the embellishments in his letter on singing (1562). Both are provided
below:
| f ( U F
J - - & '- - I ........................ ~6~

La - SCIAR 11 VR . LA A
------------------ r r -
m ~5 F t
A La- scimi IL VE . LO 0 pi•R £01' 0
v a
a
p
u 3UAR IL \t _ Lb
► >
2----- « -
t—1
-J-\I / - M
1=3*
La _ £3CIML IL VE . ID 0 Pt R SOI1
~9t ~ ~ 6 n -s - — r —I i + -
f f l
1— '< 4 - A ai ■ 4 &
4
HIl SOi' 0 PSR an
P P
[- am " -J - o
PEp. on . _ _ BRA
P------------- 9
R P O -vH* ----------
-- r— = = - 4 = 1
V TER SOL 0 PER
-~e----------------------------
P 4
o per om .. bra
37
BM OHM KON
NON
a
HA
i
|9 |9 |9- i
VID b ( 0 POICH IN ME CO OHO 5 C E
o a g -g .-O
v io d ' ia PO iCH 'lH H E CO GNU 5c t .

T, --------------------------------
S c.
// i n °
■ W f r R f l
VI V ID d 'i o p o / c h 111 h e C o g n o s c e _
38
■jnr ~a~ 1
S1E. IL MMt I t - 51 GtHGtN'hLTlUl
m a
ST£ IL OE 5l
T5"
Set . an il tlLKVi bt . 5i CHUtf

*
a s= &
STt il gran be SI - -
- A . -------------------------------J --------------
J t ----------- 1 i i ■i 1 ■
-@ ■ 1 -0 ---------<2-------------- J --------------
M= < 3 i J-J ^ ....
V6 S lIA ffcL . 1 RA V6
~ Q t,"~ --------i— 7 -j j
’■i J J J J iJ J ^ J ~t a
------ d- d
AtlRA Yb . . U.I h I M . IRA
v t ■' n a T“
-M-d=4= ■ J~|
^ f r
AURA ' 1 1 . . _ tu L h a _ Tr a ]
-% ■ ------- e —
CH'SU' kl
0 ~:n:q _ 1R&
39
-ftr-i— tr r n — ■
_ - o '
F f f F I
_ _ . _ cua! Den. UTALCORMl
0 y ~\— — t t
U a -
VO _ CLIfkh>EiWt'AL Cflt Ml SCON . . . BRA [ACUTE
■ f t -----------------------------------------“ ------------e t - ^ j 7^ - j -O--- a

V ' not
VO _ . CUMJ l)evi1R AL CMi Hi %J*A. u i\n
----- —s,
P----- 1-----
'fan ------------------------ 5~ -------- P~P~ o b -
-J ---------------------------------- — ~ P -------
*r p i l
>10 _ - C .U A D en TR' Al tOU- Ml S C .6 M .M A to f H T R '
If^ F l 4 J J . -4 :
J-+--Q---- &- - e ---------------------------
soon _ . m.
P n
--------- k©------------------
l-J •
M COA Ml ausM _ bra] AL
4rt— . Ta i l
° — — a i— J—
j j*— J I*-*■—
I Ji
iai — 1 d
—sp [tam/Ai fftQ
\
-a- o
-A =- RM -C
At. COR HI SUM - tt,RA M.
40
MU .
COS Ml S&AM
The first rule, then, is that diminutions are made in no other place except in the
cadences; since the harmony is coming to an end in the cadences one can ornament
very pleasingly without disturbing the other singers. But one is not prohibited for this
reason, before reaching the cadence, from passing from one note to another with some
variation or decoration, as we see in the printed madrigal, where it can be tolerated and
where it seems to be fitting.
The second rule is that in one madrigal you should not make more than four or five
diminutions, so that the ear, enjoying the sweetness rarely, becomes ever more
desirous o f hearing it. This would not happen if you sing decorations continually,
because the diminutions, instead of pleasing, would become tiresome when the ear is
saturated with them.
The third rule is that the diminution should be made on the penultimate syllable so that
the end of the word will be the end of the ornamentation.
The fourth is that the diminution should be made on the word and syllable where the
vowel O occurs rather than any of the other words.
The fifth rule is that when four or five people sing together, while they sing, one
should yield to another, because if two or three should make diminutions at the same
time the harmony would be disturbed. And how much is included in this rule is
clearly exemplified in the madrigal I have given.4
4MacClintock, Readings, pp. 47-53.
Maffei clearly stated in his rules and illustrated in the madrigal that ornamentation
can appear in all voices. Hermann Finck concurred on this issue but indicated that there
were differing opinions. The following excerpt, from a chapter entitled "On the Art of
Singing Elegantly and Sweetly," is found in Practica musica o f 1556:
The manner of adding embellishments depends on skill, natural suitability, and the
singularity of the individual ornament. Each has his own manner. There are many
who are of the opinion that the bass should be embellished, others say the discantus;
but in my opinion embellishments both can and should be applied to all the voices; but
not throughout, only at indicated places; also not in all voices alike, only on the proper
degrees. And let them be done in their turn, in such a way that each embellishment can
be clearly distinguished from the others, yet so that the entire work is uniform.5
Finck went on to say that when there is more than one singer per part, it will be difficult to
coordinate elaborate ornaments:
. . . in a chorus coloraturae cannot be added without poor results, for when one part is
assigned to several to sing, the coloraturae will become very difficult, whence both the
pleasantness and the nature of the sound are obscured.6
Perfonners of late Renaissance choral music should keep in mind that the addition
of ornaments is entirely appropriate, although the figures must be less ornate than those for
solo consorts. These ornamental passages should be primarily scalewise and melodic in
nature and can be quite lengthy.
Caccini defined new ornaments that were more appropriate to monodies of the
early seventeenth century. As opposed to the simple melodic ornaments of the sixteenth
century, there was an increased desire for embellishment of single notes or cadential
patterns. These new ornaments7 included: intonazione (the initiating of a note under the
written pitch, often by the interval of a third), esclamazione (to be discussed later in greater
detail), trillo, gruppo, ribattuta di gola, and cascata (See examples 3 through 6 below)
5Ibid., pp. 63-64.
6Ibid., p. 64.
7Giulio Caccini, Le Nuove musiche. edited by H. Wiley Hitchcock (Madison: A-

R Editions, Inc., 1970), pp. 50-53.
42
Example 3
T rillo
Example 4 Example 5
C ru pp o R ib atluta di gola
Example 6
Ahi- ro&(— ch’io mo- ro.
XT
In Volume III of Syntagma Musicum (1619), Michael Praetorius discussed at
length many of the same ornaments found in Le Nuove musiche. He first addessed the
intonatio:
Intonatio is the way in which a song is started; and there are different opinions about
this. Some want to start it on the proper note; others a second below the proper note,
so that the voice climbs and rises gradually. Others say the third [below], others on
the fourth [below]. Some begin with a graceful soft tone. All these different manners
are included for the most part under the term Accentus*
Praetorius continued this discussion under the heading, "Doctrine," that included a lengthy
discourse on dim inutio, an extension of that found in Renaissance ornamentation,
however, consisting of several specific ornaments not found in the late-sixteenth-century.
Although these new ornaments, i.e., accentus, tremolo, gruppo, and tirata, are divisions
of longer note values into shorter ones, they are primarily brief ornaments which embellish
single notes or cadential patterns in much the same way as Caccini's figures. Major
differences from Caccini's ornaments can be seen in tremoletti and tiratae which are more
lengthy, scalewise passages similar to their Renaissance predecessors. This discussion
consists of general statements concerning ornamentation followed by more specific
descriptions and many musical examples (found in MacClintock's Readings . . . , pp. 165-
170):
Furthermore a singer must have a good knowledge of how to form the diminutions
(usually called coloratura) attractively and appositely.
Diminutio is when a long note is broken and resolved into many other small and fast
notes. These are of different kinds and manners. Of these some follow in order, such
as Accentus, Tremulo, Gruppi, and Tirata.
Accentus is: when the following figures are drawn in the throat [see Ex. 1].
N.B. The two flagged notes with 3 below, means that they should have three flags,
32 of which belong to a Tactus.
Initial an d final n o te in u n iso n

±, h - 3'
J If J J
Ascending by second
_r\
tyJ- JJT*JI
44
continued
D escen d in g
r\
"r:; f> .- f -fv-ft-f 1 H jj

—
-P b ~ sj.s-* * f--»
D esc en d in g
- j h ' p - T: l - ^ F l ,
c * #•
/T»
Q[ J- S 5 - I — 7 -P I — H
-& y — s
— - h -
A sce inding b y fourtl
- ( ? { , ■ - s »--------- i
L ^ |_ i
i » n , . i
D escending
rjh -r-
J ------- l - f
---J ------ sL-6 -h
H—
i= f t 3 l
Asc( m d in g b y fifth
___ k.fS —
- 0 ^ — j- f * — r* T T 1h r 1
= h ^ = t -J- * J j - i
^ D escendin g PT\
-ftr4 -i . » j * f II P j---
^ .rL — H i ^ r-<~ r— -
u
1 ?.. 4
45
Tremolo, or Tremulo: is nothing other than a trembling of the voice on one note; the
organists call it Mordanten or moderanten. And this is used more on organs and
quilled instruments than by human voices.
Ascending tremolo
Descending. This is not as good as the ascending.
Tremoletti
ii a s
Ex. 2
Examples of the gruppo are very similar to those found in Le Nuove musiche.
The tirata is similar to Caccini's cascata except, as previously noted, more lengthy; the trilb
is essentially the same in each treatise.
Gruppo, or Groppi: These are used in cadence and formal Clausulae, and must be
struck more sharply than the Trnmoli.
ft r r I f t r z t ' r r-1-rp f-p
Ex. 3
9Ibid., p. 165-167.
46
Tiratae: Are long, fast runs stepwise, and can be used on the clavier either ascending
or descending. The faster and cleaner these little runs are made, so that one can hear
each note clearly, the better and more attractive it will be.
,qri f l w r i | i r n i f e
Ex. 4 ■***
Diminutions that do not move by degree are Trillo and Passaggi.
Trillo: Is o f two kinds: the one that occurs in unison, either on a line or in a space,
when many rapid notes are repeated one after the another.
M SS
J j J Jj Ja5 -j S j J J J j J J
Ex. 5
[Examples] of this type are found in Claudio Monteverdi.
[The preceding sentence is omitted in MacClintock's translation, but is found on
page 376 of Lampl's translation.]
The second Trillo is performed in a different way. And indeed it is impossible to learn
to form a trill properly from the preceding [examples], for it is taught Vivapraeceptoris
voce et ope [through the efforts and the demonstrations of a teacher]. The [trill] is
sung and presented so that one may learn from another, just as a bird leams by
observation of another. Since I have not found this kind of trill described or translated
by any Italian author (even in the time of the aforementioned Caccini) except only a "t"
or "tr" or "tri" over the note where a trill should be made, nevertheless I have
considered it necessary to add here in passing several kinds so that ignorant tyros may
see and know approximately what will be called a trill.
47
_
ji.j_= -[_
=
! —
'1 l iii p » x
. :
PbJ #I [r-* TJ/T

*
*f f rJ.' i* "I
A
ctT
u
u rL
il
-SHIh
lfj"
fJ"t"J
___________ 1
#
~J7#
r.
T;<
|3n
P
|, # zJ-“ ■| jH t
r
.
J' liiT 3'
t * sf
-/jr-
r — f " *~9
7
1L_ £-p ?_ #
U4-
2
b ^ — r i
hi
|
i
J -■ T?rjr
.. —
V * * J 3 J
1C ’
r£
>"f-z H
8If—-j-Ir."J V, m
L
iI # . -
ti
.
ff .
f tf r =»
= r-f?
r i
’■■1 - ^ M J --J II- -*— m
^
'X G
trri7
F
Tr
upo
i'"#
'fr^rrrfrrr£LP'M mP9 - - *
tr .
y <3 ■ "
Q j. i rrJT J'JT
- P -------------j-5 — tt-> — h — I
(aRJPPO
■fiM t£ = h k ±
f y k l J & k
Ex. 6
48
Passaggi: These are swift runs, which move by degrees and also leaps of all kinds of
intervals, both ascending and descending, over longer notes.10
The following list reveals the original notation found in each of the Monteverdi
madrigals used as examples for the remainder of this chapter. The voice distinctions for
each of the five-part madrigals are labelled canto-quinto-alto-tenore-basso from highest to
lowest except Si, ch'io vorei morire which is labelled canto-alto-quinto-tenore-basso.
Example # measurefsl voice pants') original notation
7 33 quinto half-note C
8 39 alto half-note F
9 83 alto half-note A,
quarter-note G-sharp
10 6 quinto half-note A
quarter-note G-sharp
11 11 canto half-note G
12 16 canto half-note B
13 55 tenore half-note B
14 57 quinto whole-note B
15 104 canto whole-note E
16 14 tenore whole-note B
18 30 alto half-note C
19 30-31 quinto half-note A

alto dotted half-note F
20 8 quinto half-note C
21 40 canto half-note C-sharp
22 11 tenore half-note E
10Ibid., pp. 167-170.
49
23 14 basso half-note G
24 42 canto half-note C
quinto half-note E
25 91 canto half-note F
half-note E
26 81 canto half-note G-sharp
quinto half-note G-sharp
29 53 canto half-note D
quarter-note C-sharp
30 33 alto half-note C-sharp
31 14 canto whole-note B
32 28 quinto half-note F-sharp
33 14 canto half-note G-sharp
34 45 canto half-note C
The ornaments discussed by Caccini and Praetorius are appropriate for
performances of Monteverdi madrigals. For example, the gruppo can be applied at
cadential points. The rhythm and duration of this ornament will vary. In some cases it can
be executed entirely with sixteenth notes (examples 7 ,8 , and 9) while in other locations it
can contain eighth notes as well (example 10).
50
Example 7 Arsi e alsi a mia voglia (Book I), mm 29-36
L’al auon V a t juoii V a t • ti t (uo par
lie4 lu o n L 'tl * lie luon del tuo par
Vat
f a • r a n va del
L*al lie del
35
Ur Fa • ran
Sde f a - ran
lar Sde
Sde fa • ran
Ur Sde fa - ran va
51
Example 8 Ecco mormorar l'onde (Book II), mm 37-41
ic . Ec • co gia l’al*lia_ap • pa
tc . Ec • co gia 1’il-b a ^ a p .
«tcr le.
dcr I'o Ec • co gia I 'a l-b a ja p •
Example 9 Sf, ch'io vorei morirc (Book IV), mm 80-84

60
ri • re, c h ’io vo • r t i mo . ri * re ,
IK “
c h 'io vo • re i m o • ri • re » .
k Ik)
..... ------------------- 1---------- —n
ri • te , ch’io vo ♦ rei mo ♦ ri - re, c h 'io vo - rei mo

i f l l p i
t
I Q | f W- J | i— r\ [ jj | J- J j -1 — |j
♦J
' ri • re. ch'io vo ♦ rei mo - ri • re , c h 'io vo • rei m o • ri • re » .
/
ri • re , c h 'io vo - rei m o • ri - re, c h 'io vo * rei mo - ri re» .
ri * re , ch’io vo - rei m o * ri • re, c h 'io v o » rei mo ri re» .
■fcl: ■ _ --
_
L—J I J J
i
S S 1
Example 10 O chiome d'or (Book VI), mm 5-9
del se no
lie v c g en - til d el se no,
v e g en - til del se no O___
ne v e g en - til del se no, g i - g lid e
del se no, g i - g li d e
52
The trillo, a repetition of a single pitch, is also a cadential ornament. In each of
the three examples below the duration of this ornament is suggested by this author as two
eighth notes followed by four sixteenth notes. However, it has been suggested by
Donington11 that the measured rhythms found in the trillo and gruppo above are not
necessarily to be followed in performance. In Le Nuove musiche, for instance, Caccini
provided information from the viewpoint of three different kinds of persons: composer,
singer, and voice teacher. Therefore it is possible that the examples were merely measured
by Caccini (the teacher) for the purpose of a vocal exercise and in performance the rhythm
would have been much more freely interpreted.12
Example 11 Ecco' normorar l’onde, mm 9-13
ft 10 . • ^ ™
- a ,u .p .— ..- . i - . - ....... u ■; .... i - p J .. ■i . i ......... — —i
ma lu ti • na_e gl»_ir .b o r • icel l i " " -------------------
r 4
ma tu li • n a e gli_ar*bor . iccl li
^ ------------------------ 1 - '- - - I ■■■■h I I
5 Er • co m of— mo*rar I’on •

->*■{. \lp ___
{* n —H
» ma • tu ti nae • bor • seel li
N • mo •tar
Ec - co m ar I 'o n *
1Bonington, Interpretation of Music, p. 230.
12H. Wiley Hitchcock, "Vocal Ornamentation in Caccini's 'Nuove musiche"’

Musical Quarterly 56 (July 1970): 390.
53
Example 12 Qui rise Tirsi (Book VI), mm 14-18
bel . . u C lo ri
Clo
qui per or
54
Example 13 A1 lume delle stelle (Book VE), mm 52-59
. chi lucen . . . . . . . . . . .
jf_ —g J j .. 4 ■ ■— i i \ ' -*- - I 1 f ~
^ = f= = ^ = = ^
; : r i? ;
01 l u . c l lu .c i ca re lu .c i
Cl
The ribattuta di gola, a dotted cadential ornament, can be followed by an optional
trillo. In each of the four examples below, the combination of the two ornaments has been
utilized. In general, this ornament, especially in the combined form, should be used
sparingly. A basic guideline suggested by this author would be to use it at strong cadences
and only once or twice in a composition.
Example 14 O come &gran martire (Book EH), mm 50-61
tc il co r K vo i sc
h voi Ic i l c o r
. ie il cor
E voi sc teil cor
. re E voi se te il cor
UC
mi
. te il c o r m i
A l . t 'h o r tta e h * io
non fia .c h ’i o v'h
o A) . 1‘ h o r non fia ch ’io ▼ ’a mi quon.
56
Example 15 Qui rise Tirsi, mm 102-107
v •e
Q u i d ’u n b s . t i o fe .
Q u i d ’u n b a . c i o f e . r i m . m i
Example 16 Dara la notte il sol (Book VI), mm 10-16
tia jl di p ri m a che G la u co
m a che G la u co, p ri - m a che
tia il di m a che G la u co,
co,
- '. i a i l di pri m a che G la u co. p ri
57
Example 17 O chiome d'or, mm 49-53
A h mu - se qui, qui sgor-ga - te jl piaui to .
A h s qui, qui sg o r-g a-tejl piail to .
m u -se qui sgor-gdte, Ah mu - se qui, qui sg o r-g a-teil pian to .
m u- se qui sgor-ga pian
te il p la n to.
The intonazione, the initiating of a note under the written pitch often by the
interval of a third, and the cascata, a rapid descending scale passage, are not primarily
cadential ornaments. The former is found at the beginning of a phrase while the latter may
be found within a phrase as well as at a cadence. The execution of the intonazione should
be on the beat and very rapid. The execution of the cascata should be extremely fast,
articulated in the throat, giving emphasis to the last note. Examples 18-20 suggest
placement of the intonazione, and examples 21-23 suggest placement o f the cascata.
saoa de le mle can . no ho col
fluon de le mie can - ne un grera
Example 19 Ditelo voi (Book VI), mm 28-31
duol, be - van
—* -------- m " • ------- — o —

duol, be - v a n -d a il p ian Poi cb* il mio ben
tuo bel no, Poi cb’ il mio
ce tuo bel ee no,
no,
59
Example 20 O chiome d’or, mm 5-9
jjj j ue ■
Jut'll' j’
ve gen • til del se
.J~ii-tfTiTr r p p=#=
- uo, 0 gi - gli de la
ne • ve gen - til del se • no, 0 _____ gi - gli d- la
Example 21 O Mirtillo, mm 39-43
40
mor tro p - poin fe Che gio cor mio,
. mor trop • poin fe Che gio mio,
cil Che gio mio,
- mor trop poin fe c il Che gto
<»> <«> <»> 
60
Example 22 Dara la notte il sol, mm 10-16
p ri m a che G la u eo, p r i - m a. c h e
ti^ il di p ri m a che G la u p ri - m a che
tia il di p ri m a che G la u
- ti^ jl di p ri m a che G la u
tia il di p ri m a che G la u
Example 23 Riedi (Book V m ), mm 13-15
/r
c h ’A r a o r e M ar c q u a s i in e o r g e n . e q u a s i in c o r g e n .
. te e q u a s i in c o r g e n . t i l c o r . t e s e a f . f e t . .to
A .m o r c M sr . c q u a s i in c o r g e n .
61
Simple, melodic ornaments can be added at cadences for heightened expressive
effect. These appear to be the most appropriate in the top voice or voices and using
stepwise motion. The Conforti (1593) and Cerone (1613) ornaments found in example 1
of this chapter illustrate this. The following six examples provide possible ornaments of
this nature in madrigals of Monteverdi.
Example 24 Arsi e alsi a mia voglia, mm 40-44
del tuo par • la r in • ta
Example 25 Ecco mormorar l'onde, mm 85-92
90
gm j>r .
Ch’o
C h'o • gni_ar - 10
62
Example 26 O come b gran martire, mm 77-82
quando aa ri c h e v i.v e r p iu non b ra nu.
quan do a t - ri che p iu non
v i . v c r p iu non mi non b r a nn
non b ra mu
vcr non mi
Example 27 Si, ch’io vorei morire, mm 33-38
63
Example 28 Incenerite spoglie (Book VI), mm 46-50
ta -to G la u - c o , In d u o -lU n i r a j l to r-m e n -ta . to G ia n CO.
In duo - P in i ra jl to r-m e u -ta - to G la u CO.
co, to r-m e n -ta - to G la u CO.
In d u o -IM n i - r a i l to r - m e u - ta to G la u co.
G la u co.
Example 29 Dara la none il sol, mm 50-54
r e e ’l C ie Io.
s p ir di p ia n -to P r o • d i ^ h e a lu i sa . ra n le fe - r e e 'l C ie lo .
s p ir di p ia n -to P r o - d i-g h e a lu i sa - ra n le fe
s p ir di p ia n • to P r o - d t-g h e a lu i s a - ra n lo .
s p ir di p ia n - to P r o - d j- g f a e _ a l u i sa - ra n le f e - r e j s ’l C ie lo .
At many cadential points the addition of anticipations or suspensions will greatly
add to the expressive emotion of the text. The following four examples, all from Lagrime
d'Amante al Sepolcro dell’Amata (Book VI), illustrate both types. Anticipations are
suggested in examples 30 and 31, and suspensions are suggested in examples 32 and 33.
64
Example 30 Ditelo voi, mm 32-35
L et tq _ o sas fe -
CO p ri so
ben li - d a te r ra , Foi c b ’i l m io ben co
F oi c b ’i l m io ben co
Example 31 Dara la none il sol, mm 10-16
m a cbe GldU co, p ri - m a cbc
p ri m a cbe G la u co, p ri - m a che
- tia il di p ri m a cbe G la u co,
- tia jl di p ri m a cbe G la u co.
- tia il di p ri m a che G la u
65
Example 32 Ma te raccoglie, mm 22-32
tij bo schi, e cor-rer fiu-mijl
tii bo schi, e cor-rer fiu-mijl
e c o r-re r fio-m iil pian e cor-rer fra-nuu
e co r-re r n o-m u i pian
D e -e e r-tii bo achi, e cor-rer flu-m ijl
p ia n to.
p ia n to.
to.
p ia n to.
pian to.
66
Example 33 Dunque amate reliquie, mm 9-18
D un quqa • te r e - li-q u iq u n m a r
D un q u q a - m a • te ro -li'
so 7 D un q u q a -m a - te re -li q rn e u n m a r
gas «o? D un - q u e ja -m a q u ie u n m a r di
gas so ?
©
p ia n -to N on d a -ra n q u e -s ti lu - m q a l n o - b i l ge - no D V n fre d -d o
D ’u n f r e d d o
l- j j ' 1j j 4 i j. j ' j j Ij j -j U j
p ia n -to N on d a -ra n q u e -g ti lu - m (_ a l n o - b i l ge • n o D ’u n f r e d - do
N o n d a « a n q u e - s ti lu - m ^ a l n o - b il ge - n o D ’u n f r e d - d o
67
In Von der Sing-Kunst oder Manier (1650) by Christoph Bernhard, additional
ornaments similar to harmonic anticipations as well as further discussions and examples of
the ornaments described by Caccini and Praetorius are found. George Houle's translation
o f this discussion is included in James Paul's "Vitalizing Elements in the Performance of
Baroque Choral and Instrumental Music . . . pp. 18-23 in which Bernhard states:
The devices to be used in this are the following: 1. fermo. 2. forte. 3. piano. 4. tril'lo.
5. accento. 6. anticipatione della svllaba. 7. anticipatione della nota. 8. cercar della
nota. 9. ardire.
Fermo [see discussion of vibrato in chapter II.]
Forte and piano [see discussion of messa di voce in chapter V.]
The trillo is done everywhere a T is marked (the sign by which it is indicated). It may
be performed in other places, upon consideration. It is more through practice and
hearing that its place is learned than through precepts written down, which take a
singer's freedom. This discretion about which notes upon which to perform trillos is
an ability to choose. It is well to remember that it should not be done too often, for it
is much the same as with sausages, when frugally made with spices, they are
agreeable. Too many should not be done, especially in the beginning. This is our first
care, expressed in this place, but applying to all the kinds of ornaments to be
explained. Their use can better be learned by exercise.
Accento is a certain ornament made by ending a note as if with an echo that is just
beginning. It is an error to use a strongly expelled shout instead of a smooth accento.
and to think that by doing this a singer's ornament is given, an aversion to which is
caused in the listener by disadvantageous shouts. [Modem edition: p each effect.]
It is used once in passages of 1) descending notes, 2) adjoining notes, and 3) on final

notes:
A A K £ A
i
II 1 ^ _ ----- " ”
f II ’* t (* I r / n
ar t.lt 1 dJ -t 6 fll w
H i U V 1-
,r”t ' .. ' V
Do- «i>- n> E x- « u - cl • o r - <x- + i- o - r f tm w i- o-"' ■
"Used once" means that between two notes following each other, only one receives the
accento. the other note does not; a third note may receive the accento.
Only those syllables that in speech are long permit an accento. and those that are short
in speech must not have an accento. However, the last syllable of a word, even
though it would not bear an emphasis in speech, may have an accento.
68
A nticipatione della svliaba is signified by an S, and (as the name shows) is an

ornament which causes the syllable of the second note to be sung on a (rhythmic)
subdivision of the first; for example:
£
£
Caw- 4o.~ bo Ti‘- bl
-Sum
s ( Vm- ■&- i tor *n - W
*.
r 13
This type of ornament is easily applied in madrigals of Monteverdi. A possible
example, from Qui rise Tirsi (Book VI) is seen below:
no ee lie .to
. no n o • ri* fe • ee
no - rift fe . ee lie .
no me . n o . rift fe . ee
no ee
13Paul, "Vitalizing Elements," pp. 18-20.
69
Berhard continued his discussion with three additional ornaments similar to the
anticipatione della syllabla:
Anticipatione della svllaba is used 1) commonly when a note progresses one-half step
higher than the preceding, 2) less often, when a note rises or falls a third, 3) even less
often, when a note falls a fourth, fifth, or sixth, and least often when there is a rising
fourth, fifth or sixth . . . the syllable that belongs to the second note is heard fastened
at the end of the first note, as may be seen in the previous example. If a note rises or
falls a third, the syllable of the second note is sung on part of the time of the first note
on the pitch between the two notes, as:
[Hr- f
*— 14 • H r- »• "'
i T *—0*
r
1 /
' 14 svrv| ai
Jt
/ r /
. /L rp
\i — H— .
” EjC- u l- 4a- 4e 0 o - x v ' < - r \0 £ x . u |_ _ +».- 4*“ "O
If the note falls a fourth, fifth, etc. the interval is divided as follows:
£*.<}
T m
fe 4- i£ fr
in to r dt n t-c4 ar Cot-li- COK\ « .t k Cot- l'< - Cu>n
The last kind, when the note rises a fourth, etc. is almost not used, but is done thus:
£*-H> n
m m
L'xv- da- bo Do- Lav* — to—
I
Qo—
70
Anticipatione della nota is, as the name also shows, an ornament which performs the
second o f two notes on a part of the first, and is signified by an N. It is used when
notes go up or down a second.
If a note rises a second the first note is divided and the last part of it takes the pitch of
the second; also when the pitch descends a second:
- | i : r n t *1 r i \ ti q ij t i r % F ^
EK - u !- fe r- rx -te r- rx
Cercar della nota means a search for the note, and is signified by a C.
It is used either in the beginning (i.e. on the first note) or in the continuation of the
notes. If it is performed on the first note, begin on the pitch just below, quite short
and delicate, and from this glide up to the note of arrival imperceptibly:
1I=V-- ,^ ------ ------- \ M—i^— v fT T^------ r ...
--- 1*— - r [—&- \ .

o .[-J- o----
far- a . ' +-« Cer mt. um Dt — us P a r- a.- ^ ^ ne- un D«- vs
In the middle of the phrase it can be used between conjunct as well as disjunct notes.
If the notes are conjunct, proceed from the first to the second through either the tone
above or the tone below:
±
fit. 13 ± h £ & m
Do - ml - Oo - mi - i\0 J t- sv J t-S v J t- so ft! Je- so
71
When the cercar della nota is used for a rising or falling second, the anticipatione della
nota must first be used according to the preceding rule:
-
*
m
—
'r ^ F F n
------ 1
—
5 c .'V : 4 *
-1 N____ — &V— ^ - M - --- i ■ H
If the notes rise or fall a third, the cercar della nota is used in the following way:
i --------- 1 — r i - -
—o ----
—1— f—
---- 1-------------- 2.----1-------- __v *
1— P *------
' A l- le~ jo- A I- | t - l o - j° - A \- I t - lo - jo- A l- It- lo - jo
However, if the notes rise or fall a fourth, fifth, etc. the cercar della nota is taken either
a note higher or lower. In leaps this size, the rising ornament is seldom used and
therefore the falling ornament only is illustrated:
— R- o n 0
a - it 'i f a
m i*—
Ardire 14 [see discussion of vibrato in chapter II.]
14Ibid., pp. 21-23.
72
Treatise writers often described the basic technique required for the execution of
ornaments. One common example which is quite different from our modem approach to
singing is in the articulation of rapid ornaments. Today's singers typically articulate rapid
ornaments from the abdomen. However, in the late Renaissance and early Baroque, rapid
ornaments were to be produced in the larynx itself and references to the throat are common.
Although written prior to Monteverdi's madrigals, Finck (1556) provided a lengthy
description of two types of ornaments and their execution:
I have divided the coloraturae into two categories: those of the throat and those of the
tongue. The tongue-coloraturae are used in solmization without text, in such a way
that the degrees ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la are not sung with a full mouth, but rather flow
easily and naturally from the mouth, very delicately and at the same time separated.
The coloraturae of the throat are employed when the text is sung. Presently, however,
several who make the coloratura of the throat not dissimilar to the bleating of a she-
goat, make a serious mistake; for no pleasure, nor distinction, nor suitability of the
embellishment is heard, but only rumbling and a confused and ugly racket is heard.
The law and nature of coloraturae requires that all those notes formed within the
cheeks and delivered distinctly and dearly can be heard.15
More closely related to Monteverdi, Zacconi (1592) provided a similar description:
Two things are required for him who wishes to enter this profession: chest and throat;
chest, in order to be able to carry such a large number of notes to a correct end; throat,
to produce them easily.
And others, because of defects in the throat, cannot separate the notes vigorously; that
is, they cannot enundate the notes well enough for it to be recognized as gorgia.16
Maffei (1562) also discussed the execution of rapid embellishment:
Now that it has been said what voice is, and to which of the aforesaid voices it is
reduced, I want to talk about the place where the diminutions are made. It is the same
place where the voice is formed, that is, the cartilage called cimbalara [glottis], as we
have seen, which, when it is constricted or dilated by the sinews we have mentioned,
in the manner which your lordship will understand, breaks and strikes the air so
minutely that the desired singing is produced by every one.17
16Ibid., p. 69.
17Ibid., p. 44.
73
Lastly, in a chapter from Harmonie universelle (1636) entitled "How to Train
Voices and Make Them Capable of Singing All Kinds o f Airs and Chansons, and
Particularly How to Sing Embellisliments," Marin Mersenne made several references to the
throat. He also described an articulation from the stomach (as would be common today)
and indicates that this approach is incorrect:
Now, after one has taught the singer to form the tone and adjust the voice to all kinds
of sounds, one trains him to make embellishments, which consist of roulades of the
throat, corresponding to the shakes and accents that are made on the keyboard of the
organ and harpsichord, and on the lute and other stringed instruments. These
ornaments are the most difficult of all things to do in singing, because it is necessary
only to beat the air of the throat without the aid of the tongue to make a number of
shakes. But they are, however, as delightful as they are difficult, for if the other
movements are colors and nuances, one could say the embellishments are their
brilliance and light.
Those who do not have a throat disposed to the aforesaid cadences and passages use
movements of the tongue, which are not so pleasant, particularly when they are made
with the tip; as to those made with the middle, they are necessary for certain passages
that cannot be executed without the aid and trembling of the middle of the tongue,
because of the vowels which must be pronounced and made clear to the audience.
As for shakes made by the lips, they are not attractive nor permitted, any more than
those that seem to be drawn from the stomach.18
Another aspect of ornamentation requires brief discussion—the differing opinions
concerning the ornamenting of the bass line. Some writers, such as Coclico19 and Bardi,
suggested that the bass part be left unadorned. In Bardi’s Discorso . . . of 1580 the
following statement was made:
To make divisions upon the bass is not natural, for (as we have said) this part is by
nature slow, low, and somnolent. Yet it is the cur*, m to do this. I know not what to
say of it and am not eager to praise or to blame it, but I would counsel you to do it as
little as possible and, when you do, at least to make it clear that you do it to please
someone.20
18Ibid„ p. 171.
19F. E. Kirby, "Hermann Finck on Methods of Performance," Music and Letters

42 (July 1961): 217.
74
Although Bardi does not favor the ornamenting of the bass line, it is clear that it was
common.
A further aspect of ornamentation involving the bass voice is that of holding the
last bass note longer than any of the other parts. Finck (1556) stated:
Also let this be observed, that when the song is ended, let all the other voices grow
silent at the same time; the bass, however, can be protracted as far as the measure of a
longa, a thing which lends itself well to symphonies.21
Praetorius (1619) agreed with the advise set forth by Finck:
When a work is brought to its close, all the remaining voices, at the will and nod of the
conductor, should stop simultaneously. Nor should the tenors prolong their note, a
fifth above the bass or fundamental part (where the tenor most often should finish),
after the bass is silent. But should the bass continue for two or four beats longer, it
adds grace to the Cantilena, which no one can deny.22
As a result of the popularity of Renaissance ornamentation, writers of the late-
sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries began to warn against excesses in the amount of
embellishment, because these excesses often obscured the understanding of the text. For
example, Ludovico Zacconi warned in Prattica di musica of 1592:
We must not omit the vice of those who, having made gorgia [embellishments] their
friend, wish to do some little thing in each measure; and by singing them, even though
the ornaments may be good, they spoil the syllables and words.23
Ercole Bottrigari made reference to these excesses in II Desiderio (1594) in a dialogue
concerning a recent performance:
Al. But because of the presumptuous audacity of performers who try to invent
passaggi, I will not say sometimes, but almost continuously, all trying to move at the
same time as if in a passage-making contest, and sometimes showing their own
virtuosity so far from the counterpoint of the musical composition they have before
them that they become entangled in their dissonances—it is inevitable that an
insupportable confusion should occur.
22Ibid., p. 151.
23Ibid., p. 71.
75
Gr. Of all the causes proceeding from the instruments and their players which
produce the effect of discordance and confusion, so detestable in our concerts, about
which you have told me today, I believe that the most potent and efficacious would be
that of passaggi unduly repeated without thoughtful consideration.24
The preface to La Dafne (1608) by Marco da Gagliano contains this statement:
In this respect many persons are deceived, for they wear themselves out making
gruppi, trilli, passaggi, and exclatnazioni with no regard for their purpose or whether
or not they are apropos. I certainly do not intend to deprive myself of these
adornments, but I want them to be used in the right time and place,. . . 25
In Praetorius' famous instruction for choir boys from Volume HI of Syntagma Musicum
(1619), the following advise was given:
For a singer must not only possess a beautiful voice, given by Nature, but also have a
good intellect and thorough knowledge o f music, so that he executes the accenti
[ornaments] with judgement, and the modulos or coloratura (called by the Italians
passaggi) not at every possible place in the song, but appositely, at the right time and
in a certain way, so that the beauty of the voice as well as the artistry can be perceived
and heard.26
In Discorso sopra la musica de'suoi tempi of 1628, Vincenzo Giustiniani made reference to
the ladies of Ferrara and of Mantua:" ... also in the design of exquisite passages delivered
at opportune points, but not in excess."27 He also stated," For having left the old style,
which was somewhat unpolished, and also the excessive passage-work with which they
embellished i t ,. . . "28
Pietro della Valle’s Discorso . . . (1640) provided several references to singers
who embellished to excess. The first statement described the celebrated soprano, Vittoria
Archilei, and the second described the tenor, Giuseppino:
^Bottrigari, Desiderio. trans. MacClintock, p. 61.
^MacClintock, Readings, p. 188.
26Ibid., p. 163.
27Ibid., p. 28.
28Giustiniani, Discorso. trans. MacClintock, p. 76.
76
She ornamented the written monody with long flourishes and turns which disfigured it
but were very popular.
. . . usually he inserted divisions where they were inappropriate. You never could tell
whether his singing was supposed to be sad or gay, since it always sounded the same;
or rather, it was always gay, because he always sang so many notes and sang them so
fast. And I am sure he did not know himself what notes they were.29
Caccini lamented over excessive vocal embellishment in Le Nuove musiche
(1601):
. . . moreover I see ill-used those single and double vocal roulades. . . developed by
me to avoid that old style of passaggi formerly in common use (one more suited to
wind and stringed instruments than to the voice); and I see vocal crescendos-and-
decrescendos, esclamazioni, tremolos and trills, and other such embellishments of
good singing style used indiscriminately.
. . . wherein not a single word has been understood for the multitude of passaggi on
both short and long syllables and in every sort of piece—although precisely because of
these \passaggi] some have been extolled by hoi polloi and proclaimed mighty
singers.30
With regard to instruments doubling or accompaning voices, many treatise writers
suggested that the instruments should not utilize ornamentation. Vicentino made this
statement in L'Antica musica ridotta . . . (1555):
. . . and in order that the harmony not be lost and that the good arrangement of the
diminution may be demonstrated by the singer, it will be more satisfactory if, during
the diminution, the instruments that are playing the piece play it as it is notated,
without embellishments, so that the harmony cannot be lost with the diminution, for
the instruments will keep the consonances in their proper form.31
The following suggestion is found in Cavalieri's preface to Rappresentazione di Anima. et
di Corpo ('16001:
The instruments, because they are not to be seen, must play behind the backdrop of the
scene; and they must be persons who play without diminutions and with full tone,
supporting the singers.32
30Caccini, Le Nuove musiche. trans. Hitchcock, pp. 43-44.
32Ibid., p. 184.
77
Further support can be drawn from the preface to La Dafne (1608) by Marco da
Gagliano:
Take care that the harmony is not too much or too little, but such that it supports the
singing without obscuring the understanding of the words. Let the manner of playing
be without ornament, taking care to repeat the notes that are sung, playing those that
will support them, all the time maintaining a lovely harmony.33
Finally, in Discorso della musica dell'eta nostra . . . (1640), Pietro della Valle made this
statement:
. . . 'he does not have to insist so much upon making a display of his own art as upon
accommodating himself to all the others', taking turns 'to sport with gracefulness of
imitations'; for good players 'will show their art in knowing how to repeat well and
promptly what another has done before; and in then giving room to the others and fit
opportunity for them to repeat what they have done'; but 'in the company of voices’,
still more restraint is needed, and 'to support a chorus', nothing beyond *good chords
and pretty accompaniments, which should follow the voices gracefully'.3^
The evolution o f ornamentation was summarized by Imogene Horsley in her
article on Renaissance polyphony:
Although there was no sudden change from Renaissance to Baroque style in the
practice of improvised ornamentation during the period from 1580 to 1630, which
Manfred Bukofzer designates as the early Baroque period, the whole technique
gradually became transformed. Manuals teaching the old style, manuals teaching the
new style, and those containing a mixture of the two were all used simultaneously. In
the new style of ornamentation, emotional expression was stressed. Vocal and
instrumental practices became separated. Short ornamental patterns, used to stress
certain notes in a phrase and accentuate their emotional effect, were introduced. The
florid figures which had been used to spin out a line (passaggi) were retained, but they
aquired a new musical character in keeping with the new style of composition.
And, finally, the tempo and emotional content of a composition, rather than the skill of
the performer, were expected to govern the type of ornaments used.35
The category of ornamentation is a major performance consideration for music of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The performer must decide on the nature and the
amount of the ornaments to be used in performance as well as the proper execution of vocal
33Ibid., p. 190.
34Donington, Baroque Music, p. 94.
35Horsley, "Improvised Embellishment," p. 16.
or instrumental ornaments. The amount of ornamentation may be considerable, however, it
must be kept in mind that Caccini and others advocated the elimination of excesses in
ornamentation found in the late Renaissance. In addition, the size of the vocal ensemble
will dictate the amount of ornamentation. Monteverdi madrigals, for example, performed
by solo voices allow for a greater amount of ornamentation as well as for more elaborate
ornaments.
CHAPTER IV
RHYTHMIC FORM
Rhythmic form refers to the performance of notated values other than as they
appear; during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there was considerable flexibility in
this regard. According to Donington:
The notation of rhythm, however, is necessarily mathematical, because our notated

time-values go by fixed multiples. The inner vitality of rhythm is not mathematical; it
is a variable reacting with other variables to embody the mood of a given performance.
Every performer modifies the written rhythms to some extent, sharpening the dots in
march-like music, softening them for lilting music, and so forth. Early performers
carried these modifications to extremes some of which could at least approximately
have been shown in notation. Since they were not, they were evidently left to the
performer not from necessity but from policy: the usual early policy of making nothing
in music rigid which can be left fluid and spontaneous. That fact is the key to the
problem of rhythm in early music.1
The category of rhythmic form includes over-dotting and the existence of inequality. This
chapter will examine suggestions for both aspects of rhythmic alterations, as discussed by
writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and provide musical examples from
Monteverdi's madrigal books.
Flexibility of rhythm is directly related to flexibility of tempo. Many citations
regarding tempo reflect this, and three early-seventeenth-century examples which will be
restated in Chapter VHI are offered below. The expression of the text of the music in
performance also plays a major role in this flexibility. In his M icrologus (1609),
Omithoparcus stated th a t" . . . they make the notes sometimes longer, sometimes shorter
Bonington, Interpretation of Early Music, p. 435.
80
than they should."2 Frescobaldi made this statement in Toccate . . a keyboard treatise
from 1614:
The manner of playing, just as in the performance of modem madrigals, should not be
subjected to strict time. Although such madrigals are difficult, they are facilitated if
one takes the beat now languidly, now lively, or holding back, according to the
affection of the music or the meaning of the word.3
In Caccini's second volume of monody, Nuove Musiche e nuova maniera di scriverle
(1614), there is discussion that "sprezzatura," or rubato is:
. . . that gracefulness in singing which, if applied in the right place (as it might be
during a sequence of quavers or semiquavers passing through various harmonies),
takes away from the singing a certain constricting stiffness and dryness and makes it
pleasing, free and airy; just as in ordinary speech an eloquent delivery makes the
things one says sweet and agreeable.4
One aspect of rhythmic form is inequality, or the unequal performance of notes
notated equally.5 The degree to which this inequality is applied will vary depending upon
the desired musical effect. For example, two equal eighth notes may be performed as (1) a
dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth note, (2) as a triplet with the first note receiving two-
thirds of the value, or (3) as any variation in between. Donington provides a set of rules
governing which notes should be altered. He states:
Inequality is nearly always out of place in mainly leaping melodies; it is highly suitable
to mainly stepwise melodies.
Only those notes which fall naturally into pairs are liable to inequality. . . . Notes
slurred more than two at a time do not fall into pairs and are not eligible for inequality.
Notes so slow that inequality would sound sluggish or so fast that inequality would
sound restless are not eligible for inequality.
Only the fastest notes appearing in substantial numbers are strictly eligible for
inequality. Thus in quick time, the presence of semiquavers in substantial numbers
3Ibid., p. 133.
4Fortune, "Italian Singing, " p. 217.
81
prevents inequality, since they are too fast themselves yet by their presence they make
quavers ineligible. But if only a few are present, they can be ignored, and the quavers
may then become eligible.
Notes otherwise eligible for inequality, but bearing dots or dashes, are specifically
precluded from being taken unequally.^
This aspect, as with several other previously-discussed categories of
performance, is more commonly thought to apply to the late Baroque rather than to the
early Baroque or even to the sixteenth century. Two early references establish that this
approach to rhythmic flexibility was a performance consideration even before the
publication of Monteverdi's first book of madrigals in 1587. One reference is found in Le
droit chemin de musique (1550) by Loys Bourgeois: "Sing [quarter notes] as if two by
two, remaining longer on the first, than on the second."7 A second and much more lengthy
discussion of inequality is included in Arte de taiier fantasia (1565) by Fray Tomas de
Santa Maria:
Concerning performance in good style, which is our seventh condition, it is to be

remembered that it is necessary for this to play the crotchets in one way, the quavers in
three ways.
The method to be observed in playing crotchets is to linger on the first, to hurry on the
second, to linger again neither more nor less on the third, and to hurry on the fourth,
and treat thus all the crotchets. This is done as if the first crotchet were dotted, the
second crotchet a quaver, and likewise as if the third crotchet had a dot, and the fourth
crotchet were a quaver, and so on. And care must be taken that the hurried crotchet
should not be too hurried, but only moderately so.
[The first method with quavers is] to linger on the first quaver and hurry on the
second, to linger again neither more nor less on the third, and so on. This is done as if
the first quaver were dotted, the second quaver a semiquaver, and likewise as if the
third quaver had a dot, and the fourth quaver were a semiquaver, and so on. This
method is used in works which are entirely contrapuntal, and for long and short
passages of free ornamentation (glosas).
In the second method, we hurry on the first quaver, linger on the second, hurry neither
more nor less on the third, linger on the fourth, and so on. This is done as if the first
6Ibid.
7Robert Donington. A Performer's Guide to Baroque Music (New York: Charles

Scribner's Sons, 1973), p. 255.
82
quaver were a semiquaver, the second dotted, the third again a semiquaver, the fourth
dotted, and so on. . . . This method is used in short passages of free ornamentation
(glosas) which are made in [existing] works (obras) as well as in fantasies.
Observe that this method is more graceful than the foregoing.
In the third method, we hurry on three quavers, unger on the fourth, then hurry on the
next three, linger on the fourth, remembering that we must linger long enough for the
fifth quaver to arrive in its proper time mid-way in the measure, and so on, so that they
move in groups of four and four. This is done as if the three quavers were
semiquavers, and the fourth quaver dotted. This third method is the most graceful of
all, and is used for long and short passages of free ornamentation (glosas).
Care should be taken not to linger too long on the quavers, but just long enough to
mark them, since long lingerings are the cause of great clumsiness and ugliness in
music; and for the same reason, fhe three hurried quavers must not be hurried too
much, but only moderately, to correspond to the amount of lingering on the fourth.8
In consideration of this type of rhythmic alteration, there is a relationship to metric
accentuation. The lengthened notes receive greater stress than do the shortened notes. This
relationship is especially significant when compared with accentuation within the beat (i.e.,
a measure of eighth-notes with a quarter-note beat).
Discussion of inequality became even more common in the seventeenth century.
Although more closely associated with French music, inequality was also included in
treatises by Italian authors. For example, in Toccate . . . (1615) Frescobaldi stated: "[Make
the second of each pair of] sixteenth notes somewhat dotted . . . [N.B. the flexibility
implied by 'somewhat dotted'.]"9 Similarly, Giovanni Puliaschi provided this advise in
Musiche varie a una voce (1618): "[Perform] now by dotting the first note, now the
second, as the passage requires."10
8Donington, Interpretation of Early Music, pp. 454-455.
9Donington, Performer's Guide, p. 256.
10Ibid.
In Caccini's preface to Le Nuove musiche (1602), examples11 of rhythmic
inequality were provided with recommendations for (a) standard rhythm, (b) reversed
rhythm, or (c) free rhythm:
Example 1
(b )
w n tte n : p e rfo rm e d a p p ro x :
(b ) (e )
Rhythmic inequality in perfomiance continued throughout the seventeenth century
and was documented in primary sources. Although written well after the publication of
Monteverdi's last madrigal book in 1638, Miss Mary Burwell's Instruction Book for the
Lute (1660-70) contains a similar description and notated example12: "The humour and fine
air of a lesson . . . by stealing half a note from one note and bestowing it upon the next
note."
w ritte n ® perform ed:
11Ibid., p. 263.
12Ibid. pp. 256 and 264.
Further, in his Remarques curieuses sur l'art de bien chanter (1668), Benigne de Baciliy
stated: "Of two notes one is commonly dotted [but] it has been thought best not to notate
them for fear of their being performed by jerks."13 Another citation and notated example14,
illustrating three performance options--a) dotted (vigorous), b) equal (plain), and c) triplet
(lilting)--appeared in Roger North on Music (c. 1690): "In short notes [the dot] gives a life
and spirit to the stroke, and a good hand will often for that end use it, tho' not expres't [in
the notation]."
Etienne Loulie provided this instruction in Elements ou princines de musiaue (1696):
In each measure but especially triple measure, the half-beats are performed in two
different ways, although they are notated in the same way. 1. They are sometimes
made equally' as 'in melodies of which the sounds move by leap'. [The Amsterdam
edition of 1698 added, but mistakenly, as can be seen from quotations just given
above: 'and in all kinds of foreign music where you never dot them except where
marked'.] And '2. Sometimes the first half-beats are made a little long' as 'in
melodies of which the sounds move stepwise'. Alternatively, 'the first half-beat is
made much longer than the second, but the first half-beat ought' in that case to be
notated 'with a dot'.15
13Ibid., p. 256.
14Ibid., pp. 256 and 264.
15Donington, Baroque Music, p. 43.
85
This concept of inequality was succinctly summarized by Saint-Lambert in his keyboard
treatise, Principes du Clavecin (1702): "[We make certain notes unequal] because the
inequality gives them more grace Taste judges of this as it does of tempo."16
Each of the three types of rhythmic inequality described by Caccini can be applied
to Monteverdi's madrigals. In the following five examples, the application of standard
rhythmic alterations is appropriate. In all of these examples, greater forward motion and a
lighter vocal quality is achieved through the use of the dotted rhythms. Ecco mormorar
Uonde provides the option of adding dotted note values to the upper two voices in measures
33-34 (example 2) and with the point of imitation beginning in measure 45 in the canto
voice (example 3).
Example 2 Ecco mormorar l'onde (Book II), mm 27-36
li C an - tar
te ,
der I'o
C a n • ta r te ,
86
spec ch ia nel
spec
spec •
spec •
spec ch ia nel mi re ,
per
spec c h ii nel raa
re,
87
In Dard la notte il sol all of the double eighth-note patterns in measures 16 through
19 (example 4) can be performed as a dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth. To avoid a
rigid percussiveness, this author suggests that the actual performance of this rhythmic
pattern be as triplets with the long note receiving two-thirds of the value. This "lilting"
quality, as it is so often described, becomes a rhythmic compromise. Donington states that:
"The convenient flexibility of the dot and the familiar practice of inequality were both
pressed into service: was softened, and n was sharpened, to produce the same
result (i.e ., J * J* ).17
Example 4 D ari la notte il sol (Book VI), mm 10-20
pn m a che G ld U co,
- ti^,il di p n m a che G la u co, p ri - m a cbe
• tia U di m a che G la u co,
m a che G la u co,
-Jtiaîl di pn m a cbe G la u co, p n
G la u • co s c iq u e l se - no, quel
G la u -c o d jh o -n o -ra r, la s c iq u e l se - no, quel
ma che G la u co
17Ibid., p. 464.
Example 5 is taken from Al lume delle stelle. Once again, the option of adding
the standard rhythmic alteration is illustrated in measures 31, 33,37, and 38 in the lower
two voices.
Example 5 Al lume delle stelle (Book VII), mm 29-38
30
ce
m .
cun -li ee
J J
c e .le . iti fa
c e .le . iti fa .
89
Finally, in Riedi, measures 12 and 13 (example 6), the editorial ornamental notes
can be performed as even eighth notes, as a standard rhythmic alteration, or as a reversed
rhythmic alteration.
Example 6 Riedi (Book VIII), mm 10-15
/o
suo . na ■ c o r. ger ben
■ cor . g e r ben p o . . 1 c h ’A - m o r e M ar.
JT 7 ).
c h ’A m o r c M ar. e q u a s i in c o r g e n . e q u s a iin e o r g e n .
. te e q u a s i in c o r g e n . til c o r .te e e a f .f e t . .to

__________________________
A -m o r e M ar . e q u a s i in e o r g e n .
90
The application of Caccini's reversed rhythm can be added in other madrigals of
Monteverdi and the following two excerpts are provided. For the most part, there is a
freedom o f choice in selecting the type of rhythmic alteration. Although the rhythm in
measure 13 o f Dard la notte il sol (example 7) could be altered as either standard or
reversed, it is the opinion of this author that the line is-more effective with the latter, A
similar case is found in the editorial ornament in measure 8 of Ma te raccoglie (example 8).
Again, the freedom to perform this ornament is with the performer. Here, this author feels
a combination of the two types provides the greatest expressive effect.
Example 7 Dark la notte il sol, mm 10-16
-tia ^ l di p n m a (h e G la u co, p ri - m a che
- di m a che G la u co, p ri - m a che
- tia _ il d i p n m a che co,
- ti^ J l di p ri m a cbe G la u co,
p ri m a cbe G la u
Example 8 M a te raccoglie (Book VI), mm 6-10
I 11 f I'Hgg l i l i B
.0 N iu • fa ^ in g re m -b q jl c ie “
i" lo . lo — per te
jj?1, * f jl— ^ J 1° iff”

0 N in - fa , ia g re m -b q jl c ie - lo . lo— per te
' O N iu - fa ^ in g re m - b o jl c ie - lo . Io — p e r te
Measure 6 of M a per quel ampio illustrates the possible use of free rhythm.
Because it is more complex than the first two types, application of this rhythmic pattern is
more suited to solo performance. The use of a free and flexible rhythm is especially
appropriate in recitative-like monodies found in Books VII and VUI.
Example 9 Ma per quel ampio (Book VII), mm 1-6
Terza parte
H t p e r q u e l a m p io B g e o a p ie .g h i le ve . la *i d a l p o r.to Io n .
(Andante, in quattro )___________________________________
.tu .n o ar. d i . to u m a n . te R ie . d i che . c o il m io e o r.
As seen in examples 6,7, and 8, many passages may be performed with standard
or reversed rhythmic alterations. In some cases all three options are possible and Qui rise
Tirsi is an example. Measure 20 illustrates the use of standard rhythm, measure 24
illustrates a combination of standard and reversed, and measure 25 illustrates the use of free
rhythm. Any combination of these patterns may be used freely.
Example 10 Qui rise Tirsi (Book VI), mm 19-27
! e= ;
Q ui p er or
zr
TOT
fio
fio
Performance of Monteverdi's madrigals by solo voices versus small ensembles
will dictate the difficulty of the rhythmic alterations. For example, the extent and frequency
of the alterations will be much greater in the case of the former. In one respect this was
seen in example 9 as the more difficult rhythmic alterations are too complex for multiple
voices. Similarly, as the number of alterations increases, performance by multiple voices
becomes less appropriate.
The category of rhythmic form, as with ornamentation, allows for much flexibility
in the placement and amount of rhythmic alterations. Modem musicians should exercise
this freedom in their performances as it will increase the inherent expressive and
spontaneous quality. Variety in these alterations will greatly enhance performances of
Monteverdi's madrigals as well as other compositions of the early Baroque.
CHAPTER V
MESSA DI VOCE
Messa di voce, the gradual crescendo and subsequent diminuendo on sustained
notes, is an important ornament applicable to music beginning with the Baroque period.
This chapter will survey the major treatises of the time that discussed this dynamic effect.
These citations will reveal the frequency of the appearance and consequently, the
importance of this ornament. Consistency in the descriptions and the method of execution
of messa di voce will be shown through references to both voices as well as instruments.
Following this discussion, musical examples will be provided illustrating the application of
messa di voce in modem performances of Monteverdi's madrigals.
Dynamic shading was an important aspect of performance during the late
Renaissance and early Baroque. Although messa di voce is a specific type of dynamic
effect, discussion of the use of simple crescendos or decrescendos and contrasts between
loud and soft is common. For example, in L'antica musica . . . (1555) Vicentino stated,
"And sometimes one uses a certain way of proceeding in the composition that cannot be
written down—such as to sing piano and forte, . . . 1,1 In an anonymous letter from Milan
in August of 1611, the following statement was made in praise of the vocal quality and
ornamentation of the prima donna, Adriana Basile Baroni:
âcC lin to ck , Readings, p. 78.

94
95
The sweet sighs, the discreet accents, the restrained embellishment, the felicitous
carryings (portate), the daring descents, the high ascents' the interrupted passages, the
driving on, the dying away of a note 2
Praetorius advised " . . . that the choir be allowed to sing now softly and quietly, now loud
and vigorously."3 Giustiniani made the following statement in his Discorso sopra la
musica (1628):
Furthermore, they moderated or increased their voices, loud or soft, heavy or light,
according to the demands of the piece they were singing;. . . 4
Lastly, Andrd Maugars described the capabilities of the voice with regard to dynamic
variety in Response faite a un curieux sur le Sentiment de la Musique d'ltalie (1640):
Her voice has a wide range, is true, sonorous, harmonious; she softens it and makes it
louder without any grimaces.5
It is common to find modem singers who fill the entire length of long notes with a
constant level of sound; this is especially true when instruments are accompanying a vocal
ensemble. This constant dynamic level is not consistent with the Baroque concept of
sound. According to Putnam Aldrich:
Modern voice training places much emphasis upon the fullness and vibrancy of
sustained tone. In the Baroque period, on the other hand, emphasis was upon agility
and the clear execution of graces, trills, and rapid scale passages. The beauty of an
individual sustained note was scarcely appreciated at all, since the appearance of a
long, held note in the score was almost invariably an invitation to embellish it with
some sort of ornament.6
As early as 1535, Sylvestro Ganassi, in his recorder treatise Opera intitulata
Fontegara. instructed the player to imitate the expression of singers in the effect of a slight
4Ibid„ p. 29.
5Ibid., p. 122.
6Putnam Aldrich, "The 'Authentic' Performance of Baroque Music," In Essays

on Music in honor of Archibald Thompson Davison (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University, 1957), p. 163.
96
crescendo and decrescendo.7 Although this effect was not labelled or indicated when it
should be employed, Ganassi advised the player to begin a phrase with a moderate flow of
breath, so that one may later increase or decrease it as desired.
A predecessor to the messa di voce is described at length in Le Nuove musiche
(1602). Caccini referred to the esclamazione which i s " . . . really nothing but a certain
strengthening of the relaxed voice; . . . "8 or, in effect, a crescendo. He continued by
stating that this crescendo is often harsh, especially in the soprano range. Therefore, he
recommended a modification:
. . . a better result will be had from a decrescendo on the attack than from a crescendo;
for in the first manner-the [attack with a] crescendo-to make an esclamazione one
must after relaxing the voice crescendo even more, and thus, I say, does it seem
strained and coarse. But a wholly different result is obtained by [an initial]
decrescendo, since at the point of relaxation giving it just a bit more spirit will make it
ever more affective.9
This type of ornament gives the effect of an initial decrescendo followed by a gradual
crescendo, the esclamazione itself.
In addition to the esclamazione, Caccini referred to "vocal crescendos-and-
decrescendos" which imply the principles of messa di voce. The following statement
shows that there is a difference bv.ween the two ornaments and supports the frequency of
their use:
I would add that in all affective pieces esclamazioni may as a general rule be used on
all half-notes and dotted quarter-notes that descend; and they will be more affective if
the following note is short. They are not to be made on whole-notes, which offer
more room for a crescendo-and-decrescendo of the voice without using
esclamazioni.10
7Thomas Warner, "Indications of Performance Practice in Woodwind Instruction

Books of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," (Ph.D. dissertation, New York
University, 1964), p. 117.
8Caccini, Le Nouve musiche. trans. Hitchcock, p. 49.
9Ibid.
10Ibid., p. 50.
Additional variety in types of esclamazioni is evident in Caccini’s references to
two versions of the ornament- esclamazione languida and esclamazione pi& viva. Caccini
provided the following examples and commentary of both types:
Example 1
E sc la m a zio n e Esclamazione
la n g u id a ___ pili viva
C or. m iq , «leh n o n Ian- gni-

r e rg
Now, then, one can experiment with the example above, with the words "Cor mio,
deh, non languire" below it, to see with what greater or lesser grace one can make
attacks in the manner cited above. Thus one can begin "Cor mio" by making a gradual
decrescendo on the first dotted half-note and swelling the voice with a little more spirit
on the falling quarter-note; a quite affective esclamazione will result, even on a note
that falls by step. Much more spirited [an esclamazione] will arise, however, on the
word "deh," from the fact that its note does not fall by step; it will also be very sweet
by virtue of its continuation with a major [sic] sixth which falls by leap. I wanted to
make this observation not only to show what an esclamazione is, and whence it arises,
but to show that it can be of two degrees, one more affective than thf other depending
partly on one or another of the modes of intonation herein described, partly on
imitation of the word (but only when its meaning relates to the general concept [of the
text]).11
Praetorius, in Volume HI of Syntagma Musicum (1619), used Caccini’s term to
indicate an ornament with an initial crescendo:
Exclamatio is the proper means of moving the affections and must be achieved by
increasing the voice. It can be employed with all dotted minims and semi-minims in
descending motion.12
Later seventeenth-centuiy treatise writers stressed the importance of this ornament
as described by Caccini. For example, Playford included an English translation of
Caccini's preface in his Introduction, published in 1654 and 1674, which referred to the
n Ibid.
12Praetorius, "Syntagma Musicum," Vol. Ill, trans. Lampl, p. 370.
98
ornament with the following statement: "Encreasing and Abating the Voyce, and in
Exclamations is the foundation of Passion."13
Discussion of messa di voce appeared in many other treatises of the seventeenth
century. In his Discorso sopra la musica de'suoi tempi (1628), Giustiniani provided this
description of the effect: "Those ladies of Mantua and of Ferrara, who competed with each
other in moderating and swelling the voice, [singing] soft and loud,. . . "w Domenico
Mazzocchi described specific markings in the music as well as the expression, messa di
voce, in Madrigali a cinque voci et altri varii concerti (1638):
Because in this, as in my other works, there will, at rare times be found some signs,
perhaps unwonted, I will state their explanation, here below, so that it may not have to
be sought elsew here.. . . This V signifies relief, or (as it is customary to say) messa
di voce, which in our case is increasing the voice little by little in breath and tone
together.. . . This C will denote, that as in the sustained notes one has first to increase
the voice gently in spirit and not in sound, so, afterwards one has successively, little
by little to go on dying away, and so soften down until it is reduced to the
inaudible. . . . 15
Charles Burney (1789) quoted Pietro della Valle's Discorso della musica dell'eta
nostra (1640) with this description of singing style:
. . . piano and forte, swelling and diminishing the voice by minute degrees, expression
assisting the poet in fortifying the sense and passion of the words, rendering the voice
cheerful, pathetic, tender, bold, or gentle at pleasure: these, with other embellishments
in which singers of the present times excel, were never talked of even at Rome, till
Emilio del Cavalieri, in his old age, gave a good specimen of them from the Florentine
School, in his oratorio, at the Chiesa Nnova.16
14Fausto Razzi, "Polyphony of the Seconda Prattica: Performance Practice in

Italian Vocal Music of the Mannerist Era," Early Music 8 (July 1980): 304.
15Rosamond Harding, Origins of Musical Time and Expression (New York:

Oxford University Press, 1938), p. 91.
16Ibid., p. 94.
99
Although written in 1650, Christoph Bernhard's discussion of piano and forte in
Von der Sing-Kunst oder Manier provides a detailed description and musical examples17 of
messa di voce, which this author believes to be applicable in performances of earlier
Baroque works.
These pianos and fortes are either used on one note together, or on different notes
following each other, in the first case on whole notes and half notes, and in the second
case on short notes.
On whole notes and half notes, piano is performed at the beginning, forte in the
middle, and at the end piano is used once again. In this, be careful not to fall too
suddenly fiom piano into forte (In this example as in the next).
4 0 0
4-0 -4- Tw m
p'f'r f t p p p ? P p p p P f P
In smaller notes one will be piano and the next forte, and so on alternating further as
they are sung. Usually one begins piano and always ends piano.
s n"". f f f- 0---------- P—I—t v 4----

-- 4- i - . y t >
— r- - T - ) t - f . - J H - 1 . . —J— 6
- r - ...f 7 f a ...
pf -P f p P P P P P
Discussion of messa di voce increased throughout the seventeenth century. Two
writers at the end of the century who make reference to this ornament are Wolfgang Mylius
and Roger North. In his Rudimenta Musices (1686), Mylius provided the following
statement:
17Paul, "Vitalizing Elements," pp. 18-19.
10 0
Yet it is to be observed that with both [forte and piano] one should not fall suddenly
from piano into forte but gradually strengthen the voice, and then again let it drop, so
that consequently, on those notes where such [effects] are needed the pi'a/u?[comes]
before the forte [which comes] in the middle, and [the passage] must again be ended
with piano.1*
Roger North discussed the ornament in his Autobiography (1695) with the following
suggestion:
Learn to fill, and soften a sound, as shades in a needlework, in sensation, so as to be

like also a gust of wind, which begins with a soft air, and fills by degrees to a strength
as makes all bend, and then softens away again into a temper [temperate strength], and
so vanish.19
One of the earliest-known instrumental references to messa di voce is found in
Fantini's Modo per imparare a Sonare di Tromba (1638). It is noteworthy that he referred
to the effect as related to vocal technique.
It must also be pointed out that wherever notes of one, of two, or of four beats length
are found, they should be held in singing fashion (in modo cantabile), by starting
softly, making a crescendo until the middle of the note, and [then] making a
diminuendo on the second half [of the note] until the end of the beat, so that it may
hardly be heard; and in doing this, one will render perfect harmony.20
Other instrumental references can be found in two English treatises dealing with
stringed instruments. Christopher Simpson made this statement in Division-Violist (1659
and 1667): "[Loud and soft sometimes occur] in one and the same note."21 Similarly, in
Observations upon a Late fsicl Book (1672), Matthew Locke stated: "The Viol and Violin
[excell] in lowding, softing, and continuing a Note of Sound."22
19Ibid.
20Girolamo Fantini, Modo per imparare a Sonare di Tromba. translated by

Edward H. Tarr (Nashville: The Brass Press, 1949), p. 3.
22Ibid.
101
This author believes that additional desire for messa di voce performance on
sustained notes arose as a result of the attempt to imitate the sounds created by stringed
instruments of the time. One factor is the pre-Tourte bow, the modem bow being perfected
(c. 1780) by Francois Tourte. Prior to that time the bow stick curved outwards from the
hair, rather than inwards as with the modem bow. Because of this, the hair on the pre-
Tourte bow exerts much less as well as an inconsistent amount of tension on the strings.
As it is drawn across the string, the sound produced gives a natural crescendo and
decrescendo. A second factor is that of gut strings which were strung with less tension
than on modem instruments. Both of these factors create a natural "swelling" dynamic
effect on long notes.
As a result of the discussion of messa di voce by early Baroque writers, it seems
logical to apply this ornament in modem performances of Monteverdi's madrigals. In
addition to the application of this ornament as a general practice, messa di voce will greatly
aid the musical expression inherent in the music of several types of situations. These
situations occur:
1. at the conclusion of phrases or sections ending in notes of length

2. with tied notes and/or suspensions
3. as a complement to metric accentuation
4. as an aid to the increase in intensity during some phrases
5. as an ornament of expression
6. often as any combination of the above
Examples 2 and 3 (measures 6 and 62, respectively) below illustrate the suggested
use of messa di voce at the ends of phrases or sections. In general, these final notes will be
of relatively long duration, such as half or whole notes in modern notation. In
performance, these notes should make use of messa di voce with special consideration
regarding the decrescendo toward the latter half of the note. In both examples, this
decrescendo toward the end of the note is more appropriate than an initial crescendo. As
discussed by writers of the time, messa di voce also supports the expressive nature of
music through a relaxation of energy at the ends of phrases. Today's singers should not
produce a sound in which the volume remains constant on final notes. This desire to be
rhythmically-faithful to half and whole notes with regard to a constant level of sound
should be re-evaluated in light of the abundance of primary sources giving advise to the
contrary.
103
Example 2 Si, ch'io vorei morire (Book IV), mm 1-8
CA N T O
ch'io vo
A LTO
ch'io vo • rei
Q .U IN TO
ch'io vo * rei
TE N O R E
ch'io vo
BASSO
ch'io vo • rei
B .C .
ch'io
ch'io vo • ret .ch'io
ch'io ch'io
ch'io vo * rei
ch'io vo - rei ch'io
Example 3 Ma te raccoglie (Book VI), mm 58-62
J J| J il J i \ i V J-
ana* to se • uo C a n - ta -n o ip re • g i d e l ^ a - m a • to se - ^» n o .
to m C a n * ta -n o ji p r e - g i d e lw a - m a - t o se
rl|J Ij. J
b a , C a n - ta -n o i p r e - g i d e l ^ a - m a • to se
C a n - ta - n o j p re - g i d e I1 a - m a - to se - n o _ a- m a - to se
to m - b a, C a n - t a - n o j p r e - g i d e l^ ja - m a - to se
104
The use of messa di voce with suspensions and other tied note values is an
extremely important stylistic consideration. The application of this ornament, with regard
to suspensions, allows for a greater audibility of dissonances. This is especially true if the
suspension occurs in a low tessitura or inner pare The following examples (4 through 12)
present the suggested use of messa di voce regarding suspensions and ties.
The upper parts in measures 7 and 8 of example 8 are greatly aided through the
use of messa di voce by providing a blossoming effect which creates an internal direction
for the phrase. Application of messa di voce with suspensions can lie seen in example 5 in
measures 24 and 25 in the second soprano and tenor voices.
Example 4 Ecco mormorar l’onde (Book II), mm 5-8
l’»u
Iro n irc*m o* la r le fro n ■
b o r • reel
tu - ti >r • icel
I’au g!i_ar*bor - *ccl
Example 6, from S(, ch'io vorei morire, contains several interesting uses of messa
di voce. First, in measures 27 through 37, varying durations of the swelling effect as well
as staggered executions are required. For example, the duration of the ornament is that of a
whole note for the two soprano parts and the tenors, while the duration is half that for the
altos and basses. Further, the second soprano voice will be at the peak of the crescendo
while the first soprano voice will be at the beginning of the crescendo because of the
placement of the initial attack. The application of this ornament in such a thick texture will
allow for a more transparent sound and will more clearly reveal the harmonic motion.
Second, in measures 40 through 43 in the upper two parts, the application of messa di voce
across the strong pulse (beat three in measures 40 and 43) allows for fluctuation in dynamic
intensity and a more expressive musical line. The identical pattern is applied to the other
imitative voices. Third, in measures 49 through 54 (example 6), the alternation of the
peaks cf the messa di voce is crucial to the interplay of the voices and to the harmonic
effect.
106
Example 6 Si, ch'io vorei morire (Book IV), mm 27-43
re, Che
dofr=l ^=>3 g;y.7 que
que
dol que
l£ jL
dol
que s ta que
f/
itin A hi
Ahi, (?=■'>!'
quo
itin
q u e - *lo Ahi.
i- U a , Ahi, vi - tn
Ahi a, Ahi,
Ahi
Ahi,
107
Example 7 Si, ch'io vorei morire, mm 48-57
ilfin-ge m i^ j w T l t , i n '» t U • mi
no!
no!
i/o iia n • co
<u« t(o tia n • co
108
The use of messa di voce provides harmonic clarity with the presence of many
imitations and overlapping lines, such as those found in example 8. Further suggestions
are provided in examples 9 through 12.
A hi la s
& zZ Z = = 3f°'
A hi la s so l I’ ve - gao a d jo - chi •
fa sZ Z .'S * ] ^>1
la so l i’ v e - g n o a d in - ch i -
110
g a - te U p ia n to , A h ___ m u - s e q u i sg o r-
g a - tq _ il p ia n to , m u - s e q u i sg o r-
m u - se q u i s g o r - g a - te w i l p ia n to
se, m u - se q u i sg o r - g a -te U p ia n -to ,
A h m u
g a - te _ il p ia n - to , m u - se q u i sg o r-
g a - te il p ia n A h __ __ m u - se q u i sg o r-
m u - se q u i s g o r - g a - te _ il p ia n * to ,
m u se, m u - se qui sg or - g a - te jl p ia n - to ,
A h
Ill
Example 11 Dunque amate reliquie (Book VI), mm 43-48
A hi mot
g n ’h o r d i - ca la te r - ra ,
Example 12 Qui rise tirsi (Book VI), mm 33-36
112
The application of messa di voce often complements other areas of performance
practice such as metric accentuation. The meter is quadruple in all of the examples below,
therefore, greater stress on beats one and three should be observed. (Chapter VI provides
primary and secondary source support for this consideration.) The swelling effect of
messa di voce usually corresponds with the stress of strong beats. In addition, the
direction of weak second and fourth beats should be toward the next strong beat. This is
especially needed in the progression from beat four to beat one of an ensuing measure. A
slight swelling of sound on strong beats as suggested in examples 13 through 15 supports
the stress of the text. Text and musical line will dictate relative stress and degree of
application of messa di voce. In example 13 the greatest amount should occur in measure 2
on the second beat with the least amount on the following downbeat.
©
i M a te r a c - c o g li^ o N in - f a , M a te r a c - c o -g lie ^ o N in - fa ,
M a te ra c -c o g lia o N m - fa , M a te r a c - c o -g lie ^ o N in - f a ,
M a te r a c - c o g lie ^ o N in - f a , M& te r a c -c o -g lie ^ o N in • f a , 0
M a te r a c - c o g lie ^ t N in - f a , M a te r a c • c o -g lie ^ o N in - f a ,
M a te ra c -c o - g lie ^ o N in - f a , M a te ra c - c o -g lie ^ o N in - f a ,
113
que slo bian • co n °,
que jio b ia n • co
•to b u n • co no, Ko bian • co,a
no. que •to bian • co no,
no,
Example 15 Incenerite spoglie, mm 28-31
no E n o t-te e g io r - n o v i - v e _ in p i a n - t o j n fo co, I n d u o - V in
no E n o t-te e g io r - n o vi - v e in p ia n -to in fo - co, I n d u o - V jn
S g fS L 6=^3 • fega figsg
no
Con voi c h iu s ’ c i l m io c o r’ a - m a r- m i in se • uo,
C on voi
114
In examples 16 and 17 there is a rhythmic overlapping across stong beats. It
occurs in measures 3-4 of example 16 and in measure 37 of example 17. In each case the
swelling effect creates movement toward and accentuation of a strong beat.
CA NTO
lie
Q.UINTO
Ar
ALTO
Ar"""*'
TEN O RE
BASSO
S
Ar
Ar
Ar
glia,
115
no ria fe ce g io r
mo ria fe ce 0 lie . to g io r
n o - ria fe ce g io r .
ce g io r
m e . mo g io r
116
Phrase intensity can be greatly aided through the use of messa di voce. The bass
voice in measures 16 through 20 of Dard la notte il sol (example 18) illustrates this. The
increase in intensity toward its harmonic cadence in measure 20 is heightened with the use
of slight swellings of sound on each of the notes. Further, it is appropriate to gradually
increase the overall volume level as the phrase progresses. The preceding phrase which
culminates in a strong cadence in measure 15 should also employ messa di voce.
Example 18 Dara la notte il sol (Book VI), mm 10-20
m a cbe G ld U co, p ri - m a cbe
- ti^ l di m a cbe G la u co, p ri - m a cbe
• tia .il di m a cbe G la u
m a cbe G la u co,
- tia .il di p ri m a cbe G la u co. p ri
£ = =■* & = =■! C-==3 = 3
G la u - c o D i b a -c ia r, s c iq u e l su • n o , quel
G la u -c o d jio -n o - ra r, la s c iq u e l se - no. quel
m a che G la u co,
117
When the texture is dense and complex, the use of messa di voce can be of great
help in guiding the direction and intensity of the phrases. Examples 19 and 20 below
illustrate this. In example 19 the texture is dense; if a constant level of sound is used on all
of the notes, it is difficult to perceive the proper direction for the phrase. A typical
twentieth-century performance suggestion is that this phrase should employ a gradual
crescendo from beginning to end. Although there is merit in this suggestion, a crescendo
of this type often produces a sound which is overblown and heavy. If messa di voce is
employed in conjunction with the larger crescendo, the musical direction is better served.
In example 19 the application of a swelling effect on individual notes in each voice is
marked. Further, the individual swells should increase in volume and intensity. The large
crescendo, indicated with dotted lines, is meant to illustrate this increase in overall volume
as the phrase progresses. A similar situation occurs at the end of Al lume delle stelle
(example 20).
118
Example 20 A1 lume delle stelle (Book VII), mm 89-95
lo r m en
lo r m en . tr « ip le n „
lo r m en .te .
.te .
119
A final use of messa di voce in the madrigals of Monteverdi is as an expressive
ornament. The use of expressive ornaments to highlight the text is a fundamental concept
of the early Baroque as discussed by many writers, particularly by Caccini (see Chapter IX:
Expression and footnote 9 of this chapter). In the following six examples this is very clear.
In the opening of O come £ gran martire (example 21), messa di voce is used in
conjunction with the quarter rest and expressive descending interval in measure 2 to
heighten the text "How deep is thy martyrdom."
Example 21 O come b gran martire (Book IE), mm 1-5
Canto
c o m ’e g r a n m a r
Teuore
Basso
120
Often the expressive effect of words such as "ahi" or "ohime" requires the use
of the ornament. In these cases the execution of the ornament can vary. One variation is
that the swell can occur much more quickly. Another variation is that it can be reversed as
Caccini described the esclamazione. An excerpt from Si, ch'io vorei morire (example 22)
seems to require the latter. In each of the points of imitation the execution is the same--an
initial decrescendo followed by a long crescendo over four pulses and a sudden
decrescendo on the first pulse of the next measure. As the number of entrances increases,
this method of performance provides clarity among the voices.
Example 22 SI, ch’io vorei morire, mm 14-22
Ahi, ca* ra e dol • ce
ca« tT c dol • ce Ahi,
ca>raje d o l* c e g u a,
r s * hi
r \ ^***'*
.Ahi, gua,
A hi, c a - r a e d o l * ce A h i%
A hi, ca* ra c dol • ce
ca* ra e dot • ce
121
Examples 23 and 24 below also illustrate the use of messa di voce with expressive
words.
F at - ta d e l m io ta e l so l te r - re - no c ie - lo . A hi la s -
F at - ta d e l m io bel so l te r - re - no c ie - lo .
' A hi la s - so l i’ v e - g n o a d iu - ch i
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission
122
O h i-m e l
O h i. m e! O b i-
I' J JI..JI J. J V j^ J
ve - r a te r - ra t U f io r d |o g - n i b e l-le x -x a , il so l di G la u
v e- ra te r - ra t II fio r 4 _ o g -n i te l • le x - x a , il so l d iG la u
v e -ra te r • ra t II fio r d \> g - n i bel - le x • x a , il so l d i G la u
Because Ma per quel ampio (example 25) is clearly in the monodic style of the
early Baroque, it is especially appropriate to employ ornaments of expression. In this case,
however, expressive words as discussed above are not present. As suggested in the
example, the use of messa di voce and esclamazione are employed.
Example 25 Ma per quel ampio (Book VUI), mm 1-6
Terza parte
a
H a p c r q u a l a m p io B g e o . a p ic .g h i lv ve . la i i d a l p o r.to Io n .
. ta .n o a r . d i . to a m a n . to
Messa di voce is a key ornament of the Baroque and, as such, should be given
sufficient consideration. This author has discovered that once performers become
accustomed to the consistent application of this ornament in varying degrees, it becomes an
automatic and natural response. Support from primary sources from this period indicate
that the music was conceived with this approach to sound as an assumed aspect of
performance. Therefore, it is logical that modem performances will be greatly enhanced
through careful consideration of messa di voce. Modem performers who are musically
sensitive will begin intuitively to apply this approach to their technique. In addition, the
music is less vocally demanding on the singers.
CHAPTER VI
ACCENTUATION
An important category of performance practice is that of accentuation. The
American Heritage Dictionary defines accentuate as "to mark with an accent" or "to stress
or emphasize." Metric accentuation, on its most fundamental musical level, implies an
alternation or pattern of strong and weak stresses. As an example, the pulses in duple
meter alternate strong and weak while the pulses in triple meter have the pattern of strong-
weak-weak. It is expected that the first beat of a measure will be stressed, and in triple
meter beats two and three are to be unstressed. These same patterns occur within the pulse
as well. For example, a measure of eighth notes in duple meter should exhibit strong-
weak, strong-weak stress while eighth notes in sextuple meter should exhibit a pattern of
strong-weak-weak, strong-weak-weak. This type of regular, metric accentuation, which
becomes a factor of increasing importance as the Baroque style progresses, is not discussed
at length in the late-sixteenth or early-seventeenth centuries. However, enough mention of
accentuation is made to warrant serious consideration for performances of compositions
during this period.
The traditional viewpoint of the late Renaissance is that mensi; ation signs,
barlines, and the subsequent alternation of metric stress did not exist to any significant
degree. In a revealing article by Edward Lowinsky, entitled "Early Scores in Manuscript,"
these accepted assumptions are refuted. Lowinsky cites and discusses the large number of
sixteenth-century scores containing barlines. In addition, he attacks misleading twentieth-
124
125
century editorial practices such as irregular barring, which subsequently eliminate
syncopation.
Syncopation is directly related to metric accentuation in that it can either negate or
occasionally reinforce the regular metric stress of a composition. In the following excerpt,
Lowinsky gives his opinions concerning the existence and importance of syncopation:
In studying the results of re-barring one is struck by another phenomenon: the

obscuring and, at times, the outright elimination of syncopation.
Indeed, it would be hard to find a great Renaissance treatise on theory without a

chapter on syncopation.1
Lowinsky cites Luscinius (1536), Heyden (1537), Vicentino (1555) and Morley (1597) in
defense of the importance of syncopation. Although outside the scope o f this study,
though, nevertheless important, because it characterizes a period of music history which
greatly influenced Monteverdi's sixteenth-century madrigals, Heyden addressed this issue
in a chapter called "What is syncopation?:"
Syncopation is generally considered to occur whenever the mensural values of

semibreves are sung for some time in opposition to the uniform movement of the
tactus. Our brief advise here concerning this disparity is as follows: while singing do
not allow the note values to return to agreement with the tactus, but persist vigorously
in the disparity until the notes are reconciled to the tactus, for such a disparity hardly
ever extends beyond the second or third tempus2
Lowinsky continues by stating:
From the statements of Heyden and Luscinius it is plain that the 16th-century musician
knew just as well as his colleague in the 18th century, or as we today, "the normal
pulse of meter, accent, and rhythm," and syncopation as a "deliberate upsetting" of
that normal pulse.
. . . there can be no doubt that the barlines introduced by the 16th-century score writer
were to him visual signs of a metrical order-rectus mensurae ordo as Luscinius says-
^ d w a rd Lowinsky, "Early Scores in Manuscript," Journal o f the American

Musicological Society 13 (Jan. I960): 159-160.
2Sebald Heyden, De Arte Canendi. translated by Clement A. Miller (American

126
the ties introduced for the binding of notes symbols for syncopation, i.e., for cutting a
note into two parts with different degrees of stress for each part.3
With regard to barring and metric accentuation, Lowinsky makes the following
observations:
It is clear from a study of 16th-century scores that the composer and musician of that
period considered barring as an ordering device comparable to the even motions with
which the choirmaster of the time indicated the tactus, but not as a mechanical device
unrelated to the life of the music.4
And, finally, there is evidence that the musician of the Renaissance experienced quite
consciously the alternation of time values good and bad, accented and unaccented,
although modem scholars have endeavored to show that the comparison of the
conductor's beat with the mechanical ticking of a clock ruled out any feeling of
accent.5
In support of the latter statement, Lowinsky quotes Zarlino (1558):
Therefore, one has to choose consonances for the first and the third beat, but for the
others (i.e., the second and fourth) one does not have to choose those intervals.6
In summarizing the evolution of accentuation, Lowinsky adds:
What is new in the Baroque is neither the experience of accent nor of syncopation, but
the use of accent and syncopation with increasing strength and unambiguousness
owing to the changes in tonality, harmony, rhythm, and dissonance. In other words,
it is not accent and syncopation that distinguish the Baroque from the Renaissance, but
the context in which they appear.7
An early Baroque treatise, Compendium Musicae (1618) by Rene Descartes,
contains references to the stress required on the first beat of the measure:
. . . this, I say, is accomplished in vocal music by stronger breathing and on

instruments by stronger pressure, so that at the beginning of each measure the sound is
produced more distinctly; singers and instrumentalists observe this instinctively,
especially in connection with tunes to which we are accustomed to dance and sway.
3Lowinsky, "Early Scores," p. 162.
4Ibid., p. 158.
5Ibid., pp. 162-163.
6Ibid., p. 164.
7Ibid., p. 168.
127
Since this is so, and since, as we have said, the sound is emitted more strongly and
clearly at the beginning of each measure, we must conclude that it has greater impact
on our spirits, and that we are thus roused to motion.8
The application of principles of metric accentuation is an integral part of the
performance of Monteverdi's madrigals. As evidenced through the following musical
examples, it will be shown that the importance of metric accentuation in performance
increases with each book of madrigals. All of the examples below are in quadruple meter,
as are the majority of all of Monteverdi's madrigals. Therefore, stress should be present on
beats one and three. It can be observed that in most cases the textual stress will correspond
with the metrical stress. The musical examples will be presented in chronological order so
that a sense of increasing importance with regard to accentuation can be revealed.
The opening of Arsi e alsi a mia voglia (example 1) from Book I (1587) requires
greater stress on beats one and three than on two and four. In addition, some portions of a
phrase may necessitate stronger stress on beat one than on beat three. The opening four
measures of the canto line illustrate both of these aspects. As expected, the strong syllables
correspond with the strong beats. However, in the second measure, the third beat should
receive less stress than the first beat because it is on a relatively weak syllable and because
the shape of the m odic line implies a tapering off of sound. It is interesting to note that
the use of messa di v^ce as discussed in Chapter V serves as an aid to accentuation on the
tied fourth beat in measure 3. The use of a swelling effect causes the metric stress of the
strong syllable, "vo" of "voglia," to be directed to beat 1 o f measure 4 rather than on the
weak fourth beat of measure 3.
Metric stress does not, however, always correspond with the stress of the
syllables. For example, from the same madrigal, note the point of imitation on the text
"non impudico" beginning in measure 8. The quinto, alto, and tenor entrances occur off
8Rene Descartes, Compendium Musicae. translated by Walter Robert (American

Institute of Musicology, 1961), pp. 14-15.
128
the beat. Adhering to metric accentuation will cause unnatural syllabification stress while
the canto and bass entrances occur on the beat and correct pronunciation will result from
metric accentuation. Should one aspect be totally disregarded in favor of the other? This
author recommends that each aspect can operate in conjuction with the other.
On one hand, it is clear that the importance of metric accentuation increased
throughout the Baroque, as it became common for the treatise writers to provide lengthy
discussions on this aspect of performance. These writings, concerning instrumental and
vocal compositions, clearly emphasized the importance of observing strong and weak
beats. Discussion of syllabification stress, as it related to metric stress, was not included.
On the other hand, the issue of text expressiveness is a fundamental concept of the early
Baroque and, therefore, must be considered. However, as discussed in Chapter IX, this
issue of text expression was of lesser importance prior to the year 1600. Text intelligibility
was of prime importance, but expression of text would not have this same priority until the
monodies of the Florentine Camerata. As Arsi e alsi a mia voglia is a late Renaissance
composition which would not require as much emphasis on text expressiveness,
syllabification stress is not as important an issue. In examples such as this one, some
degree of compromise is recommended with consideration given to both aspects.
129
CANTO
Ar tie
QU1NTO
Ar
ALTO
Ar
TENORE
mia
BASSO
S
Ar
At
Lc
pa
pu
CO,
CO,
CO,
130
Another example illustrating that metric accentuation and textual stress are
occasionally contradictory can be seen in measures 20 through 25 of the same madrigal
(example 2). The text, "e men lo sdegno," should receive stress on the syllables "men" and
"sde." Some entrances o f this point of imitation begin on weak beats and this complies by
placing these strong syllables on the strong beats. However, some entrances begin on the
strong beat which subsequently place the strong syllables on the weak beats. As
previously discussed, consideration of both aspects is important. This author recommends
that noticeable metric stress be observed in the voices which do not present a conflict (i.e.,
the alto voice). However, in the voices which do present this conflict (i.e., the canto voice
measures 23-24), the application of metric stress should be tempered so that the unaccented
syllables are not overly stressed.
m o r m en
131
Two points of imitation from Ecco mormorar I'onde (example 3 from Book II,
1590) are particularly dependent upon metric accentation; these occur at the texts, "E gli alti
monti indora" and "Oh, bella e vag'aurora." Performers often give equal stress to every
beat, and this is in conflict with the inherent musical expression provided through metric
accentuation. The use of metric stress allows for increased musical direction of the line. A
hierarchy of stress is also necessary to avoid a monotonous pattern of identically-stressed
strong and weak beats. As previously discussed, beat one should often receive slightly
greater emphasis than beat three. Further, some first beats should be stronger than others.
Suggestions, marked in the canto voice, are presented below using stress marks
(i.e.,— for strong beats and v_/ for weak beats). The markings for strong beats can be
used in varying numbers to indicate a hierarchy of metric stress.
132
Example 3 Ecco morrr )rar l'onde, mm 59-71
6U
m on • lijn do • ra E g li ^ a i - ti m o n - c ijn -
— r lo. mon ♦ tijin • do • ra .

E * **
lo , C gli_af* li r a o n - t i j n - do * ra E
0
t E gli,al • (i m o n -lijn • do
==?;. , -
' f "j= t-----------:------- =---------
do mom - i i in • do
O h, h e l - la j e va * g’au
gl»_al
13468462
OA, btl-la* j au
13 3
In the madrigal, O come &gran martire from Book III (1592) there are several
phrases in which accentuation plays a major factor. Example 4 illustrates the consistency
between textual stress and metric stress; this is seen in the point o f imitation with the text,
"O giusto mio desio." Each repetition may increase in intensity and, subsequently, in the
amount of metric stress according to the desire of the performers.
Example 4 O come e gran martire, mm 35-44
giu . ato mio de g ill, ato mio dc ciu ato mio oe
g iu .ato mio de g iu -a to mio 0 glia . ato mio de
g iu .s to m io O f i u . ato mio de •
giu . ato mio dc-.
0 g iu .a to mio dc . ai . o 0 giu .a to m io de
gmm a -m a u tu o
gnuo a . raailauo
t voi
E voi ae . te ilc o r
134
Example 5, from the same madrigal, also illustrates this consistency with the text,
"All’hor non fia ch'io v'ami." This phrase exhibits a gradual increase in intensity as
indicated in the alto voice. Application of messa di voce in measures 59-60 supports
accentuation as previously noted. In addition, another phrase reveals a disparity between
textual and metric stress as previously illustrated in example 2. This occurs in measure 62
of the bass voice with the text, "Quando sariL" The point of imitation begins after the
strong beat and subsequently causes metric stress to emphasize the weak syllable, "do."
This author recommends that the musical line be directed to the syllable "ra" with less stress
on the first beat and slightly more on the third.

LO
mi . o A1 . l’hor non fU ch’io v’a . mi quon-
1’hor non ftn c h ’i o
Thor non roi quan .d o ta . ra rhc
. mi AJ.lhor fin
quan . do aa . piu non bra .
- do sa . ra ehe vi-Yer piu non bra .m i Al . l’hor non
1 35
With Book IV (1603) there is an even greater need for the application o f metric
accentuation in performance. Measures 44 through 48 contain the text, "a questo bianco
seno," set in succession. The stressed syllables, "que," "bia," and "se" appear on strong
beats one and three. Further, it is beneficial to give a greater amount of stress to beat one
than to beat three. It is important to consider that comparable beats of successive measures
do not always receive equal amounts of stress. This is especially necessary in measure 46,
for example, because of the weak second syllable of "seno" which occurs on beat three.
For this reason, beat three of this measure should be considerably weaker than beat three of
measure 45. As suggested in example 4, it is the interpretive decision of the performers to
increase or decrease the intensity of repeated phrases such as those found in the example
below.
Example 6 Sf, ch'io vorei morire, mm 44-52

«=■ o o =r w
no,
ato bian • co no, ato b ia n » co.a
no, qut ato bian • co no,
no,
se • no
136
O Mirtillo from Book V (1605) provides an example o f a lengthy phrase,
measures 29 through 35, which requires consideration of metric accentuation. Editorial
stress marks have been added in the canto voice suggesting a hierarchy of accentuation.
This hierarchy, which should be considered for any phrase, is especially important in one
o f this length. Others interpretations for the amount of stress, based on the desire of the
performers, are possible. The application of messa di voce in measures 30, 32-33, and 33-
34 once again supports metric stress. In each case the peak o f the crescendo corresponds
with the stress of the strong first or third beats.
Example 7 O Mirtillo, mm 29-38
- !i,
, T r |T trr f - | r -H ^ |f r r r-r -^
<»> < »
137
As elements of the new Baroque style become more evident, the need for attention
to metric accentuation increases. The point of imitation beginning in measure 106 of
example 8, from Qui rise Tirsi from Book VI (1614), is dependent upon stress on beats
one and three. Further, beat one requires slightly greater stress than beat three, and as each
voice enters with the point of imitation, the intensity increases. The application of metric
stress also allows for greater ease in the performance of rhythmically-active passages such
as in measure 111. This would be realized in performance by providing the sixteenth-note
melismas with stress on the first of each four-note group and greater stress at the start of
the beat one and beat three groups.
138
m i (triii
Q u i d ’ u n b n .c in fe ,
Q u i d ’u n b a . c i o f e . r i m . m i
rim . m i d ’u n b & .c i n fe nm
Qui d’ u.1 ba.cio te r i m . m i d ’u n b a . c i o rim
Q u i d ’u n b a . e i o f e . r i m j n i d ’ u n b » . e i o f e . r i m . m i d ’u n b » . c i o f e . r i r a
•t_r
139
The madrigal cycle Lagrime d ’Amante al Sepolcro dell’A mata, also from Book
VI, is extremely dependent upon the principles o f metric accentuation. The following
examples, representing each of the six madrigals, illustrate a few o f the passages which
imply a need for this stress. For instance, the text and musical direction of the phrases
beginning in measure 37 of example 9 are better-served through the hierarchical application
of stress on Jie first and third beats.
t:\ to G la u co,
co,
— u =
co In d u o ra _ il to r - m e n - ta • to G la u *
m a r- m i in sc no E n o t- t$ _ ? g io r-n o vi v e _ in p i a n t ’ i n fo
E n o t-te e g io r-n o vi v e jn p la n t’ in fo
ra jl to r-m e n - ta - to G la u co,
ra U to r-m e n • ta to G la u co,
co, ra il to r-m e n -
co,
co, ra il to r-m e n -
The same need for hierarchical metric stress is seen in the five examples below.
As previously discussed, in addition to the basic pattern of stress, beat one should
generally receive slightly more stress than beat three. In most cases this places accents on
the proper syllables; but, more importantly, it provides an inherently logical musical
direction.
L’a - r i a fe - r ir to m - ba E r m e c a m -p a
su to m - b a E r m e cam pa
L ’a - r i a fe • r i r m e c a m -p a
m e c a m -p a
L ’a - r i a fe - r i r m e c a m -p a
N i n - f e e ’l C i e
gne, san le N i n - f e _ e ’l C i e
gne, m e fu ci
m e fu
eM eau le N i n - f e _ e 'l C ie m e fu
P o i cb ’ il m io ben
duol be - v a n -d a jl p ia o Poi
ci - b o il d u o l; v a u -d a _ il p ia o • to ,
ci - b o i l d u o l, be - v a u -d a jl p la n
142
Example 11 D aii la notte il sol, mm 50-54

so
a p ir di p ia n - to P ro - d i- g h e a lu i s a - ra n le fe r e e ’l C ie lo .
a p ir di p ia n -to P ro -d i-g h e _ a lu i s a - ra n le fe - r e j s ’l C ie lo .
s p ir di p ia n -to P r o - d ig h e _ a lu i s a - ra n le fe re .
e p ir di p ia n • to P r o - d i-g h e _ a l u i s a • ra n lo .
s p ir di p ia n • to F r o • d i-g fa e a l u i sa - ra n le f e - r e e ’l C ie lo .
143
f ■■j g . 1 ^
_ R i - d i - c o -n o _ i la -m e n - ti, E D ria - d e e N a -p e e del m e - sto
E D ria - d e e N a - pee del m e - s to
R i - d i - c o -n q j la - m en - ti, E D ria - d e e N a -p e e del m e - s to
R i - d i - c o -n o j la -m e n - ti, E D ria - d e e N a -p e e del m e • s to
E D ria - d e e N a -p e e del m e -s to
G la u - co R i - d i - co
G la u - co R i - d i - co nqj la -m e n - ti,
G la u - co R i - di la - m en - ti, su
G la u • co R i - di • c o -n o j la -m e n - ti, su la to m
G la u - c o ^ R i - di su la to m - ba
144
p>.
p*i
Two short points o f imitation are seen in example 14-the first begins with the
text, "Fa rissonar Corina" and the second with "Dicano i venti ogn'hor." In each case the
first-beat stress increases in intensity from one measure to the next. In addition, the
repetitions should also exhibit an increase in intensity. The first point o f imitation is
marked in the canro voice beginning in measure 26, and the second point is marked in the
alto voice beginning in measure 34.
145
r ia - so -o a r C o - rin ua, F a ria * a o o a r C o - rin na, Co -
F a ria - a o -n a r C o - rin n a ,F a r ia - a o -n a r C o - rin na
ria - a o -n a r C o - rin -n a ilm a re ’ 1 C ie lo , F a
r ia - a o n a r C o - rin -n a il m a r e ’ l C ie lo . R ria - a o -n a r C o - riu -n a il m ar e ’ 1
F a ria - a o -n a r C o - rin n a ilm a r e’ 1 C ie lo , F a ria - a o -n a r C o-
rin n a ,C o - r i n - n a i l m a r e,M C ie - lo A hi Co -
F a ria • a o -n a r C o - rin • u a
ria - a o -n a r C o - rin -n ^ jlm a r e U C ie -lo D i - c * n < y v e n - t ( p - g n ’h o r
C ie il m a r ^ ,1 C is - lo M _p-
rin m a il e^l C ie D i - c a - n o i v e a t i p - g n ’h o r d i c a la
rin nal A hi C o - rin nat
D i - e a -n o iv e n c a la te r ra . D i - c & n o i v e n - ti.
c a la te r D i - c a n y ven - t ^ o - g n ’h o r ,
te r ra , D i - c a - n y v e n • t i o - g n ’h o r di c a la te r ra ,
146
Al lume delle stelle from Book VII (1619) ;s composed in a point of imitation
style similar to madrigals from the early books. Although the extent to which metric stress
is appropriate in the early madrigals is minimal, a performance of this piece can be greatly
aided with considerably more emphasis on accentuation. Three different types of musical
lines from the madrigal illustrate the need for metric stress. For example, the lengthy
opening tenor line is better-served with metric stress (example 15). This is also appropriate
in measures 74 through 77 with musical lines of much shorter duration (example 16).
Finally, in measures 78 through 83 of the same example, the use of metric stress can be of
great benefit in the performance of melismatic passages by providing a framework around
which the sixteenth notes can be placed.
147
Example 15 A1 lume delle stelle, mm 1-9
AJ lu .m e d e l.le ite l
AI lu .m e d e l.le ite l
lo t . t un e l . lo ro
le e
148
Example 16 A1 lume delle stelle, mm 73-82
oi so . re . n e e
ci so • re no e
ci se . re . n e e ci so . re . no c
ci se - re . ne e lie se . re . n e e
lie
lie
u
to te n . to lo H a m
fie ra
■ en - to le rw m
aen - *° fiam. . . . . . . . m e
. me lor sen . to le
sen . to le fia m _ m e lo r
Finally, in Riedi from Book V m (1638) the need for metric stress in performance
is significant. In example 17 below the first tenor voice indicates the suggestions for
accentuation. Two sections of text are set—"Amor e Marte" and "e quasi cor gentil cortese
affetto." In the case of the former, the weak second syllable of "Marte" appears on the
strong first beat. Especially because this is a Baroque madrigal which is based on
expressive interpretation of the text, the pronunciation should be given greater
consideration than the immediate placement of stress on the first beat of a measure. In the
case of the latter section of text, there is consistency between pronunciation and regular
metric stress with the exception of measures 21,22, and 23 in which this text is set as the
word, "Marte." However, the basic feeling is a marked alternation of strong and weak
beats creating an overall feeling o f increased intensity to the middle of the phrase (the
downbeat of measure 19, for example) which is followed by a relaxation of energy at the
end (the downbeat of measure 20).
150
Example 17 Riedi, mm 16-26
. t i l c o r l e a e tif . f e t e q u a jl in cor gen.
e h 'A r a o r c M a r. e quasi in cor gen. til cor.te.au af.fet
. ti l e o r te a e a f . fc i . to A .m o r e M ar
. til A m or e M ar e qua.si in cor gen t i l c o r . t e . s e a f . f e t -
. to e h 'A r a o r e M ar . e q u a s i in co r gen
. to e q u a s i in c o r g e n . t i l 1’ i a i e a s o a f . f e t .
VJ
. t o A .n a o r e M ar . e qua.ai in cor gen t i l c o r . t e . s e a f . to .
. t i l c o rte .s e a f .f e t - to til c o r .te .s e a f . fe t to .
. te e q u a s i in c o r g e n .t i l e q u a .s iin c o r g e n .t i l e o r .te .s e a f .f e t
The application of principles of metric accentuation is an integral part of the
performance of Monteverdi's madrigals. The preceding examples are intended to reveal an
increased need for this consideration as the Baroque progresses. Because this aspect of
performance was not fully developed during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries, there is some flexibility regarding the degree to which it is applied. This is
especially true as related to text expression and pronunciation, and it is the obligation of the
performer to consider this kind of approach. In almost any composition there will be more
than one option of interpretation regarding a hierarchy of metrip stress. Therefore, the
important issue is not an attempt to decide which interpretation is most valid, rather, that
this kind of approach is given careful consideration.
CHAPTER VH
ARTICULATION
Considerations of articulation constitute another important aspect of performance.
Although sixteenth- and seventeenth-century references to articulation are less common
than those of the other previously-discussed catergories of performance, there seems to be
support for a manner of performance that is smooth, connected and flowing. This chapter
of the document will attempt to support this idea of smooth articulation through citations
describing the manner of performance as such.
Because of the dearth of citations concerning articulation, this author believes that
several early sixteenth-century references are useful in establishing the presence of legato
articulation in the years prior to Monteverdi's output. One early example is found in Pietro
Aaron's Toscanello in Music (1523 and 1562). Aaron first provided his descriptions of a
"smooth" voice. He then described a perfect voice as being " . . . high, smooth, and clear;
high sc that it may be sufficient in the upper register, smooth so that it may caress the souls
of the listeners."1 A second example is found in Baldassare Castiglione's II libro del
Cortegiano (1528): "Our Marchetto Cara moves us no less by his singing, but with a
sweeter harmony . . . full of flexible smoothness."2
Although still an early reference, further support for a smooth articulation is found
in Coclico's Compendium mu sices of 1552:
1Aaron, Toscanello in Music. Vol. I, trans. Berquist, p. 17.
153
Several princes of musicians have lived among those people: Josquin des Pres, Pierre
de la Rue, Jacob Scampion, others, who employed the most admirable and smooth
passages that are to be admired.3
Seay's translation of Compendium contains the following additional information:
Even if they understand the force of this art and also compose, they do not honor the
smoothness and sweetness of song.
Certainly all the powers of the soul are used in singing ornately and in putting a text in
its proper place, since music has been established by God for smooth singing
(modulandum) , . . .
To the boy desiring to learn the art well and how to sing elegantly, I first counsel him
to choose a teacher who sings beautifully and smoothly by special natural instinct and
makes Music joyful by the ornaments of passages,. . . 4
A reference which is more appropriate to the time of Monteverdi's madrigals can
be seen as Banchieri (1609) agreed with a smooth manner of articulation illustrated in two
statements:
This musical organ has a great correspondence with the organ of the human voice in
sounding without articulation.
The lut< in concert must be played with pleasing invention and diversity, now with a
stroke, and struck again smoothly,. . . 5
Lastly, in his Prima parte de' Discorsi e Regole sovra la Musica (after 1642 but
before 1663), Severo Bonini provided this description of the singing o f Francesco Rasi:
". . . [he] sang elegantly, and with great passion and spirit. He was a handsome, jovial
man, and he had a delightfully smooth voice."6
The category of phrasing is an important articulatory consideration. Donington
stresses two options for the delineation of phrases in Baroque music: 1) an appreciable
4Coclico, Compendium, trans. Seay, pp. 8, 16, and 20.
5Banchieri, Conclusioni. trans. Garrett, pp. 9 and 58.
154
silence taken from the preceding note or 2) a more conspicuous silence not taken from the
preceding note, but inserted as stolen time.7 Girolamo Frescobaldi advocated this type of
phrasing in Toccate . . . (1615) in stating," . . . a pause prevents confusion between one
phrase and another."8 Similarly, in M ustek's Monument (1676), Thomas Mace
recommended making, " . . . a kind of Cessation, or standing still, sometimes Longer, and
sometimes Shorter, according to the Nature, or Requiring . . . of the Musick."9
Within this category of phrasing bowing considerations, where appropriate, are
important. Diego Ortiz described the correct manner of articulation in bowing in Trattado
de elosas sobre clausulas (1553):
When two or three quarter notes occur in one example, only the first is to be defined
and the others passed over without a fresh stroke of the bow [i.e. slurred].10
Similarly, John Playford described both instrumental and vocal slurs in A Breefe
Introduction to the Skill of Musick (1654):
[A slur] is, when two or more Notes are to be sung to one Syllable, or two Notes or
more to be played with once drawing the Bow on the Viol or Violin.11
Although in reference to keyboard playing (in a section entitled "Effect of
Pressing, and That of Striking the Key" in Girolamo Diruta's II Transilvano. 1597), the
following statements and examples provide the strongest support for a smooth articulation
during the era of Monteverdi’s madrigal output:
8Ibid„ p. 284.
9Ibid.
10Ibid., p. 285.
11Ibid.
155
The effect of pressing the key is this: it makes the harmony conjunct. On the contrary,
to strike the key makes it disjunct, as you can see in [Ex. 1]; it is like a person who
takes a breath after every note in singing, particularly in quarter and eighth notes.
Looking at this example you will see in the eighth notes that singing them, as I have
described, causes an eighth rest between one note and the next, as in [Ex. 2].
Ex. 1 Good
Ex. 2 Poor
This is exactly what happens to the awkward organist who, by raising the hand and
striking the keys, loses half the harmony. Many fall into this enror, among them clever
players, for when they wish to make a beginning on the organ they place, then raise
their hands from the keyboard in such a way that they will make the organ remain
silent for the space of half a measure, so that it appears they are playing a quilled
instrument and are about to begin a saltarello.12
Although outside the scope of this study, it is interesting to note that by the end of
the Baroque, these two examples were reversed in terms of which was "good" and which
was "poor." For example, Marpurg (1755) made this statement:
In contrast to legato and staccato is the ordinary style of playing in which the finger is
lifted from the key just before the following note is played. This ordinary style-being
always taken for granted—is never marked . . .
15 6
Playing in the ordinary manner—neither staccato nor legato-means that the notes be
held for slightly less than their full value . . . If certain notes should be held for their
full value, ten. or tenuto is written above them . . . 13
Many other writers of the late Baroque such as Quantz, C. P. E. Bach, Turk, and Leopold
Mozart discussed this different type of articulation and stressed its importance.
The change from a smooth to a more detached manner of articulation occurred
gradually as the Baroque style progressed, and two citations are offered in support. First,
in reference to the performance of polyphonic works in a resonant building, J. van der Elst
(1657) stated:
Similarly, when several notes are set to a single syllable, each must be articulated
distinctly and with attention to detail, lest to anyone hearing them at a distance they
seem blurred and little more than a continuous up-and-down humming.14
Second, Roger North described in his late seventeenth-century treatise, Memoirs of Music.
an articulation in which there is a degree of separation between notes:
The next thing to be taught is the transition of the voice or hand from one tone to
another, or the practise of the Gamut.. . . Then next the grace of passing from one to
another, which in some sort connects them, though severall, as if they were links on a
chaine, very distinct, yet connected all together.. . . 15
Modem musicians occasionally utilize an aggressive, detached articulation in
performances of contemporary works unless there is an indication for a slur. However, in
the performance of works from the late Renaissance and early Baroque, such as madrigals
by Monteverdi, it is suggested that careful consideration be given to articulation. The basic
approach to articulation should be smooth and connected.
13Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg, Anleitung zum Clavierspielen (Berlin: 1755).
CHAPTER VIH
TEMPO
The subject of tempo encompasses two areas: the importance of the selection of a
correct tempo and the necessity for the fluctuation of tempo within a composition. This
chapter of the document will examine the importance of the tactus, its relationship in the
selection of an appropriate tempo, and the existence of tempo fluctuation in performances
of late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century compositions. Tempo considerations will
then be examined regarding madrigals from each of Monteverdi's eight books.
The establishment of an appropriate tempo is dependent upon a pulse known in
the sixteenth century as the tactus (literally "touching" or "beating"), which was defined
and discussed in many primary sources. Although written prior to the time frame
considered by this study, Sebald Heyden provided this explanation of tactus in De Arte
Canendi (1537):
While previously we measured it [the quantity of a tone] intervalically, now we

measure it temporally. We recognize its temporal value by the tactus, so that it is
necessary to consider the tactus before the notes.1
Heyden continued with a section entitled, "What is tactus ?":
It is a movement or stoking motion of a finger fitting the value of all notes and rests
into an equally divided temporal beat. The tactus therefore defines very accurately the
temporal value of every note and rest.2
h e y d e n , De Arte Canendi. trans. Miller, p. 53.
2Ibid.
157
158
Although he did not use the term, tactus, Orazio Scaletta provided a similar
description in his Scali di Musica (1592) in a chapter entitled, "Of the Beat, How it is Done
and What it is:"
The beat is made so that the singing is unified and [done] with an equal measure. The
beat is nothing else than a lowering and raising of the hand.3
Descriptions of the tactus and how it was to be achieved remained consistent into
the seventeenth century. Mersenne's Harmonie universelle (1636) contained the following
information in a chapter entitled, "Explanation of the Manner of Regulating, Denoting,
Holding, or Beating the Measure in Music, Which the Spanish Call 'Compas:'"
The beating of the measure, which St. Augustine and the other ancient Latins call
Plausus, is nothing but the lowering and raising of the hand, which shows the [length
of] time that is to be given to each note. For example, the semibreve ordinarily has the
length of one raising and lowering of the hand, which can also be made with the foot
or in any other way one may desire. The minim, which is usually called a white note,
has the length of one raising or one lowering of the hand; and the black note,
[semiminim] equals half a raising or lowering of the hand,. . . 4
Although written almost three decades after Monteverdi's eighth book of
madrigals there are similar suggestions in a chapter entitled, "Of Keeping Time," in
Simpson's Compendium of Practical Music (1665) the following description of tactus and
instruction for its execution was provided:
Our next business is to consider how, in such a diversity of long and short notes, we
come to give every particular note its due measure without making it either longer or
shorter than it ought to be. To effect this, we use a constant motion of the hand. Or,
if the hand be otherwise employed, we use the foot. If that be also engaged, the
imagination (to which these are but assistant) is able of itself to perform that office.
But in this place we must have recourse to the motion of the hand.
The motion of the hand is down and up, successively and equally divided, every down
and up being called a time or measure, and by this we measure the length of a
semibreve which is therefore called the measure-note or time-note.
3George Houle, "The Musical Measure as Discussed by Theorists from 1600-

1800," (Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1960), p. 15.
159
. . . I would have you pronounce these words-'one, two, three, four,' in an equal
length as you would leisurely read them, then fancy those four words to be four
crotchets which make up the quantity or length of a semibreve and consequently of a
time or measure; in which, let these two words, 'one, two,' be pronounced with the
hand down, and ’three, four,' with it up. In the continuation of this motion you will
be able to measure and compute all your other notes.5
Treatise writers often equated the speed of the tactus with the beating of the
human heart. As early as 1496 Franchinus Gafurius compared the tactus with the pulse of
a man breathing normally (M.M. 60-70).6 Johannes Lippius (1612) stated: "This temporal
flux of sound is numbered in musical science by observing a constant musical tactus
patterned after the heartbeat."7 Mersenne (1636) made a similar comparison: "That is why
I devote this particular Proposition to it and say, first, that it seems that measure may have
taken its time and regularity from the beating of the heart,. . . "8 Curt Sachs concurred
with the rate of speed by stating that the tactus would measure between M.M. 60 and 80.9
Although it has been established that the tactus was to be determined by some
fixed rate of speed, musical considerations often dictated varied rates of speed. Treatise
writers frequently discussed the importance of selecting an appropriate speed for the tactus.
For example, Praetorius (1619) stated:
Music should not be hastened, else the most delightful concert will sound confused.
However with a moderate tactus the harmony will sound better and be more easily
perceived.10
5Christopher Simpson, A Compendium of Practical Music, edited by Phillip J.

Lord (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1970), pp. 9-10.
6Donald Trott, "Patterns of Accentuation in the Classical Style as Supported by

Primary Sources and as Illustrated in the Late Masses of Franz Joseph Haydn," (D. M. A.
document, the University of Oklahoma, 1984), p. 11.
7Lippius, Synopsis, trans. Rivera, p. 16.
9Curt Sachs, Rhythm and Tempo (New York: W. W. Norton and Company,
1953), p. 219.
160
In L'antica musica ridotta all modema prattica (1555), Nicola Vicentino provided this
statement concerning the relative tempos of a variety of compositions:
Secular compositions, like madrigals, sonetti. and canzoni, will have a moderate
tempo. Other secular pieces, like die villote. the napoletane and similar types begin
with a fast tempo . . . “
Ludovico Zacconi in Prattica di musica (1592) related the tempo to the speed of the
diminutions:
The most beautiful and perfect thing sought in diminution is tempo and measure,
which embellishes and seasons the collection and aggregate of figures; whoever
departs from measure and tempo loses at the end because of a fine scattering of notes
without results.
One should therefore take care first to do the ornament well, then to measure it in
tempo, so that it will please and satisfy eveiyone.12
It is not this author's intention to imply that there is only one correct tempo for
any composition. There is certainly a range of appropriate tempos, though this range may
be limited. The important issue is the manner in which a tempo is selected. The primary
considerations include the utilization of a tactus as described above and the advice from
Praetorius and Zacconi to control the tempo based on the nature of the speed of the fastest
notes. The tempo should allow the music to be expressive and beautiful. These factors
have been taken into consideration in the suggested tempos for the following madrigals of
Monteverdi. All of the tempos selected fall within a relatively narrow range of M.M. 84 to
108 for a quarter note pulse. The chart below contains the suggestions for performance:
Book I Arsi e alsi a mia voglia 92-100
Book II Ecco mormorar l'onde 100-108
Book III O come e gran martire 96-104
n Robert Mario Isgro, "The First and Second Practices of Monteverdi: Their
Relation to Contemporary Theory," (D. M. A. dissertation, University of Southern
California, 1968), p. 337.
161
Book IV Si, ch’io vorei morire 100-108
BookV OMirtillo 96-104
Book VI QuiriseTirsi 96-104
Lagrime d'Amante al Sepolcro dell'Amata
1. Incenerite spoglie 84-88
2. Ditelo voi 100-108
3. Darit la notte il sol 88-96
4. Ma te raccoglie 84-92
5. O chiome d'or 84-92
6. Dunque amate reliquie 84-88
Book VII Al lume delle stelle 96-100
Book VIII Ma per quel ampio 84-88
Riedi 84-92
The use of descriptive terms to indicate tempo is discussed by a few treatise
writers of the early seventeenth century. Nigel Fortune has stated:
It was only after about 1610 that composers began to add tempo directions to their
monodies; the first that Curt Sachs has found are in Banchieri's 'L'organo suonarino'
(1611). At first, composers were content with obvious directions like "adagio" and
"presto", but later they ventured "mesto", "vivace" and others still in use.13
It seems logical that the primary purpose for these terms was to indicate a fluctuation of
tempo for the expressive affect so important in early Baroque compositions. Praetorius
(1619) substantiated Fortune's statement in a section of his Syntagma Musicum entitled,
"On Musical Terms:"
Forte; Pian; Presto; Adagio; Lento: these words are occasionally used by the Italians
in different places in the Concerto, and are indicated either above or below [the music]
13Fortune, Italian Singing," p. 218.
162
on account of the changes in the voices and choirs; this does not displease me,
although there are some who think this usage, especially in churches, is not good.14
As implied above, the fluctuation of tempo within a composition is an aspect of
performance appropriate to late Renaissance and early Baroque music. In addition to the
natural feeling of ritardando at the approach to cadences, especially final ones, this
fluctuation can and should occur within phrases. Arnold Dolmetsch even used the
expression tempo rubato ("stolen time" which is more often associated with expressive
changes of tempo in Romantic compositions) in reference to seventeenth-century music:
If there are people who think that the old music does not require the Tempo Rubato, it
is because they do not perceive its meaning; and are, moreover, ignorant of the fact
that it was as common formerly as it is now.15
Robert Donington agrees with Dolmetsch:
Both evidence and experience confirm that the ordinary flexibility to which we are
accustomed in later music is required for earlier music too, in a perfectly normal
w ay.16
It is common to find scholars and performers holding to the false assumption that
the tactus is metronomically constant in speed. For example, F. E. Kirby makes this
statement in an article on Hermann Finck:
This [the highlighting of sections which use imitative polyphony] must be combined
with the conception of tactus as it prevailed in the sixteenth century. All theorists
define tactus as a regular, constant and unvarying marking off of musical time,
maintained throughout a composition. From this it appears that, strictly speaking,
there should be no changes of tempo, neither retardations nor accelerations, during the
course of a work, except those provided for in the notation itself by the use of
proportions.17
15Amold Dolmetsch, The Interpretation of the Music of the Seventeenth and

Eighteenth-Centuries (London: Oxford University Press, 1946), p. 284.
17Kirby, "Hermann Finck," p. 214.
163
Numerous primary sources include discussion of tempo fluctuation. As early as
1511 Johannes Cochlaeus referred to the ritardando that naturally occurs at the end of a
composition: "In tactus planus [notes of approximately equal length in compositions with
free rhythm] the penultimate note should be prolonged with a certain solemnity, so that a
full consonance strikes the ears and the song quietly subsides and comes to a rest on the
final."18 Although still early with regard to this study, Vicentino (1555) made several
references to the necessity of tempo fluctuation:
And sometimes one uses a certain way of proceeding in the composition that cannot be
written down-such as to sing piano and forte, and to sing presto and tardo, . . .
And it should not appear strange to anyone, this manner of changing tempo [mutar
misura] suddenly in singing, since it is so understood in performance that where it is
necessary to change tempo it is not an error. And the composition sung with changes
of tempo is more pleasing in its variety than that which is sung without being varied all
the way to the end.
The tempo [moto della misura] should move according to the words; slower and
faster,. . , even though it may be that some have the opinion that when beating the
measure alia breve one should not change the tempo; yet in singing it is changed.19
Even though these early citations are not directly applicable to this study, a sense
of consistent conventions is established. A final sixteenth-century example that is more
appropriate to the madrigals of Monteverdi is found in the preface to Discorso mandato . . .
a Giulio Caccini detto Romano sopra la musica antica e'l cantar bene (1580), in which
Bardi advised the singer to " . . . contract or expand the time at will, seeing that it is his
privilege to regulate the time as he thinks fit."20
Discussion of tempo fluctuation became much more common in seventeenth-
century sources. In Omithoparcus' Micrologus (1609), it was stated t hat " . . . because in it
18Johannes Cochlaeus, Tetrachordum Musices. translated by Clement A. Miller

(American Institute of Musicology, 1970), p. 81.
164
[the Church of Prague] also they make the notes sometimes longer, sometimes shorter than
they should."21 In Caccini's second volume o f monody, Nuove Musiche e nuova maniera
di scriverle (1614), there is discussion of "sprezzatura," or rubato as an essential quality of
a solo singer. He states that rubato is:
. . . that gracefulness in singing which, if applied in the right place (as it might be
during a sequence of quavers or semiquavers passing through various harmonies),
takes away from the singing a certain constricting stiffness and dryness and makes it
pleasing, free and airy; just as in ordinary speech an eloquent delivery makes the
things one says sweet and agreeable.22
Michael Praetorius described at length this practice of tempo fluctuation in
Syntagma Musicum. Volume III (1619):
Nevertheless, for reasons of the text, sometimes to use now a slower, now a faster,
beat adds singular majesty and grace, and marvelously ornaments the melody.
Some people do not wish to allow a mixture of motet and madrigal styles in a single
composition. But I cannot accept their opinion, since motets and concertos are given a
particular charm and delight when at their beginning a number of measures are set
pathetically and slow, then several quick phrases follow immediately, succeeded again
by slow and grave ones, changing and mingling, so that it is not always moving in one
key and sound; rather [using] such similar changes with a slow and fast beat.
Further, it is not attractive or worthy of applause when singers, organists, and other
instrumental players habitually hasten from the penultimate note of a composition
directly into the final note without any retardation. I believe therefore I should
admonish those who have not heretofore observed this as done in princely courts and
other well-composed musical choirs, [that is,] to remain some time on the penultimate
note, whatever it may be, lingering four, five, or six beats, and then at last moving to
the final note.23
Frescobaldi referred to the necessity of tempo fluctuation in several treatises of the
early seventeenth century; one example is his Toccate . . . , published in 1614. Even
though this treatise deals with keyboard works which, by their nature, are rhythmically
^MacClintock, Readings, pp. 150-151.
165
free, specific recommendations for tempo fluctuation are made. This is especially true in
the following citation which includes an invaluable reference to vocal music:
The manner of playing, just as in the performance of modem madrigals, should not be
subjected to strict time. Although such madrigals are difficult, they are facilitated if
one takes the beat now languidly, now lively, or holding back, according to the
affection of the music or the meaning of the word.24
A second example is found in the same treatise:
In the cadences, even though written in notes of small values, one must sustain them.
As the performer approaches the end of a passage, he must slow the tempo 25
In Fiori musicali (1635) Frescobaldi advised:
In the Toccatas, when some trills or affettuoso passages are found, play them slowly;
and in the eighth notes that follow in the several parts, make them somewhat faster.
The trills should be played more slowly, with a slowing down of the tempo, although
the Toccatas may be played according to the desire and taste of the performer.
The beginnings of the Toccatas may be played adagio, even if they are written in
eighths, and then, according to their movement, make them faster.
In the Kyries some can be played with a lively tempo and others more slowly,
according to the player's judgement.26
In his Secondo libro de' Motetti a voce sola published in 1636, Ignatio Donati
stated that " . . . you should never beat time at all, [but should aim only] at singing in the
broadest possible manner."27 From the same year, Mersenne provided this information
concerning changing mensuration and tempo fluctuation in Harmonie universelle:
But because they change the measure many times, either binary or ternary, in
performing a single piece of music, by hurrying or holding back the lowering and
raising [of the hand] according to the character and the words, or the different passions
of the text which they treat, it is difficult to apply any certain rule if they do not use as
many different [lengths of] strings as they wish to have different meters.28
24Ibid., p. 133.
25Ibid., p. 135.
26Ibid., p. 136.
166
Although written well after Monteverdi’s last book of madrigals, two final
examples, found in treatises by Beningne de Bacilly (1668) and Thomas Mace (1676),
reveal a consistency in the approach to tempo fluctuation in the late-seventeenth century:
I don't at all doubt that a variation of mesure, now slow, now fast, contibutes a great
deal to the expressivity of a song, but this quality of movement is without any doubt
an entirely different, more refined and more spiritual quality. It removes any trace of
boredom from the listener's attitude and keeps him on the edge of his seat holding his
breath. Movement can make a mediocre voice more pleasing than a good voice which
lacks it.::’
[Beginners must learn strict time; but] when we come to be Masters, so that we can
command all manner of Time, at our own Pleasures, we Then take Liberty, (and very
often, for Humour [i.e. "mood," not "wit"], and good Adornment-sake, in certain
Places), to Break Time; sometimes Faster, and sometimes Slower, as we perceive, the
Nature o f the Thing Requires.30
As was discovered for the category of sound quality in chapter II, tempo
considerations (both the selection of the correct tempo and the need for fluctuation of
tempo) are basically the same for late Renaissance and early Baroque compositions. The
preceding primary source information supports this statement. We find instances of late
Renaissance compositions where tempo variation is appropriate. One example occurs in
Ecco mormorar I'onde from Book II (1590) of Monteverdi's madrigals. A ritard into the
cadence in measure 26 and a slightly faster tempo than the original in the following section
provides for greater expressiveness. (See example 1 below.) Further, we find instances
of early Baroque compositions where the nature of the melodic lines dictates the speed of
the tempo. A l lume delle stelle from Book VII (1619) provides an example of this
(example 2). The profusion of sixteenth-note melismas in all of the parts necessitates the
selection of a tempo which accommodates the vocal skills of the singers.
29Beningne de Bacilly, Remarques curieuses sur l'art de bien chanter, translated

by Austin Caswell (New York: The Institute o f Medieval Music, Ltd., 1968), p. 101.
167
Pau
(re - mo • la r lc fro n P au
trc • m o * la r le fro n Pau
tu
lu b o r • ice)
lu • ti gli_ar bor • seel
Pan lu
m a • tu bor sccl
tu see)
30
11467462
gh ijtu -g cl
tc
dcr I’o
C a n • ta r
168
Example 2 Al lume delle stelle, mm 73-82

ff
ci se • re . Be e
no ci se - re ne e
ci se - re . n e e lie et se . re . ne e
ci se - re . ne e lie se . re _ ne e
lie
lie
lie sen . to le fi&ra
lie sen fiam
to
sen to le finm
me
me lor sen
me lor sen lor
169
Regarding fluctuation of tempo within other Monteverdi madrigals, three types of
situations can be identified. The most fundamental type of fluctuation, a slowing of the
tempo at cadential points, was illustrated in example 1. The importance of the cadences
with respect to expressive factors should govern the degree of the ritard. A final cadence,
for example, will usually imply the greatest amount. Second, as seen in example 2, new
sections often suggest a change in tempo because of musical and/or textual considerations.
Third, many phrases, because of their harmonic motion toward a cadence, can be greatly
enhanced by an increase in the tempo. Examples of this type will be provided later in the
chapter.
Although it is not necessary to discuss all of the instances of cadential ritards,
several examples are provided below. In Arsi e alsi a m a voglia it is appropriate to initiate
a ritard beginning in measure 41 which culminates in the third and fourth beats of measure
42 (example 3).
tuon del tu o par • la r in • aa * no-
170
As the harmonic activity at a cadence heightens, the amount of the ritard can also
increase. This is recommended in measures 28 through 30 in O come 2 gran martire

(example 4).
Example 4 O come b gran martire (Book HI), 23-34
▼c m io at «
vc ru g in ', ato mio de .
. ve m io a r_ re
re g iu '.f to m io de -
A mio a t . do re
3o
■o . ve m io * r .
ve mio «r .
so . ve m io Ar - do .
10 . mio t r .
O 10 A mio a r . do
171
In some cases the ritard may be extended over a number of measures. Two
examples illustrating this possibility are found in Lagrime d'Amante al Sepolcro dell'Amata
from Book VI. In measures 19 through 22 of Ditelo voi (example 5) a ritard may begin
immediately. This effect heightens the expressive emotion of the text, "I feed on sorrow, I
drink tears." A second and more extreme illustration (example 6) can be found in Dimque
amate reliquie. In meaures 44 to 49 the upper four parts share imitative material on the text,
"Ah, death! Ah, tomb!" Each of the six madrigals in this sestina contains sue lines of text.
However, at this point in the last madrigal, a three line extension is added and serves as a
conclusion. A gradual ritard over these six measures creates a strong dramatic effect as
well as delineating this phrase from the closing section which follows.
172
gne,
san le N i n - f e j a ’l C ie
u a le N i a - f e j e ’l C ie
« £ jl ean le N i n - f e _ e ’l C i e lo; m e fu
P oi c h ’ il m io beu
b tj_ il d u o l, be - v a n - d a ,il p ia n Poi c b ’ il m io
ci - b o j l d u o l, be - v a n -d a jl p ia n - to ,
m or - te l A h i_ m o r • te l A h ito m - bal
A h i_ m o r • te l A h i to m • bal
A hi m or te l A h ito m - b a ,A h i" to m - ba.
g n ’h o r d i - c a la te r - ra ,
173
The relative importance of cadences within a composition should effect the degree
of ritard utilized. The chart below lists the major cadences in O Mirtillo from Book V
(example 7) and numerical indictions which suggest the importance of each cadence—1
being the most important, 6 being the least. Using these numbers as a guide, relative
degrees of ritard are implied. Placement within the composition and the harmonic strength
of the cadences will be major factors in this determination. The cadence in measure 69 is
the strongest because it is the final one. The cadences in measures 46 and 29 exhibit very
strong dominant-tonic motion. Even though the cadence in measure 51 is dominant-tonic
in nature, it is not as strong as the two previously-mentioned cadences. The cadence in
measure 41 is quite weak and the cadence in measure 5 occurs so near the beginning of the
madrigal it should not receive a great amount of stress.
0 Mirtillo Cadential location Cadential importance
measure 5 6
measure 29 3
measure 41 5
measure 46 2
measure 51 4
measure 69 1
174
Example 7 O Mirtillo
CANTO
Mir Mir - lit
Q U IN T O
M ir - til M ir - til
ALTO
Mir Mir - lil
TENORE
Mir Mir • til
BA SSO
Mir Mir - lil
B.S.
qui den co - me i t i j l cor
te v e -d a qui den co - me m i l cor
da qui den co * me m i l cor
da qui den co - me s u il cor
 <«> <»>

:o
te vc • d a - ti tro
que te ve - d a tro
qui den
que
175
que che
que che
que che chia
che
che ch ia
che chia
che
ma A che
maA
dr ina A
<l>
176
ben che tu chc d a lei chie
ben che tu che d a lei chie
ben che tu che d a lei chie
«ti. Oh
di a - vre Oh
Oh
•ti.
Oh
 
mor trop - poin fe Che gio
mor trop - poin fe cil Che te,
mor trop - poin fe Che gio
pom fe cil Che gio
 <«> <«> 
177
1’ca . a c -r^ a • mo ^ to? C he gio - yaa me l'o -
# = F
= M = C he gio vo o me l'o -
!'*» • a c * re a - mo - to?
9 to? C he gio - voa me l'o -

l*ea • te - r e a • mo -
* me I'o •
C he gio - voa
fl
to? ” 7 7
Tea • mo
t
-
•
'
'
K J J- I" l> J » * l “= 1 :: :. f =)
te? do de • sti
do de - ati
le? do de - ati
le?
Per-cW , cm do d e • ati
 <»><«> <»> 
itrin
itrin
a'A itrin
»ci gc?
<|> <|> <*> <ll>
178
itrin le jl de • stin,
per itrin te ii de itin,
itrin le il de itin,
do A re? per
re?
do A re?
per itrin
 <*>
ne par teil de doA
ne par te il de per do A re?
teil de doA • mo
teil de itin, doA re?
teil de itin, per do A
<0 <»>
179
Musical and/or textual considerations can imply changes in tempo, either
increasing or decreasing, from one section to another. In examples 8 through 10, an
increase in tempo is recommended. In examples 11 through 13, a decrease in tempo is
recommended. A feeling of pushing the tempo forward through the repeated point of
imitation in measures 44 through 48 of St, ch'io vorei morire is an example.
Example 8 Sf, ch'io vorei morire (Book IV), mm 44-52
no,
n0l que
not que not
no,
U - no O eh. m in g e te • m i, tlrin«ge - te • m i fin • ch 'io ven
iftiE
te • n t D eh, strin*ge te » m i, itrin « g e • te « o i fin . ch’io ven.
“fa 1 ... t | ----- - | ~ , | - _ l| |
4 ic no
^ --------- | ' ^ ~ . | ~ | - |
4
te no
f *-J. ■F J | J- 0 ,] ~~J~" 1 J ■| "■= |= ]
180
A slight increase in tempo is also appropriate in measure 37 of Qui rise tirsi. This
is due to the relatively slow note values which follow a rapid, rhythmically-active section.
n o . ru fe 0 lie . to
m
mo . n a it
g io r .
181
There is a change of character in measure 23 of 0 chiome d ’or which implies a
need to increase the tempo. The text of the preceding phrase concerned the closing of the
tomb in a somber and lamenting fashion while the phrase beginning in measure 23 indicates
greater anger and frustration at the death of the beloved one.
Example 10 O chiome d'or (Book VI), mm 19-27
quau - do c h iu « s e in c ie • ca to m * b a ,C h i vi n a -sc o n -d e ? 0 h i-m e I
quan - do c h iu -s ^ n c ie - c a to m -.b a , C h i v i n a - sc o n -d e ?
q u a il - d o c h iu - s e in c ie • c a to m • b a , C h i vi n a - scon ■ d e?
1 1 u j ' . »■ i u ' i ' , '

m
quan - do c h iu -s e in c ie - c a to m - b a , C h i v i n a -s c o r .-d e ? po-
quan - do c h iu - s e in c ie • c a to m - b a , C lii vi n a - sc o n -d e ?
O h i-m e l O h i-
O hi - m eI O h i-
ve - t a te r - ra l 11 fio r (t^ J g -n i b e l-le z - z a , so l di G la u
ve - ra te r - ra l II fio r q _ o g -u i bel - le z - z a , so l d i G la u
ve - ra te r - ra l 11 fio r d ^ o g -n i bel • le z - z a , so l d i G la u
182
It seems appropriate to pull the tempo back at the start of the new section in
measure 58 of O come £ gran martire. The extended rhythmic pattern of the preceding
point of imitation may be performed with an increase in tempo. Therefore, this new
section, which contains an increase in rhythmic movement justifies the slower tempo.
Example 1 1 0 come b gran martire, mm 50-61
G toi te il co r
K voi oe •' to il c o r nil E vui v
■e t e i) cor mi
re te il c o r
re E voi ee te il cor
UO
t e il c o r
te il co r
A l . l 'h o r
A l - l ’h o r non lit ch 10 v ’h .
Al . l 'h o r non fia c h io v ’a . mi quan.
183
The appearance of the sixteenth notes in measure 78 of Al lume delle stelle
suggests a slower tempo so that there will be more control in the execution of the
melismatic passages.
Example 12 A lume delle stelle (Book VE), mm 73-79
- no
lu • ci se . r e . n e c
lie
lie
lie sen - to lu fiara
lie fiam
184
The text in the phrase beginning in meausre 15 o f O chiome d'or was referred to
in example 10. The solemn nature of the discussion o f the closing of the tomb is well
expressed through a considerable decrease in tempo.
Example 13 0 chiome d'or, mm 10-18
C h ’ in v i - d ( 2j l - c i e lo N e ra -
m an, v i-d o _ il c ie - lo Ne
m an, C h ’^ i n • v i-d o _ il c ie Ne
C h ’_ i n - v i-d o il c ie ra -
m an, C h ’ in Ne
Q uan - do c h iu - se _ in c i e - c a to m - b a, C hi vi
P»>
185
It is often appropriate to increase the speed of a phrase as the harmonic tension
builds. The opening point of imitation in O come &gran martire (example 14) illustrates
this possibility. A slight tempo increase in the first and second measures helps the motion
of the musical line. The same procedure would be followed in the imitations.
Canto
0 co.mee gran mar . ti . re 0
Qninto r r —fft-----------------
___
0 corn’e gran mar • li -
Alto ------- i h r =
(B ) $ " ~= 0 ■i
Tenore
Basso
/o
quan
lu r suo de . A ce J a r
com ’e f r a n m a r . auo d e .s i
do eo n p u . r a . d e S ’a . eh in o n m ’1 ere
. do co n pu - ra S ’a . ehi non • e 'l ere qunn.
. do eo n p u . r a ehi
186
Several passages in Si, ch'io vorei morire allow for an internal increase o f tempo.
The first (example 15) begins with the tenor line in measures 15 through 17 and is followed
by each of the other voices. In addition to an increase o f tempo within this three measure
phrase, the entire section should reflect a tempo increase with each statement o f this point
of imitation. Another increase, this time at the level of the section, occurs in the ascending
passage from measures 58 to 64 (example 16). Further, a decrease in tempo is appropriate
during the comparable descending passage beginning in measure 68.
Example 15 Sf, ch'io vorei morire, mm 14-22
* i
ca- ra_c dol • ce lin . gua,
187
no D ch, _ iirin * g c fin ch'io
Deh, u r in • ge to ♦ mi i t r i n • ge fin ch 'io
Deh, te • mi, it r in t« • mi f io ch 'io
que • it o b ia n * c o f u i - i/o ita n - <o
que • i t o b iin > c o qut - ito iia n - co
not
6- que • ito bian • co
nol
Deh itrin -g e
Deh, itrin -g e te • mi, te - mi fin
Ahi boc bi ahi
188
In Ma te raccoglie there are also passages allowing for tempo increases. One
possibility occurs in meaures 17 to 19 (example 17) on the text, "e correr fiumi il pianto"
(the tears flowing in rivers). Greater expressivity is achieved with an increase in tempo
until the word "pianto," at which point the tempo is relaxed. This also occurs in
comparable sections beginning in measures 20,23, and 26.
Example 17 Ma te raccoglie (Book VI), mm 11-21
m i - ro v e - d o -v a la te r - ra , D e -s e r-tij bo - ic b i,
m i - ro v e - d o -v a la te r - ra , D e -s e r-tjj bo • ic b i,
$ ^ ^ i ^ ^ ^ W ♦
m i - ro v e - d o -v a la te r - ra , D e -se r - tij bo - s c b i,
v e -d o -v a s c h i, D e -s e r-to
m i - ro v e - d o -v a la te r - ra , D e -s e r-tij bo - s c h i,
e co r - re r fiu -m ijl p ia a - to , D e - ser -
e co r - re r fiu -m iil p ia n - to , D e - ser -
bo e c o r-re r fiu -s m l p ia o
D e - ser
189
A similar passage is found in Dunque amate reliquie. A three measure phrase first
appearing in measures 32 through 34 (example 18) is continuously repeated in the lower
three parts until measure 45. This author recommends an increase in tempo throughout the
first two measures with a slight relaxation of the tempo in the third measure.
rin • na, Co • r i u - n a i l m a r e_M C ie - lo A hi Co -
F a ria • a o a ia rC o • rin -
ris - » o -n a r C o - rin n a .il m a r eM C ie - lo D i - c a - n o j v e n - t ( _ o - g n ’h o r
C ie il m a r oM C ie - lo
r i n n a il m a r eM C ie D i - c a - n o i v e n t i p - g n ’h o r di c a la
©
rin nal Ahi C o - rin nal
Co - rin nal
D i - c a n o _ iv e n - ^ i n g n ’h o r d i c a la te r
c a la te r D i - c a o q jv e n - t ^ o .g n 'h o r , D i - c a -n o i
ter ra , D i - c a n o i v e n - t i o ^ n ’h o r di c a la te r ra,
In some cases an increase in tempo in a phrase assists in the harmonic drive to the
cadence. This can be seen in measures 9 through 12 in Incenerite spoglie (example 19).
F at - ta d e l m io bel c ie lo .
F a t • ta d e l m io bel c ie A hi la s -
F a t • ta d e l m io bel cie
no c ie lo . Ahi las -
c ie lo .
191
In Monteverdi's later madrigals, sections in a recitative style are common. It is
especially important in these works that a flexibility in tempo be present. Ma per quel
ampio is such an example. The entire composition is reproduced below (example 20) and
the following tempo alterations are recommended:
1. a slight pause in measure 2 after the second beat
2. an increase in tempo in measure 4
3. an increase in tempo from measure 6 into measure 7
4. aritard in measures 10 and 11 into the final cadence
Example 20 Ma per quel ampio (Book VIII), mm 1-12
Terza parte
U> per quel ampio Bgeo. ap ie.g h i lc ve • le ai dal par. to Ion.
• ta .n o a r .d i . to a m a n - te
gio eh'a ai gran cor .
II
vo di . pin . ge il VI .
It is important to select the appropriate tempo at the start of a composition. It is
equally important that performers of late Renaissance and early Baroque compositions give
careful consideration to the aspect o f tempo fluctuation. This latter performance
consideration is crucial to the overall expression of the music. From practical experience,
this author can attest to the musical benefits of tempo fluctuation.
CHAPTER IX
EXPRESSION
Expressive factors governing the performance of Renaissance and Baroque music
are occasionally viewed as inappropriate by twentieth-century standards. However,
expression, regarding subjective emotional considerations, played a major part in the
aesthetic effect of the performances of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Through the
examination of primary sources, this chapter will focus on the aspect of text intelligibility
as related to expression.
Every major area of performance practice previously discussed, including sound
quality, ornamentation, messa di voce, and the fluctuation o f tempo for expressive
purposes, relates to the total expression of the performance. Often, these elements are
difficult to describe, as Jacopo Peri observed in the preface to L'Euridice in 1600:
She [Vittoria Archilei] has always made my music worthy of her singing—adorning it
not only with those gruppi and those long melismas which issued from the vivacity of
her ingenuity (more in obedience to modem fashion than because she considered them
to comprise the elegance and strength of our singing), but also with those beauties and
charms which cannot be written down, or if written cannot thereby be conveyed.1
Other treatise writers referred to matters of expression as related to performance.
For example, Zacconi, in his Prattica di musica (1592), discussed a less expressive
approach to certain early sixteenth-century performances:
I found myself talking with some elderly musicians. In their youth they knew famous
singers of that time who sang the tunes [just] as they stood written in the book,
without giving them even the least accentuation, because they were not intent on
JRazzi, "Polyphony of the Seconda Prattica," p. 304.

194
195
anything other than the pure and simple musical modulations. Hence there could issue
nothing other than the pure and simple harmonic effect2
Similarly, in his L'antica musica . . . (1555), Vicentino complained about singers
insensitive to expression:
Compositions differ according to the subject on which they are made, and very often
certain singers are not aware of this, singing any composition whatever without any
consideration and always in their own way, according to their nature and practice.
Works that are written on various subjects and various fantasias carry within them
different manners of composition, and so the singer must consider what the musical
poet has in m in d ,. . . 3
Banchieri (1609) made a distinction between expressive styles in organ playing:
Therefore, the organist learns from this that in fantasias he must use a cheerful and
beautiful style, pleasing to the Divine Majesty and jubilant to the believers, as we see
in the Canzonas of Antonio Mortaro and Flaminio Tresti, both famous organists, and
others whom we might mention.
One should not always, however, use the cheerful style. At times, especially at the
Elevation of the Sacred Host, he should play in a serious style that inspires one to
devotion.4
A comparison of music with the spoken word is common and Praetorius provided
the following statement in Syntagma Musicum. Volume DI (1619):
Just as an Orator's concern is not only to adorn his oration with attractive, beautiful,
and lively words and splendid figures, as well as to pronounce correctly and to move
the emotions by his speech, now raising his voice, now allowing it to fall, now
louder, now soft, now with full voice; so must a musician not only sing, but sing with
art and grace, thereby moving the heart and affections of the auditors and permitting
the song to accomplish its purpose.5
This consideration of text is an important aspect of expression. For example, the
Reformation and Counter-Reformation had as central precepts the clear recognition of text.
Although these eras primarily dealt with sacred composition, Lewis Lockwood makes the
2Ibid., 303.
3MacClintock, Readings, pp. 76-77.
4Banchieri, Conclusioni. trans. Garrett, p. 13.
196
point that secular music of the late Renaissance was also influenced by the same
philosophy:
The notion of intelligibility a. primary goal for sacred music was a corollary of one
of the basic postulates of sixteenth-century musical thought: that the purpose of music,
sacred or secular, was to heighten the meaning of text.6
The importance of textual clarity is also related to late Renaissance compositions
other than those of the Counter-Reformation. Vincenzo Galilei made this statement
concerning the obscuring of the words through imitation in Dialogo della Musica Antica e
Msdsma (1581):
. . . while one part is singing the beginning of the text (whether in verse or prose)
another is singing, at the same time, not only the middle or the end of the same text,
but the beginning or the middle and sometimes the end of a different text, against all
reason repeating the syllables of the same word four or five times, now in the heavens,
now on earth, and now, if there are more, in the abyss; and this they say is done in
order to imitate the conceits, the words, and the parts; dragging along twenty or more
notes under a single syllable, sometimes imitating the chirping of birds and sometimes
the yelping of dogs.7
In Zarlino's Istituzioni Harmoniche (1558 and 1573) a comparison is made between
homophonic and polyphonic compositions with a clear preference for homophony:
And if many singing together move the soul, there is no doubt that those songs are
heard universally with greater pleasure in which the words are pronounced
simultaneously by the singers, than learned compositions in which the words are
interrupted by many parts.8
In his Micrologus (originally published in 1515 but reprinted by John Dowland in 1609),
Andreas Omithoparcus, in a set of ten precepts for singers, stressed the importance of
understanding and expressing the words:
Let every Singer conform his voice to the words, that as much as he can he make the
Concent sad when the words are sad; and merry, when they are merry.
6Lewis Lockwood, The Counter-Reformation and the Masses of Vincenzo Ruffo

(Venice: San Giorgio Maggiore, 1970), p. 130.
7Ibid., p. 130.
8Ibid.
197
. . . whose Vigils (for so they are commonly called) are performed with such
confusion, haste and mockery (I know not what fury possesseth the minds of those, to
whom this charge is put over) that neither one Voice can be distinguished from
another, nor one syllable from another, nor one verse sometimes throughout a whole
Psalm from another. An impious fashion to be punished with the severest correction.
Think you God is pleased with such howling, such noise, such mumbling, in which is
no devotion, no expressing of words, no articulating of syllables?9
With the onset of the Baroque, the issue of text intelligibility is even more
paramount. A shift in emphasis can be observed, however, as the need to be able to
understand the text is refined into the desire to express further the meaning of the text. This
new ideal is discussed at great length in the meetings of the Florentine Camerata and
synthesized in Caccini's Le Nuove musiche (1602). The result is that the initial desire of
textual clarity, so important to composers of the late Renaissance, evolved into the new
monodic style o f the early Baroque. The following excerpts from Le Nuove musiche
reveal Caccini's efforts to realize this goal.
For these most knowledgeable gentlemen [members of the Camerata] kept encouraging
me, and with the most lucid reasoning convinced me, not to esteem that sort of music
which, preventing any clear understanding o f the words, shatters both their form and
content, now lengthening and now shortening syllables to accommodate the
counterpoint (a laceration of the poetry!), but rather to conform to the manner so
lauded by Plato and other philosophers (who declared that music is naught but speech,
with rhythm and tone coming after, not vice versa) with the aim that it enter into the
minds of men and have those wonderful effects admired by the great writers.
. . . and everyone can testify how I was urged to continue as I had begun, and was
told that never before had anyone heard music for a solo voice, to a simple stringed
instrument, with such power to move the affect of the soul as these madrigals. (This
was both because of their new style and because, accustomed then to hearing as solos
[s/c] madrigals published [originally] for multiple voices, they did not think a soprano
part sung by itself alone could have any affect whatsoever, without the artful
interrelationships of [all] the parts.)
In both madrigals and airs I have always sought to imitate the ideas behind the words,
trying to find those notes of greater or lesser affect (depending on the feelings of the
texts) and o f particular grace. As much as possible I have hidden the art of
counterpoint.
Indeed, it is clear that an air or madrigal composed in this style, with a taste for the
ideas of the words, [and heard] from someone with a good singing style, will make a
9MacClintock. Readings, pp 160-161.
198
better impression and will give greater delight than another full of contrapuntal art; of
this there is no better proof than experience itself.10
Alessandro Guidotti, writer of the preface to Cavalieri's Rappresentazione di
Anima. et di Corpo (1600), also stressed the importance of expressive performance:
Wishing to perform on stage the present work, or others like it, and to follow the
instructions of Sig. Emilio del Cavalieri, in such a way that this kind of music renewed
by him moves [the hearers] to different emotions, as pity, joy, tears, and laughter, and
other similar emotions, as was done in a modem scene composed by him-T h e Despair
ofFileno, in which Signora Vittoria Archilei, whose excellence in music is known to
all, reciting, moved [all] most marvelously to tears, while in the same place the person
o f Fileno moved them to laughter: wishing, I say, to perform the work, it appears
necessary for all things to be excellent Let die singer have a beautiful voice with good
intonation, and well supported, and let him sing with expression, soft and loud, and
without passagework; and in particular he should express the words well, so that they
may be understood, and accompany them with gestures and movements, not only of
the hands but other gestures that are efficacious aids in moving the affections.11
Further, Lodovico Grossi da Viadana made the following statement in the preface to Cento
concern ecclesiastici (1602):
I have taken pains that the words should be so well disposed beneath the notes that,
besides insuring their proper delivery, all in complete and due sequence, it should be
possible for them to be clearly understood by the hearers, provided that they are
delivered distinctly by the singers.12
In the preface to La Dafne (1608) Marco da Gagliano repeatedly stressed the
importance of the expression of text:
Instead, try to pronounce every syllable distinctly so the words are understood, and let
this be the principal aim of every singer whenever he sings, especially in performing
on the stage, and let him be persuaded that real pleasure is increased by understanding
the words.
I will say that no one can fully appreciate the sweetness and the power of his airs who
has not heard them sung by Peri himself, because he gave them such a grace and style
that he so impressed in others the emotion of the words that one was forced to weep or
rejoice as the singer wished.
10Caccini, Le Nuove musiche. trans. Hitchcock, pp. 44-47.
199
The role of the Messenger is extremely important; it needs expressiveness in the words
more than any other role.
His voice [Sig. Antonio Brandi] is a most exquisite contralto; his pronunciation and
grace in singing wonderful, for not only does he make the words intelligible, but with
his gestures and his movements he insinuates into your mind something very much
more.13
In a chapter from Harmonie universelle (1636) on training singers in the an of
ornamentation, Mersenne stated:
One of the great perfections of song consists of good pronunciation of the words and
rendering them so distinctly that the auditors do not lose a single syllable, as one
remarks in the recitatives of Baillif, who pronounces very distinctly and sounds all the
syllables instead of stifling them in the throat, as do most of the others, who press
them so strongly between the tongue, teeth, and lips that one understands almost
nothing of what they are saying, either because they do not open their mouths
sufficiently or do not move the tongue as they should.14
Maugars (1640) said," ... she pronounces and expresses perfectly well the sense
of the words."15 According to Giustiniani (1628), "They made the words clear in such a
way that one could hear even the last syllable of every word, which was never interrupted
or suppressed by passages and other embellishments."16 Agazzari stressed his preference
for the new approach to text expression in Del sonare sopra il basso (1607):
I shall say that, since the recent discovery of the true style of expressing the words,
namely the imitation of speech itself in the best possible manner, something which
succeeds best with a single voice or with few voices, as in the modem airs of certain
able men and as is now much practiced at Rome in concerted music, it is no longer
necessary to make a score or tablature, but as we have said above, a bass with its signs
suffices. And if anyone objects that a bass will not suffice to play the ancient works, I
shall reply that music of this kind is no longer in use, both because o f the confusion
and babel of the words, arising from the long and intricate imitations, and because it
has no grace, for, with all the voices singing, one hears neither period nor sense, these
13Ibid., pp. 188, 189 and 192.
14Ibid., p. 173.
15Ibid., p. 122.
16Ibid., p. 29.
200
being interfered with and covered up by imitations; indeed, at every moment, each
voice has different words, a thing displeasing to men of competence and judgement.17
Another comparison is found in Angelo Berardi's Miscellanea musicale (1689):
Modem musicians stand aloof, so to speak, from the stile antico for no other reason
than to effect the expression o f the words and especially to move the affections and
passions of the heart which our predecessors did not do . . . 18
After comparing the manner in which text expression has been defined in the
preceding statements, it seems clear that in the sixteenth century there was a need for
clarity of text, which was a new convention of the time. This grew out of the concern for
text intelligibility, especially in imitative compositions. However, by the early seventeenth
century, this tradition of intelligible text was well established and became a point of
departure for a further development. This new development regarding text was one of
great concern for the expression of the emotional affect of the words. It was no longer
sufficient simply to understand the words. This new ethic called for the expressive
presentation of the meaning of the words as well.
Another important aspect of expression, which has not been discussed in any of
the other chapters of this document, is that of expressive use of volume and dynamic
levels. Many primary sources refer to the free selection of soft and loud singing. In his
L'antica musica . . . (1555), Vicentino stated: "And sometimes one uses a certain way of
proceeding in the composition that cannot be written down—such as to sing piano and
forte, . . . "19 In Guidotti's preface to Cavalieri's Rappresentazione . . . (1600), the
statement was made to "...let him sing with expression, soft and loud ,. . . "20 Similarly,
in his Discorso sopra la musica (1628), Giustiniani referred to the ladies of Mantua and
18Isgro, "The First and Second Practices of Monteverdi," p. 365.
20Ibid., p. 183.
201
Ferrara: "Furthermore, they moderated or increased their voices, loud or soft, heavy or
light, according to the demands of the piece they were singing;. . . "21
It is common to find citations of this nature throughout the seventeenth century as
well. For example, in his Response faite a un curieux . . . (1640), Maugars observed,
. . she softens it and makes it louder without any grimaces."22 Christopher Simpson
offered this advise in Division-Violist (1665): "We play Loud or Soft, according to our
fancy, or the humour [mood] of the music."23 Thomas Mace provided this instruction in
Musick’s Monument (1676): "Humour a lesson [composition], by Playing some Sentences
Loud, and others again Soft, according as they best please your own Fancy."24 Two
references appear in Traite de la Viole (1687) by Jean Rousseau:
The tenderness of his playing [Hautman on the gamba] came from those beautiful
bowings which he brought to life and softened so skilfully and appropriately that lie
charmed all who heard him.
The playing of melodic pieces should be simple, and thus requires much delicacy and
tenderness, and it is in this style of playing that we should especially imitate all the
expressive and delightful effects of which the voice is capable.2^
Finally, Roger North included this statement in his Notes on Music (between
1695 and 1701) which stresses the performer's freedom of choice regarding volume:
And this soft and lowd is discretionary [but] binding notes or emphatical discords
[i.e., discords especially if suspended] should be prest hard [and] when you come off
into a sweeter calmer air, as to a cadence, which often follows such passages, then be
soft and easy, as much as to say, Be content all is well.26
21lbid., p. 29.
22Ibid., p. 122.
24Ibid.
25Donington, Interpretation of Early Music, pp. 488-489.
26Ibid., p. 490.
202
M odern performances of late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century
compositions will greatly benefit from careful consideration of many aspects of expression.
Not only the aspects discussed in this chapter—text intelligibility, expression of the
emotional meaning of the words, and shadings of volume-should be considered, but, in
addition, every other aspect of performance, from the sound produced to the selection and
variation o f the tempo, should be synthesized into an exciting, emotional, and musical
experience.
It is this author's hope that this study will provide an applicable approach to
performance conventions of Monteverdi's madrigals. Consideration of all the categories of
performance-performing forces, sound quality, ornamentation, rhythmic form, messa di
voce, accentuation, articulation, tempo, and expression-should be made before any of the
madrigals are presented. Although there are many performance categories to be evaluated,
there is still the need for personal, interpretive decisions. The important issue is that these
matters of interpretation should be within the frame of reference of the conventions of the
time which are presented in this document.
Although the focus of this document centered around Italian secular vocal music
of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, applications relating to music from other
countries, sacred repertoire, instrumental practices, and even earlier or later time periods
can, in many cases, be made. For instance, citations of non-Italian sources were
occasionally included when certain practices were wide-spread; there is often a great deal of
corresponding support in treatises from other countries. An example is the inclusion of
French sources in the chapter on rhythmic form. Several of the performance categories are
not limited to secular music. For example, sound quality, articulation, accentuation, and in
many cases messa di voce and ornamentation represent a general approach to all music of
the day. Instrumental practices, relating to all of the categories discussed, are usually
interrelated with vocal practices. Regarding performance conventions of other time
203
periods, the categories of messa di voce, accentuation, and rhythmic form, in particular,
increase in importance throughout the Baroque and Classical periods. Therefore, it is the
final hope of this author that this study be used as a point of departure in the quest for
authenticity in the performance of music from other eras.
A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF TREATISES APPLICABLE TO THIS STUDY
Johannes Cochlaeus, Tetrachordum Musices (Ntimberg 1511).
Georg Rhau, Enchiridion utriusque musicae practicae (1520).
Pietro Aaron, Toscanello in Music (Venice 1523, revised 1562).
Baldassare Castiglione, H libro del Cortegiano (Venice 1528).
Sylvestro di Ganassi, Opera intitulata Fontegara (Venice 1535).
Nicolaus Listenius, Musica (1540).
Sebald Heyden, De Arte Canendi (Niimberg 1540).
Sylvestro di Ganassi, Regola Rubertina (Venice 1542).
Hieronymus Cardanus, De Musica (1546, 1574)
Loys Bourgeois, Le droit chemin de musique (Geneva 1550).
Adrian Petit Coclico, Compendium musices ( Nuremberg, 1552).
Diego Ortiz, Tratado de glosas sobre clausulas (Rome 1553).
Nicola Vicentino, L'antica musica ridotta alia modema prattica (Rome 1555).
Hermann Finck, Practica Musica (Wittenberg 1556).
Gioseffo Zarlino, Ir.stituzioni Harmoniche (Venice 1558, revised 1573).
Giovanni Camillo Maffei, Delle lettere del Signor G. Maffei da solofra. Libra Due
(Naples 1562).
Filippo Giunti, Description of the Intermedii Represented with Comedy

(Florence 1565, published 1593).
Fray Tomas de Santa Maria, Arte de taner fantasia (Valladolid, 1565).
Vincenzo Ruffo, Missae quatuor concinate ad ritum Concilii Mediolani (1570).
204
205
Giovanni de' Bardi, Discorso mandato...a Giulio Caccini detto Romano sopra la musica
antica e'l cantar bene (Preface, c. 1580).
Vincenzo Galilei, Dialogo della Musica Antica e Modema (1581).
William Bathe, A Brief Introduction to the True Art of Music (1584).
Gioseffo Zarlino, Sopplimenti Musicali (Venice 1588).
William Byrd, First Song-Book (Preface, 1588).
Ludovico Zacconi. Prattica di musica (Venice 1592).
Orazio Scaletta, Scali di Musica (Venice 1592).
Giovanni Luca Conforti, Breve et facile maniera d'essercitarsi...a far passaeei

(Rome, 1593).
Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, Regole. Passaggi di Musica (Venice, 1594).
Ercole Bottrigari. II Desiderio (1594).
William Barley, A New Book of Tabliture (1596).
Thomas Morley, A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music (London 1597).
Girolamo Diruta. H Transilvano (Venice 1597).
Emilio de' Cavalieri, Rappresentatione di Anima. et di Corpo (Preface, written by

Alessandro Guidotti, Rome 1600).
Jacopo Peri, L'Euridice (Preface, Florence 1600).
Giovanni Maria Artusi, L'Arm si. overo. Delle imperfezioni della modema musica
(1600).
Giulio Caccini, Le Nuove musiche (Preface, Florence 1601).
Lodovico Grossi da Viadana. Cento concerti ecclesiastici (Preface, Venice, 1602).
Adriano Banchieri, L'Organo suonarino (1605,1611, and 1622).
Agostino Agazzari, Letter on Style in Organ Playing (1606).
Agostino Agazzari. Del sonare sopra il basso (Rome 1607).
Scipione Cenrato, Dell' arbore musicale (Naples 1608).
Ottavio Durante, Arie Devote (Rome 1608).
Marco da Gagliano, La Dafne (Preface, Florence 1608).
206
Paola Qualiati, II primo libro de' madrigali a quattro voci (Preface, Venice 1608).
Adriano Banchieri, Conclusioni nel suono dell'organo (1609).
Andreas Omithoparcus (or Vogelsang), Musicae active micrologus (1515).

Translated by John Dowland: Andreas Omithoparcus- His Micrologus or
Introduction: containing the Art of Singing (1609).
Giovanni Piccioni, Concerti Ecclesiastici (Preface, Venice 1610).
Letter, writer unknown, from Milan, August 29,1611, in Alessandro Adenollo,

La bell'Adriana ed altre virtuose (1888).
Thomas Coryat, Corvat's Crudities (London 1611).
Johannes Lippius, Synopsis Musicae Novae (Strabourg 1612).
Antonio Brunelli, Arie. scherzi. canzonette. madrigali a 1-3 (Preface, Venice 1613).
Pietro Cerone. ElM elopea (Naples, 1613).
Francesco Lambardi, II secondo libro de villanelle a tre. a quattro. et a cinque

(Preface, Naples 1614).
Bartolomeo Barbar'. II secondo libro delli motetti...da cantarsi a una voce sola....
(Preface, Venice 1614).
Giulio Caccini, Nuove Musiche e nuova maniera di scriverle (Preface, Florence 1614).
Girolamo Frescobaldi, Toccate e partite d'intauolatura di cimbalo....libro primo

(Preface, Rome 1615).
Marcello Albano, D primo libro di canzoni. e madrigaletti. a tre. et a quattro voi

(Preface, Naples 1616).
Enrico Radesca, H quinto libro della canzonette. madrigali et arie. a tre. a una et a due
voci (Preface, Venice 1617).
Rene Descartes, Compendium Musicae (16181. translated by William Viscount

Brouncker (London 1653).
Giovanni Domenico Puliaschi, Musiche varie a una voce (Preface, Rome 1618).
Michael Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum. Vol. II (Wittenberg 1618).
Michael Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum. Vol. Ill (Wolfenbuttel 1619).
Francesco Gonzaga. II primo libro delle canzonette a tre voci (Preface, Venice 1619).
Cesare Zoilo, Madrigali a cinque il primo (Preface, Venice 1620).
207
Cesare Crivellati, Discorsi musicali (Preface, Viterbo 1624).
Girolamo Frescobaldi, II Primo libro di Capricci fatti sopra diversi soggetti

(Preface, Rome 1624).
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INFORMATION TO USERS

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• Manuscript pages may have indistinct print. In such

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Perform ance practice considerations in the m adrigals o f Claudio

Jessie, Mark Newman, D.M.A.

C opyright © 1987 by Jessie, Mark N ew m an . All rights reserved.

PERFORMANCE PRACTICE CONSIDERATIONS IN THE

MADRIGALS OF CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI

SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS

MADRIGALS OF CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI

APPROVED FOR THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC

Dr. Eugene Enrico

Dr. Walter Kelley ~3~

MARK NEWMAN JESSIE

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

advice over the years.

CHAPTER I PERFORMING FORCES............................................................... 1

CHAPTER H SOUND QUALITY........................................................................18

CHAPTER IV RHYTHMIC FORM......................................................................79

CHAPTER V MESSA DI VOCE..........................................................................94

CHAPTER VD ARTICULATION........................................................................ 152

CHAPTER V m TEMPO........................................................................................ 157

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF APPLICABLE TREATISES............................... 204

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................. 209

PERFORMANCE PRACTICE CONSIDERATIONS IN THE

MADRIGALS OF CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI

BY: MARK NEWMAN JESSIE

MAJOR PROFESSOR: DR. DENNIS SHROCK

This document concerns itself with aspects of performance practice in Italian,

document presents English translations of primary source information in support of various

performance conventions. Musical examples, where appropriate, are provided from

Monteverdi's madrigal books.

Chapter One, "Performing Forces," deals with appropriate combinations of voices

"Ornamentation" discusses applications of various ornaments in the context of

ornament of expression. Chapter Six, "Accentuation," deals with the important

"Articulation," explores a basic approach to articulation. Chapter Eight, "Tempo," deals

Nine, "Expression," discusses the relationship of text and music.

This study is intended to be a practical handbook for performers of late

twentieth-century music in authentic styles. The general consensus among scholarly

Donington even suggests use of the expression, "doctrine of historical authenticity."1

Traditions in the interpretation of notation serve as examples. Many performance

metric accentuation are primary examples of such unnotated performance traditions.

is a convention of performance which is often not notated, but understood nevertheless

from what one might consider the sense of the music.

Thurston Dart identified this problem of differences in notation in The

R o b ert Donington, The Interpretation of Early Music. New Version (London:

document is intended to be used as a practical manual for the performance of Monteverdi's

Book I (Venice, 1587)

Book II (Venice, 1590)

Book III (Venice, 1592)

Book IV (Venice, 1603)

Book V (Venice, 1605)

Book VI (Venice, 1614)

Book VII (Venice, 1619)

Book Vni (Venice, 1638)

2Thurston Dart, The Interpretation of Music (London: Hutchinson University

Book I Arsi e alsi a mia voglia