Giulio Caccini

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Giulio Caccini

(born c. 1550, Rome, Papal States — buried Dec. 10, 1618, Florence) Italian composer and singer. He accompanied his patron, Cosimo I, to Florence in the 1570s; there he became associated with the Camerata, an academy that dedicated much attention to producing a revival of ancient Greek drama. His Euridice (1600), embodying the Camerata's ideals, was the first opera to be published and was one of the first two surviving operas; the other, also titled Euridice, is largely by Jacopo Peri (1561 – 1633), whose lost Dafne (1598) was the first opera of all. Caccini's Le nuove musiche (1602), a collection of songs with basso continuo, was of landmark importance in establishing the new monodic style.

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Music Encyclopedia: Giulio Caccini

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(b Rome/Tivoli, c 1545; d Florence, bur. 10 Dec 1618). Italian composer and singer. He studied with Giovanni Animuccia and attracted the attention of Cosimo I de′ Medici, who took him to Florence and supported his studies there with Scipione delle Palle. From the mid-1570s Caccini attended the meetings of Bardi's Camerata and developed a new style of song which led to his being acclaimed as the ‘inventor’ of the stile recitativo. In 1600 he succeeded Cavalieri as musical director of the Medici court and employed the new style in his opera Euridice, written in rivalry to Peri's Euridice but not performed until two years later, in 1602. In that year Caccini's most famous work also appeared - Le nuove musiche, a collection of madrigals and strophic songs for solo voice and figured bass (containing also some of his music for Il rapimento di Cefalo, a pastoral performed in 1600 on Henri IV's marriage to Maria de′ Medici). Le nuove musiche contains an important essay on the techniques of composing and singing in the new style, methods of expression, ornamentation etc; its most popular song, Amarilli mia bella, was arranged by several other composers. In 1614 Caccini issued a second collection, Nuove musiche e nuova maniera di scriverle.

Caccini's inventiveness as a singer and his gifts as a teacher kept his name alive well into the 17th century, and Le nuove musiche inspired a large number of similar collections by other composers. Caccini's two daughters, Francesca and Settimia (‘La Flora’, 1591-? c 1683), were both singers and composers.

works:
Stage works

Il rapimento di Cefalo (1600)
Euridice (1602)
parts of J. Peri's opera Euridice (1600)
intermedio

Songs

over 70 songs, many in Le nuove musiche (1602) and Nuove musiche e nuova maniera di scriverle (1614)

Biography: Giulio Caccini

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Giulio Caccini (ca. 1545-1618), an Italian singer and an early opera composer, wrote "Le nuove musiche," the first important and, in the 17th century, most influential publication of the new style of monodic recitative in vocal music with figured bass accompaniment.

Giulio Caccini was born in Rome, the son of Michelangelo Caccini. The only musical instruction that Giulio is known to have received was from Cipione del Palle (or Palla), a noted voice teacher in Rome, and it was as a singer that Caccini first made a name for himself. He was employed at the Medicean court in Florence, principally as a singer, from 1564 to his death on Dec. 10, 1618. He married twice, both wives being voice pupils of his. The first, Lucia, bore him three children: Pompeo, Francesca (called "La Cecchina," also a composer), and Settimia. He had no children by his second wife, Margherita.

Probably about 1579 Caccini became a member of the Florentine Camerata, a literary and musical society founded by Count Giovanni de' Bardi, who implies, in a letter to Caccini (ca. 1580), that he was the first to encourage Caccini to write in the new style. The letter bears out Caccini's claim in the dedication to Bardi (dated Dec. 20, 1600) of his opera Euridice that he had been composing in this style for more than 15 years, that is, at least as early as 1585.

In 1589 Caccini took part, as performer and conductor, in the wedding festivities of Ferdinand de' Medici. Three years later, when he visited Rome with Bardi as the later's secretary, Caccini sang some of the songs performed earlier at the Florentine Camerata, several of which he published in Le nuove musiche (1602).

When Maria de Médici married Henry IV of France in Florence, as part of the celebrations the nobleman Jacopo Corsi staged, on Oct. 6, 1600, what is sometimes regarded as the first opera - Euridice, with a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini and music mostly by Jacopo Peri, also employed as singer and composer at the Medicean court. Caccini, who was in charge of the performance, unscrupulously replaced some of Peri's arias with his own. Three days later Caccini presented Il rapimento di Cefalo, for which he wrote most of the music, but it received little acclaim, unlike Peri's Euridice. Clearly spurred by jealously, Caccini hurriedly composed his own setting of the Euridice libretto and published it, probably in January 1601, shortly before the publication of Peri's version on February 6. Caccini's version was not performed until Dec. 5, 1602; it was not revived.

The success of Peri's Euridice, and his patronization by Corsi, Bardi's influential successor, resulted in Caccini's gradual decline in esteem during his remaining years, despite the importance and popularity of Le nuove musiche, and the publication of two other collections by Caccini - Fuggilotio musicale (2d ed. 1613) and Nuove musiche e nuova maniera de scriverle (1614).

Biography

Giulio Caccini, one of music's true pioneers, was an important Italian composer of the early Baroque era, noted for his songs and lone opera Euridice. In the former genre he was most influential, leading the way in establishing the new monodic style that flourished in Italy after 1600. He may have been the first Florentine composer to write an opera; certainly Euridice was the first published (1600).

Caccini was born around 1545, probably in Rome, though there is some evidence to suggest Tivoli was his birthplace. After vocal and instrumental studies in Rome, he was taken to Florence by the influential arts patron, Cosimo I de Medici, who was captivated by the youth's singing. Caccini would be accepted into the Medici Court there, though he first took further vocal instruction from Scipione delle Palle at Cosimo's expense. It appears Caccini developed a considerable reputation as a singer in Florence either before beginning service in the Medici Court or concurrently with his early years there.

Around 1574 Caccini became associated with the Camerata, a Florentine musical association headed, in effect, by Count Giovanni de' Bardi. This group would wield great influence in the arts and produce the first operas. By the time the composer reached his early thirties he was a famous tenor, well-connected with the Medici family and with other artists and prominent Florentine citizens. Caccini regularly sang and performed on viol and other instruments in Court masques during this period. Still, he would not attain an important position in the Medici Court until 1600.

By the early 1580s Caccini was working on a new song style whose manner typically consisted of an elegant melodic line sensitive to the inflections in the text, supported by rather subdued diatonic chordal accompaniment, and colored by improvisatory embellishments. He may not have actually introduced many compositions before 1589, the year when Court records first make reference to his compositional activities, in this instance relating to the celebrations surrounding the marriage of Grand Duke Ferdinando I. Caccini had also become a respected teacher by this time, though his foremost pupil would be his daughter, Francesca (1587-1640), who became a well-known singer and composer in the first half of the seventeenth century. Caccini's two other children, Pompeo and Settimia, studied under him as well, the latter, like her sister, achieving fame as both a singer and composer.

On a trip to Rome in 1592, Caccini's new song style was reportedly well-received. In the next decade his reputation as a composer, as well as his standing at the Medici Court increased dramatically, in the latter venue culminating in his elevation to music director in 1600. He completed his opera, Euridice, by that year, too, probably to edge out his famous rival Peri, who was also doing a setting. Caccini's opera was first staged in Florence on December 5, 1602, with success.

1602 was also the year that Caccini's presented his most famous collection of vocal music, Le nuove musiche (The new music). It contains madrigals, arias, and some additional music to an earlier work, Il rapimento di Cefalo (1600), a so-called pastoral drama, something of a precursor to opera.

In 1604 Caccini and his family were invited to the French Court, where Henry IV tried to enlist the vocal services of his daughter, whom he called the greatest singer in France. After Caccini returned, he remained in the service of the Medici Court, but became far less active as a composer. Caccini died on or about December 7, 1618, and was buried three days later. ~ Robert Cummings, All Music Guide

Wikipedia: Giulio Caccini

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Caccini, Le Nuove musiche, 1601, title page

Giulio Caccini (8 October 1551 – 10 December 1618) was an Italian composer, teacher, singer, instrumentalist and writer of the very late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was one of the founders of the genre of opera, and one of the single most influential creators of the new Baroque style. He was also the father of the composer Francesca Caccini.

1 Life
2 Music and influence
3 Works
4 Ave Maria
5 Media
6 External links
7 References

Life

Little is known about his early life, but he was born in Rome, the son of the carpenter Michelangelo Caccini; he was the older brother of the Florentine sculptor Giovanni Caccini. In Rome he studied the lute, the viol and the harp, and began to acquire a reputation as a singer. In the 1560s, Francesco de' Medici, Grand Duke of Florence, was so impressed with his talent that he took the young Caccini to Florence for further study.

By 1579, Caccini was singing at the Medici court. He was a tenor, and he was able to accompany himself on the viol or the archlute; he sang at various entertainments, including weddings and affairs of state, and took part in the sumptuous intermedi of the time, the elaborate musical, dramatic, visual spectacles which were one of the precursors of opera. Also during this time he took part in the movement of humanists, writers, musicians and scholars of the ancient world who formed the Florentine Camerata, the group which gathered at the home of Count Giovanni de' Bardi, and which was dedicated to recovering the supposed lost glory of ancient Greek dramatic music. With Caccini's abilities as a singer, instrumentalist, and composer added to the mix of intellects and talents, the Camerata developed the concept of monody—an emotionally affective solo vocal line, accompanied by relatively simple chordal harmony on one or more instruments—which was a revolutionary departure from the polyphonic practice of the late Renaissance.

In the last two decades of the 16th century, Caccini continued his activities as a singer, teacher and composer. His influence as a teacher has perhaps been underestimated, since he trained dozens of musicians to sing in the new style, including the castrato Giovanni Gualberto Magli, who sang in the first production of Monteverdi's first opera Orfeo.

Caccini made at least one further trip to Rome, in 1592, as the secretary to Count Bardi. According to his own writings, his music and singing met with an enthusiastic response. However, Rome, the home of Palestrina and the Roman School, was musically conservative, and music following Caccini's stylistic lead was relatively rare there until after 1600.

Caccini's character seems to have been less than perfectly honorable, as he was frequently motivated by envy and jealousy, not only in his professional life but for personal advancement with the Medici. On one occasion, he informed to the Grand Duke Francesco on two lovers in the Medici household—Eleonora, the wife of Pietro de' Medici, who was having an illicit affair with Bernardino Antinori—and his informing led directly to Eleonora's murder by Pietro. His rivalry with both Emilio de' Cavalieri and Jacopo Peri seems to have been intense: he may have been the one who arranged for Cavalieri to be removed from his post as director of festivities for the wedding of Henry IV of France and Maria de' Medici in 1600 (an event which caused Cavalieri to leave Florence in fury), and he also seems to have rushed his own opera Euridice into print before Peri's opera on the same subject could be published, while simultaneously ordering his group of singers to have nothing to do with Peri's production.

After 1605, Caccini was less influential, though he continued to take part in composition and performance of sacred polychoral music. He died in Florence, and is buried in the church of St. Annunziata.

Music and influence

The stile recitativo, as the newly created style of monody was called, proved to be popular not only in Florence, but elsewhere in Italy. Florence and Venice were the two most progressive musical centers in Europe at the end of the 16th century, and the combination of musical innovations from each place resulted in the development of what came to be known as the Baroque style. Caccini's achievement was to create a type of direct musical expression, as easily understood as speech, which later developed into the operatic recitative, and which influenced numerous other stylistic and textural elements in Baroque music.

Caccini's most influential work was a collection of monodies and songs for solo voice and basso continuo, published in 1602, called Le nuove musiche. The introduction to this volume is probably the most clearly written description of the purpose, intent, and correct performance of monody from the time. It includes musical examples of ornaments—for example how a specific passage can be ornamented in several different ways, according to the precise emotion that the singer wishes to convey; it also includes effusive praise for the style which he himself invented, and amusing disdain for the work of more conservative composers of the period.

Works

Caccini wrote three operas—Euridice (1600), Il rapimento di Cefalo (1600), and Euridice (1602), though the first two included music by others (mainly Peri for the first Euridice). In addition he wrote the music for one intermedio (Io che dal ciel cader farei la luna) (1589); and he published two collections of songs and madrigals, both titled Le nuove musiche, in 1602 and 1614. Most of the madrigals are through-composed and contain little repetition; some of the songs, however, are strophic. No music for multiple voices survives, even though the records from Florence indicate he was involved with polychoral music around 1610. He was predominantly a composer of solo song, and it is in this capacity that he acquired his immense fame.

Among the most famous of his madrigals is Amarilli, mia bella.

Ave Maria

One of the most popular works misattributed to Caccini, the "Ave Maria" was in truth composed in the 1970s by Russian lutenist Vladimir Vavilov. Vavilov, who had a habit of attributing his compositions to famous composers, recorded the piece in 1972, attributing it to "Anonymous" on the album. Following Vavilov's death Caccini's name was erroneously attached to the piece in subsequent recordings and performances.

Media

Aria "Amor che attendi" (help·info)

External links

Free scores by Giulio Caccini in the International Music Score Library Project
Free scores by Giulio Caccini in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
Free scores by Giulio Caccini in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)

References

Article "Giulio Caccini", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 2001. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4
Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1947. ISBN 0-393-09745-5
Giulio Caccini, Le nuove musiche, tr. John Playford and Oliver Strunk, in Source Readings in Music History. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1950.

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