- Date: ca. 1350 -1397
- Composer: Francesco Landini
- Period: Medieval (1-1449)
Review
The medieval mind revered authority. Even when attempting to disagree with prior theories, a medieval scholastic felt the need to quote and cite the words of earlier (even ancient) thinkers; the theologian must build his points upon the authority of the church fathers. Similarly, music theorists for centuries founded their treatises on the authority of Boethius and classical antiquity. But what of musical composers? The inbred circle of French fourteenth century musicians quite often built allusions to others into their music: brief melodic quotations or harmonic echoes, as well as clever textual references, render musical homage to another musician. The trend was not limited to France, of course: Francesco Landini produced a scintillating example of the homage-piece in his three-voiced madrigal Si dolce non sonò.At first glance, Si dolce non sonò may appear but a common piece of early Italian madrigal-writing (though uncommonly adept). Its three voices frequently overlap in range and in rhythmic pattern, as all three present an Italian poetic text rife with classical allusion and references to woodland vistas. The over-flowery melismas of the earliest madrigals only appear at the very end, but frequent syncopations, hockets, and bursts of melodic energy propel the piece forward. Yet beneath the surface lies a subterranean level of meaning: Landini's music and its Italian text (which he could easily have also written) sing the praises of the great French musician and theorist Philippe de Vitry. The classical figures evoked in the text are all powerful musicians: Orpheus, Philomela, Marsyas, Amphion; they are all compared to a present "cockerel," referring to Vitry.
The musical garb of the text offers further homage to the French genius, as it emulates his most famous mode of composition: the isorhythmic motet. Throughout the three verses of the madrigal, Landini's tenor voice remains strictly in an isorhythmic structure. Three times it cycles through the exact same melody (i.e., three isorhythmic "colores"); that melody is further dependent on a threefold repetition of the exact same rhythmic values (for a total of nine "talea"). The upper two voices are not strictly isorhythmic, yet even they respond to the tenor's isorythm by repeating a number of rhythmic cells together throughout the piece. In the final ritornello section, the tenor adopts yet another isorhythmic pattern (this time with French "open" and "closed" endings), repeating it twice in case any listener had by then not understood his point. ~ Timothy Dickey, All Music Guide
Albums with Complete Performances of the Work
| Title | Date |
| Landini and Italian Ars Nova | 1992 |
| O Tu Chara Scienca | 1993 |
| O tu chara sciença: La musique dans la pensée médievale | 2009 |
| Passage 138 B.C.-A.D. 1611 | 1994 |
