chapter three the integration of oral traditions in

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CHAPTER THREE
THE INTEGRATION OF ORAL TRADITIONS IN NORTHERN
ITALIAN SOURCES
The earliest printed sources of alfabeto song, as described in the previous
chapter, transmit a mixture of song traditions, sometimes to the detriment of their
practicality for the rasgueado guitarist. But two important publications from 1616,
Flamminio Corradi’s Le stravaganze d’Amore (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti) and
Andrea Falconieri’s Libro primo di villanelle (Rome: Giovanni Battista Robletti),
initiated a period of greater fluency in the use of alfabeto symbols. Moreover, the
style of the canzonettas appearing in these books became typical for northern Italian
song in general, especially those printed in Venice from the 1620s through the middle
of the century. In this chapter I will demonstrate that Venetian editors set alfabeto
with more attention to its practicality for the guitarists, and I will give evidence that
this practicality is the result of a renewed influence from the unwritten strummed
guitar tradition. I will also argue that this influence operates not only at the editorial
level, in the choice of alfabeto symbols, but also at the compositional level, in that
these songs tend to be composed in a style that is amenable to strummed guitar
accompaniment. It follows, therefore, that the adoption and adaptation of alfabeto
symbols in Italian canzonettas reflects an ongoing, mutual influence between an
orally transmitted performance practice and the composition and performance of
strophic chamber song with continuo notation.
In discussing the style of these Venetian alfabeto songs, as well as their
connection to strummed guitar performance practice, I will single out a few
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particularly cogent sources. These include, in addition to the Falconieri and Corradi
books already mentioned, the anthologies of Giovanni Stefani and the songbooks of
Carlo Milanuzzi. In each case these sources demonstrate both concrete connections
to the unwritten five-course guitar tradition and stylistic attributes that suggest an
influence from strummed guitar performance practice. An analysis of “Ecco l’alma
mia bella,” a song from Stefani’s first collection, will provide a concrete example of
how strummed guitar practice influenced the adaptation of three-voice polyphony for
solo voice and continuo. I will then give various examples from the larger alfabeto
song repertory that display similar musical characteristics in similar contexts.
Musical style, of course, is a complex topic, and I do not suggest that the guitar
repertory can account for every aspect of canzonetta composition. Indeed, many of
the musical attributes I will discuss can be found in pieces that precede both
repertories. But the cumulative evidence of all the connections, both direct and
inferred, between the orally transmitted five-course guitar repertory and the midcentury canzonetta, makes a strong case for the guitar as an agent of stylistic
development in the seventeenth century.
PRACTICAL, NON-PRACTICAL, AND INTEGRATED ALFABETO
This chapter will focus on northern Italian alfabeto songbooks, in which the
editorial treatment of alfabeto contrasts with the Neapolitan and Roman “guitar
villanella” repertory described in Chapter 2. The guitar villanellas are primarily
three-voice canzonettas without continuo to which alfabeto symbols appear to have
been added by the publishers to increase salability. The role of the publisher as agent
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in applying alfabeto was first proposed by Nigel Fortune, and has been explored more
recently by Robert Strizich and Cory Gavito.1 Although chronologically close to the
original sixteenth-century dance-song repertory, these early printed canzonettas fail to
provide convincing information on strummed guitar performance. As I have argued
in Chapter 2, the impractical nature of the alfabeto in these early sources suggests that
editors added the symbols without giving much thought to whether or how
contemporary guitarists were actually playing these pieces.
Example 12, Crescenzio Salzilli’s “Deh fuggit’ incauti amanti,” will provide a
recapitulation of the “impractical” guitar villanella alfabeto usage described in
Chapter 2, for the purpose of contrast with Venetian practice. “Deh fuggit’” might at
first seem to be a valuable source of information on chordal accompaniment to
polyphonic music; as in, for example, the treatment of the cadential clash on the last
beat of measure 4, where a B-flat major alfabeto chord is added to the 6-5 clash in the
voices, and a similar occurrence with the C major chord in measure 7. The
juxtaposition of root-position and first-inversion triads does seem to be a
characteristic of early chordal accompaniment.2 But a closer investigation of “Deh
fuggit’” casts doubt on the viability of these particular guitar chords as examples of
1
Nigel Fortune, “Italian Secular Song from 1600-1635: The Origins and
Development of Accompanied Monody,” (Ph.D. diss., Cambridge University, 1953),
146-47; Robert Strizich, “L’accompagnamento di basso continuo sulla chitarra
barocca,” pts. I and II, Il Fronimo 9/34 (January, 1981): 15-26; 9/35 (April, 1981): 827; Cory Gavito, “The Alfabeto Song in Print, 1610 – ca. 1665: Neapolitan Roots,
Roman Codification, and ‘Il gusto popolare’,” (Ph.D. diss., The University of Texas
at Austin, 2006), 20-22.
2
Paul O’Dette has related to me that he makes frequent use of this effect in his
continuo realizations.
130
contemporary performance practice, especially when the improbably rapid harmonic
progression is taken into account. I have studied hundreds of guitar villanella sources
in an attempt to make sense of the alfabeto symbols, and the conclusion is
inescapable: in the early Neapolitan and Roman alfabeto songbooks the chord
symbols were added quickly by using a simple formula. The editors, working from
the bass choirbook part, took each bass note as the root of a triad, and an alfabeto
symbol representing that triad was placed above that bass note, usually without taking
into consideration either the demands of the instrument or the pitches in the other two
voices. In measure 6, for instance, the second, third, and fourth guitar chords create a
series of acciaccaturas in combination with the voices, which outline simple triads—
different triads than those played by the guitar. What harmonic purpose does the
resulting chain of 6-5 chords serve, in the absence of cadential motion? And why
require the effort of a full change of left-hand position at the level of the eighth note?
An adept player could certainly pull this off, but such a performer would probably
also realize that most of these chords are not the best matches for the harmonies being
sung. The printers were interested in increasing the marketability of their songbooks,
and alfabeto provided an easy way to do so. Although there was a flourishing
tradition of strummed guitar accompaniment to Italian canzonettas at the time, the
guitar villanella editors did not seem to take that into account.
But there is a marked change in the editorial attitude towards alfabeto in the
songbooks printed from c.1620 on, especially from the Venetian presses of
Bartolomeo Magni and Alessandro Vincenti. These later songbooks display an
131
understanding of the practicalities of the instrument. This understanding seems to
stem from a familiarity with the unwritten guitar tradition, hence my term “integrated
alfabeto,” referring to the integration of orally transmitted performance practices.
The resulting alfabeto symbols are of more practical value for amateur guitarists who
cannot make adjustments to the printed symbols by reading the continuo line. In
addition, the songs themselves tend to be composed in a way that is more amenable to
guitar accompaniment, suggesting a mutual influence between performance practice
and composition. Although this practical alfabeto was primarily a Venetian
phenomenon, it also appears in both of Andrea Falconieri’s alfabeto songbooks, the
first of which was printed in Rome. Figure 3.1 transcribes an excerpt from
Falconieri’s “Voi sete bella ma sete crudele” as an example of the practical approach
to alfabeto that would become standard in the Venetian presses. Here Falconieri’s
alfabeto simplifies the bass voice by treating many notes as passing tones, which
largely obviates the question of chord inversion. When the bass does require an
inversion on a strong beat, as with the F major at measure 6 and the G minor at
measure 11, the editor has provided the appropriate alfabeto chord.
Roman alfabeto can also be contrasted to northern Italian usage on the basis of
a consistent difference in their treatment of the E minor and C minor chords.
Northern Italian integrated alfabeto books represent E minor with a cross symbol, a
device that dates back at least to Girolamo Montesardo’s 1606 alfabeto solo book.
Roman publishers consistently use the alphabet letter “X” for E minor, with one
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Figure 3.1: Andrea Falconieri, “Voi sete bella ma sete crudele,” excerpt, Libro primo
di villanelle (Rome: Robletti, 1616).
exception that will be discussed presently. Since the Venetian system uses “X” for a
different chord (B minor) and incorporates additional symbols, the chords from “S”
onwards are arranged differently in the two systems (see Fig. 3.2).3 Another
consistent difference between Roman and Venetian usage concerns the “L” chord. In
the Roman alfabeto charts the “L” chord is intabulated as a consonant C minor triad.
In the Venetian charts, however, the “L” chord is always intabulated with a third fret
on the second course, producing a C minor triad with the addition of a D natural
(shown as Cmadd2 in my table). This is not a typo: as I will explain below, this chord
shape represents a connection to earlier strummed guitar practice. The Venetian
3
See also Gavito, “Alfabeto Song in Print,” 90-93.
133
Roman Usage: Facsimile Example, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger, Libro secondo di
villanelle (Rome: Giovanni Battista Robletti, 1619)
Kapsperger’s Alfabeto with modern equivalents
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
K
L
M
N
O
G
C
D
Am
Dm
E
F
B
A
Bm
Cm
E
A
Gm
P
Q
R
S
T
V
X
Y
Z
Fm
F#
B
F#m
Bm
A
Em
E
F
Venetian Usage: Facsimile Example, Carlo Milanuzzi, Secondo scherzo delle arie
vaghezze (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti, 1620)
Milanuzzi’s Alfabeto With Modern Equivalents
+
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
K
L
M
N
Em
G
C
D
Am
Dm
E
F
B
A
Bm
Cmadd2
E
A
O
P
Q
R
S
T
V
X
Y
Z
&
2
RX
Gm
Fm
F#
B
E
A
F#m
Bm
G
C
E
Em
F
Figure 3.2: Roman and Venetian Alfabeto Charts.
134
charts differ amongst themselves in the inclusion of the final non-alphabetical
symbols, but these particular symbols are never used in the songs.
Before further discussion of the Venetian repertory I need to account for the
later Roman prints, which present a complication to the southern/non-practical versus
northern/practical scheme I have implied so far. Later Roman publications, from the
1620s on, display an increasing facility with alfabeto, and avoid many of the
problems I have described in the earlier repertory. Nonetheless, I would argue that
this “Roman practical alfabeto” is distinct from the contemporaneous Venetian usage.
As the following example will demonstrate, this later Roman usage is a refinement of
the “bass-note formula,” still dependent on the bass voice but taking more care with
issues of consonance and playability. By contrast, the Venetian usage relies more on
familiar harmonic and rhythmic patterns from the unwritten guitar tradition and less
on a strict observance of the continuo. My categories are presented, with sources
arranged chronologically within each category, as Table 3.1. This table may serve as
a reference for the following exposition.
For an example of practical alfabeto in a later Roman print I have reproduced
Stefano Landi’s “O begl’occhi di Sole” from Il secondo libro d’arie musicali (Rome:
Giovanni Battista Robletti, 1627) (see Example 13). Although it is a Roman print,
the alfabeto follows the continuo quite efficiently, for the most part avoiding
problems with playability and consonance. The slow harmonic rhythm is already
suited for chordal accompaniment, but where the bass contains quarter notes (mm. 13
and 16) they are treated as passing tones in the guitar. Unlike the earlier guitar
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Table 3.1: Alfabeto Songbooks Arranged by Alfabeto Usage
Chart 1
Venetian usage / “Integrated alfabeto” sources (functional)
1616 Falconieri, Andrea. Libro primo di villanelle (Rome: Robletti)
1616 Corradi, Flamminio. Le stravaganza d’amore (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
1618 Caccini, Francesca. Il primo libro delle musiche (Florence: Pignoni)
1618 Stefani, Giovanni. Affetti amorosi (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti)
1619 Falconieri, Andrea. Musiche libro sexto (Venice: Magni)
1620 Stefani, Giovanni (comp) Scherzi amorosi (Venice: Vincenti)
1621 India, Sigismondo d’. Le musiche libro quarto (Venice: Vincenti)
1622 Guazzi, Eleuterio. Spiritosi affetti libro primo (Venice: Magni)
1622 Marini, Biagio. Scherzi, e canzonette (Parma: Viotti)
1622 Milanuzzi, Carlo. Primo scherzo delle ariose vaghezze (Venice: Magni)
1622 Milanuzzi, Carlo. Secondo scherzo delle ariose vaghezze (Venice: Vincenti)
1622 Vitali, Filippo. Arie a 1. 2. 3. voce (Venice: Magni)
1623 Ghizzolo, Giovanni. Frutti d’amore libro quinto (Venice: Vincenti)
1623 India, Sigismondo d’. Le musiche libro quinto (Venice: Vincenti)
1623 Manzolo, Domenico. Canzonette (Venice: Vincenti)
1623 Milanuzzi, Carlo. Terzo scherzo delle ariose vaghezze (Venice: Vincenti)
1623 Stefani, Giovanni (comp) Concerti amorosi (Venice: Vincenti)
1624 Berti, Giovan Pietro. Cantade et arie (Venice: Vincenti)
1624 Milanuzzi, Carlo. Quarto scherzo delle ariose vaghezze (Venice: Vincenti)
1625 Miniscalchi, Guglielmo. Arie libro primo (Venice: Vincenti)
1626 Grandi, Alessandro. Cantade et arie libro terzo (Venice: Ziotti)
1627 Aldigatti, Marc’Antonio. Gratie et affetti amorosi (Venice: Magni)
1627 Miniscalchi, Guglielmo. Arie libro secondo (Venice: Vincenti)
1627 Obizzi, Domenico. Madrigali et arie libro primo (Venice: Vincenti)
1628 Milanuzzi, Carlo. Sesto libro delle ariose vaghezze (Venice: Vincenti)
1628 Sabbatini, Pietro Paolo. Il sesto [libro] (Bracciano: Fei)
1628 Tarditi, Orazio. Amorosa schiera d’arie (Venice: Vincenti)
1630 Miniscalchi, Guglielmo. Arie libro terzo (Venice: Vincenti)
1633 Pesenti, Martino. Arie a voce sola libro secondo (Venice: Vincenti)
1634 [various] Arie de diversi (Venice: Vincenti)
1634 Valvasensi, Lazzaro. Secondo giardino d’amorosi fiori (Venice: Magni)
1635 Fontei, Nicolo. Bizzarie poetiche (Venice: Magni)
1635 Marini, Biagio. Madrigaletti libro quinto (Venice: Magni)
1635 Milanuzzi, Carlo. Ottavo libro delle ariose vaghezze (Venice: Vincenti)
1636 Fontei, Nicolo. Bizarrie poetiche libro secondo (Venice: Magni)
1636 Pesenti, Martino. Arie a voce sola libro terzo (Venice:Vincenti)
1636 Sances, Giovanni Felice. Il quarto libro delle cantate (Venice: Vincenti)
1641 Ziani, Pietro Andrea. Il primo libro di canzonette (Venice: Vincenti)
1643 Milanuzzi, Carlo. Nono libro delle ariose vaghezze (Venice: Vincenti)
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1644
1646
Busatti, Cherubino. Settimo libro d’ariette (Venice: Busatti)
Tarditi, Orazio. Arie a voce sola (Venice: Vincenti)
Chart 2
Roman usage / “Guitar villanella” Roman functional alfabeto
1610 Kapsperger, Girolamo. Libro primo di villanelle (Rome)
1612 Montesardo, Girolamo. I lieti giorni (Naples: Gargano and Nucci)
1613 Giaccio, Orazio. Armoniose voci (Naples: Carlino)
1616 Salzilli, Crescenzio. Amarille libro terzo (Naples: Nucci)
1616 Salzilli. La sirena libro secondo (Naples: Gargano and Nucci)
1618 Giaccio. Laberinto amoroso (Naples: Gargano and Nucci)
1619 Kapsperger. Libro secondo di villanelle (Rome: Robletti)
1619 Kapsperger. Libro terzo di villanelle (Rome: Robletti)
1619 Rontani, Rafaello. Le varie arie musiche libro terzo (Rome: Soldi)
1620 Landi, Stefano. Arie a una voce (Venice: Magni)
1620 Olivieri, Giuseppe. La pastorella Armilla (Rome: Soldi)
1620 Rontani. Le varie arie musiche libro quarto (Rome: Robletti)
1620 Rontani. Le varie arie musiche libro quinto (Rome: Robletti)
1620 Vitali, Filippo. Musiche libro terzo (Rome: Soldi)
1621 (various) Giardino musicale (Rome: Robletti)
1621 (various) Raccolta di varii concerti musicali (Rome: Robletti)
1622 (various) Vezzosetti fiori (Rome: Robletti)
1623 Giamberti, Giuseppe, et al. Poesie diverse (Rome: Soldi)
1623 Kapsperger. Libro quarto di villanelle (Rome: Soldi)
1623 Rontani. Le varie musiche libro primo (Rome: Robletti)
1624 Aranies, Juan. Libro segundo de tonos y villancicos (Rome: Robletti)
1627 Landi, Stefano. Il secondo libro d’arie musicali (Rome: Robletti)
1628 Crivellati, Domenico. Cantate diverse (Rome: Robletti)
1630 Kapsperger. Libro quinto di villanelle (Rome: Masotti)
1632 Kapsperger. La fiori libro sesto di villanelle (Rome: Masotti)
1640 Kapsperger. Libro settimo di villanelle (Rome: Bianchi)
1650 Sabbatini, Pietro Paolo. Prima scelta di villanelle (Rome: Mascardi)
1650 Sabbatini. Prima scelta di villanelle a due voce (Rome: Mascardi)
Guitar
villanella
(nonfunct
Roman
functional
alfabeto
137
Chart 3
Alfabeto text sources / links to the vernacular tradition
Printed sources:
1618 Romano, Remigio (comp.). Prima raccolta di bellissime canzonette
(Vicenza?)
1620 Romano. Seconda raccolta di canzonette (Vicenza)
1622 Romano. Terza raccolta (Vicenza)
1623 Romano. Nuova raccolta (Venice)
1626 Romano. Residuo alla quarta parte (Venice)
1627 Millioni, Pietro. Prima scielta di villanelle (Rome)
1628 Fedele, Giacinta. Scelte di villanelle (Vicenza)
1640? Pesori, Stefano. Lo scrigno armonico (?Mantua, n.d.)
Manuscript sources cited in this chapter:
I-Fn Ricc. 2793
Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana Ms. 2793
I-Fn Ricc. 3145
Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana Ms. 3145 olim 3643
I-Fn Finaly 175
Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Ms. Fondo LandauFinaly Mus. 175
I-Fn Magl. 143
Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Ms. Fondo
Magliabechiano,classe XIX, codice 143
F-Pn Espanol 390
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Español 390
I-Rvat Chigi 200
Rome, Vatican Library, Chigi L VI 200
villanellas, which treat every bass note as the root of a triad, the alfabeto in Landi’s
piece observes inversions and suspensions. The sharp six figure in measure 2, for
instance, is accommodated by the E major alfabeto symbol, and the alfabeto in
measures 4-5 actually corrects the erroneous “4 3” continuo figures, which should
read “7 #6.”
It is important for purposes of comparison with Venetian usage to note that
the Roman editor set the 7-#6 suspension in measure 4 as two separate alfabeto
chords. As we will see, the Venetian approach relies much less on exact observance
of continuo harmonies and much more on established chord patterns from the alfabeto
solo repertory, in which cadential suspensions are added to the chord patterns in the
138
form of embellishments to the basic chords. The use of two chords in Landi shows
the care with which the triadic alfabeto chords have been accommodated to the
continuo line. This reliance on the continuo line, rather than on the guitar dance-song
tradition, allows declamatory, through-composed pieces like “O begl’occhi di Sole,”
which are not as stylistically close to the dance-song tradition, to be successfully
adapted for strummed guitar performance with alfabeto symbols. In most alfabeto
songbooks such pieces are given without alfabeto, which tends to be reserved instead
for strophic canzonettas with strongly accented metrical settings. In many cases, this
choice is made explicit on the title page; for instance, in Domenico Crivellati’s
Cantate diversi (Rome: Robletti, 1628) the title reads “with tablature for the Spanish
guitar in those [pieces] that are most appropriate.”4 In Crivellati’s book the alfabeto
songs are all triple meter, strophic pieces, with dance-like rhythms, while the throughcomposed pieces (presumably the “cantatas” of the title) are given without alfabeto.
This association between alfabeto and the light, dance-like triple meter songs
that dominate the Venetian canzonetta repertory suggests a link to the dance-song
tradition from which the strummed guitar performance practice sprang, and thus an
integration of the earlier oral repertory. The two basic determining features of this
“integrated alfabeto” style are: (1) the use of functional alfabeto which simplifies the
bass line by omitting passing tones, observing inversions, and using the kind of
practical, playable chord progressions found in the alfabeto solo dance sources; and
(2) the use of a dance-song style of composition that is inherently amenable to guitar
4
“Con l’intavolatura per la chitarra Spagnola in quelle più approposito.”
139
accompaniment. Basso continuo lines in these pieces often use one note per harmony
in combination with recurring rhythmic patterns to create strong harmonic periods
that are easily adapted to strummed guitar performance. In such pieces, there is little
need to simplify the bass line to make the alfabeto functional, since the compositional
conception is already so close to the guitar tradition. The alfabeto dance-song
tradition, a legacy of sixteenth-century oral performance practices (as described in
Chapter 2), is characterized by short periodic structures created by recurring chord
patterns in combination with particular strum patterns. Similar short-term periodic
structures created by harmonic and rhythmic means are also characteristic of
Venetian canzonetta composition. While the five-course guitar tradition cannot
account for every aspect of mid-seventeenth-century canzonetta composition, there is
substantial evidence that performance practices associated with the guitar had a direct
influence on the Venetian canzonetta.
ASPECTS OF MUSICAL STYLE IN VENETIAN CANZONETTAS
Before detailing the evidence specific to the guitar I will describe the Venetian
canzonetta style in more detail, drawing especially on the work of Roark Miller and
Silke Leopold.5 Both of these authors mention the connection between the guitar and
Venetian canzonettas, but neither directly addresses the extent of the guitar’s
influence on composition and performance. They do, however, describe stylistic
markers common to Venetian song, which, as I will argue, proved to be fertile ground
5
Silke Leopold, Al modo d’Orfeo: Dichtung und Musik im italiensiche Sologesang
des frühen 17. Jahrhunderts (Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1995), and Roark Miller, “The
Composers of San Marco and the Development of Venetian Monody,” (Ph.D. diss.,
University of Michigan, 1993).
140
for the interaction between orally transmitted performance practices and notated
composition.
In Silke Leopold’s study of Italian secular solo song in the seventeenth
century she makes a case for a new compositional style beginning in the second
decade of the century and featuring strong harmonic periodicity. These harmonic
periods are reinforced by small-scale melodic sequences. In Leopold’s analysis, this
style was the result of an effort to accommodate a new trend in Italian lyric poetry
initiated by Gabriello Chiabrera’s 1559 collection Maniere de’ versi toscani. With
this publication Chiabrera introduced into high art poetry verse forms that had
previously only been used in popular dance and carnival poems. This “Chiabreran
reform” spurred composition of texts that broke from the “Classical” forms of
canzone, sonetto, and ottava, which were restricted to endecasillabo and settenario
lines. Chiabrera’s lyric poetry used shorter syllable counts and avoided enjambments
between lines, with the result that each line was emphasized as an independent
metrical unit.6 Leopold sees the small-scale, clearly defined periodic structures
characteristic of Venetian solo chamber song in the early seventeenth century as a
direct response to the new lyrical forms. According to Leopold, a period of
experimentation in the first two decades of the century gave way to the clear, periodic
structures of solo song in the 1620s and 30s.
Roark Miller also describes Venetian song in this period, and he argues for a
distinctly Venetian repertory in which texts, melodies, and sometimes entire pieces
6
Leopold, Modo d’Orfeo, 47-54.
141
were borrowed, imitated, and adapted by composers familiar with each other’s work.
Like Leopold, Miller points out the prevalence of small-scale periodic structures in
these Venetian canzonettas. His use of the term “melodic-rhythmic pattern” in
describing these structures underscores their similarity to the strummed guitar
repertory, and Miller in fact proposes that some of these formulaic patterns may have
derived from unwritten repertories.7 Miller points out that although this
compositional style fits well with the lyric forms of the day, the relationship between
text and music was mutual, in that many of the canzonetta texts seem to have been
written with the new compositional style in mind, sometimes by the composers
themselves.
Leopold also refers to small-scale periodicity in her analysis of Carlo
Milanuzzi’s “E pur partir,” a song from his Primo scherzo delle arie vaghezze
(Venice: Alessandro Vincenti, 1622).8 Leopold focuses on the text, in which
recurrent tronco line endings emphasize the independence of each line. I will develop
Leopold’s analysis further by pointing out the interrelationship of melody and rhythm
in Milanuzzi’s setting. “E pur partir” is an example of what I call a “modular”
compositional style, which is based on small, sequenced melodic and rhythmic
motives that mirror the formal structure of the text. This modular approach is
consistent in Milanuzzi’s nine books of canzonettas and is a common feature in the
integrated alfabeto repertory in general.
7
Miller, “Development of Venetian Monody,” 297-302.
Silke Leopold, “Remigio Romano’s Collection of Lyrics for Music,” Proceedings of
the Royal Musicological Association 110 (1983), 51.
8
142
A closer look at “E pur partir,” which appears here as Example 14, reveals the
modular compositional style in action.
Milanuzzi, “E pur partir” from Primo scherzo delle arie vaghezze
E pur partir
Dovrò da te
Lidia che se’
Mia vita e’l cor
Senza morir?
Ahi dolor.
Ma come lasso
Movrò’l mio passo
Se sol da te.
Ha spirto, e moto il piè.
5t
5t
5t
5t
5t
4t
5
5
5t
7t
The quinario tronco lines are set to a consistent rhythmic motive, which, in its basic
form, is h h h R; various melodic variations create short “modules” that are altered,
transposed, and rearranged as needed. The first module (“E pur partir,” mm. 1-2), a
conjunct arch that rises a fourth and descends via a small melisma on the last syllable,
returns slightly modified for “Mia vita e’l cor” (mm. 7-8). The second module
(“Dovrò da te,” mm. 3-4) is a variation of the first module with a melodic inversion
and slight elaboration of the final melisma. For the third line, “Lidia che sè,” the
second module is transposed up a step. Module three, “Senza morir,” (mm. 9-10) is
an adaptation of module two, with a rhythmic alteration and a change in melodic
contour. Milanuzzi finishes the A section with a curt three-note module appropriate
for both the quaternario tronco line and the sorrowful sigh “Ahi dolor.” In this
particular text the metrical contrast mainly stems from a switch to piano endings for
the seventh and eighth line and a reversion to tronco for the last two lines. Milanuzzi
reinforces this metrical contrast by beginning the B section with a stepwise melodic
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line that connects, rather than separates, the lines of text (mm. 13-17). A stepwise
ascending bass line reinforces the sense of connection. The cadential progression on
B-flat in measures 15-16 does not even mark the end of a line: occurring on the
penultimate syllable of “movrò’l mio passo,” it leads the ear on to the next line, “se
sol da te.” Only here, where the tronco endings return, does Milanuzzi bring back the
melodic and rhythmic motive from module one, but this time in melodic inversion
(m. 18; compare to m. 2). The last line is set to an extension of module two, which
not only fits the longer syllable count (settenario tronco) but provides a melisma
appropriate to the word “moto.”
The superficial similarity between Milanuzzi’s modular style and the short,
periodic harmonic-rhythmic structures of the alfabeto dance-song repertory has led
Roark Miller to suggest a connection to popular song, as already mentioned. And
given the existence of certain evidence that Milanuzzi was personally familiar with
the alfabeto repertory, a closer look at this similarity is warranted. Carlo Milanuzzi is
one of the few alfabeto song composers to make an explicit statement confirming his
agency in assigning alfabeto. In his Primo scherzo he includes the following message
to his readers: “I admit that, in many places, I have altered the chords for Spanish
guitar with respect to the bass continuo, because when these ariette are accompanied,
the Spanish guitar gives a different effect from that of the Chitarrone or Spinetta. In
making these alterations I seek to give greater charm to the music.” 9 This is a rare
9
“Avvertendovi, che per esser vario l’affetto, che rende il Chitarrone, ò Spinetta, da
questo della Chitarra alla Spagnola nel sonar queste Ariette, in molti luoghi hò variata
la Notta nella ditta Chitar[r]a dà quella, che è assignata nel Basso fondamentali, posta
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indication that a composer has taken a personal interest in the insertion of alfabeto
symbols. Milanuzzi further demonstrates his affinity for the strummed guitar
repertory by including alfabeto solo dance movements for guitar in his second and
third books, which therefore mirror the layout of many alfabeto manuscripts. His
example was followed in 1627 by Marc’ Antonio Aldigatti, whose Gratie et affetti
amorosi (Venice: Bartolomeo Magni, 1627) also pairs printed songs with alfabeto
solo dances.
Furthermore, Milanuzzi’s songs seem to have circulated in manuscript form
prior to being printed, and although these manuscripts do not survive, there is good
reason to believe that they included alfabeto symbols. This evidence, which is clearly
outlined in an article by Roark Miller, consists of song concordances between
Milanuzzi’s printed books and a series of alfabeto-text anthologies collected by
Remigio Romano.10 In some cases, Romano’s version of a song preceded
Milanuzzi’s into print, and therefore must have been based on a pre-existing
manuscript. Romano used only alfabeto symbols and text, and Miller has therefore
determined concordances by reference to the alfabeto. In the case of the Milanuzzi
pieces, Romano’s alfabeto is an exact match, while in the case of pieces by other
composers, such as Giovan Pietro Berti, Romano’s alfabeto differs from the later
printed version. Miller concludes that Romano took advantage of Milanuzzi’s
manuscripts, which already contained alfabeto, and copied that alfabeto directly. In
per gli’altri stromenti, il tutto fatto per dargli maggior vaghezze.” Translation from
Leopold, “Remigio Romano’s Collection,” 53.
10
Roark Miller, “New Information of the Chronology of Venetian Monody: The
‘Raccolte’ of Remigio Romano,” Music & Letters 77 (1996): 22-33.
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the case of the pieces by Berti and others Romano seems to have been forced to create
an alfabeto accompaniment of his own.
My own investigation of the Romano concordances confirms Miller’s
findings. I have found that the only practical problem with Romano’s versions of
Milanuzzi’s songs involves text repetitions, which Romano omitted, presumably to
save space. For this reason his alfabeto stops where the text does, often leaving out
the final iteration of a line and therefore the final harmonic pattern, so that the pieces
sometimes end on a chord other than the final. This only happens with the Milanuzzi
texts, which are otherwise the most effective of Romano’s alfabeto settings, again
suggesting that Romano (or whoever was responsible) was copying the alfabeto
directly from an original example containing alfabeto, and stopped copying where the
text stopped. As Miller points out, the alfabeto appearing in Romano’s versions of
songs by Berti and others is much less functional, suggesting that is was added by
reference to an original containing only the notated melody and continuo line.
ALFABETO DANCE-SONG IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Milanuzzi’s apparent familiarity with the alfabeto dance-song repertory may
have aided him in creating and navigating the new style of Venetian solo song
described by Miller and Leopold. As discussed in Chapters 1 and 2, the practice of
strumming the five-course guitar as an accompaniment to dance and song goes back
to the sixteenth century. This practice and the repertory associated with it survived
into the seventeenth century, as evidenced by numerous manuscripts containing what
I have called “alfabeto solo” and “alfabeto text” notation. In the former, dances for
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solo guitar are notated using a series of alfabeto symbols, sometimes with lines
indicating up- and down-strokes of the right hand. In alfabeto-texts, which often
appear in the same manuscripts, the only fully notated musical parameter is the
progression of chords represented by alphabetical symbols above a song text. Thus
melody, rhythm, meter, and tempo are all left to the performer’s memory and/or
ingenuity.
Alfabeto solo dances are themselves sometimes given texts or titled with song
incipits, suggesting that an interrelationship between song and dance survived from
the sixteenth century into the seventeenth, and that strummed guitar performers relied
on a repertory of commonly known melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic patterns. In my
studies of alfabeto-text and alfabeto solo sources I have found many references to
what were apparently well-known melodies, provided as clues about musical
parameters that are otherwise unnotated. In Remigio Romano’s collections of song
texts, for instance, certain texts are introduced by reference to other, better-known
texts for the melody. “Fermeve su, o subiante,” which appears without alfabeto (thus
with no musical notation whatever) in Romano’s Seconda raccolta (Vicenza: Angelo
Salvador, [1618]), is introduced with the phrase “Musical canzonetta on the melody
that begins ‘Altro non è’il mio amore.’”11 A song beginning “Altro non il mio
amore” can be found in Giovanni Stefani’s Affetti musicali, with staff notation as well
as alfabeto, and probably represents Stefani’s own version of this well-known piece.
11
“Canzonetta di Musica sopra l'aria, che incomincia ALTRO NON E'IL MIO
AMORE.” Remigio Romano, Seconda raccolta di canzonette musicali (Vicenza:
Angelo Salvadori, [1618]).
147
Alfabeto solo dances were also sometimes given the title of contemporary songs.
Among the dances for solo guitar in Giovanni Ambrosio Colonna’s Intavolatura della
Chitarra alla spagnola (Milan: Gariboldi, 1637), for example, are the titles “Aria
sopra Pargoletta Bella,” “Aria sopra Vaghi rai,” and “Gagliarda sopra Poiché vuol
Amor.” Colonna’s book consists entirely of alfabeto symbols with no texts or
musical notation, but I have traced some of these titles to the alfabeto song repertory.
More than one alfabeto song text begins “Vaghi rai,” for instance—Orazio Tarditi’s
Arie a voce sola (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti, 1646) contains a setting of “Vaghi rai,
pupille ardenti” that matches Colonna’s alfabeto in broad outline. Colonna’s “Poiche
vuol Amor” chord progression matches the alfabeto for the song “Quella bell’amor,”
which I have found in three contemporary alfabeto-text manuscripts, suggesting a
generally understood model that contains both melodic and harmonic components.12
The text “Poiche vuol Amor” also appears (without alfabeto) in Romano’s Prima
raccolta, under the instruction “NEW MATERIAL to sing on the melody that begins
Quella bella Amor, &c.”13 The title “Poiche vuol Amor” thus refers to various
musical parameters, just as the ciaccona and folia do in surviving sixteenth century
sources, in which they sometimes appear as melodies, sometimes as texts, and
sometimes as harmonic and rhythmic patterns.
12
I-Fn Finaly 175f.35v; I-Fn Magl. 143 f. 56v; I-Fn Ricc. 2793 f. 55r; “Quella
bell’Amor” is also listed in the index to Stefani’s Affetti amorosi, but is missing from
the copy I studied.
13
“NUOVA MATERIA per cantar sopra l'aria, che incomincia, Quella bella Amor,
&c.” Remigio Romano, Prima raccolta di canzonette musicali ([Vicenza]: Angelo
Salvadori, 1618).
148
As in the sixteenth century, musicians in the seventeenth century seem to have
been relying on well-known (and therefore unwritten) melodic, rhythmic, and
harmonic patterns. But in contrast to the sixteenth century, seventeenth-century
publishers were beginning to find an economic advantage in this unwritten repertory.
Many of the sources mentioned in the previous paragraphs were printed, and the
market for pedagogical materials related to the guitar included students from a wide
range of economic backgrounds.14 The stage was thus set for an integration of
strummed guitar into solo song with continuo, and there was ample incentive to
provide editions that would be of practical value to the amateur guitarist as well as the
trained musician.
FROM GUITAR VILLANELLA TO SOLO CONTINUO SONG: THE CASE OF
“ECCO L’ALMA MIA BELLA”
The alfabeto songbooks of Giovanni Stefani provide an invaluable perspective
on the boundary between the written and unwritten repertories. Stefani’s songs are
for solo voice, with both alfabeto and continuo given as accompaniment; in this they
are like many other Venetian songbooks from the 1620s and 1630s. But Stefani’s
books are anthologies, containing arrangements of pieces that in many cases
originally appeared in the guitar villanella repertory as three-voice polyphonic
canzonettas. As I will argue, his arrangements are modified from the originals in
ways that reflect the influence of strummed guitar performance practice, and therefore
provide examples of how such pieces were adapted by solo singer-guitarists in the
early seventeenth century. Alfabeto symbols might be said to overlap the boundary
14
See Gavito, “Alfabeto Song in Print,” 104-8.
149
between written and unwritten repertories, since they appear both in manuscripts that
directly reflect the unwritten tradition and in printed sources of fully notated vocal
polyphony. The link between Stefani’s songbooks and the unwritten guitar tradition
is strengthened by concordances to alfabeto-text manuscripts; that is, manuscripts
with song texts and alfabeto symbols but no other musical notation. The song “Ecco
l’alma mia bella” appears with varying incipits in all three of the above-mentioned
formats: as a three-voice villanella, as a manuscript alfabeto-text, and as a solo song
with continuo. This piece therefore provides a case study in how similar pieces might
have been performed by contemporary singer-guitarists. And, since Stefani’s
arrangements so closely resemble later, newly composed strophic canzonettas, the
process whereby solo singer-guitarists adapted polyphonic canzonettas also appears
to have influenced contemporary Italian canzonetta composers. In turn, these midcentury Italian canzonettas premiered the periodic approach to melodic and harmonic
structures that provided a foundation for composition at the turn of the eighteenth
century, as argued by Silke Leopold, who called this one of the most far-reaching
developments in the history of music.15 It therefore seems that Stefani’s simple
arrangement of “Ecco l’alma mia bella” can be mined for information on the origins
of some of the fundamental forms of the common practice period repertory.
The earliest extant version of “Ecco l’alma mia bella” appears in Orazio
Giaccio’s Armoniose voci (Naples: Carlino, 1613), as a three-voice guitar villanella,
where it is titled “Ecco Lidia mia bella” (see Example 15). The Giaccio print
15
Leopold, Modo d’Orfeo, 286-87.
150
includes alfabeto, but set in the earlier, non-practical style typical of the guitar
villanella repertory. Stefani’s version reduces the voices to one part, adds a continuo
line, and uses more of what I call “practical alfabeto.” In addition, Stefani’s version
introduces some metrical changes that I will trace to the unwritten guitar tradition.
Another version of this song, titled “Ecco Clori mia bella,” can be found in an
alfabeto-text manuscript, reproduced here as Figure 3.3. The alfabeto is a rough
match for Stefani’s version, suggesting a connection to Stefani’s arrangement.
Although I’m comparing versions here, it is not essential that Stefani knew this
particular manuscript; I have found alfabeto-text versions of “Ecco Clori mia bella” in
at least four manuscripts.16 These manuscripts have been dated by James Tyler to c.
1600-1620.17 If Tyler’s dates are accurate, then “Ecco [insert name here] mia bella”
may have circulated in alfabeto-text form prior to Stefani’s print, but later than
Giaccio’s three-voice version. The differing incipits also suggest an oral transmission
for this piece, as do the other textual discrepancies and the variety in the alfabeto
symbols. Stefani himself may have relied on a general familiarity with oral
performance practice rather than any specific manuscript source.
In any case, the similarities between these sources imply a connection
between Stefani’s arrangement and the unwritten guitar tradition. Certain aspects of
Stefani’s arrangements, such as practical alfabeto, frequent triple-meter crossrhythms, and small scale periodic structures, are also prominent in the hundreds of
16
See Table 3.2, p.174 below.
James Tyler and Paul Sparks, The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to
the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 78-80.
17
151
Pas[sacaglia] G C D G
Dm A Dm A D
Ecco Clori mia bella
G
C
Dm G
deh venite a vedella
Dm A Dm A D
come viene vezzosa
B E
F B
tutta liet’ Amorosa
B
E
GC
con bel seno di fiori
C
F
F B D Gm
è c’invit’ è c’invit’agl’Amori
Figure 3.3: “Ecco Clori mia bella,” Alfabeto-text manuscript song. Florence,
Biblioteca Riccardiana Ms. 2793 f. 32v.
newly composed canzonettas from the integrated alfabeto repertory, suggesting that
an imitation of solo guitar performance practice was a basic part of canzonetta
composition in the early to mid-seventeenth century. Since Stefani’s arrangements
allow for comparison with earlier, three-voice versions, they provide specific
information on how guitarists adapted three voice villanellas for solo performance.
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For example, Stefani’s melodic line answers the question of how a three-voice
texture might be adapted for a single singer. In comparing Stefani’s arrangement,
which is transcribed as Example 16, to Giaccio’s original (Ex. 15), we see that rather
than choosing between the upper two voices Stefani has created a composite of them.
Stefani’s A section begins with an ornamented version of Giaccio’s upper voice, but
at measures 9-11 Stefani’s melody briefly moves to Giaccio’s middle voice; Stefani
seems to be choosing the most conjunct melodic line possible (with the corollary that
the range is as restricted as possible.) The resulting line is easy to sing and flexible in
terms of voice type (the restricted range giving both male and female voices a good
chance of finding a comfortable octave transposition.) Such a simple melody also
provides a suitable template for improvisational variation. In fact, this vocal line
seems like a perfect starting point for the kind of semi-improvised performance
implied by alfabeto-text manuscript sources.
Stefani’s alfabeto differs significantly from Giaccio’s, and these differences
can in part be explained in terms of practicality for the guitarist. True to the earlier
Neapolitan usage, Giaccio’s editors have provided almost every bass note with an
alfabeto symbol, resulting in chord changes on every beat at some points, as well as
guitar chords that clash with the vocal harmonies. Harmonic rhythm is also an issue
with Giaccio’s setting, as it is in most other non-practical alfabeto sources. The
metrical backbone of Giaccio’s song is provided by the relationship between the text
accents and the notated meter, rather than by a harmonic rhythm reinforced by the
bass voice. But the harmonic rhythm in the guitar is dependent on the bass voice and
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is therefore in a somewhat arbitrary relationship to the basic harmonic structure of the
piece. The alfabeto in the first phrase, for instance, measures 1-4, sets up a harmonic
rhythm that is inconsistent throughout the piece, as seen by comparison with
measures 4 and 5, where at least three harmonies in the voices are represented in the
guitar only by a change to C major. The B natural in the canto I on the first beat of
measure 5 is missed entirely, and the C major alfabeto chord itself clashes with the A
in the canto II. But these problems should not be seen as entirely a matter of
incompetent editing. The editors were in a sense attempting the impossible by adding
triadic harmonies to this texture using only the bass as a guide. The rhythmic
propulsion in Giaccio’s piece is provided not by a regular progression of triadic
harmonies but by the metrical regularity of the text accents. While in the strummed
dance-song repertory metrical emphasis is an inseparable part of the guitar’s
strumming patterns, in Giaccio’s song the guitar chords cannot reinforce the meter
and follow the bass line simultaneously.
Stefani deals with this problem by creating a bass line that does follow the
general harmonic outline of the piece. In the course of reducing the texture to one
voice with continuo, Stefani bridged the divide between the guitar villanella and the
guitar dance-song. In fact, Stefani’s continuo line appears to have been influenced
more by the demands of the guitar than by Giaccio’s original bass voice.
Stefani’s practical alfabeto and his composite, simplified vocal line all fit with
what would be expected from a guitarist performing in the oral tradition. In addition,
Stefani’s exclusive reliance on IV-V-I patterns at cadences is a link to the guitar
154
dance-song tradition, as becomes especially apparent when considered in combination
with certain rhythmic alterations. For example, the fourth line of the piece, “par che
sia tutt’ amori” reveals marked differences between Stefani and Giaccio’s settings. In
Giaccio’s version, measures 13-16, the alfabeto, following the bass voice, outlines, on
C, a VII-III-i-V-I progression. The same phrase in Stefani, at measures 16-19, is
simplified to IV-V-I. This IV-V-I pattern would be familiar to any guitarist
acquainted with alfabeto, since almost every alfabeto guitar tutor and many alfabeto
manuscripts begin with a set of what are there referred to as passacaglias; that is, IIV-V-I patterns beginning on each letter of the alphabet. The link between these
early passacaglias and functional tonal progressions has been studied by Richard
Hudson and Thomas Christensen; Margaret Murata has also devoted a recent article
to them.18
These alfabeto passacaglias provide a clue to another important aspect of
Stefani’s arrangement, namely the frequent hemiolas and cross-rhythms at cadences.
Such syncopated triple-meter rhythmic figures are a standard feature of dances from
the alfabeto solo repertory, common to passacaglias, sarabandas, canarios, folias, and
gagliardas, which often incorporate harmonic changes accented by downstrokes on
the second beat. A guitarist familiar with the alfabeto dance repertory might naturally
18
Richard Hudson, “The Concept of Mode in Italian Guitar Music during the First
Half of the 17th Century,” Acta Musicologica 43 (1970): 163-83; Thomas
Christensen, “The Spanish Baroque Guitar and Seventeenth-Century Triadic Theory,”
Journal of Music Theory 36 (1992): 1-42; Margaret Murata, “Guitar Passacagli and
Vocal Arie,” in La monodia in Toscana alle soglie del XVII secolo, edited by
Francesca Menchelli-Buttini (Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2007).
155
tend to imitate these rhythmic figures in song accompaniment, especially when
performing from memory in a semi-improvised setting. Such an accompaniment
would include cross-rhythms at cadences and duple subdivisions in a triple meter
setting, which is exactly what we find in Stefani’s setting of “Ecco l’alma mia bella.”
For example, see Figure 3.4A for an alfabeto solo passacaglia which incorporates a
rhythm very similar to Stefani’s final cadence; notice the series of chord changes on
beat two in Stefani. Extended alfabeto solo passacaglias often incorporate additions
to the basic IV-V-I chord pattern; Figure 3.4B reproduces such a passacaglia from
Foscarini’s 1629 guitar tutor. In Foscarini’s passacaglia, the chord changes in the
first phrase create a series of implied duple subdivisions within the triple meter,
which can be compared to the duple subdivisions in Stefani, measures 4-7. In fact,
this phrase of the Stefani gives the impression that the overall triple meter has been
temporarily suspended, which could also be an imitation of the metrically ambiguous
alfabeto-text version. In “Ecco l’alma” such cross-rhythms are not necessary for text
setting, as proven by Giaccio’s version, in which the settenario fits well in straight
triple meter. Rather, Stefani’s hemiolas and syncopated rhythms are a reflection of
the guitar dance-song tradition which takes precedence here over Giaccio’s rhythm.
A final connection to the dance song tradition is evident in Stefani’s use of an
idiosyncratic fingering for the so-called “L” chord, which is found in measures 6 and
21 of “Ecco l’alma mia bella.” This particular fingering, although not triadic, is
commonly indicated in alfabeto solo sources, and is very likely to have originated in
the unwritten tradition. I will describe the “L” chord in more detail below; for the
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A) Syncopated cadential figure
B) Implied duple meter
Figure 3.4: Cross-Rhythms in Alfabeto Solo Passacaglias Compared to Stefani.
present discussion it will suffice to say that the non-triadic harmony which I have
indicated as C minor (add 2) was used by alfabeto guitarists both because it is easier
to play than the consonant chord shape and because it adds a non-chord tone, D, that
creates a pleasing harmonic effect in the context of a G minor cadential figure. It
appears as the standard chord for C minor in the alfabeto solo manuscript repertory,
with consonant C minor chords, when used at all, designated by special symbols.
157
Further evidence for a link between Stefani’s anthologies and the unwritten
strummed guitar tradition will be given below in the context of the other integrated
alfabeto sources. This link offers a new way to look at the continuo line in solo
canzonettas. While most of Stefani’s arrangements cannot be traced back to an
earlier source, many of those that can are derived from the three-voice villanella
repertory, and, like “Ecco l’alma,” are altered in ways that accommodate the amateur
singer-guitarist. In Stefani’s arrangements, the apparent relationship between
alfabeto and continuo, in which alfabeto functions as an interpretation of the
continuo, is thus turned on its head. Instead of the alfabeto symbols being a
realization of the continuo line, the continuo line seems more like a realization of the
alfabeto; that is, a bass line that reinforces harmonic and rhythmic characteristics
from the guitar tradition. And Stefani’s anthologies, all three of which were popular
enough to merit reprinting, appeared in Venice in the vanguard of a vast repertory of
light, strophic canzonettas for solo voice with continuo. This repertory was itself the
arena for experimentation in melodic and harmonic structures that would come to
define later developments in cantatas, operas, and concertos.
THE FIRST INTEGRATED ALFABETO SOURCES: FALCONIERI AND
CORRADI
The preceding exposition of “Ecco l’alma mia bella” argues for a direct
influence from strummed guitar performance practice on the editing and composition
of Venetian canzonettas in the mid-seventeenth century. But my exposition so far has
focused only on a few sources; what of the rest of the Venetian repertory? The
evidence in the Venetian repertory at large falls into five basic categories: 1) personal
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statements by composers regarding the use of alfabeto; 2) concordances between
printed canzonettas and alfabeto-text manuscripts; 3) the explicit use of dance-songs,
such as the ciaconna and folia, whose origins are connected to the five-course guitar
tradition; 4) the use of practical alfabeto that relies on standard chord progressions
from the dance-song repertory; and 5) a compositional style that reflects the guitar
dance-song tradition. This last category concerns resemblances between
compositional style and performance practice, and thus cannot by itself prove a
connection to the guitar. But given that these stylistic developments consistently
appear with the other, more direct connections to the five-course guitar tradition,
there is good reason to deduce a correlation. The direct evidence is already apparent
in the first two books in my “integrated alfabeto” category, both of which appeared in
1616.
Falconieri’s Libro primo di villanelle (Rome: Giovanni Battista Robletti) is a
clear departure from the non-practical guitar villanella repertory. Falconieri’s
alfabeto is functional in terms of playability and consonance, and the pieces
themselves are composed in a manner that accords well with strummed guitar
performance. A connection to the strummed dance-song tradition is most explicit in
“O vezzosetta non mi far morire,” which is titled “aria per la ciaccona” (see Ex. 17).
Under the music is an empty staff titled “Intavolatura per la Chitarra Spagnola,”
which would seem to be an opportunity to include an alfabeto chart. Perhaps Robletti
did not have the tools necessary to print the chart; the only other Robletti print to
include an alfabeto chart is Kapsperger’s 1619 Libro secondo di villanelle, and in that
159
case it is engraved on the last page. In one of the surviving copies of Falconieri’s
book the “O vezzosetta” chart has alfabeto chord tablature added by hand to the
empty staff lines; this chart has been reproduced by Dinko Fabris.19
“O vezzosetta” is one of the earliest fully notated settings of the ciaccona,
which before then had primarily appeared in alfabeto solo guitar sources. The
recurring harmonic formula typical of the early ciaccona is given by a simple
continuo line moving in half notes.20 A similar compositional approach is evident
elsewhere in the volume; many pieces not explicitly labeled as such show clear
affinity with chord patterns from the alfabeto solo repertory. “Rimirate luci ingrate,”
for example, is, like many alfabeto solo dances, in binary form with a ritornello (see
Ex. 18). As in “O vezzosetta,” the continuo in “Rimirate” moves in half and whole
notes, outlining harmonies that are easily translated into alfabeto using the chords that
begin the standard alfabeto chart (the alfabeto symbols in “Rimirate” are restricted to
“+ A B C D E G”).
While Falconieri did not add any statements about alfabeto in his works, a
notational peculiarity in his Libro primo raises the possibility that he had a personal
involvement with the alfabeto editing. Of all the Roman alfabeto sources,
Falconieri’s Libro primo is the only one to use a cross symbol rather than an “X” for
the E minor chord. As discussed above, the use of the cross symbol is otherwise
exclusive to Venetian sources. As I have argued in Chapter 2, the addition of alfabeto
19
Dinko Fabris, Andrea Falconieri napoletano (Rome: Torre d’Orfeo 1987), 89.
My thesis cannot account for the D major harmony in measure 2; this may simply
be a misprint.
20
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in the Roman sources was probably the work of an editor, rather than a composer.
But the cross symbol, appearing without explanation in Falconieri’s print, might be
the work of Falconieri himself, which would explain its appearance here, uniquely
among all the other volumes printed by Robletti. As a lutenist, Falconieri was
familiar with fretted instruments, and many of his works appear in alfabeto
manuscripts, as Dinko Fabris has pointed out.21 A personal role in setting alfabeto
would also help explain the marked differences in Falconieri’s alfabeto usage as
compared to Robletti’s other prints.
Falconieri’s book is also the earliest I have seen to use repeated alfabeto
symbols; that is, to print the same symbol twice without any intervening symbol. The
standard procedure in Neapolitan and Roman prints was to mark only the first
appearance of any particular harmony, leaving it to the player to decide how many
times that chord should be played. In Falconieri’s book, however, as in many of the
other integrated alfabeto prints, one often finds adjacent repetitions of an alfabeto
symbol; see, for instance, the F major and G major chords in “Rimirate” (Ex. 18, mm.
3 and 13). Although this method requires more pieces of type (and is thus potentially
more expensive and time-consuming), it increases the practicality of the alfabeto
notation, since the alfabeto symbols can provide a sense of the rhythm, as they do in
many of the alfabeto solo dance books. Montesardo’s Nuova inventione, for example,
indicates rhythm with repeated alfabeto symbols (see Fig. 3.5). In Montesardo’s
book the symbols below the horizontal line represent strummed downstrokes and
21
Fabris, Andrea Falconieri, 89.
161
Figure 3.5: Three Alfabeto Solo Galliards with a Suggested Transcription of the First.
Source: Girolamo Montesardo, Nuove inventione d’intavolatura (Florence:
Marescotti, 1606); my transcription. UpUp and down-strokes
down strokes are indicated by stem
direction.
those above the line upstrokes, with relative note values indicated by upperupper and
lower case alfabeto; the metrical emphasis created thereby, in combination with the
lower-case
repeated chords, is usually enough to convey the rhythm and meter of each dance.
The repeated alfabeto symbols in Falconieri offer similar information to a singersinger
guitarist familiar with the oral tradition, who might be paying more attention to the
guitarist
alfabeto symbols than to the continuo line.
162
Repeated alfabeto symbols can also be interpreted as a link to alfabeto-text
notation, in that metrical emphasis is being produced by a combination of text accent
and chord symbols rather than the notated meter. In an alfabeto-text source, of
course, there is no notated meter, and a performance from such a source may be
assumed to have an improvisatory quality in keeping with the notation. In that case
the musical rhythm would result from the strummed guitar chords in combination
with the text accents. As I have already discussed in relation to Silke Leopold’s textbased analysis of the printed canzonettas, the integrated alfabeto texts tend to be
broken into small, strongly accented phrases, which contribute to the creation of
small-scale rhythmic periods. In the case of an alfabeto-text song, this process occurs
with no need for notated meter.
In the case of Falconieri’s alfabeto songs, the metrical emphasis implied by
the text and the alfabeto sometimes works against the notated meter. Like Stefani’s
version of “Ecco l’alma mia bella,” Falconieri’s songs tend to manipulate metrical
emphasis in a triple-meter setting, suggesting the same freedom from notated meter
that would characterize a performance relying solely on text and chord symbols.
Although such a performance might not be “free” in the manner of early monody, in
which text declamation trumps all, it would be “free” in the manner of strummed
guitar dance-songs, in which the overall metrical organization (duple or triple) can be
altered by adjusting the pattern of weak and strong beats. For example, in an alfabeto
solo dance such as the Montesardo gagliarda described above, the metrical emphasis
might be adjusted by altering the relationship between up- and down-strokes on the
163
guitar. In an alfabeto-text song the metrical emphasis might be adjusted by
combining the text accents with typical rhythmic patterns from the solo repertory; we
saw a version of this process in Stefani’s setting of “Ecco l’alma mia bella.”
In “Rimirate,” Falconieri avoids the most obvious correspondence between
musical accent and text accent. The metrical scheme of the “Rimirate” text is simple
and strongly defined:
Rimirate,
Luci ingrate,
il dolor de la partita.
Mio partire
à morire,
ogni belli aita aita.
4a
4a
8b
4c
4c
8b
The repeated quaternario would fit quite smoothly into triple meter if the first two
syllables were set to an upbeat:
q q |h h q q
|h h
3
|1 2 3
|1 2
Rĭ-mĭ-rá-tĕ Lŭ-cĭ_in-grá-tĕ.
Falconieri, however, chose to begin on beat two, creating an emphasis on beat three
for the first two measures, which is brought back into alignment by beginning the
ottonario on beat two of measure three:
q q h| h q q
h|h d q|d qqq| w h
2
3|12
3 |1 23 | 12 3 | 123
Rĭ-mĭ-rá-tĕ Lŭ-cĭ_in-grá-tĕ, íl dŏ-lór dĕ lă păr-tí- tă.
It is unlikely that this metrical displacement is the result of incompetent text setting,
given the ease with which quaternario and ottonario can be set in triple meter.
Falconieri’s setting is rather a method of creating musical interest by juxtaposing
musical and textual meter, and as such it partakes of the same metrical freedom
164
afforded by alfabeto-texts. The repeated alfabeto symbols (such as the F major
chords in m. 3) allow the singer-guitarist to proceed according to text emphasis and
alfabeto, which combine to indicate metrical emphasis in a similar manner to the
stroke marks and repeated chord symbols of the guitar solo sources.
Repeated alfabeto symbols can also be found in “Cara è la rosa e vaga” from
the same volume (see Fig. 3.6 and Ex. 19). In this case, the repeated alfabeto
symbols occur in the context of a common chord pattern from the alfabeto solo
repertory. The opening alfabeto pattern is the standard passacaglia on “g”; one of
many such examples can be found in Montesardo’s Nuove inventione (see Fig. 3.7).
The second alfabeto pattern (“o o i i c”) can be found, in a slightly different rhythmic
setting, in a Fantinella for solo guitar from I-Fn Magl. XIX 143 (see Fig. 3.8). Rather
than using repeated alfabeto symbols, as in Montesardo, this manuscript indicates upand downstrokes by a combination of lines appearing under each alfabeto symbol:
vertical lines indicate strokes, with those above the horizontal line being upstrokes
and those below being downstrokes. The “Fantinella” moves from an expanded
passacaglia pattern on “g” to the same “o i c” cadential pattern found in “Cara la
rosa.” In the “Fantinella” the “o i c” cadence is emphasized by repeated downstrokes
on “o” and “i” (seen in boxed areas of Fig. 3.8). In “Cara e la rosa,” Falconieri
repeats the “o” and “i” symbols, creating a similar rhythmic emphasis on the same
cadential pattern.
165
Figure 3.6: Andrea Falconieri, “Cara è la rosa e vaga,” from Libro primo di villanelle
(Rome: Robletti, 1616), Excerpt
Excerpt with Transcription.
Figure 3.7: Alfabeto Solo Passacaglia on “g” with Suggested Transcription. Source:
Montesardo, Nuove inventione.
inventione
166
Figure 3.8: Alfabeto Solo “Fantinella” with Suggested
Suggested Transcription. Source:
Source: I-Fn
I
Magl. XIX 143, f.26.
167
Flamminio Corradi’s Le stravaganze d’Amore (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti,
1616) is the earliest Venetian alfabeto print, appearing when the elder Vincenti was
still alive, and with Falconieri’s Libro primo constitutes the earliest of the “integrated
alfabeto” sources. Like Kapsperger, Corradi included theorbo intabulations in his
book, and even before analyzing the alfabeto symbols one can discern a different
approach to accompaniment on the basis of these intabulations. Kapsperger’s theorbo
parts tend to recreate the three-voice texture of the villanellas, and his pieces for solo
voice are also intabulated with implied polyphony in the theorbo; this
accompanimental style was discussed in Chapter 2. Corradi’s theorbo parts, by
contrast, are much more chordal; “O di Euterpe il dolce canto,” Example 21, is
typical in this regard. This chordal accompanimental style, of course, bears a close
resemblance to what the alfabeto chords would look like if they were intabulated. It
also suggests a link between Corradi’s style and various manuscripts of Florentine
monody that contain lute accompaniments of a decidedly chordal nature. These
manuscripts have been studied by John Walter Hill, James Tyler, and Victor Anand
Coelho, who agree that a chordal style of accompaniment to solo song was
developing in Italy in the late sixteenth century.22 Hill, whose article covers eleven
22
John Walter Hill, “Realized Continuo Accompaniments from Florence c.1600,”
Early Music 11/2 (1983): 194-208; Tim Carter, “Caccini’s ‘Amarilli, mia bella:’
Some Questions (and a Few Answers),” Journal of the Royal Musical Association
113 (1988): 250-73; Victor Anand Coelho, “The Players of Florentine Monody in
Context and History, and a Newly Recognized Source for Le Nuove Musiche,”
Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music 9/1, http://sscm-jscm.press.uiuc.edu/v9/
no1/coelho.html; James Tyler, “The Role of the Guitar in the Rise of Monody: The
Earliest Manuscripts” Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music 9/1 (2003),
http://www.sscm-jscm.org/jscm/v9/no1/Tyler.html.
168
such manuscripts, writes “It is primarily only the inclusion of the bass part and some
variety of chord voicing that distinguishes the archlute accompaniments from the
strummed, rasgueado guitar accompaniments to monodies.”23 While strummed
guitar may not be the sole influence on this accompanimental style, the appearance of
more practical alfabeto in this context is suggestive, especially when considered with
the other links to the strummed guitar tradition in Corradi’s book.
For instance, Corradi’s book contains the first of the Venetian alfabeto charts
that would become standard for the integrated alfabeto repertory. As I will discuss
below, the Venetian editors appear to have relied on a common template for printing
these charts, gradually noticing and correcting the typographical errors in the original
template. The alfabeto charts are thus a sign of the homogeneity of the Venetian
alfabeto editorial procedures, and Corradi’s chart, as the first known printed example,
makes the best candidate for an original template. One of the distinguishing features
of Venetian alfabeto usage concerns the fingering of the “L” chord, a harmonic
peculiarity that was most likely adopted from orally transmitted performance practice.
Corradi’s chart (see Fig. 3.9), unlike Montesardo’s and Kapsperger’s, intabulates the
C minor chord shape with a non-chord tone—a D on the second course, third fret (this
is the “3” on the second line from the bottom under the “L” shape in the chart), the
same fingering mentioned previously in the discussion of Stefani’s anthologies. It
might be thought that this is no more than one of the misprints common to tablature
notation; this dissonant “L” shape, however, is reprinted in all the integrated alfabeto
23
Hill, “Realized Continuo Accompaniments,” 202.
169
Figure 3.9: Alfabeto Chart from Flamminio Corradi, Le stravaganze d’Amore
(Venice: Giacomo Vincenti, 1616).
170
charts, as well as in some manuscripts (see Fig. 3.10, a handwritten alfabeto chart
from a manuscript that has been dated to c. 1610-1620).24 A line of text printed
above Corradi’s alfabeto chart makes it plain that the dissonant “L” shape is not only
intentional but primary: “When in this present work of mine, in the alfabeto for
Spanish guitar, this .L. marked with two dots is found, this new sign will designate
the [chord] here:” after which a consonant C minor chord shape is intabulated under
the “new” sign “.L.”25
This remarkable instruction imparts two vital pieces of information: first, that
Corradi had a role in assigning the alfabeto (the instructions being given in first
person, as in Milanuzzi’s book), and second, that the dissonant C minor shape was
considered to be the standard fingering. The latter conclusion rests on the following
considerations: although at 1616 Corradi’s chart was the first to emerge from the
Venetian presses, the consonant C minor shape is referred to as “new,” requiring an
addition to the alfabeto chart. The need for an addition suggests that the rest of the
chart was standardized, with the “new” shape being an innovation on the part of
Corradi or his editor. Since, however, this is the first printed alfabeto chart to use the
“standard” dissonant “L” chord shape, the question arises, from what did this
“standard” usage derive?
24
I-Pn Espanol 390; see Tyler, Guitar and Its Music, 90.
“Quando voi ritrovarete nella presente mia Opera nello Alfabetto per la Chitara alla
Spagnola questo •L• segnato con li detti due punti, significara tal segno novo, la
presente Chiave.”
25
171
Figure 3.10: “Lettere della chitarra spagnuola”: Alfabeto Chart from F-Pn MS
Espanol 390 with Non-triadic “L” Fingering.
A reasonable answer can be found in the oral tradition that preceded,
paralleled, and influenced Corradi’s book, the tradition evident in the contemporary
manuscript chart already cited (Fig. 3.10). As we have seen, both Falconieri and
Corradi’s books evidence a familiarity with the strummed guitar repertory and an
effort to accommodate players who were familiar with alfabeto. The decision to use a
172
new sign for the consonant C minor shape betrays an assumption that such musicians
would be more familiar with the dissonant shape.
The dissonant “L” shape, the only alfabeto chord in the standard chart to
incorporate a non-triadic tone, owes its existence to the interaction between the
physical layout of the guitar and the standard tonal spaces of seventeenth-century
song. G is by far the most common final tonality in the repertory; as discussed in
Chapter 2, this is one reason why the alfabeto alphabet begins with G major (that is,
“A”). In the alfabeto solo repertory the sets of passacaglia patterns, one for each
letter of the alphabet, were the primary means of learning and organizing
combinations of chords around a central tonality. The passacaglia on “O,”
therefore—“O L C O”—is one of the most common chord progressions in the
repertory, and is the context in which one is most likely to use the “L” chord. A look
at the guitar fretboard reveals the utility of the dissonant “L” shape in this context: the
third finger can remain on the same fret for the entire progression. In addition, if a 43 suspension is added to the dominant chord, the dissonant “L” shape provides two
fingers in common between the pre-dominant chord and the suspension (see Fig.
3.11). This particular fingering for a 4-3 suspension is documented in another
integrated alfabeto source, Biagio Marini’s Scherzi, e canzonette (Parma: Anteo
Viotti, 1622), in which Marini indicates (again by means of dots added to the standard
alfabeto symbols) fingerings for various cadential suspensions (see Fig. 3.12). Like
Corradi, Marini specifies a consonant “L” shape as an addition to the standard chart,
173
Figure 3.11: The “L” Chord on the Fretboard in Cadential Patterns on G. Above,
standard “O L C A” cadential pattern. Below,, “O L .C. C A” cadence on G as
specified by Marini’s alfabeto chart.
174
Figure 3.12: Alfabeto Chart from Biagio Marini, Scherzi e canzonette (Parma: Viotti,
1622), with Boxed Areas Showing the “L” Chord, the “.C.C A” Cadence and the
“New” C Minor Chord.
175
designating it with an asterisk and calling it a “new” symbol: “the star is a new
letter.”26
Corradi’s songs use both forms of the “L” chord, and he is careful to specify
the consonant shape when the C minor is not functioning as a pre-dominant. “Filli
mia pena mi date” is transcribed as Example 20. A look at the facsimile excerpt in
Figure 3.13A (containing the end of the C section on the text “O mia Filli o mio
tesoro / Dat’aita ch’io mi moro”) reveals both forms of the “L” chord used in close
proximity. In the “H G H .L. G” progression over “O mia Filli o mio tesoro,” the
“.L.” chord functions as a pre-dominant in a I-V-I-ii-V progression on B-flat major
(see also the transcription, Ex. 20 mm. 11-13). In the “L C A” progression over
“Ch’io mi moro” the “L” chord is a subdominant in a progression on G major, and
thus a candidate for the dissonant “L” shape (see Ex. 20 mm. 14-15). The
progression on the preceding line, “Poiche m’uccidete a torto” (Ex. 20 mm. 7-9 and
Fig. 3.13B), is an interesting case: the dissonant “L” chord is used in the context of a
B-flat major progression (“H L G H”) in which the canto II voice has a 7-6
suspension over the continuo E-flat. Therefore, the harmony contains a D, the same
non-chord tone that appears in the dissonant “L.” The “H L G H” progression,
however, is not a common fingering in the alfabeto solo repertory. The “L” chord in
this case responds to the specific musical setting, rather than a harmonic stereotype
from the guitar tradition. This distinction is reinforced by the theorbo intabulation,
26
“La Stella è lettera nova.”
176
A)
B)
Figure 3.13: “Filli mia pena mi date,” Flamminio Corradi, Le stravaganze d’Amore
(Venice: Giacomo Vincenti, 1616). A, C section excerpt. B, B section excerpt.
177
which contains the note D in the above-mentioned “H L G H” progression (see Ex. 20
m.8). But when the dissonant “L” shape recurs in measure 14 as a pre-cadential
chord in G the theorbo omits the non-chord tone, which is lacking in the voices as
well; its presence in the alfabeto stems from standard strummed guitar practice rather
than the specific notated harmonies.
In sum, Corradi’s book contains a first-person reference to alfabeto, chordal
accompaniment in the theorbo, practical alfabeto usage including repeated alfabeto
symbols, and an alfabeto chart which suggests familiarity with the unwritten tradition
in the use of the “L” chord. In light of these connections to the guitar tradition,
certain stylistic features of Corradi’s songs might be reassessed in terms of that
tradition, specifically his predilection for strong cadential patterns in the continuo.
Many of Corradi’s continuo lines resemble the type of repetitive, small-scale
periodicity found in strummed guitar dances such as the passacaglia and ciaccona.
“O di Euterpe il dolce canto,” (Ex. 21), for instance, begins with a progression in G
major, measures 1-3, that is immediately repeated in measures 4-6. The repetition is
rounded off with a cadence to G in measure 7; the repeated pattern thus ends on the
dominant, “I-IV-V-vi-IV-V.” This short, repeated pattern is typical for alfabeto solo
dances; the ciaccona, for instance, is commonly notated in manuscript sources with a
symbol representing a repeat after the dominant, as seen in Figure 3.14A, where the
repeat is indicated by the symbol “#.” When the player has finished repeating,
however, the tonic chord is necessary to complete the piece, and is given after the
repeat symbol and without stroke marks: see the “A” (G major) symbol in Figure
178
A) Ciaccona from I-Fn Ricc. 2793 with suggested transcription
B) Corradi, “O di Euterpe il dolce canto,” Le stravaganze d’Amore (Venice: Vincenti,
1616), opening chord progression and transcription
Figure 3.14: Chord Patterns in Corradi, “O di Euterpe il dolce canto.”
179
3.14A. Although Corradi did not imitate the specific rhythmic structure of the
ciaccona in this piece, his use of short, repeating chord patterns would be familiar to
any guitarist who had studied alfabeto solo dances, and raises the possibility that
Corradi relied on his own familiarity with alfabeto practice when composing these
guitar-friendly continuo lines.
THE ANTHOLOGIES OF GIOVANNI STEFANI AND THE UNWRITTEN
TRADITION
The previous discussion of Stefani’s “Ecco l’alma mia bella” suggested an
influence from strummed guitar performance on the song arrangements appearing in
his three anthologies. These songbooks, appearing in Venice in the period directly
following the publications of Falconieri and Corradi, display similar connections to
orally transmitted guitar performance; namely, concordances with alfabeto-text
manuscripts, the use of practical alfabeto, the appearance of the ciaccona and folia,
the idiomatic use of the “L” chord, and pieces written in an improvisatory style. In
addition, many of Stefani’s arrangements mirror the Venetian canzonetta style
displayed by composers such as Carlo Milanuzzi, suggesting that this style resulted
partly from the integration of the strummed guitar tradition.
Perhaps the clearest demonstration of the connections between Stefani’s
anthologies and the unwritten tradition is found in the many concordances between
Stefani’s arrangements and manuscript sources. John Walter Hill has already made
this argument, backed up in his case with concordances to manuscripts related to the
musical circles around Cardinal Montalto in Rome. Noting the agreement between
the alfabeto chords and the notated versions, Hill writes: “The number of such
180
concordances . . . demonstrates that guitar-chord tablatures are normally performing
materials for solo songs whose melodies have been memorized by the singer.”27 I
have found further manuscript concordances with Stefani’s anthologies, primarily in
Florentine sources. Since my study mainly concerns the printed repertory, I have not
examined all of these manuscripts, but even the small sample I have studied reveals a
significant connection to Stefani’s books (see Table 3.2). The concordances listed are
both musical and textual, the musical portion being established by a similarity
between the alfabeto in the manuscript and the alfabeto in the printed source that is
too close to be coincidental.
Table 3.2
Alfabeto-Text Manuscript Concordances with Stefani’s Anthologies
Manuscripts Surveyed:
Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana Ms. 2793 (I-Fn Ricc. 2793)
Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana Ms. 3145 olim 3643 (I-Fn Ricc. 3145)
Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Ms. Fondo Landau-Finaly Mus. 175 (I-Fn
Finaly 175)
Florence, Biblioteca Nazional Centrale, Ms Fondo Magliabechiano, classe XIX,
codice 143 (I-Fn Magl. xix 143)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Español 390 (F-Pn MS Espanol 390)
Rome, Vatican Library Chigi L VI 200 (I-Rvat Chigi 200)
Stefani Concordances
Stefani Anthology Incipit
Scherzi amorosi Amerai tu il mio core
27
Manuscript Concordance
I-Fn Ricc. 2793 f. 44v
John Walter Hill, Roman Monody Cantata, and Opera from the Circles around
Cardinal Montalto (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 171.
181
Affetti amorosi
Affetti amorosi
Concerti amorosi
Scherzi amorosi
Affetti amorosi
Scherzi amorosi
Affetti amorosi
Concerti amorosi
Concerti amorosi
Affetti amorosi
Altro non è il mio cor
Bella filli crudele
I-Fn Ricc. 3145 f. 86v
I-Fn Ricc. 2793 f. 24r; I-Fn Finaly
175 f. 26v; F-Pn MS Espanol 390
f. 28r
Ecco l’alma mia bella
I-Fn Ricc. 2793 f. 54v; I-Fn Ricc.
2793 f. 32v;28 I-Fn Finaly 175 f.
32v
29
I-Fn Ricc. 2793 f. 39v;30 I-Fn
Fuggi fuggi dolente core
Finaly 175 f. 31v
I-Fn Ricc. 2793 f. 41r
La mia Clori vezzosa31
Perche taci cor mio
I-Fn Ricc. 2793 f. 60v
Piu non ho non ho cor io
I-Fn Ricc. 2793 f. 52r
Rompa lo sdegno le dure catene I-Fn Ricc. 3145 f. 96v
Voi partite sdegnose
I-Fn Magl. xix 143 f. 55r; I-Fn
Finaly 175 f. 59v
Vuestra belleza senora
I-Rvat Chigi 200 f. 24r
As in the Falconieri and Corradi books, the alfabeto in Stefani’s anthologies is
more practically oriented than that in the earlier Roman and Neapolitan sources, and
much of that practicality stems from a reliance on simple chord patterns similar to the
passacaglias that are featured so prominently in the alfabeto solo repertory. We have
seen such alfabeto patterns already in his arrangement of “Ecco l’alma mia bella,”
and similar passacaglia patterns are common throughout the integrated alfabeto song
repertory. The practical nature of Stefani’s alfabeto is best observed in those pieces
with potentially unwieldy continuo lines. In “Poiche la crud’è fera,” for instance,
Stefani does not seem to have altered the continuo line at all, instead relying on
28
Variant text: “Ecco Clori mia bella.”
This text is given as an alternate lyric for “Torna, torna ostinato core”; the alfabeto
concordances are determined by reference to the music for “Torna, torna.”
30
In this case the text is not provided with alfabeto overlay; however, an alfabeto
passacaglia matching the tonality of the Stefani setting is given.
31
The text printed under Stefani’s music is “La mia Clori amorosa”; the song is listed
in the index, however, as “La mia Clori vezzosa,” which is also the way it appears in
I-Fn 2793.
29
182
practical alfabeto placement to simplify the continuo line into basic harmonies for the
practical
guitarist (see Fig. 3.15A).
). The result is a dual conception of the piece, in which the
voice and continuo “version” contrasts with the voice and guitar “version.”
“version In “O
leggiadri occhi belli, occhi miei cari” from the Affetti,
leggiadri
Affetti, the continuo engages the voice
in contrapuntal dialogue. If an alfabeto editor were to figure this piece using the
“bass note formula” common to the Roman and Neapolitan editions, giving each
“bass-note
eight note
note in the bass its own chord, the result would be awkward and infelicitous.
A) “Poiche la crud’è fera,” Concerti amorosi (Venice: Vincenti, 1623), excerpt
B) “O leggiadri occhi belli, occhi miei cari,” Affetti amorosi (Venice: Vincenti, 1618),
1618)
excerpt
C) “Se rivolg’ in me serene,” Concerti amorosi,
amorosi, excerpt
Figure 3.15: Chord Patterns in Stefani Showing Alfabeto Independence.
183
Instead, Stefani again relies on simplified harmonic patterns (see Fig. 3.15B and Ex.
22). In “Se rivolg’ in me serene” from the Concerti (Ex. 23) the repeated vi-IV-V-I
patterns in the alfabeto are even more prominent, to the point of showing
independence from the continuo line; see (Figure 3.15C). In this case the strummed
guitar accompaniment suggested by Stefani’s alfabeto relies as much on common
passacaglia-style patterns as it does on the original continuo part.
Stefani’s books also contain explicitly titled examples of the ciaccona and
folia, two forms that, as discussed in Chapter 1, have their origins in the unwritten
strummed guitar dance-song tradition, and the alfabeto patterns used by Stefani
mirror those found in alfabeto manuscript sources. It is striking that these dances
make their first appearance in the printed alfabeto song repertory in the same sources
that use practical alfabeto and show other signs of the assimilation of unwritten guitar
traditions. The “dance-song” style, as described in Chapter 1, relies on small-scale
harmonic patterns performed with strongly accented rhythms, often in triple meter
and containing syncopated rhythms such as hemiolas: the ciaccona and folia are
prime examples of a larger repertory of such pieces.
In Stefani’s Affetti amorosi the text “Laurette mia quando m’accese” is set in
this dance-song style, and syncopated rhythmic patterns are apparent in the
positioning of the alfabeto symbols but not in the continuo notation. As shown in
Figure 3.16, the repeated “H” symbol and the placement of the “M” and “G” symbols
contribute to an emphasis on beat two that is much less evident in the continuo line.
184
Figure 3.16: Alfabeto Independence in “Lauretta mia quando m’accesse,” arr. Stefani,
Excerpt with Transcription.
In this “Lauretta mia” recalls “Se rivolg’ in me serene,” where, as discussed above,
the alfabeto placement suggests a certain independence from the continuo line.
“Laurette mia” also provides a more specific link to the oral tradition: on the facing
page, above the remaining stanzas of text, the singer is told “these words may also be
sung to the melody of the
the Folia.”32 The melody given, obviously, is not a folia;
however, it is assumed that the reader will know how to play the folia and be familiar
with the process of matching texts to abstract chord progressions.
“Bella questa mio core,” also from the Affetti,
Affet , is a fully notated ciaccona, and
is titled as such. “Alma mia dove ten vai” from the Scherzi is labeled “Aria della
Folia,” and as if to highlight the connection to the Spanish dance-song
dance song tradition is
32
“Queste parole si possono Cantar sopra l’Aria della Folia.”
185
given an alternate text in Spanish. The continuo line in “Alma mia dove ten vai”
follows the standard folia progression (see Ex. 24). This progression, or variants
thereof, can be found in almost every alfabeto solo dance compilation. Richard
Hudson has sketched out this harmonic framework, which he refers
refers to as the “earlier
folia” to distinguish it from the later seventeenthseventeenth-century
century folia (see Fig. 3.17). “Alma
mia dove ten vai” deviates slightly from this framework: the tonic chord in measure 3
is delayed until the third beat and appears in major; a similar figure occurs in measure
11. The final cadence is set with the “L C A” passacaglia pattern (Cmadd2-D major-G
G
major), with the “L” chord on the third beat of the antepenultimate measure. The
same modifications to the folia framework can be found in
i I--Fn
Fn Ricc. 2793, one of
the manuscripts with musical concordances to Stefani’s books (see Fig. 3.18). In this
manuscript “simple folias” (folias
(
[sic] semplice)) are given in a few tonalities,
followed by a folia sminuita (that is, a folia pattern embellished
embellished with extra chords) on
“O” (G minor) the same tonality as the Stefani song. This folia sminuita includes
among other embellishments the specific alterations to the framework seen in “Alma
mia”: the tonic returns in major mode on an offbeat after the first and second
dominant chord (mm. 2 and 10 in Fig. 3.18B),
3.18 ), and the final cadence is prepared by
the “L” chord (m.14). As with “Ecco l’alma mia bella,” in “Alma mia” the continuo
seems to be based on the alfabeto, rather than the other way around.
Figure 3.17: Folia Outline. Source: Richard Hudson, Folia,, xviii.
Figure
186
A)
B))
Figure 3.18: Rasgueado Folia Pattern in Stefani’s “Alma mia”. A,, “Folia sminuita”
from I-Fn
I
Ricc
icc. 2793 with suggested transcription. B, Harmonic framework
framework of
“Alma mia dove t’en vai” from Giovanni Stefani, Scherzi amorosi (Venice: Vincenti,
1620)
1620).
The idiosyncratic fingering for the “L” chord found in Corradi and Falconieri
is also used in Stefani’s anthologies, and like Corradi and Marini, Stefani creates
creates his
187
own symbol for use when a simple C minor triad is needed: “The letter K has been set
in many places in these Canzoni with the following sign above it [a.5.] and is played
at the fifth fret for better consonance, in place of the letter L, and in a similar manner
to the letter G [a.5.].”33 The consonant C minor shape, in this case, is formed by
fingering a “K” chord three frets higher; that is, so the third and fourth fingers are on
fret five, thus “at the fifth fret” (see fig. 3.19). Since a move up the neck by two frets
equals a whole step, the B-flat triad created by the regular “K” fingering becomes a C
minor triad. Coincidentally or not, this is the same fingering specified in
Kapsperger’s Libro secondo for the “L” chord (Kapsperger’s chart, in keeping with
Roman usage, does not include the dissonant form at all). It should be noted that
Stefani’s notation of “a.5.” is at odds with other alfabeto sources, which tend to use a
numeral to designate the position of the first finger, which in this case is on the third
fret, not the fifth.
Certain of the pieces in Stefani’s anthologies are notated in a manner that
suggests a semi-improvised style. In some cases, especially those with the most
concrete connections to the strummed guitar tradition, Stefani’s notation might best
be interpreted as one instantiation of a piece that would vary from performance to
33
“S’ave fisce, che la lettera K posta in molti luoghi delle Canzoni con il presente
segno sopra K [a.5.] si fa a cinque tasti per miglior consonanza, in luoghi della lettera
L usata per il piu in tali luoghi, & simile della lettera G [a.5.],” Giovanni Stefani,
Affetti amorosi (Alessandro Vincenti, 1618), 1. In this passage the “a.5.” notation
appears above the alfabeto symbols “K” and “G”.
188
Figure 3.19: “K” (B-flat
(B flat Minor, Barred at the First Fret) and “K a.5.” (C Minor,
Barred at the Fifth Fret).
performance. In others, the notation
notation itself implies a performance that takes liberties
with tempo and ornamentation. The most obvious examples of the latter are pieces
with sustained harmonies in the bass and recitational melodic formulas, which
suggest a freely declaimed performance in the style of Roman and Florentine
monody; John Walter Hill has stressed the role of the five-course
five course guitar tradition in
this style, which he terms the stile recitativo.
recitativo 34 Hill’s case, which was discussed in
more detail in Chapter 2,, is built on manuscript
manuscript concordances between Roman
monody and alfabeto manuscripts, as well as an apparent resemblance between
Roman monody as notated and strummed guitar as performed.
performed. Hill cites “Amor e il
mio tormento e la mia pena” from Stefani’s Affetti amorosi as an example
example of a piece
written in a recitational style.35
But there are other pieces in the Affetti that combine these stile recitativo
characteristics with a more direct connection to the five-course
five course guitar: these are the
ottave siciliane,
siciliane, a genre of dialect song that appears exclusively in alfabeto guitar
34
Hill, Roman monody,
monody 67;
67; Hill, “L’Accompagnamento rasgueado di chitarra: Un
possibile modello per il basso continuo dello stile recitativo?” in Rime e Suoni alla
Spagnola, edited by Giulia Veneziano (Florence: Alinea Editrice, 2003).
Spagnola,
35
Hill, “L’Accompagnamento rasgueado,”
rasgueado 45-46.
46.
189
sources.36 Ottava siciliana performance with guitar accompaniment seems to have
been cultivated as an improvisatory genre for guitar and solo voice as a conscious
imitation of “authentic” folk music, both in Rome and northern Italy.37 Three pieces
in Stefani’s Affetti musicali are labeled “arie siciliane”: “Non ardu chiu non ardu,” “Si
ben mustru di fora tutto yelu,” and “Ingrata disleali.” Similarities among these three
are consistent with what might be expected from written-out examples of an
improvisational formula. The basso continuo lines for “Si ben mustru” (Ex. 25) and
“Ingrata disleali,” although notated at different pitch levels, are almost identical.
“Non ardu” is shorter; while the other two siciliane repeat the entire fourth line, “Non
ardu” repeats only the last half of the line. In addition, the interior cadences in “Non
ardu,” although similar in outline to the other two pieces, follow a different tonal
scheme.
The continuo lines in these three siciliane share a notational peculiarity
involving rhythmic discrepancy between the voice and the continuo at cadences: the
precadential notes in the continuo are too long for the vocal line, so that the continuo
cadence happens after the vocal cadence. At some of these points the printer has even
taken pains to “overlap” the parts by tying continuo notes across the barline. Oscar
Chilesotti, in his transcription of this volume, assumed that the continuo lines were in
error, correcting the continuo so that the resolution of the cadence coincides with the
36
Ottavio Tiby, “Il problema della ‘Siciliana’ dal Trecento al Settecento,” Bollettino
del Centro di studi filologici e linguistici siciliani 2 (1954): 245-70.
37
Gavito, “Alfabeto Song in Print,” 164-67.
190
voice.38 Chilesotti’s assumption is supported by the alfabeto, which follows the
voice, rather than the continuo, therefore “correcting” the faulty durations in the
continuo (see Fig. 3.20). Like other pieces from the integrated alfabeto repertory, the
alfabeto in these pieces displays a certain independence from the notated continuo. In
the case of the siciliane, earlier notated versions are restricted to alfabeto symbols and
text, suggesting that in Stefani’s arrangement the alfabeto was the primary version,
and the continuo lines were (perhaps carelessly) constructed for this print.
The fact that in two of the three siciliane the alfabeto is transposed upwards
by a fifth is also worthy of mention, although its ultimate significance is elusive.
Chilesotti assumed that a guitar with a capo at the fifth fret was intended.39 No
explicit evidence of capo use on the five-course guitar exists, and it would be
awkward to place one on the fifth fret of an instrument whose neck only encompasses
ten frets. The vocal range in “Non ardu” is somewhat low (a-a'), so the transposing
alfabeto may be a way of bringing the piece up to a more comfortable range.40
“Ingrata disleali,” however, which also contains transposed alfabeto, has a vocal
range (f#'-b') consistent with the rest of the pieces in the book, and would not
therefore seem to be a candidate for transposition. And if the vocal range was the
38
Stefani, Affetti amorosi, Oscar Chilesotti, ed. (Milan: Ricordi, 1886), 53.
Stefani, Affetti amorosi, Chilesotti, ed., 53. The alfabeto as printed in “Non ardu”
and “Ingrata disleali” sounds a fifth higher. A guitar with a capo at the fifth fret
would sound a fourth higher, so that the chord shapes would be brought back to the
pitch level of the printed music.
40
Doizi de Velasco, in his 1640 guitar treatise, refers to a Spanish convention of
notating vocal music a fifth below sounding pitch (Nuevo modo de cifra para tañer la
guitarra (Naples: 1640), 21; quoted in Alejandro Vera, Música vocal profana en el
Madrid de Felipe IV: el Libro de Tonos Humanos (1656) (Llieda: Institut D’Estudis
Ilerdencs, 2002), 160.
39
191
“Non ardu chiu non ardu co m’ardia”
“Si ben mustru di fora tutto
tutto yelu”
Figure 3.20:
3.20 Ottave siciliane Settings from Stefani’s Affetti amorosi (Venice:
Vincenti, 1618), Excerpts (cont. on next page).
192
“Ingrata disleali”
Figure 3.20: Ottave siciliane Settings from Stefani’s Affetti amorosi , cont..
reason for transposed alfabeto, a question arises: why not simply print the notated
reason
lines at the more comfortable pitch? An intriguing second possibility is the use, when
performing siciliane,
siciliane, of a smaller guitar-like
guitar like instrument that sounds a fourth higher.41
The tuning for the four-course
four course guitar given by Bermudo, for instance, mirrors the
intervals of the five-course
five course guitar a fourth higher; in other words, Stefani’s alfabeto
would fit perfectly if played on the smaller instrument.42 An eighteenth-century
eighteenth century
reprint of Juan Amat’s Guitarra española includes a section on the Spanish
reprint
instrument known as the vandola, and mentions that if the first string is ignored the
41
A similar suggestion has been made regarding Juan Aranies’s Libro segundo de
tonos y villancicos (Rome: Robletti, 1624): see Luis Robledo, Juan Blas de Castro
(ca. 1561-1631):
1561 1631): Vida y obras musical (Saragossa: Intituciòn Fernando el Católico,
Sección de Música Antigua, Diputación Provincial, 1989), 91.
42
Bermudo’s tuning chart is reproduced
reproduced as Figure 1.4 above, p. 18.
193
five-course chord symbols may be used and will sound a fourth higher.43 While there
is no reason to suppose that the eighteenth-century vandola has anything to do with
sixteenth-century Sicily, the anonymous addition to Amat’s treatise is evidence that
chord symbols were sometimes adapted to other strummed instruments by means of
transposition. Further evidence may well be available in manuscript sources of the
ottave siciliane repertory.44
One of Stefani’s songs suggests a connection to the commedia dell’arte, an art
form consisting partly of musical improvisation by solo singers, sometimes
accompanying themselves on guitar. In his Affetti amorosi Stefani includes an
arrangement of “Altro non è’il mio cor.” This text has been mentioned above in
relation to the strummed dance-song tradition, where it sometimes appears as the title
of alfabeto solo dances. “Altro non è’il mio cor” is also referred to in Remigio
Romano’s Seconda raccolta di canzonette musicali (Vicenza: Salvador [1618]),
which contains the song “Fermeve su, o subiante” written in the voice of the
commedia dell’arte actor Scapino (see Table 3.3).
Table 3.3
“Fermeve sù,” Seconda raccolta di canzonette musicali, Text and Translation
Fermeve sù, ò subianti,
7 a Stop, O whistlers!
Acquieteve, ò ignoranti,
7a
Give up, O ignoramuses,
Ande à subiar à Lio
7b
Go to whistle at the shore,
Stamegne maledette,
7c
Evil little goat-skins!
Bulli da tre gazzette,
7c
Two-bit hustlers,
Treve in rio.
[5] d
Throw yourselves into the river.
43
Juan Carles Amat, Guitarra espanola complete facsimile edition edited by Monica
Hall (Monaco: Chantarelle, 1980), 55-56.
44
For a bibliography of 17th century sicilana sources, see Dario Lo Cicero, “Nuove
fonti per la siciliana seicentesca,” in Ceciliana per Nino Pirrotta, edited by Maria
Antonella Balsano and Giuseppe Colisani (Palermo: Flaccovia, 1994), 111-24.
194
Sei tali, che ne sprezia,
7e
I no sà che a Venezia
7e
Scapin se tien à mente,
7t f
Chi è bravo, e chi e poltron, 7t g
Chi è ricco, e chi è guidon,
7g
E chi è insolente.
5f
O quanti tien subià,
[etc.]
Che da tena i non hà;
E se i tir a` l sò conto
I hà’ l mantel d’ Istà,
E’l zipon ripezzà
Con el cul’onto.
Chi è nassù nobilmente
No può esser’ insolente;
Ma che ze vagabondo
De manco no puol far
De no se far nasar
Da tutto el Mondo.
Però concludo, e digo,
Che i varda che nemigo
Scapin no so dichiara;
Perche’l canterà el nome,
El vestir, e’l cognome,
In la Chitara.
You are those, who despise us
who don’t know that in Venice
Scapino remembers
who is strong, and who is lazy,
who is rich, and who is wicked,
and who is insolent.
O how many are whistling,
who should not be;
And if they know their business
they have their summer coats
patched [?]
with the greasy backside.
He who is noble born,
May not be insolent;
But the vagabond
Cannot help but be
Or be made fun of
By all the world.
But I conclude, and say,
Take care not to proclaim
yourself Scapino’s enemy;
for he will sing your name,
your clothing, and your surname.
with the guitar.
Romano refers the reader to “Altro non è il mio Amore” for the melody (there
is no musical notation given). Although these texts are very different in subject
matter their poetic structure is similar (see Table 3.4). “Altro non è il mio cor’” can
also be found as an alfabeto-text in I-Fn Ricc. 3145. Scapino the character was the
creation of actor Francesco Gabrielli, who was known for his collection of unusual
instruments (including the guitar). His Infermità, testimento, e morte (Verona: 1638)
contains the famous “aria di Scapino” as an alfabeto-text alongside an alfabeto solo
ciaccona.45 Romano’s anthologies have other references to Scapino: “Contend’ in sto
45
Anne MacNeil, Music and Women of the Commedia dell’Arte in the Late Sixteenth
Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 24-30.
195
mio pett’” from the Primo raccolta is titled “Scapinata,” and “Ve prego cara sia”
from the Terza raccolta is titled “Amante spagnuolo barcelletta di Scapino comico
celebro.” The “aria venetiana che cantiva scappino” alfabeto solo dance from I-Fn
Ricc. 2793 has been mentioned already; an additional alfabeto solo connection can be
found in Giovanni Ambrosio Colonna’s Intavolatura di chitarra alla spagnuola
(Milan: 1620) which contains a dance titled: “Aria alla Piemontesa Cantata dal
Virtuoso Signor Francesco Gabrielli detto Scapino.”46
Table 3.4
Versification for “Fermeve su” and “Altro non è il mio Amore”
“Fermeve sù,” (Romano
“Altro non è il mio Amore”
Seconda raccolta)
(Romano Prima raccolta)
Fermeve sù, ò subianti,
7 a Altro non è’l mio Amore,
Acquieteve, ò ignoranti,
7 a Che desir, e dolore,
Ande à subiar à Lio
7 b Ciascun piange al mio pianto,
Stamegne maledette,
7 c Ma chi languir mi fà,
Bulli da tre gazzette,
7 c Sorda com’Aspe stà
Treve in rio.
[5]d S’io piango è canto.
“Altro non e’il mio cor”
(Stefani Affetti)
Altro non è il mio cor
7t a
Che desir e dolor
7t a
Ciascù pianga il mio canto 7 b
Che chi languir mi fa
7t c
Sorda com’aspe sta
7t c
S’io piango o canto.
5 d
7 a
7 a
7 b
7t c
7t c
5 d
All the above instances point to an understanding of the oral strummed guitar
repertory on the part of Stefani and his editors. The ciaccona and folia, both of which
have their origins in the oral tradition, are prominently included in his settings. In the
case of “Altro non è’il mio cor,” Stefani has provided a musical setting of a piece
46
Gary Boye, “The Baroque Guitar: Printed Music from 1606-1737,”
http://www.library.appstate.edu/music/guitar/home.html.
196
that had previously only been mentioned in the context of a performance from
memory and/or improvisation, at least according to surviving sources; this is also the
case with his ottava siciliane settings. In the case of those songs for which a previous
setting exists, Stefani seems to have relied on the unwritten guitar tradition in making
his arrangements. In songs like “Ecco l’alma mia bella” the very basso continuo lines
themselves may have been created by reference to the strummed guitar version. In
songs like “O leggiadri occhi belli, occhi miei cari,” as described above, Stefani used
a pre-existing continuo line but applied the alfabeto in a manner that suggests
familiarity with the alfabeto solo dance repertory.
It is with this evidence in mind that the stylistic features of Stefani’s
arrangements can be related to the dance-song repertory as well as to the
contemporary repertory of Venetian solo song. The two most obvious of these
characteristics are a modular compositional style based on small-scale melodic,
harmonic, and rhythmic periods, and a proclivity for metrical ambiguity, especially
the suggestion of duple subdivisions within a notated triple meter.
Stefani’s songs often include hemiolas or other metrical rearrangements at
cadences, a trait common to guitar dances such as the sarabanda and folia. Emphases
on offbeats in triple time are prominent in the alfabeto repertory in general; the
tension between performed and notated meter is seen in the ciaccona pattern, which
emphasizes beat two, and in many alfabeto solo passacaglias, as well as dances such
as the canario and nizzarda. In many cases Stefani’s text accents, which are
reinforced by the physical placement of the alfabeto symbols on the page, create
197
metrical patterns with a certain independence from the notated continuo line. The
connection between the printed text and the printed alfabeto as a means for conveying
meter would be familiar to anyone used to singing from alfabeto-text manuscripts,
where text and alfabeto are the only means of notating meter. “Amor diletto,” from
the Scherzi, is rife with this kind of rhythmic play (see Ex. 26): the text accents are
allowed to create a consistent duple meter against the notated triple, an effect similar
to Falconieri’s treatment of “Rimirate.” This metrical displacement is especially
apparent in the first two lines, the second of which is a sequence of the first:
(notated meter):
(implied meter):
3 | 1 2 3 |1 2 3 |1 2 3 |1 2
2 | 1 2 |1 2 |1 2 |1 2 |1 2 [3]
Ă- |mòr dĭ- lèt- |tŏ Giò- |ià dĕl pèt-| tŏ47
The B section starts off in triple meter (“Ecco ti il core / Prendi lo amore,”
mm. 9-11), but the cadence on “amore” (m. 11) brings the duple meter accent pattern
back into play, only to be resolved at the end of the stanza. In another similarity to
“Rimirate,” “Amor diletto” allows certain of the repeated line lengths (in this case
quinario) to fall in sync with the notated rhythm, as if to show how simply it could be
done—the last two lines (“Fanne che voi / arder lo poi”) are set twice: their first
iteration (mm. 12-16) repeats the rhythmic pattern from the A section, but their
repetition (mm. 17-20) fits exactly into four measures of triple time.
The “modular” compositional style of Milanuzzi and other Venetian
composers is also very much in evidence in Stefani’s settings. Milanuzzi, who was
one of the most prolific of the integrated alfabeto composers, includes a setting of the
47
The accent on the second syllable of “gioia” is agogic.
198
text “Ahi che morir mi sento” in his Quarto scherzo (Venice: Vincenti, 1624),
credited there to Francesco Monteverdi. Stefani’s 1623 Concerti amorosi contains a
setting of the same text in a similar style. Cory Gavito has pointed out that the third
line is nearly identical in both settings (see Fig. 3.21).48
It is conceivable, however,
that this musical correspondence could have come about incidentally, given the
prevalence in this repertory of short melodic/harmonic motifs that are associated with
textual accents. The descending three-note motif found in this case on the line “Ti
curi poco del” is a common way of negotiating tonic-dominant harmonic progressions
with anapestic texts in the integrated alfabeto repertory. Gavito finds another,
“hidden correspondence” between Stefani and Falconieri’s settings of “E viver e
morire,” which consists of the same motif. Given the number of concordances
between Stefani’s settings and alfabeto-text sources, some of these motifs may have
been borrowed by Stefani from the alfabeto-text tradition in general rather than from
any specific printed source. While the mechanics of alfabeto-text performance are
unclear, it is easy to imagine a performer using a repertory of short melodic motifs,
each appropriate for certain poetic meters and cadential patterns, to realize a melody
that fits both the versification and the harmonic structure provided by the alfabetotext. The resulting “modular” melodic style would resemble not only Stefani’s
arrangements but also newly composed works of Venetians such as Milanuzzi.
“Giovinetta vezzosa” can serve as a case study for the realization of a melody
according to such a semi-improvised “modular” process. This piece appears in
48
Gavito, “Alfabeto Song in Print,” 140-41.
199
Figure 3.21: “Hidden Correspondences” in Stefani (cont on next page). Above, “Ahi
che morir mi sento,” two versions.
200
Figure 3.21 (cont.) “E viver e morire,” two versions, excerpts. Source: Gavito,
“Alfabeto Song in Print,” 141, 134.
Stefani’s Scherzi amorosi (Venice: Vincenti, 1620) and as an alfabeto-text in
Romano’s Terza raccolta (Vicenza: Salvador, 1620). Romano’s alfabeto conforms to
Stefani’s print exactly (although the placement is somewhat off, as is the case with
many of Romano’s alfabeto-texts). Romano and Stefani may have both had access to
the same lost original; the publication information for the 1620 print of the Scherzi
201
amorosi was not available to me, as I only had access to the 1622 reprint, and cannot
therefore tell which book appeared first that year. In any case Stefani’s musical
setting conforms to what one might expect from an alfabeto-text performance (see
Ex. 27). Each line has its own melodic outline built from motifs that match the
versification, and the entire piece can be analyzed as a written-out example of how a
performer might have realized a canzonetta from an alfabeto-text source using a
repertory of small melodic and rhythmic motifs.
“Giovinetta vezzosa,” Versification
Giovinetta vezzosa
Che d’Amor hai ferito il petto e’l core
Lascia, lascia il tuo Amore.
Mentre non puoi veder l’Amante
Lascia d’Amor le pene tante.
7
11
7
9
9
a
b
b
c
c
In comparing the musical setting of the two settenario lines, we see that both rely on
stepwise eighth-eighth-quarter motifs for setting the anapestic accent patterns and
preparing a cadential descending half note figure (see Fig. 3.22A). In the case of the
third line, the figure has been changed only by inverting the first melodic motif. The
endecasillabo and novenario lines present the performer with more syllables to be
packed in before the final cadential figure. In both cases the first four syllables are
set to ascending conjunct eighth notes, thus dealing with the first half of the line; the
melody then leaps downward to begin another ascending motif which in each case is
tailored to the syllable count, providing arrival on a strong beat for the penultimate
syllable (see Figs. 3.22B and C). The second novenario is a melodic and harmonic
sequence of the first (see Fig 3.22C).
202
A) Settenario Module
B) Endecasillabo Module
B)
[mm. 3-5]
3
C) Novenario Modules
C)
Figure 3.22: “Giovinetta vezzosa,” Arr. Stefani, Scherzi amorosi (Venice: Vincenti,
1620), Modular Structure.
203
In this way one might perform a canzonetta-style text using melodic motifs
based primarily on syllable count. Accomplished rasgueado performers might not
even need alfabeto symbols above the text, instead matching the versification of each
line to a memorized repertory of melodic and harmonic motifs; in fact, many of the
alfabeto-text sources include texts without alfabeto—of the hundreds of texts in
Romano’s anthologies only a handful include alfabeto.
ORALITY AND VENETIAN SOLO SONG: THE WIDER REPERTORY
A unique relationship between unwritten guitar practice and canzonetta
composition is evident throughout the integrated alfabeto repertory in general. The
use of practical alfabeto, the primacy of textual accents in rhythm and form, a
“modular” compositional format relying on short, adaptable motifs, and the
prevalence of lively cross-rhythms in triple meter characterize most of the northern
Italian sources to a greater or lesser degree. The more direct connections to the
alfabeto repertory, such as practical alfabeto, the “L” chord, the use of passacaglia,
folia, and ciaccona patterns in the continuo, also consistently appear in these
collections. In adapting the new textual forms of the seventeenth century, Italian
composers sought new means for creating short, related harmonic and metrical
sequences, and the alfabeto solo repertory provided a fertile source.
The editors, especially Alessandro Vincenti and Bartolomeo Magni, also
appear to have contributed to the accommodation of strummed guitar performers.
This is especially evident in their consistent inclusion of alfabeto chord charts,
usually facing the first page of music. Although these editors obviously relied on
204
previous volumes for models of the charts, there is evidence that the editors were
becoming increasingly familiar with the alfabeto system, as seen in the correction of
typographical errors over time. The first Venetian chart, printed by Giacomo Vincenti
in Flammino Corradi’s Le stravaganze d’amore (1616), followed Montesardo’s 1606
Nuove inventione, including the final, non-alphabetical symbols. The only difference
between the two charts is the use, in Corradi’s book, of the precadential form of the
“L” chord. In 1619 Bartolomeo Magni brought out Andrea Falconieri’s Musiche. .
.Libro sexto, with an additional symbol at the end of the chart (a third-position B-flat
major chord symbolized as “B9”). Although these non-alphabetical symbols were
never used in the songbooks, they were punctiliously reproduced by other editors: the
publisher of Biagio Marini’s 1622 Scherzi, e canzonette (Parma: Anteo Viotti),
following Magni’s chart but apparently lacking the stamps to print the symbols, went
so far as to write out “con,” “ron,” and “bus” in their place (see Fig. 3.12, above).
Bartolomeo Magni’s chart for Milanuzzi’s first book (1622) introduced the “scala per
musica” tablature as part of the alfabeto chart. The harmonic implications of this
development will be discussed in Chapter 5; however, it is pertinent here to observe
that the typographical errors in Magni’s scale (in the tablature for the F major chord
in the “scala per B durus” and the D minor chord in the “scala per B molle”) persisted
in the alfabeto charts of both Magni and Vincenti. Vincenti’s 1627 chart for
Guglielmo Miniscalchi (Arie libro secondo) corrects one of these misprints, and
Vincenti’s chart for Domenico Obizzi’s Madrigali et arie libro primo that same year
corrects both of them.
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I have referred to the concept of “independent alfabeto,” in which the alfabeto
symbols suggest a performance that differs somewhat from the printed continuo line,
both in relation to Falconieri and Stefani’s pieces. Many further examples are
available in the integrated alfabeto repertory. As with Stefani, an independent
alfabeto conception is most apparent in those pieces with an active continuo line,
where too strict attention to the bass notes would complicate the guitar chords.
Although the triple meter, “dance-song” style, with clear harmonic progressions
outlined in the bass, is the most common in the repertory, an active, “walking bass”
appears almost as frequently. It is here that the independence of the alfabeto from the
continuo asserts itself most obviously, to the point of inverting the “guitar villanella”
formula: in the Venetian usage, the alfabeto at times follows the vocal line and
ignores the harmonies suggested by the more complex continuo lines. In such cases
the alfabeto tends to follow the passacaglia pattern that best accommodates the voice.
While these symbols may or may not represent the “wrong” harmony, it seems clear
that reference to passacaglia patterns rather than analysis of notated voices became
the prevailing standard in applying vertical harmonies to the solo voice and continuo
texture.
“Amarillide vezzosa,” for example, appears in Giovanni Ghizzolo’s Frutti
d’Amore (Venice: Vincenti, 1623) (see Ex. 28). This songbook is closely connected
to the other Venetian composers. Many of the texts are concordant with Milanuzzi,
who provided the dedicatory sonnet for the volume; the first piece, “Questa cruda
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m’ancide,” is close enough to Milanuzzi’s setting to suggest a common model.49
“Amarillide vezzosa” is built on a walking bass line that moves in steady quarter
notes and can be analyzed unproblematically in G major. The melodic line is built on
a simple rhythmic formula based upon the recurring short-short-long-short (˘ ˘ ́ ˘)
accent pattern of the text:
Ămăríllĭdĕ vĕzzósă
Ămŏrósă
Lĕggiădréttă tŭ t’ăscóndĭ
Sŏl tră fróndĭ
Ĕ cŏn céntrŏ_e mĭllĕ nódĭ
Tŭ cĭ léghĭ tŭ cĭ_annódĭ.
8a
4a
8b
4b
8c
8c
The alfabeto harmonies are restricted to basic harmonic progressions, simpler
than those of the walking bass line. In the B section, the alfabeto consists entirely of
chords from the basic passacaglia on “A,” which consists of the chords “A,” “B,” and
“C” (thus, G major, C major, and D major) (see Fig. 3.23). The “C” chord (D major)
on the downbeat of measure 6 is significant: the alfabeto here follows the passacaglia
pattern even though the bass note B suggests a B minor harmony. The bass-note
formula of the Roman usage has been superseded by a connection between the voice
and the alfabeto that relies more on guitaristic idioms than a realization of the
continuo line.
Ghizzolo was a composer, not an arranger, and I do not suggest that
“Amarillide” is a printed version of an alfabeto-text song in the manner of Stefani’s
arrangements. What I am suggesting is that Ghizzolo adopted as the basis for his
49
Leopold, Modo d’Orfeo, 206-8; Leopold includes transcriptions of both settings
(minus the alfabeto) as example XXIV in vol. 2, 46-47.
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fugge mi strugge,” like Stefani’s “O leggiadri occhi belli, occhi miei cari,” is written
in a duet texture in which the continuo engages in contrapuntal interplay with the
voice (see Ex. 29). The continuo entry in the first measure imitates the vocal line at
the fifth below, and explicit imitation returns at measure 22. Miniscalchi, or whoever
was responsible for adding the alfabeto, made no attempt to accommodate this
continuo line. Instead the alfabeto provides a steady strumming pattern, one chord
per beat (the breve, or dotted whole note), with an upbeat strum where a harmonic
change is made explicit in the vocal line. At some points the alfabeto diverges
completely from the harmony suggested by the continuo, as in the Ghizzolo piece. In
the first measure, for instance, the alfabeto A major ignores the G in the continuo. As
in the guitar villanella repertory, this “clash” results from the imposition of vertically
conceived harmonies onto horizontally conceived melodic lines. But unlike the
standard “guitar villanella” alfabeto procedure, the vertical conception (i.e., the
alfabeto) is independent from the bass line and incorporates a consistent rhythm into
the harmonic plan governing the alfabeto. In the opening measure the vocal part
obviously outlines an A major triad, and, in keeping with a practical harmonic
rhythm, one chord is assigned. In the B section the standard passacaglia pattern on A
minor, “D E F I” (A minor-D minor-E major-A major) takes precedence over the
continuo line, which creates a contrapuntal cadence—the two voices approach the
consonant D-A fifth by stepwise motion—but not a harmonic one: there is no leading
tone, as both voices approach the fifth by whole step (see Fig. 3.24, end of the third
staff, and Ex. 29, mm. 19-21). The alfabeto conception in this case is the more
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In Orazio Tarditi’s Amorosa schiera (Venice: Vincenti, 1628) alfabeto
independence is quite marked: in at least three pieces the alfabeto ignores the
continuo in favor of passacaglia progressions. “Un sol bacio per pietà” (Ex. 30)
contains the omnipresent “A B C A” passacaglia (I-IV-V-I in G major) in measures 56, ignoring a C# in the continuo (m. 5 b. 3). “Languendo mi stò” ignores a deceptive
cadence in the continuo on the phrase “Schernisce mia fè,” (see Ex. 31, mm. 15-16),
and “E pur convien’” (Ex. 32) sets a walking bass line to passacaglia sequences, not
for the sake of slowing the harmonic rhythm, but often with a one-to-one
correspondence to continuo notes, only with different harmonies. In fact, at “E per
dolor” (m. 12), a dotted half-note in the continuo is given three alfabeto symbols,
which follow the vocal line with their roots a third below the vocal notes.
Much of the integrated alfabeto repertory, however, is written in a style that
accommodates strummed guitar so smoothly that little editorial attention is needed to
create practical alfabeto. The “dance-song” style, which consists of clear harmonic
and rhythmic periods in triple time, has already been described in regards to
Falconieri, Corradi, Stefani, and Milanuzzi’s works. Further examples can be found
in Domenico Obizzi’s Madrigale at aria a voce sola (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti,
1627), which mixes dance-song style arias with through-composed madrigals. Only
the strophic arias are given alfabeto, and in these the alfabeto displays the
characteristics common to the integrated repertory. The practical nature of the
alfabeto is evident in the use of transposed alfabeto symbols: nine of the pieces are
given alfabeto transposed up by a whole step; in each case, transposition allows the
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guitarist to avoid the “H” and or “M” chords, which require an uncomfortable firstfret bar. While these chord shapes are by no means unusual or unplayable, the
transposition creates in each case a chord more appropriate for the amateur or
beginning player. Obizzi’s compositional style also evokes the dance-song repertory:
he uses a consistent dance-song rhythmic gesture involving hemiolas in the vocal part
against accents on the second beat in the continuo. The alfabeto is carefully placed to
match the continuo rhythm, thereby emphasizing the cross-relation between the
compound duple continuo and the simple triple vocal part. “Hor che vicin mi sento”
(Ex. 33) is one of many such examples in Obizzi’s book; the alfabeto placement is
especially obvious here in that the second chord appears before the next note of the
voice (see boxed areas in Fig. 3.25).
Obizzi’s use of ciaccona and passacaglia bass lines underscores the
connection to oral traditions in his aria settings. “O sospiro amoroso” is discussed by
Silke Leopold and appears (without alfabeto) in her volume of transcriptions.
Leopold recognizes the B section as a ciaccona, and describes the structural unit of
the A section as a “cadential formula.”50 I would describe it simply as an alfabeto
passacaglia; the hemiola pattern that Obizzi uses here is common to the alfabeto solo
passacaglia repertory.51 Obizzi’s passacaglias center on three common alfabeto
symbols: “B” (“B G A B”), “A” (“A B C A”), and “D” (“D E F D”) (see Fig.
50
Leopold, Modo d’Orfeo, 262, transcribed in vol. 2, 88.
Richard Hudson, The Folia, the Sarabande, the Passacaglia, and the Chaconne:
The Historical Evolution of Four Forms That Originated in Music for the Five-course
Spanish Guitar, vol. 3, Passacaglia (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: American Institute of
Musicology, Hanssler-Verlag, 1982), xv-xvi.
51
212
Figure 3.25: Domenico Obizzi, “Hor che vicin mi sento,” Facsimile with Boxed
Alfabeto.
3.26A).52 Anyone who had played through the first four passacaglia sequences from
any of the numerous alfabeto solo sources would be familiar with these; for example,
52
The “C” (D major) chord used in the pattern over “petto,” second stave, contradicts
both the passacaglia pattern and the notated vocal line. This may represent a
reversion to the bass-note formula on the part of the editor, or may be a simple
misprint.
213
A)
B)
Figure 3.26: Rasgueado Patterns in Domenico Obizzi, “O sospiroso amoroso,”
Madrigale at aria a voce sola (Venice: Vincenti, 1627) (cont. on next page). A,
Obizzi A section, facsimile. B, Rasgueado passacaglias from Giovanni Ambrogio
Colonna, Intavolatura di chitarra spagnuola (Milan: Dionisio Gariboldi, 1637),
facsimile in Biblioteca Musica Bononiensis (Bologna: Forni) v. 182.
214
C)
D)
Figure 3.26: Rasgueado patterns in Domenico Obizzi, “O sospiroso amoroso,”cont.
C, Obizzi B section, facsimile. D, rasgueado ciacconas from I-Fn Ricc. 2793, f. 13v
and 11v.
the passacaglias from Colonna’s 1637 alfabeto solo book in Figure 3.26B contain
identical patterns. The B section of “O sospiroso” is equally user-friendly, consisting
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ciaccona patterns on “B” (“B A D G A”) and “A” (“A C + B C”); see Figure 3.26C.
These patterns are common to the alfabeto solo repertory, as seen by two examples
from a contemporary alfabeto manuscript (Fig. 3.26D). The fourth alfabeto symbol
of each ciaccona sequence in Pesenti’s setting has been carefully placed in order to
follow the rhythmic pattern; see, in Figure 3.26C, the “DG” on “(Zefi-)retto,” the
“+B” on “lieve,” and the “DG” on “(taci-)turno.”
Ciaccona and passacaglia patterns persist in the alfabeto song repertory into
the 1630s. They are prominent, for instance, in Martino Pesenti’s songbooks from
1633 and 1636. In “S’io non raggiro il piede,” Example 34, from his Arie a voce sola
libro secondo (Venice: Alessandro Vincenti, 1633), a recitational A section in
common time (mm. 1-9) is followed by a ciaccona B section (mm. 10-38) and a C
section in cut time with an active bass (mm. 39-44). The ciaccona pattern serves both
as an ostinato and a ritornello in the B section; the four-measure pattern occurs four
times in G major and four times in C major. The alfabeto editor adheres to the
standard I-V-vi-IV-V pattern and uses repeated alfabeto symbols to reinforce the
rhythmic pattern. Pesenti is also notable for incorporating the “passacaglia” in the
later sense of the word; that is, as a descending tetrachord ostinato bass. “O dio che
veggio,” from the 1633 print, is titled “Cantata sopra il passacaglio.” It is a “cantata”
in the sense that is through-composed and divided into contrasting sections. In this
case, recurring triple meter passacaglia sections link declamatory, duple-time
sections. The alfabeto pattern “C I F I” (D major-A major-E major-A major) which
harmonizes the descending tetrachord does not appear in passacaglias from the
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alfabeto solo repertory, and must be considered a harmonization of the bass line. In
fact, the editor has altered the third chord of the sequence when necessary to fit the
melody (see Fig. 3.27).53 A smaller-scale use of the descending tetrachord
passacaglia also appears in Pesenti’s “Filli non t’amo piu,” a piece printed by
Alessandro Vincenti in the anthology Arie de diversi autori (Venice: 1634), where the
passacaglia again functions as a refrain (see Ex. 35).
The oral tradition of song and dance accompanied by strummed guitar cannot
account for every aspect of Venetian chamber song in the mid-seventeenth century,
but it does supply one facet of this rich and varied repertory. The simplicity of the
musical parameters in these canzonettas belies their stylistic complexity, which
reflects an interaction between “high” and “low” involving culture, printing
techniques, and music theory. Composers like Berti, Milanuzzi, and Marini were
trained and skilled in the contrapuntal style necessary for sacred music, and made
their living in part by the systems of patronage that had been in place for centuries.
But the bourgeoning market for printed canzonettas provided a slightly different
avenue for musical creativity, one in which a certain artful imitation of “low” styles
was a necessary part. Driven in part by the changing economic and cultural
landscape, these composers combined the rhythmic, chordal style of the alfabeto
dance-song with the lyrical, contrapuntal Italian song tradition, creating a rich mix
53
See also Leopold, Modo d’Orfeo, 282-86 and example LVII in vol. 2, 123-28.
217
Figure 3.27: Martino Pesenti, “O Dio che veggio,” Arie a voce sola libro secondo
(Venice: Vincenti, 1633), Excerpt with Transcription.
that would sustain further developments in harmony and form. In this way the
guitarists’ pliable approach to musical seduction became part of the monumental
edifices of the common practice period repertory.