Livio Marcaletti | University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (original) (raw)

Articles by Livio Marcaletti

The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts, 2021

Livio Marcaletti investigates the notion of "ornamentation", as a way to modulate expressiveness,... more Livio Marcaletti investigates the notion of "ornamentation", as a way to modulate expressiveness, within the tradition of historical musical improvisation. Their practical and conceptual distinction is in fact the historical result of the evolution of musical notation and the contemporary approach to the musical score. Through a careful analysis of musical treatises of the last four centuries, Marcaletti shows that the conceptual opposition between the "essential" musical text and the "accessorial" improvisational ornament is not self-evident, but should be considered historically contingent. (See Introduction, Alessandro Bertinetto and Marcello Ruta, p. 11)

De Musica Disserenda , 2020

According to Johann Mattheson, operatic genres in eighteenth-century Hamburg included besides tra... more According to Johann Mattheson, operatic genres in eighteenth-century Hamburg included besides tragedy and comedy also satire ("Strafspiel"). The present article shows how Georg Philipp Telemann transformed the Italian pastoral opera I satiri in Arcadia (Vienna 1714) into a "Strafspiel", Damon (Hamburg 1724), a satire of the contemporary unfaithful lover.

Musicologica Brunensia 53-2018/supplementum, 2018

In the 1710s and 1720s, librettist Pietro Pariati and composer Francesco Bartolomeo Conti cultiva... more In the 1710s and 1720s, librettist Pietro Pariati and composer Francesco Bartolomeo Conti cultivated the highly specific genre of tragicommedia per musica at the Habsburg court in Vienna. Of particular interest is their tragicomedy Penelope (1724), which depicts Ulysses as a ridiculous hero guided by his furious jealousy through a comedy of errors where mistaken identity and buffo servants play a relevant role. Far from being new, this tragicomic interpretation of Ul-ysses's return to Ithaca belonged to a long-running tradition: Nicolò Minato's Penelope (Vienna 1670) inspired Matteo Noris's Penelope la casta (Venice 1685), on which Pariati in turn based his spoken tragicomedy La casta Penelope (Milan 1707) and the 1724 Viennese tragicommedia per musica. The present paper focuses on the dramaturgical evolution of this plot and shows a case study of bidirectional librettistic influence along the Vienna-Venice axis.

My current research on Italian tragicommedia per musica and other genera mixta between late 17th ... more My current research on Italian tragicommedia per musica and other genera mixta between late 17th and early 18th century brought me to focus on the frequent presence of philosophers in their dramatis personae, above all in Viennese operas between the 1670s and the 1730s. Democritus, Aesop, Crates of Thebes, Aristippus of Cyrene are depicted as ridiculed and ridiculing figures at once: they can be disenchanted observers of the world, cunning servants, incoherent lovers or embarrassing troublemakers. Why are philosophers oft protagonist or important characters in tragicomic plots? How are they characterised by the librettist and by the music of the composer?

Dans le cadre de la Réforme luthérienne en Allemagne, l’enseignement de la musique et notamment d... more Dans le cadre de la Réforme luthérienne en Allemagne, l’enseignement de la musique et notamment du chant fut encouragé non seulement en relation à ses aspects théoriques, mais aussi à ceux plus pratiques, finalisés au chant liturgique. Surtout les centres musicaux, luthériens aussi que catholiques, où le chant figuré était cultivé davantage avaient nécessité d’un intense enseignement pratique pour les Sängerknaben qui chantaient à l’église. Dès la publication du Syntagma Musicum de Michael Praetorius (1619), la nouvelle « manière italienne du chant » fut importée dans les terres germanophones et adaptée au répertoire liturgique enseigné aux élèves des Lateinschulen par le biais des traités vocaux. Les différents ornements, nommés Manieren (parmi lesquels on trouve les accents, les trilli, les tremoli, les groppi, les anticipazioni della sillaba et della nota etc.) et utilisés afin de mouvoir les affects dans l’âme des auditeurs, changent sensiblement la ligne vocale écrite sur papier. En conséquence, ils ne manquèrent pas des voix critiques, selon lesquelles les élèves auraient pu intervenir trop radicalement, en dénaturant ainsi la mélodie originale. Pourtant les Manieren ne consistent pas de véritables broderies, mais de petites notes qui arrondissent une mélodie trop ‘anguleuse’ par des notes de passage, ou aident l’intonation de la première note par l’intonatio, ou encore déplacent les changements de syllabe pour un bon legato. Les nuances exécutives suggérées par ces traités montrent d’ailleurs plusieurs similarités avec La belle méthode de Jean Millet (1666), en jetant ainsi un pont entre traditions exécutives allemandes et françaises, voire en termes d‘approches pédagogiques. L’apprentissage fondé sur l’association de chaque intervalle musical (memoria en termes rhétoriques) avec une ou plusieurs réalisations possibles (pronunciatio), ou sur la lecture de sigles superposées aux notes du pentagramme, permettaient aux élèves d’acquérir la capacité d’abstraction et d’improvisation nécessaire à la pratique exécutive vocale du 17ème siècle.

Musikproduktion Jürgen Höflich (www.musikmph.de)

The cercar della nota consists in the intonation of a melodic phrase by means of portamenti or pa... more The cercar della nota consists in the intonation of a melodic phrase by means of portamenti or passing notes. Most musicologists consider it a vocal practice limited to the 17th century, and in particular to composers of the seconda
prattica (G. B. Bovicelli 1594 and G. Caccini 1602) but also to German composers that introduced elements of the Italian style in their country (among them, M. Praetorius 1619, C. Bernhard 1650 ca. and W. Mylius 1685). On the contrary, there are written document that confirm that this grace – born in Italy and then
spread out in Europe – was practiced well until the first decades of the 20th century, although with some different names and characteristics. Intervals, position within the musical phrase, use of ‘carrying’ of the tone, can change from period to period. In the majority of cases, the mentioned written sources are singing
primers. Among these, the most relevant ones are German, but we also find some Spanish (Remacha 1799), French (García 1847) and English (Corri 1779) ones. In the 17th century, the cercar della nota was not only permitted but even required. Since the mid18th century, some authors started to consider it a misused device: it was therefore banned by theorists because of its abuse. Although it was considered nauseating, it had nonetheless never been abandoned from practice the praxis the 20th century. The cercar della nota was sometimes justified more by technical more than aesthetical reasons. Rather than articulating syllables on high
notes, a singer can pronounce them on a lower passing note. This leads to the real one through a portamento. Relying on the evidence of numerous written sources, the author argues that historically informed performances of vocal music of the
past should not exclude the phenomenon of the cercar della nota, a technique that is totally neglected nowadays.

Quaderni di acme, Jan 1, 2009

La cantata da camera intorno agli anni 'italiani' di Händel: problemi e prospettive di ricerca. Atti del convegno organizzato dall'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, l'Università degli studi di Roma2 "Tor Vergata" e la Società Italiana di Musicologia (Roma, 12-14 ottobre 2007), 2009

Conference papers by Livio Marcaletti

Freie Beiträge zur Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung 2019 – 1, 2020

The tendency of today’s historiography to portray early 18th-century Italian opera as a dichotomy... more The tendency of today’s historiography to portray early 18th-century Italian opera as a dichotomy between opera seria and opera buffa takes too little account of the existence of genera mixta. However, contemporary composers and authors sometimes referred to a tripartiton. In his treatise Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739), Johann Mattheson distinguishes between tragedy, comedy and satire. His description of the melodies from a satirical opera is limited to the statement that they are “ridiculous, poseuristic and prickly”. This definition can be applied to the analysis of dramatic vocal works with the help of Gérard Genette’s category of “burlesque travesty” which describes the stylistic degradation of a tragic-heroic subject as a
satirical function. This stylistic mixture is achieved by the use of specific musical devices, which are shown in this article on the basis of case studies on music by Francesco Bartolomeo Conti, Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Händel.

Image and Movement in Music Theatre, Argus Verlag (Bern University of the Arts), 2018

Girolamo Frigimelica Roberti (1653-1732) was one of the most original librettists active at the t... more Girolamo Frigimelica Roberti (1653-1732) was one of the most original librettists active at the turn of the 18th century in Venice. His libretti for the S. Grisostomo Theatre reveal his love for experimentation in his choice of unusual genres based on classical models of tragedy, satirical drama and tragicomedy. His three tragicomedies, La fortuna per dote (1704), Il selvaggio eroe (1707), and Alessandro in Susa (1708), represent three different approaches to this genus mixtum. The first juxtaposes noble and humble characters who interact in a plot that mixes moderate tragedy and moderate comedy. The second, described as a tragicommedia eroico-pastorale, is deeply influenced by Euripides’ Ion and above all Guarini’s Il pastor fido, which inspires Frigimelica Roberti’s comic scenes. The third, in its mockery of an illustrious historical figure, recalls the juxtaposition of tragic and ridiculous scenes in 17th-century antimonarchic Venetian operas. In this paper, I argue that Frigimelica Roberti’s tragicomedies can be considered an attempt to reconcile two different desires: the high literary quality to which many librettists and literati aspired at the turn of the century, and the fulfilment of the requests of the S. Grisostomo Theatre, which hired specialised comic singers and wanted to entertain the audience.

Seit dem 16. Jahrhundert war die Rückkehr des Odysseus in seine Heimat ein beliebtes Sujet für Th... more Seit dem 16. Jahrhundert war die Rückkehr des Odysseus in seine Heimat ein beliebtes Sujet für Theaterstücke und Opern. Das glückliche Ende der Odyssee begünstigte seine Umsetzung als Tragikomödie im italienischen Renaissance-Theater und dann als Tragödie mit glücklichem Ende, die sich besonders gut für Opern des 17. Jahrhunderts eignete: Monteverdis Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria (1640) ist nur die erste einer langen Serie von Opern mit Odysseus als Hauptfigur. Darunter stellt Pietro Pariatis und Francesco Bartolomeo Contis Penelope (1724) aus der gattungsgeschichtlichen Perspektive ein besonders relevantes Werk dar, das ausdrücklich als tragicommedia in musica definiert wird und auf früheren Tragikomödien desselben Librettisten basiert. Pariati schildert Odysseus als heroisch-komischen Held, den seine blinde Eifersucht durch eine Art Komödie der Irrungen führt, bei der Verkleidungen und komische Diener eine primäre Rolle spielen. Dieses Referat untersucht die Opernvorlagen, auf die Pariati hätte zurückgreifen können. Die tragikomische Fassung der Handlung kommt erst beim Niccolò Minatos Penelope (Wien 1670, Musik von Antonio Draghi) vor. Matteo Noris’ erfolgreiche Oper Penelope la casta (Uraufführung Venedig 1685), die in den folgenden Jahrzehnten von mehreren Komponisten (u. a. Alessandro Scarlatti in Neapel) vertont wurde, ist das wahrscheinliche Bindeglied zwischen Minatos und Pariatis Libretto. Von den gemeinsamen Punkten der Handlung, der Figuren und sogar einzelner Verse lässt sich eine Verwandtschaft herauskristallisieren, die ein interessantes Beispiel für gegenseitigen Kulturtransfer zwischen Wien und norditalienischen Musikzentren darstellt.

Antonio Bononcini’s service years at the Viennese court of Emperor Joseph I were particularly mea... more Antonio Bononcini’s service years at the Viennese court of Emperor Joseph I were particularly meaningful as an occasion for experimenting new techniques of orchestration and performance practice. The concerto grosso form applied to A. Bononcini’s chamber cantatas for voice and strings (1708) has been investigated by comparing full score and parts (Livio Marcaletti’s Le cantate con strumenti di Antonio Bononcini (1708), 2009), yet studies on his serenatas still wait to be undertaken. These scores, all written at the beginning of the 18th century, reveal original combinations between strings and different types of winds. Andromeda (1707) distinguishes itself by a constant alternation of violins and recorders in most pieces, while an aria from La presa di Tebe (1708) surprises the listener thanks to an unattended concerto grosso technique, which contraposes a concertino with six violins (playing bassetto), chalumeau and traversiere to strings, chalumeau, bassoon and basso continuo. Antonio Bononcini then obtains intermediate nuances not only through frequent and differentiated dynamic marks, but also through precisely numbered groups of violins (six in La presa di Tebe, four in Arminio ca. 1706). Was this a peculiarity of his own style or of Italian music in Vienna at the beginning of the 18th century, or did he adapt himself to the availability of a big orchestra? This paper aims to throw light on Antonio Bononcini’s orchestration through comparison with works by other Italian colleagues in Vienna, such as the brother Giovanni Battista, Carlo Agostino Badia or Marc’Antonio Ziani.

The increasing interest in ‘early’ music in late 19th-century Germany resulted not only in the mo... more The increasing interest in ‘early’ music in late 19th-century Germany resulted not only in the monumental editions of Bach’s and Handel’s works, but also in rediscovering, interpreting and publishing 17th and 18th-century ornamentation treatises. Of particular interest is the scholar activity of the German musicologist Hugo Goldschmidt (1859-1920). In editing and translating significant Italian singing methods of the 17th and 18th century, Goldschmidt was not only pushed by a mere historic interest, but also by a more practical purpose: the ancient singing masters managed to elaborate empirical precepts still valid after two centuries and particularly useful for performing early music. His second treatise, Die Lehre von der vokalen Ornamentik (1907), goes a step further: the author extrapolated general rules from primary sources to apply them to masterworks of famous composers such as Handel and Bach. If adding embellishments to Handel’s Italianate vocal pieces is almost taken for granted, great care must be devoted to Bachian dense counterpoint and his precise notation of embellishments. How to conciliate peculiarities of Bach’s vocal music and average ornamentation practice in the 18th century? Goldschmidt cautiously takes the challenge, basing his approach not only on knowledge of treatises that he considers close to Bach, but also on analysis of harmony, counterpoint and sung text. Can Goldschmidt’s pioneering approach be still meaningful one century later? I will try to answer this question by a comparison with both recent HIP research on historical singing treatises and with results of my PhD research on Manieren and vocal didactics between 1600 and 1900.

Ab dem 17. Jahrhundert stellte die Lehre der Manieren und anderer Ausdrucksmittel eines der wicht... more Ab dem 17. Jahrhundert stellte die Lehre der Manieren und anderer Ausdrucksmittel eines der wichtigsten Ziele der schriftlichen Vokaldidaktik dar. Obgleich ein solcher Stoff am häufigsten durch Musikbeispiele erläutert wurde, konnten nicht alle Aspekte des Vortrags durch die Musiknotation fixiert werden. Dazu sind Beschreibungen und Ähnlichkeiten, die sich auf das Alltagsleben beziehen, besonders zutreffend: Gute Manieren und gastronomische Sorgen werden mit dem künstlerischen Geschmack in Verbindung gesetzt, um einen verwickelten didaktischen Stoff anschaulicher zu machen. Dazu werden auch kuriose stimmhygienische Anweisungen und Verbote über Essen, Trinken und andere alltägliche Gewohnheiten erwähnt, welche die Gesangstraktate als „ausdrucksvolle“ Lehrmittel charakterisieren.

As a consequence of the creation of the Parisian Conservatoire in 1795, teaching materials for vo... more As a consequence of the creation of the Parisian Conservatoire in 1795, teaching materials for voice and instruments changed according to the new didactics, and the amount of singing methods published in France remarkably raised. Even if the model of the French Conservatoire spread in the neighbouring Germany only after half a century, the decline of the antiquated Lateinschulen and the diffusion of French methods (often translated and published in Germany) influenced many German treatises. These new manuals often contained plenty of solfeggi and vocalizzi, through which the pupil’s voice could acquire agility and correctness of intonation. Although these technical exercises often constitute the most voluminous part of many methods, a singer cannot ignore the expressive means required by a good performance. Therefore, many singing manuals include a chapter to expression or performance (namely expression in French, Vortrag in German), where special type of ‘graces’, articulation or dynamics, suited for depicting vivid sentiments, are explained. For instance the Bebung, a tremolo which divides a longer note in several repeated ones, is suited for mournful pieces; Ferdinand Sieber (Gesangskunst, 1858) describes several ways of articulating notes through breathing, such as trembling, sighing, sobbing, weeping and laughing (Erzittern, Seufzen, Schluchzen, Weinen and Lachen). Or, as we can derive from the contrasting opinions by the German singers Heinrich Ferdinand Mannstein and Franz Hauser, the ‘sentimental’ glissando well depicts the feelings of warm lovers, whereas it may sound too ‘mawkish’ in association with stern characters. The most striking musical examples can be found in French manuals, such as in the well-renowned Traité de l’art du chant by Manuel Garcia the Younger (1847), where recitatives and arias are carefully provided with written indications of any sort of vocal nuances. Even more detailled for the very staging of operas is L’art lyrique (1874) by Enrico Delle Sedie, one important interpreter of Verdi’s baritone roles. The author elaborates several vocalises to teach how feelings such as pain, irony, fury, contempt, melancoly can be sung through tempo, articulation, dynamics, accents. These exercises are then applied to specific scenes from Barbiere, Rigoletto, La Favorita and Macbeth: here the vocal interpretation of the most important vocal phrases is often associated with appropriate expressive movements and gestures on the stage. Aim of the present paper is therefore to take vocal ‘graces’ and nuances into consideration, which are nowadays often neglected by performers, whereas their presence would make some actorial gestures ‘hearable’.

Im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts wurde die sängerische Verzierungsfreiheit (im Konzert, in der Oper,... more Im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts wurde die sängerische Verzierungsfreiheit (im Konzert, in der Oper, in der Kirche) allmählich begrenzt: Festzustellen ist die allgemeine Neigung der «europäischen» Komponisten (vor allem aus Italien, Frankreich, Deutschland und England) dazu, alle Vortragsnuancen immer genauer auszuschreiben, um die Willkür der Interpreten einzuschränken. Dessen ungeachtet erschienen im 19. Jahrhundert zahlreiche Gesangsabhandlungen, die wenigstens ein Kapitel der Manieren- und Verzierungslehre widmeten, auch wenn zuweilen nur die bereits ausgeschriebenen Ornamente in Betracht gezogen wurden. Immer öfter wird anhand kurzer Musikbeispiele (u.a. aus Werken von Mozart, Weber, Méhul, Wagner) durch Hinzufügung von Artikulations- und Dynamikzeichen eine «ausdrucksvollere» Interpretation vorgeschlagen. Im vorliegenden Vortrag stehen im Fokuspunkt deutsche Traktate, in welchen sich die für deutschsprachige Länder «typische» Genauigkeit und Systematik mit den «italienisch» geprägten Gesangsmitteln vereinigen. Bemerkenswert sind z. B. die Ausführlichkeit von Franz Joseph Fröhlichs Systematischer Unterricht (1822), in dem Dutzende Seiten der Hinzufügung einzelner Manieren innerhalb kleiner Musikbeispiele gewidmet werden, oder das Fortleben der «grossen Gesangschule» Bernacchis nach der Ansicht Heinrich Ferdinand Mannsteins (1835). Einige Ausdrucksmittel sind indes nicht unumstritten, vor allem das Vorwegnehmen des Tones und das Portamento (bereits im 18. Jahrhundert für «italienisch» gehalten), deren Überspitzung nicht als Ausdrücklichkeit, sondern als Manieriertheit wahrgenommen wurde (siehe z. B. Franz Hausers Gesangslehre von 1866).

The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts, 2021

De Musica Disserenda , 2020

Musicologica Brunensia 53-2018/supplementum, 2018

Musikproduktion Jürgen Höflich (www.musikmph.de)

Quaderni di acme, Jan 1, 2009

Freie Beiträge zur Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung 2019 – 1, 2020

Image and Movement in Music Theatre, Argus Verlag (Bern University of the Arts), 2018

Through the analysis of some of the most relevant German singing treatises of the mid-19th centur... more Through the analysis of some of the most relevant German singing treatises of the mid-19th century, this paper aims for a better understanding of vocal performance practice, with regards to dramatic works in German language between the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. Mozart’s and von Winter’s Singspiele, Weber’s and Wagner’s operas, as well as coeval German translations of French works (Iphigenia in Tauris by Gluck, Joseph in Aegypten by Méhul) belong to this repertoire. Several musical extracts thereof are included in the above-mentioned manuals – written by renowned German singing teachers – in order to clarify how and where appoggiaturas, legatos, portamenti, articulation and dynamics have to be performed. Performance instructions from different treatises can even lead to opposite perspectives: the most interesting example of this phenomenon is Die grosse italienische Gesangschule (1848) by Heinrich Ferdinand Mannstein, whose ‘Italianate’ style of singing – for instance, with frequent portamenti – is keenly criticised by Franz Hauser’s Gesanglehre für Lehrende und Lernende (1866). Further suggestions about the addition of marcati, crescendo and decrescendo, anticipazioni della nota and other nuances, as explained by Julius Hey (1832-1909) in the Deutscher Gesangs-Unterricht (1884), reveal how far singers need to broaden their palette of expressive means when performing Mozart, Weber or Wagner nowadays; furthermore, the ‘national’ characters of singing evoked in the titles of some treatises («italienische Gesangschule», «Deutscher Gesangs-Unterricht») raise the question whether a correspondence between specific performance practices and national styles can be traced.

According to the Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe (Musical Reminescences, 1834), Luigi Marchesi was a very ... more According to the Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe (Musical Reminescences, 1834), Luigi Marchesi was a very good and expressive singer, though too «lavish of ornaments, which were not always appropriate». His ‘excessively’ florid singing style also emerges in surviving sources with his own ornamentation; some of these examples could have been addressed to pupils for didactic aims rather than to put a fully-written performance by Marchesi on paper. Besides the well-known Rondo «Quanto è fiero il mio tormento» with Marchesi’s variazioni, there are puzzling cases like the «Aria, e Rondò dell’Opera di Pirro» by Zingarelli, sung by Marchesi «colle variazioni notate dal sig. Venceslao Pichl» and printed «alla richiesta de’ dilettanti di musica» (Milan 1792): does this print really represent the written version of Marchesi’s performances? The score superposes four staves with just as many ornamented versions, each suiting to different vocal abilities (characterised for instance by very dense diminutions in sixty-four notes, large leaps, transposition in a higher pitch etc.). Furthermore, the same embellishment patterns are repeated so often that they resemble singing exercises like the variazioni di studio included in coeval manuals, such as those written by Johann Adam Hiller, Gesualdo Lanza, Peter von Winter, Antonio Calegari (after Gaspare Pacchierotti’s teaching) and so forth. In some cases, the variazioni proposed in these treatises equal – at least on paper – Marchesi’s outstanding ability to embellish melodies, revealing a similar approach to ornamentation. The paper will try to answer to the question whether the variazioni attributed to Marchesi are to be considered as transcriptions of real performances, or rather as ornamental patterns (after Marchesi’s style) the learner should assimilate.

LA SIGNORA BONONCINI E I COMICI DELL’ARTE Sulla base di materiale d’archivio inedito, il saggio r... more LA SIGNORA BONONCINI E I COMICI DELL’ARTE
Sulla base di materiale d’archivio inedito, il saggio ricostruisce la figura di fatto sconosciuta di Margherita Balletti (Milano, 1680 ca.-Londra?, post 1738), moglie di Giovanni Bononcini ed esponente di un’importante famiglia di comici dell’Arte in azione nelle principali piazze dell’Italia settentrionale e presso le corti dell’Europa centrale già dalla metà del XVII secolo. Margherita non si dedicò al teatro, ma coltivò la pittura. Seguì il marito a Vienna, a Roma, a Londra e a Parigi, ma il matrimonio naufragò nei debiti e negli scandali.

Early Music

This article addresses the rare and fortunate discovery of a printed libretto currently preserved... more This article addresses the rare and fortunate discovery of a printed libretto currently preserved in the National Library of the Czech Republic. The libretto is filled with fascinating manuscript notes on a Venetian performance of Antonio Cesti’s L’Argia in 1669, at the Teatro S. Luca. The anonymous author—whose identity is revealed from numerous hints found in the notes themselves—wrote a sort of review of the performance, probably addressed to the emperor Leopold I, who was continuously in search of new singers for his court. The handwritten remarks present a ferocious critique of the Venetian production of L’Argia, which is considered extremely inferior to the original version (Innsbruck, 1655). Almost every scene contains entries praising or criticizing various aspects of the performance. The author’s original intention may have been solely to send reports of the performance to the imperial court, but the result constitutes a rare example of late 17th-century music criticism.

Eighteenth-Century Theatre Capitals: From Lisbon to St. Petersburg

The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts, 2021

Musicologica Brunensia, 2018

Freie Beiträge zur Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung 2019, 2020

The tendency of today’s historiography to portray early 18th-century Italian opera as a dichotomy... more The tendency of today’s historiography to portray early 18th-century Italian opera as a dichotomy between opera seria and opera buffa takes too little account of the existence of genera mixta. However, contemporary composers and authors sometimes referred to a tripartiton. In his treatise Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739), Johann Mattheson distinguishes between tragedy, comedy and satire. His description of the melodies from a satirical opera is limited to the statement that they are “ridiculous, poseuristic and prickly”. This definition can be applied to the analysis of dramatic vocal works with the help of Gérard Genette’s category of “burlesque travesty” which describes the stylistic degradation of a tragic-heroic subject as a satirical function. This stylistic mixture is achieved by the use of specific musical devices, which are shown in this article on the basis of case studies on music by Francesco Bartolomeo Conti, Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Händel.

Rivista Italiana Di Musicologia, May 28, 2014

"The cercar della nota consists in the intonation of a melodic phrase by means of portamenti... more "The cercar della nota consists in the intonation of a melodic phrase by means of portamenti or passing notes. Most musicologists consider it a vocal practice limited to the 17th century, and in particular to composers of the seconda prattica (G. B. Bovicelli 1594 and G. Caccini 1602) but also to German composers that introduced elements of the Italian style in their country (among them, M. Praetorius 1619, C. Bernhard 1650 ca. and W. Mylius 1685). On the contrary, there are written document that confirm that this grace – born in Italy and then spread out in Europe – was practiced well until the first decades of the 20th century, although with some different names and characteristics. Intervals, position within the musical phrase, use of ‘carrying’ of the tone, can change from period to period. In the majority of cases, the mentioned written sources are singing primers. Among these, the most relevant ones are German, but we also find some Spanish (Remacha 1799), French (García 1847) and English (Corri 1779) ones. In the 17th century, the cercar della nota was not only permitted but even required. Since the mid18th century, some authors started to consider it a misused device: it was therefore banned by theorists because of its abuse. Although it was considered nauseating, it had nonetheless never been abandoned from practice the praxis the 20th century. The cercar della nota was sometimes justified more by technical more than aesthetical reasons. Rather than articulating syllables on high notes, a singer can pronounce them on a lower passing note. This leads to the real one through a portamento. Relying on the evidence of numerous written sources, the author argues that historically informed performances of vocal music of the past should not exclude the phenomenon of the cercar della nota, a technique that is totally neglected nowadays."

De musica disserenda

oleg tragedij in komedij so po Johannu Matthesonu med operne zvrsti 18. stoletja v Hamburgu sodil... more oleg tragedij in komedij so po Johannu Matthesonu med operne zvrsti 18. stoletja v Hamburgu sodile tudi satire (»Strafspiel«). Članek prikazuje, kako je Georg Philipp Telemann italijansko pastoralno opero I satiri in Arcadia (Dunaj 1714) preoblikoval v »Strafspiel« Damon (Hamburg 1724), satiro nezvestega ljubimca.