Monody

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Monody

In poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
, the term monody has become specialized to refer to a poem in which one person laments another's death. (In the context of ancient Greek literature

Ancient Greek literature

Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in the Greek language until the 4th century AD....
, monody, could simply refer to lyric poetry sung by a single performer, rather than by a chorus

Greek chorus

The Greek chorus is a group of twelve or fifteen minor actors in tragedy and twenty-four in Ancient Greek comedy plays of classical Athens....
.)

In music, monody has two meanings: 1) it is sometimes used as a synonym for monophony

Monophony

In music, monophony is the simplest of texture , consisting of melody without accompanying harmony. This may be realized as just one note at a time, or with the same note duplicated at the octave ....
, a single solo line, in opposition to homophony

Homophony

In music, homophony Homophony as a term first appeared in English with Charles Burney in 1776, emphasizing the concord of harmonized melody....
and polyphony

Polyphony

In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voice , as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord s ....
; and 2) in music history, it is a solo vocal style distinguished by having a single melodic

Melody

In music, a melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity....
line and instrumental accompaniment.

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In poetry

Poetry

Ancient Greek literature

Greek chorus

Monophony

Homophony

In music, homophony Homophony as a term first appeared in English with Charles Burney in 1776, emphasizing the concord of harmonized melody....
and polyphony

Polyphony

Melody

In music, a melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity....
line and instrumental accompaniment. Although such music is found in various cultures throughout history, the term is specifically applied to Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
song of the early 17th century, particularly the period from about 1600 to 1640. The term is used both for the style and for individual songs (so one can speak both of monody as a whole as well as a particular monody). The term itself is a recent invention of scholars: no composer of the 17th century ever called a piece a monody. Compositions in monodic form might be called madrigals

Madrigal (music)

A madrigal is a type of secular vocal music composition, written during the Renaissance music and early Baroque music eras. Throughout most of its history it was Polyphony and unaccompanied by instruments, with the number of voices varying from two to eight, but most frequently three to six....
, motet

Motet

In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choir musical compositions.The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is "motectum", and the Italian mottetto was also used....
s, or even concerto

Concerto

The term Concerto usually refers to a three-part musical work in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra. The concerto, as understood in this modern way, arose in the Baroque period side by side with the concerto grosso, which contrasted a small group of instruments with the rest of the orchestra....
s (in the earlier sense of "concertato

Concertato

Concertato is a term in early Baroque music referring to either a genre or a style of music in which groups of instruments or voices share a melody, usually in alternation, and almost always over a basso continuo....
", meaning "with instruments").

In monody, which developed out of an attempt by the Florentine Camerata

Florentine Camerata

The Florentine Camerata was a group of Humanisms, musicians, poets and intellectuals in late Renaissance Florence who gathered under the patronage of Count Giovanni de' Bardi to discuss and guide trends in the arts, especially music and drama....
in the 1580s to restore ancient Greek

Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
ideas of melody and declamation (probably with little historical accuracy), one solo voice sings a melodic part, usually with considerable ornamentation

Ornament (music)

In music, ornaments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody , but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line....
, over a rhythmically independent bass line. Accompanying instruments could be lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
, chitarrone, theorbo

Theorbo

A theorbo is a plucked string instrument. As a name, theorbo signifies a number of long-necked lutes with second peg-boxes, such as the liuto attiorbato, the French th?orbe des pi?ces, the English theorbo, the archlute, the German baroque lute, the Ang?lique or angelica....
, harpsichord

Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when each Key is pressed....
, organ

Organ (music)

The organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard played either Manual or Pedal clavier. The organ is one of the oldest musical instruments in the European classical music....
, and even on occasion guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six Strings , but Tenor guitar, Seven-string guitar, Eight-string guitar, Ten-string guitar, Eleven-string guitar, Twelve-string guitar, Thirteen-string guitar and doubleneck guitar string guitars also exist....
. While some monodies were arrangements for smaller forces of the music for large ensembles which was common at the end of the 16th century, especially in the Venetian School

Venetian School

In music history, the Venetian School is a term used to describe the composers working in Venice from about 1550 to around 1610; it also describes the music they produced....
, most monodies were composed independently. The development of monody was one of the defining characteristics of early Baroque

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a period or style of European classical music approximately extending from Dates of classical music eras. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance music and was followed by the Classical music era....
practice, as opposed to late Renaissance

Renaissance music

Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600. Dates of classical music eras, given the lack of abrupt shifts in musical thinking during the 15th century....
style, in which groups of voices sang independently and with a greater balance between parts.

Other musical streams which came together in the monody were the madrigal and the motet, both of which developed into solo forms after 1600 and borrowed ideas from the monody.

Contrasting passages in monodies could be more melodic or more declamatory: these two styles of presentation eventually developed into the aria

Aria

An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment....
and the recitative

Recitative

Recitative is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech. The mostly syllabic recitativo secco is at one end of a spectrum through recitativo accompagnato , the more melismatic arioso, and finally the full blown aria or ensemble, where the pulse is entirely governed by the mus...
, and the overall form merged with the cantata

Cantata

A cantata is a vocal music music composition with an musical instrument accompaniment and often containing more than one movement ....
by about 1635.

The parallel development of solo song with accompaniment in France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
was called the air de cour

Air de cour

The Air de cour was a popular type of secular vocal music in France in the very late Renaissance music and early Baroque music period, from about 1570 until around 1650....
: the term monody is not normally applied to these more conservative songs, however, which retained many musical characteristics of the Renaissance

Renaissance music

Chanson

A chanson is in general any Lyrics-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specializing in chansons is known as a "chansonnier"; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier....
.

An important early treatise on monody is contained in Giulio Caccini

Giulio Caccini

Giulio Caccini was an Italy composer, teacher, singer, instrumentalist and writer of the very late Renaissance music and early Baroque music eras....
's song collection, Le nuove musiche (Florence, 1601).

Main composers of monody

Vincenzo Galilei
Vincenzo Galilei

Vincenzo Galilei was an Italy lute, composer, and music theory, and the father of the famous astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei. He was a seminal figure in the musical life of the late Renaissance, and contributed significantly to the musical revolution which demarcates the beginning of the Baroque music era....
(1520–1591)
Giulio Caccini
Giulio Caccini

Giulio Caccini was an Italy composer, teacher, singer, instrumentalist and writer of the very late Renaissance music and early Baroque music eras....
(c.1545 - 1618)
Emilio de' Cavalieri
Emilio de' Cavalieri

Emilio de' Cavalieri was an Italians composer, Record producer, organist, diplomat, choreographer and dancer at the end of the Renaissance music era....
(c.1550 - 1602)
Bartolomeo Barbarino
Bartolomeo Barbarino

Bartolomeo Barbarino was an Italy composer and singer of the early Baroque music era. He was a virtuoso falsetto, and one of the most enthusiastic composers of the new style of monody....
(? - c.1617)
Jacopo Peri
Jacopo Peri

Jacopo Peri was an Italy composer and singer of the transitional period between the Renaissance music and Baroque music styles, and is often called the inventor of opera....
(1561–1633)
Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi , was an Italian composer, viol, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the music of the Renaissance music to that of the Baroque music....
(1567–1643)
Alessandro Grandi
Alessandro Grandi

Alessandro Grandi was a northern Italy composer of the early Baroque music era, writing in the new concertato style. He was one of the most inventive, influential and popular composers of the time, probably second only to Claudio Monteverdi in northern Italy....
(c.1575 - 1630)
Giovanni Pietro Berti (d. 1638)
Sigismondo d'India
Sigismondo d'India

Sigismondo d'India was an Italy composer of the late Renaissance music and early Baroque music eras. He was one of the most accomplished contemporaries of Claudio Monteverdi, and wrote music in many of the same forms as the more famous composer....
(c.1582 - 1629)
Claudio Saracini
Claudio Saracini

Claudio Saracini was an Italy composer, lutenist, and singer of the early Baroque music era. He was one of the most famous and distinguished composers of monody....
(1586 - c.1649)

See Texture (music)

Texture (music)

Texture is one of the basic elements of music. People use texture to describe the amount of rhythms played at a specific time. In music, texture also means the overall quality of sound of a piece , most often indicated by the number of melody in the music and by the relationship between these voices ....

Monody

Main composers of monody

See also