Now the night draws in

Our morning set is centered on a frottola, a type of secular song prevalent in Renaissance Italy, by Marchetto Cara (ca. 1465-1525). It features the sound of morning birdsong. The lyrics ask: “Little bird, how finely you sing?” Cara was a composer in the Medici court in Florence and this kind of music would have been heard by an artist like Agnolo Bronzino.

The piece sits between two gagliarde, a type of 16th century dance, by Vincenzo Galilei (1520-1591), lutenist and father of the astronomer who was also an accomplished lutenist. The example below invokes the muse of the dance.

Two women composers from 17th century highlight our afternoon performance. There were many accomplished women composers from this era, most often found in convents or coming from an artistic family. Lucretia Orsina Vizzana (1590–1662) was based in Bologna, and through the publication of her work, her music became known outside the convent world.

Born in Venice to the poet Giulio Strozzi, Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677, not related to the painter Bernardo Strozzi who is thought to have painted her only existing portrait) was a singer and composer who published more secular music than anyone else from her era. Notably, she found success without the support of one particular aristocratic patron. Like her father, Barbara was a member of the literary society known as the Accademia degli Incogniti. Typical of her sense of wit and humor is the recurring pun and wordplay in La Sol Fà, Mi, Rè, Dò, playing on the idea of the solfeggio to be recombined in Venetian dialect for other meanings.

At night, we move to other parts of Europe, although the Italian influence was never far behind. Heinrich Albert (1604-1651) was very influenced by his teacher and cousin Heinrich Schütz, who studied in Venice and may have encountered Monteverdi in his heyday. Heinrich was the ringleader of a poet-musician-artist society. They met at his residence, a little hut surrounded by pumpkins. Like the Arcadian Academy, all the members had nicknames based on mythology which were carved into the pumpkins. Johann Nauwach (1595-1630) also published music in the lyrical Italian style, calling them “Teütscher Villanellen” after the mid-16^th century Italian song style. In a painting by Giuseppe Maria Crespi, there is a man playing lute similar to the Renaissance lute heard in our concert.

Our night ends in a pastoral dream, a fetê champêtre, where you might hear music played on a musette – a type of bagpipe associated with a rustic lifestyle, although in paintings peasants are not usually depicted playing it. In a set of paintings on view at the gallery, Les Danses Amuzantes (1733) features on the title page of a score. It is an actual publication by the composer, musette player and instrument maker Nicolas Chédeville (1705-1782). Upon close reading, the rest of the music appears to be a pastiche from several different music publications. Bach, Rameau, Couperin and many composers liked to write music that imitated the musette, with its signature drone sound, so in keeping with their spirits, our musicians decided to play Les Danses Amuzantes on a different set of instruments.❖