Musical Borrowing
An Annotated Bibliography

Contributions by Elizabeth Elmi

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[+] Brown, Rosemary. "Dallapiccola's Symbolic Use of Self-Quotation." Studi musicali 4 (1975): 277-304.

Luigi Dallapiccola's use of symbolism has been a fundamental part of his compositional process throughout his life. Symbolic techniques range from a madrigalian style of text painting to complex structural associations to ideograms and personal rhythmic representation. One of the most salient forms of symbolism in Dallapiccola's music can be found in his practice of self-quotation. Beginning as early as 1937, Dallapiccola quotes thematic material from his Tre laudi in Volo di notte. His 1942 Liriche greche quotes sections from the Cinque frammenti di Saffo, and this practice continues in the composer's quotation of the Canti di prigionia in Il prigioniero as well as the Quaderno musicale di Annalibera and Il prigioniero in the Canti di liberazione. The culmination of this practice is Dallapiccola's 1968 opera Ulisse, in which quotations from a wide range of the composer's previous works can be found, especially in the work's Epilogue. Many times these self-borrowings have a symbolic meaning in that they draw upon earlier dramatic or textual contexts present in the original works and insert those associations into a new musical environment. The wide-reaching use of self-quotation in Dallapiccola's work not only serves a symbolic function but also works as a unifying factor in the composer's output as a whole.

Works: Dallapiccola: Volo di notte (277-80), Liriche greche (280-82), Due liriche di Anacreonte (282), Il prigioniero (282-89), Canti di liberazione (282-90), Il Cenacolo--Le vicende del capolavoro di Leonardo da Vinci (290), Variazioni (290), Ulisse (290-302), Sicut Umbra (303-4).

Sources: Dallapiccola: Tre laudi (277-80), Cinque frammenti di Saffo (280-82), Canti di Prigionia (282-84), Il prigioniero (284-90, 295), Quaderno musicale di Annalibera (289-90), Goethe-Lieder (290-94), Volo di notte (294-95), An Mathilde (297-98), Requiescant (299-302), Canti di liberazione (301-2), Ulisse (302-4).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi

[+] Bujic, Bojan. "Palestrina, Willaert, Arcadelt and the Art of Imitation." Ricercare 10 (1998): 105-31.

Adrian Willaert's and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's settings of the Petrarch sonnet "Amor, Fortuna, et la mia mente schiva" demonstrate similarities in their openings as well as in the number of voices, choice of mode, and cleffing. While the normal assumption would be that the younger composer (Palestrina) is borrowing from the older one, Palestrina's madrigal came out in 1555, four years before the publication of Willaert's setting in his Musica nova. While it may be possible that Willaert was modeling his setting after Palestrina's or that Palestrina knew Willaert's madrigal prior to its formal publication in 1559, the directionality of this relationship cannot be determined with absolute certainty. What is more likely is a common influence on both composers from Arcadelt as a model. The arch-shaped opening phrase of both madrigals can be traced back to Arcadelt's musical style, as well as a concern for text setting and attention to both structural and thematic aspects of the poetry in the musical realization. The relationship between Palestrina's and Willaert's settings of the same Petrarch text may then be due to two salient aspects of the art of imitation: a contemporary influence on each other and a case of modeling on an older master.

Works: Willaert: Amor, fortuna, et la mia mente schiva (105-31); Palestrina: Amor, fortuna, et la mia mente schiva (105-31).

Sources: Willaert: Amor, fortuna, et la mia mente schiva (105-31); Palestrina: Amor, fortuna, et la mia mente schiva (105-31); Arcadelt: Del più leggiadro viso (119), Gli prieghi miei tutti gli port?il vento (119), Viva nel pensier vostro (119).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi

[+] Carter, Tim. "Intriguing Laments: Sigismondo d'India, Claudio Monteverdi, and Dido alla parmigiana (1628)." Journal of the American Musicological Society 49 (Spring 1996): 32-69.

The 1628 wedding festivities in Parma of Duke Odoardo Farnese and Margherita de' Medici of Florence set the stage for a rich environment of competition and debate between Sigismondo d'India and Claudio Monteverdi. In trying to win favor for this celebratory event, d'India presented two laments, the Lamento d'Armida and the Lamento di Didone, to the impresario for the Parma festivities, Marquis Enzo Bentivoglio, which bear a marked resemblance to Monteverdi?s Lamento d'Arianna. The extant Lamento di Didone is characterized by a number of the same rhetorical, topological, and musical tropes as Monteverdi's famous lament. D'India failed to secure the commission, which was offered to Monteverdi instead, most likely because of his daring musical language. D'India's musical conservatism and adherence to an older courtly convention based on Monteverdi in his laments demonstrate a failure to recognize current tastes, whereas Monteverdi had clearly progressed beyond his earlier works, demonstrating a more innovative treatment of the lament and winning favor in Parma at the 1628 festivities.

Works: Sigismondo d?India: Il lamento di Didone (36-44).

Sources: Monteverdi: Il lamento d?Arianna (40-43).

Index Classifications: 1600s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi

[+] Cohen, Judith. "Thomas Weelkes's Borrowings from Salamone Rossi." Music and Letters 66 (April 1985): 110-17.

In Thomas Weelkes's first madrigal book, Madrigals to 3. 4. 5. &6 Voyces (London, 1597), the five- and six-voice works borrow both text and music from Salamone Rossi's Primo libro delle canzonette a tre voci of 1589. Numbers 13 through 18 of Weelkes's madrigal book clearly borrow from numbers 7, 6, 2, 11, 15, and 19 of Rossi's book respectively. From Rossi, Weelkes primarily borrows thematic points, melodic contours, rhythms, and textures for use in his own compositions. For example, in Weelkes's No. 16, Lady, our spotless feature, the homophonic texture and chanson-like rhythm of Rossi's No. 11, Donna, il vostro bel viso, are clearly present in the work's opening. These borrowings show a progression of maturity on the part of the English composer. Numbers 16 and 13 demonstrate a dependence on the model and unimaginative solutions, while numbers 15 and 17 reset the derived ideas more convincingly, and numbers 14 and 18 clearly show that Weelkes has not only fully mastered the borrowed material but also surpassed his model. Moreover, his later Italian version of Donna, il vostro bel viso in his Ayeres or Phantasticke Spirites for Three Voices of 1608 shows a dependency on his own English version of the text from 1597 rather than a direct relationship with Rossi's original. Weelkes's reuse of Rossi's canzonette demonstrates a progressive compositional maturity in his manipulation of borrowed material, culminating in a reworking of his earlier attempts at modeling.

Works: Thomas Weelkes: Madrigals to 3. 4. 5. &6. Voyces (110-17), Lady, your spotless feature (111), Your beauty it allureth (111), Those sweet delightful lilies (112), If thy deceitful looks (113), What haste, fair lady (113), Ayeres or Phantasticke Spirites for Three Voices (115-17), Donna, il vostro bel viso (115), I bei ligustri e rose (115).

Sources: Salamone Rossi: Primo libro delle canzonette a tre voci (110-17), Donna, il vostro bel viso (111); Thomas Weelkes: Madrigals to 3. 4. 5. &6. Voyces (115-17)), Lady, your spotless feature (115).

Index Classifications: 1500s, 1600s

Contributed by: Randal Tucker, Elizabeth Elmi

[+] Curtis, Alan. "La Poppea Impasticciata or, Who Wrote the Music to L'Incoronazione (1643)?" Journal of the American Musicological Society 42 (Spring 1989): 23-54.

The fact that no contemporary accounts credit Monteverdi with the musical setting of Francesco Busenello's L'incoronazione di Poppea creates a number of problems in analyzing the work's stylistic unity. An important consideration, however, is that Monteverdi may have been one of a number of composers collaborating in the composition of Poppea, rather than its sole musical contributor. Many of the work's musical qualities demonstrate characteristics of a younger post-Monteverdian generation. Of a number of possible collaborators, Benedetto Ferrari and Francesco Sacrati seem to be the most likely candidates. Indeed, two sinfonie in Poppea can be located in an altered (or borrowed) form in Sacrati's La finta pazza, while "Pur ti miro" from the opera's last scene can be textually (and possibly musically) connected to Ferrari. Thus, Sacrati and Ferrari figure as the potential composers of the many anomalous sections of Monteverdi's last Venetian opera and, most significantly, its last scene.

Works: Monteverdi (and others?): L?incoronazione di Poppea (23-54); Francesco Sacrati: La finta pazza (43-51).

Sources: Francesco Sacrati: La finta pazza (32, 43-51); Benedetto Ferrari (?):"Pur ti miro" (41-43, 51-52); Monteverdi (and others?): L?incoronazione di Poppea (45-46).

Index Classifications: 1600s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi

[+] Cusick, Suzanne G. "Re-Voicing Arianna (and Laments): Two Women Respond." Early Music 27 (1999): 437-49.

Francesca Caccini's "aria sopra la romanesca" Dove io credea le mie speranze vere is an invocation of Arianna's voice that seeks to contrast and challenge the more submissive and subdued lament of Monteverdi's Arianna. Placed at the center of her 1618 Primo libro delle musiche, Caccini's song is purposefully not a lament but in the style of an aria romanesca. Its ample borrowings from Rinuccini's text are organized in a way that portrays an unapologetic, self-confident statement of Teseo's blame as well as a warning to other women about the excesses and dangers of love. In contrasting Monteverdi's recitative-like compositional style with a subtly nuanced romanesca form, Caccini both conforms to the aesthetic norms of the Florentine Camerata and evokes an aura of widow-like constancy in the social context of Christine of Lorraine's court. These musical allusions to female circles, in an aria that presents a non-lamenting Arianna, form a polemical discourse with Monteverdi?s famous soliloquy of a decidedly un-empowered woman.

Works: Works: Francesca Caccini: Dove io credea le mie speranze vere (442-47).

Sources: Claudio Monteverdi: Lamento di Arianna (437-47).

Index Classifications: 1600s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi

[+] Fearn, Raymond. The Music of Luigi Dallapiccola. Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press, 2003.

The music of Luigi Dallapiccola has been shaped by his many political, musical, and poetic experiences as a young composer in the northeastern corner of Italy and later in Florence during the two world wars, the most tumultuous years of the twentieth century for western Europe. His compositions are full of textual and musical allusions to the past both distant and recent. His music includes allusions to Wagner, Webern, Schoenberg, Bach, Monteverdi, and Berg among many others. Yet his practice of self-borrowing is prevalent as well, especially later in his career. The greatest example of this is his full-length opera Ulisse (1968), which makes reference to at least six of his previous works in addition to its use of compositional techniques typical of Monteverdi, Wagner, and Bach. Preceding this work is a companion instrumental piece entitled Three Questions with Two Answers (1962-63), which introduces the opera's fundamental tone rows and foreshadows some of its most prevalent musical and philosophical themes. The rapport between Dallapiccola's music and that of his predecessors as well as his practice of self-borrowing imply a theme of constant retrospection and self-analysis in his artistic career.

Works: Dallapiccola: Tre laudi (33-45, 242-45), Volo di notte (38-49, 242-45), An Mathilde (193-97, 242-45), Three Questions with Two Answers (224-31), Ulisse (224-52), Il prigioniero (239-45), Cinque canti (242-45), Canti di liberazione (242-45).

Sources: J. S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier (14, 158), The Art of Fugue (157); Dallapiccola: Tre laudi (33-45, 242-45), Volo di notte (38-49, 242-45), Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (72-73, 232-35), An Mathilde (193-97, 242-45), Three Questions with Two Answers (224-31), Il prigioniero (239-45), Cinque canti (242-45), Canti di liberazione (242-45); Monteverdi: Orfeo (245-47).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi

[+] Galleni Luisi, Leila. "Il Lamento d?Arianna di Severo Bonino (1613)." In Congresso internazionale sul tema Claudio Monteverdi e il suo tempo: Venezia, Mantova, Cremona, 3-7 maggio 1968, Relazioni e comunicazioni, ed. Raffaello Monterosso, 573-82. Verona: Valdonega, 1969.

While the early works of Severo Bonini demonstrate a fidelity to the style of early monodists like Giulio Caccini, an exposure to the music of Monteverdi, especially his early operas Orfeo and Arianna, caused the Vallambrosian monk to break from these models in search of a Monteverdian style of musical expression. In his Lamento d'Arianna, Bonini sets Rinuccini's text in a manner modeled after Monteverdi's version. Just as in Monteverdi's lament, for example, the text is set syllabically with the same pauses and phrasing that create a rising sense of affective intensity. Bonini, like Monteverdi, allows the music to be governed by the poetic meter and text emphasis. Bonini and Monteverdi also both emphasize the same words, though through differing musical techniques; Monteverdi uses repeated notes over the same word or syllable while Bonini composes ornamental turning figures for the important points in the text. The monk's allegiance to Monteverdi is further proven in his Discorsi, which praises the opera composer's style and beautiful musical concepts. Thus, his admiration manifests itself most clearly in an instance of modeling on the same text by Rinuccini with a strikingly similar style of text expression and musical affect.

Works: Severo Bonini: Lamento d'Arianna (573-82).

Sources: Monteverdi: Lamento d'Arianna (575-81).

Index Classifications: 1600s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi

[+] Monterosso Vacchelli, Anna Maria. "Elementi stilistici nell' Euridice di Jacopo Peri in rapporto all' Orfeo di Monteverdi." In Congresso internazionale sul tema Claudio Monteverdi e il suo tempo: Venezia, Mantova, Cremona, 3-7 maggio 1968, Relazioni e comunicazioni, ed. Raffaello Monterosso, 117-27. Verona: Valdonega, 1969.

Jacopo Peri's music has been consistently underappreciated by recent scholarship in favor of the operatic and musical mastery of his contemporary Claudio Monteverdi. But a comparison of similar stylistic elements between Peri's Euridice and Monteverdi's Orfeo demonstrates the flaws in this musicological hierarchy. The importance of text expression in Peri's opera manifests itself in a number of ways that are mirrored in Monteverdi's Orfeo. A limited but selective use of instruments in the orchestral accompaniment can be found in both operas. There is also a very similar use of melodic expression in points of recitative and soliloquy. This relationship can be found in a comparison of sections from Peri's Euridice with Monteverdi's Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Orfeo. Thus, in a more careful study of Peri's opera, one finds a number of elements that constitute an important precursor to Monteverdian theater.

Works: Monteverdi: Orfeo (117-27), Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (121).

Sources: Jacopo Peri: Euridice (117-27).

Index Classifications: 1600s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi

[+] Ossi, Massimo. "Monteverdi, Marenzio, and Battista Guarini's 'Cruda Amarilli.'" Music and Letters 89 (August 2008): 311-36.

Monteverdi's famous madrigal setting of Battista Guarini's text from Il pastor fido, "Cruda Amarilli," places him within a tradition of Cruda Amarilli madrigals, but also sets him apart in his overt modeling on Marenzio's setting of the same text and on the madrigal book in which it is found, Settimo libro de' madrigali a cinque voci (1595). The four most prominent Cruda Amarilli madrigals, by Giaches de Wert, Marenzio, Monteverdi, and Benedetto Pallavicino, are clearly interrelated musically through motivic, structural, harmonic, and textural similarities. The Marenzio and Wert settings, while borrowing from each other as well, can be viewed as clear models for Monteverdi and Pallavicino. Yet the prominent similarities between Monteverdi's and Marenzio's Cruda Amarilli settings must be approached through a contextualization within their relative madrigal books. In a comparison of these two books, it is evident that Monteverdi paid close attention to Marenzio's use and organization of Pastor fido texts and constructed his own book accordingly. Such a clear case of modeling could be attributed to Monteverdi's desire to promote himself within the Ferrarese and Mantuan courts and to create connections with intellectual and patronage circles specifically linked to Marenzio. Thus, Monteverdi places himself within a tradition of madrigal settings while simultaneously forging a distinct relationship with Marenzio in an effort to promote his career and to ally himself with another well-respected composer of the day.

Works: Giaches de Wert: Cruda Amarilli (316-20); Marenzio: Cruda Amarilli (316-20); Benedetto Pallavicino: Cruda Amarilli (320-26); Monteverdi: Cruda Amarilli (320-28), Quinto libro de' madrigali a cinque voci (328-36).

Sources: Giaches de Wert: Cruda Amarilli (316-20); Marenzio: Cruda Amarilli (316-20), Settimo libro de' madrigali a cinque voci (328-33).

Index Classifications: 1500s, 1600s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi

[+] Peraino, Judith A. "Monophonic Motets: Sampling and Grafting in the Middle Ages." The Musical Quarterly 85 (Winter 2001): 644-80.

Monophonic works identified in medieval sources as motets lie outside our traditional definition of the motet. Although not all monophonic motets were motets entés in the commonly understood sense of borrowing refrains, the concept of grafting (enté) between monophonic and polyphonic repertories was integral to this genre of monophonic motets, as attested to by both medieval theoretical sources and modern analysis. By relating monophonic motets to sampling in today's popular music, one can gain insights about the intertextual nature of monophonic motets and the ways in which they engage their audience through technology (notational) and literacy (musical and textual). For example, the motet D'amor nuit et jor me lo (F-Pn fr. 845), although recorded in nonmensural notation like the other monophonic motets in its source, has notational peculiarities that suggest that it was transcribed from a voice of a polyphonic work recorded in mensural notation. Moreover, "grafting," whether in music or in gardening, implies a sense of cultural refinement that raises the motet enté to a level of technical and intellectual superiority. These motets represent a moment of transition in recording technology (notation and literacy), drawing from both the trouvère tradition, which was monophonic and orally transmitted, and the motet tradition, which grew out of an intellectual and literate context.

Works: Anonymous: En non Dieu c'est la rage (646-49, 674), Quant plus sui loig de ma dame (654-44), D'amor nuit et jor me lo (652, 660-62), Onc voir par amours n'amai (663-64), Bone amourete m'a souspris (664-66), Han, Diex! ou purrai je trouver (672-74).

Sources: Adam de la Halle: Bonne amourete mi tient gai (664-66); Anonymous (from Le roman de Fauvel): Ve qui gregi deficiunt (672-74).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, Polyphony to 1300, 1300s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi, Kerry O'Brien, Virginia Whealton

[+] Plumley, Yolanda. "Citation and Allusion in the Late Ars nova: The Case of Esperance and the En attendant Songs." Early Music History 18 (1999): 287-363.

Musical citation and "grafting" in the late-fourteenth-century Ars subtilior chanson was much more prevalent than is currently believed. At that time, citation was viewed as an opportunity for composers to display their musical and intellectual erudition. A case study of three Ars subtilior chansons beginning with the words "En attendant" by Jacob de Senleches, Philippus de Caserta and Johannes Galiot demonstrates this point in a clear juxtaposition of the Ars subtilior chansons with the Ars nova work Esperance qui en mon cuer s'embat, which serves as a musical and textual source for all three chansons. The common musical material from which all three composers draw brings about a phenomenon of interrelated musical borrowing, which could have been caused by a collaborative compositional process for a common political or religious event relating to the Visconti and Valois families during the politic turmoil of the late fourteenth century. These works also fit into a larger spectrum of songs in French mainstream culture and were clearly products of a circle of composers who knew each other and communicated with each other about their work. In this context, points of musical allusion or citation were evident only in careful observation within a web of intertextual references. Thus, the practice of musical citation and allusion still flourished in the late fourteenth century, playing an important role in the works of Ars subtilior composers in a much more subtle way than previously thought by current scholars.

Works: Johannes Galiot: En attendant la douce vie (289-334); Jacob de Senleches: En attendant, Esperance conforte (289-334); Philippus de Caserta: En atendant souffrir m'estuet grief payne (289-334, 337-46).

Sources: Anonymous: Esperance qui en mon cuer s'embat (293-334, 346-63); Machaut: En amer a douce vie (294-334).

Index Classifications: 1300s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi

[+] Teo, Kenneth S. "Chromaticism in Thomas Weelkes's 1600 Collection: Possible Models." Musicology Australia: Journal of the Musicological Society of Australia 13 (1990): 2-14.

Weelkes's madrigals employ a number of prominent compositional features drawn from the English style. His use of chromaticism, however, demonstrates a considerable debt to Italian musical practice. In his 1600 collection Madrigals of Five and Six Parts, especially, his use of chromaticism grew to rival that of Marenzio, having studied not only Marenzio's late chromatic works, but also Monteverdi's Il terzo libro de madrigali a cinque voci by 1600. Works by Marenzio that may have influenced Weelkes include Se la mia vita (1588) and Udite lagrimosi (1594), while Monteverdi's Rimanti in pace may have likewise had an effect on the English composer's music. However, in other ways Weelkes is indebted to the influence of other English composers like Dowland and, especially, Morley. Such influences are evident in a comparison of Weelkes's O Care though wilt despatch me with Dowland's Burst forth and Morley?s Phillis, I fain would die now. Another possible influence on Weelkes's more extreme use of chromaticism could be the keyboard and church music of Peter Philips. Thus, Weelkes's daring chromaticism can be attributed to a number of sources, the most prominent of which are the late Italian madrigalists Marenzio and Monteverdi.

Works: Thomas Weelkes: Madrigals of Five and Six Parts (2-14), O Care thou wilt despatch me (3).

Sources: Monteverdi: Il terzo libro a cinque voci (2), Rimanti in pace (11); Dowland: Burst forth (3); Thomas Morley: Phillis, I fain would die now (3); Marenzio: Se la mia vita (7), Udite lagrimosi (10).

Index Classifications: 1500s, 1600s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi

[+] Teo, Kian-Seng. "John Wilbye's Second Set of Madrigals (1609) and the Influence of Marenzio and Monteverdi." Studies in Music 20 (1986): 1-11.

John Wilbye's Second Set of Madrigals from 1609 demonstrates a familiarity with two prominent Italian madrigalists at the turn of the century: Luca Marenzio and Claudio Monteverdi. More specifically, Wilbye is drawing from Marenzio's ninth book of five-voice madrigals (1599) and Monteverdi's fourth and fifth books of madrigals (1603 and 1605). The 1609 collection's tendency toward the extensive use of sequences includes two techniques that can be traced to these Italian composers. The use of a pedal sequence closely resembles Monteverd's Era l'anima mia (from the fifth book). His transposition of entire polyphonic sections recalls some of Monteverdi's music as well. Moreover, Wilbye's use of chromaticism can be traced both to the works of Monteverdi (Rimanti in pace, 1592) and to those of Marenzio (Crudele acerba, 1599; and Cruda Amarilli, 1595). Yet Wilbye's music goes beyond simple imitation in an elaboration of sequence passages and an inventive use of chromaticism that allow him to break away from his Italian models.

Works: John Wilbye: Second Set of Madrigals (1-11), Happy, O happy he (2), Change me, O heavens (3), Oft have I vowed (3), Ah, cruel Amaryllis (4).

Sources: Monteverdi: Terzo libro a cinque voci (1-2), Quarto libro a cinque voci (2), Quinto libro a cinque voci (2), Rimanti in pace (2), Era l?anima mia (2); Marenzio: Nono libro a cinque voci (2), Crudele acerba (3), Cruda Amarilli (3-4).

Index Classifications: 1500s, 1600s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi

[+] Tomlinson, Gary. "Madrigal, Monody, and Monteverdi's 'Via naturale alla immitatione.'" Journal of the American Musicological Society 34 (Spring 1981): 60-108.

Monteverdi's "via naturale alla immitatione" can be traced throughout his dramatic works as well as in some of his madrigal books. His musical realization of Rinuccini's L'Arianna can be seen as the culmination of that philosophy. Instances in which he does not reach that goal can be attributed to the inadequacy of his librettists, rather than to his own inability to extract the highest dramatic elements from a text. His 1607 opera Orfeo, for example, demonstrates a great debt to the compositional style of Jacopo Peri in his L'Euridice. A comparison of the two operas demonstrates striking similarities in musical language in a number of key aspects: (1) the low tessitura of the Underworld choruses; (2) the characterization of Orpheus and Pluto by tonal and melodic means; and (3) the borrowed structural outlines from large musical units in L'Euridice. Moments of musical similarity are, however, generally preceded by a correspondence in text between Striggio's and Rinuccini's librettos. Monteverdi's response to Striggio's libretto, therefore, mirrors Peri's to Rinuccini's especially in the moments when the two coincide: for example, in the messenger's narration of Eurydice's death and in Orpheus's subsequent reaction to this news. In these examples, specifically, Monteverdi's debt to Peri's stile recitativo is most prominent. Thus, it is evident that Monteverdi's musical style relies heavily on the quality of the text, and Striggio's inadequacies in borrowing from Rinuccini are reflected in the composer's realization of the libretto. Such problems can be found in Monteverdi's later Venetian operas as well, preventing the composer from duplicating the dramatic success present in his 1608 masterwork, L'Arianna.

Works: Monteverdi, Orfeo (60-108).

Sources: Jacopo Peri, L'Euridice (60-108).

Index Classifications: 1600s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi



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