“SONGS” FOR INSTRUMENTS

Chapter:

CHAPTER 18 Reformations and Counter Reformations

Source:

MUSIC FROM THE EARLIEST NOTATIONS TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

Author(s):

Richard Taruskin

Even instrumental music was “dramatized” under the new dispensation, and here too the Gabrielis played a decisive role. Ever since the publications of Attaingnant began circulating abroad, and even before, Venetian organists had been fond of arranging racy “Parisian” chansons for their instrument and performing them during services alongside the staider, motetlike ricercari with which we are already familiar. (The first publication to include such pieces was a 1523 volume by Marco Antonio Cavazzoni, an organist active both as player and as singer in several Venetian churches, including St. Mark’s.) Andrea Gabrieli issued a whole book of Canzoni alla francese per sonar sopra stromenti da tasti (“French-type songs for playing on keyboard instruments”) in 1571: it contains arrangements of chansons by Janequin, Lasso, and others (see Ex. 18-14a). By the end of the century, however, the “canzona” (for some reason turned into a feminine noun; the normal Italian word for “song” is canzone) had become an independent instrumental genre more or less modeled on the style and structure of the chanson, even taking over its typical “pseudodactylic” opening rhythm as a trademark. The earliest books of independent organ canzonas were published by Claudio Merulo, a now retired organist who had once beaten the elder Gabrieli out for the plum St. Mark’s post (see Ex. 18-14b).

Citation (MLA):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 18 Reformations and Counter Reformations." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 5 Dec. 2022. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume1/actrade-9780195384819-div1-018007.xml>.

Citation (APA):

Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 18 Reformations and Counter Reformations. In Oxford University Press, Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 5 Dec. 2022, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume1/actrade-9780195384819-div1-018007.xml

Citation (Chicago):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 18 Reformations and Counter Reformations." In Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 5 Dec. 2022, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume1/actrade-9780195384819-div1-018007.xml