MADRIGALS AND ARIAS REDUX

Chapter:

CHAPTER 19 Pressure of Radical Humanism

Source:

MUSIC FROM THE EARLIEST NOTATIONS TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

Author(s):

Richard Taruskin

For a closer look at the early printed artifacts of the “revolution,” the most expedient way to proceed will be in reverse chronological order, which in this case produces an order of increasing size and complexity of genre. Caccini’s Nuove musiche, which may contain songs composed (or, possibly, first improvised) decades earlier at meetings of the Camerata, amounts to a sort of showcase displaying the basic elements or raw materials out of which the early continuously musical plays and “representations” were fashioned. Indeed, it contains bits of Caccini’s own larger spectacles, including four arias and two choruses from a musical play called Il rapimento di Cefalo (“The jealousy of Cephalus,” after Ovid), which had furnished the main entertainment for the same Medici wedding pomp as witnessed the unveiling of Peri’s Euridice.

Citation (MLA):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 19 Pressure of Radical Humanism." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2025. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume1/actrade-9780195384819-div1-019006.xml>.

Citation (APA):

Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 19 Pressure of Radical Humanism. In Oxford University Press, Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 27 Apr. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume1/actrade-9780195384819-div1-019006.xml

Citation (Chicago):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 19 Pressure of Radical Humanism." In Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 27 Apr. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume1/actrade-9780195384819-div1-019006.xml