Air de Cour

Music ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bane

The air de cour (courtly song) is a genre of secular vocal music produced in France during the late 16th and first half of the 17th century. The term first appeared in a collection of twenty-two solo vocal pieces with lute accompaniment published in Paris in 1571 by Adrian Le Roy. Le Roy stated that the origins of the new genre lay in the courtly appropriation of a popular vocal form, the vaudeville, and contrasted its lightness and simplicity with the “arduous” chansons of Orlande de Lassus. These and subsequent airs de cour are marked by brief, usually bipartite forms, limited vocal ranges, homophonic textures, strophic texts, syllabic text settings, and the elevated, serious tone of poetry. Unlike Le Roy’s airs, however, most 16th-century examples are for four or five voices without lute accompaniment. Some also exhibit rhythmic features suggestive of musique mesurée à l’antique. The genre peaked in both production and popularity during the reign of Louis XIII (1610–1643). Many of the era’s preeminent composers contributed to the genre, including Pierre Guédron, Antoine Boësset, and Étienne Moulinié. Airs de cour of the 17th century appeared in three forms, all published by the Ballard firm: four- or five-voice polyphony; arrangements of polyphonic airs de cour for solo voice with lute or guitar accompaniment (the most popular form); and solo voice without accompaniment of any kind. The poetic texts of airs de cour are usually anonymous, and they most often treat themes of love with a limited and precious vocabulary then current among courtly circles. A number of 17th-century editors also produced sacred parodies of popular airs de cour. Amateur musicians were the primary audience of airs de cour, but professional singers performed them as well, often with improvised ornaments and diminutions. Around mid-century the air de cour began to lose ground to new vocal genres in France, in particular the air sérieux, which featured more regular meters and basso continuo accompaniment intended for theorbo or harpsichord. Despite its disappearance from French music publishing, the reserved melodies, conservative harmony, and poetic language forged in the air de cour continued to undergird French vocal music throughout the 17th century and into the 18th. This bibliography limits itself to the air de cour proper, excluding both the air sérieux and the minor vocal genres (such as the chanson à boire, chanson à danser, and récit de ballet) contemporaneous with the air de cour.

2020 ◽  
pp. 107-119
Author(s):  
М.Е. Гирфанова

Известный немецкий теоретик музыки XVII века Вольфганг Каспар Принц в труде „Historische Beschreibung der edelen Sing- und Kling-Kunst“ («Историческое описание благородного искусства вокальной и инструментальной музыки», 1690) назвал Генриха Шютца, Иоганна Германа Шейна и Самуэля Шейдта тремя лучшими композиторами их времени в Германии. Композиторское письмо двух из упомянутых Принцем персон, Шейна и Шейдта, остается малоизученным в отечественном музыкознании. В статье рассматривается малая имитационная форма в хоральных концертах Шейдта из собрания „Geistliche Concerte“ («Духовные концерты»), четыре части которого были опубликованы в 1631, 1634, 1635 и 1640 годах. Тридцатилетняя война (1618–1648), непосредственно коснувшаяся Шейдта, стала причиной обращения композитора к разновидности вокального духовного концерта для небольшого состава, включающего несколько вокальных голосов (в концертах Шейдта это, как правило, три партии) и бассо континуо. Исследуются тексто-музыкальные единицы, образующиеся на основе строки или сегмента строки хорала и становящиеся материалом для имитации, раскрываются особенности имитационной техники, выявляется связь свободной части малой имитационной формы с типом обработки — Cantionalsatz, типологизируются структуры, различающиеся порядком поступления материала строки в малую имитационную форму. В конце статьи прослеживаются изменения, которые претерпевает малая имитационная форма в хоральных концертах по сравнению с хоральными мотетами из первого собрания вокальной музыки Шейдта “Cantiones sacrae” («Священные песнопения», 1620). The famous German music theorist of the 17th century, Wolfgang Caspar Printz, in his work „Historische Beschreibung der edelen Sing- und Kling-Kunst“ (“Historical Description of the Noble Art of Vocal and Instrumental Music”, 1690) named Heinrich Schütz, Johann Hermann Schein and Samuel Scheidt as the three best composers of their time in Germany, the compositional technique of two of them, Schein and Scheidt, remaining poorly studied in Russian musicology. The article examines the small imitation form in Scheidt’s chorale concertos from the „Geistliche Concerte“ (“Sacred Concertos”) collection, four parts of which were published in 1631, 1634, 1635 and 1640. The Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), which directly affected Scheidt, caused the composer to turn to a kind of vocal sacred concerto for a small cast, including few voices (in Scheidt’s concertos, these are, as a rule, three parts) and basso continuo in the organ. The textual-and-musical units that are formed on the basis of a chorale line or a segment of a line and become the material for imitation are investigated; the features of the imitation technique are revealed; a connection of the free part with the type of arrangement — Cantionalsatz, is established, mapping the structures that differ in the order in which the line material arrives in the small imitation form. At the end of the article, the changes are traced that the small imitation form has undergone in chorale concertos in comparison with chorale motets from Scheidt’s first collection of vocal music “Cantiones sacrae” (“Sacred chants”, 1620).


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Orlando Fraga

Three central features of Baroque music encompass a large portion of questions about the performance of this particular repertory: its improvisatory aspect, the use of basso continuo, and the instrumental color and variety. Teorbo and lute solos, aside of playing a role as a continuo, filled in the intermissions of oratorios in Italy since late 17th century, while organ concertos provided the same function for English oratorios in the early 18th century. It is from Handel's early period ‒ his first trip to Italy in 1707 ‒ that teorbo and archiliuto start to appear in his vocal music. Handel employed either the teorbo or archiliuto (or simply liuto) in twelve vocal works and in one instrumental Ouverture.  A complete examination of the circumstances that involve this particular aspect of Handel's music is the subject this paper.  


Author(s):  
Anna Strode

Soon after the Protestant Reformation took place in Livonia in the 16th century, the currents of European humanism came to Livonia. As a result of the historical and religious impact, the level of education increased, enabling an environment for the development of the literature. Soon various Latin poetry texts int. al. 17th-century occasional poetry written by the humanists of Riga started to appear. The aim of the article is to bring to light the components of nuptial (epithalamium, ὑμέναιος/hymenaeus, carmen nuptialis, etc.) poetry written in Riga in the 17th century, as well as by exploring the specific features of occasional poetry to capture readers’ and researchers’ interest in the previously undiscovered cultural heritage. At the beginning of the article, the tradition of nuptial poetry is explained. Then, by examining the basic principles one must take into account in composing occasional poetry based on works of the ancient rhetors – Menander (Μένανδρος Ῥήτωρ, c. 3rd century), pseudo-Dionysius (pseudo-Dionysius/Διονύσιος), Himerius (Ἱμέριος, c. 315–c. 386) and the book “Seven Books on Poetry” (Poetices libri septem, 1561) written by Italian humanist Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558) – a table of the most used topics in nuptial poetry is formed. Afterwards, the poetry written in Riga and its most typical components (didactics, laudation, inducement, foresight, wishes/congratulations and prayers) is compared to the topics offered by previously mentioned theoreticians. Fragments of Latin nuptial poetry written in Riga are included to portray the components of poetry more clearly. All translations of poetry included in the article are made by the author of the article.


2020 ◽  
Vol 147 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-163
Author(s):  
Kirsten Dzwiza

SummaryThere are only a few sequences of ancient magic signs known to us today that have been preserved on multiple artefacts. A previously unnoticed sequence of 17 signs on a gem in the Museum of Fine Arts in Vienna occurs with minor but significant variations on two other gems in the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich. The Viennese gem is dated to the 16th century and is documented as a drawing in a 17th century publication. The first Munich gem has been assigned to the Graeco-Roman period. The second gem, which, according to the inventory card of the museum, also belongs to the Graeco-Roman period, is published here for the first time. A comparative study of the three gems and the drawing has lead to a number of new findings, including the re-dating of the Munich gems.


10.31022/b222 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco da Gagliano

Marco da Gagliano's Quinto libro de madrigali a cinque voci was published in October 1608, a little less than two years after his previous book. It contains fourteen madrigals for five voices and one for seven, all composed by Gagliano. The poets represented include Giambattista Marino, Giovanbattista Strozzi, both the older and the younger, Cosimo Galletti, and Ottavio Rinuccini. The madrigals of book 5 are quite varied in their style and their treatment of text. Many are light and remarkably concise, like the canzonetta-influenced madrigals of the Quarto libro, and most often set text syllabically to shorter rhythmic values in motives that alternate between homophony (or near homophony) and polyphony, imitative or nonimitative. Some, however, set poetry very differently. A three-part setting of a Marino sonnet, for instance, is filled with virtuoso melisma, probably intended for the professional singers of the Medici court. Book 5 also includes a concertato madrigal for seven singers and basso continuo that bears the prescriptive direction “per cantare e sonare” (for voices and instruments) in the basso partbook. Although there is no notational indication of instruments, the basso part lacks text for several measures, and it is likely that it was performed with improvised chords on an instrument. The book also contains two threnodies for Count Cammillo della Gheradesca that are in a somber and more traditional polyphony and contrast with the rest of the book's contents.


2021 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-27
Author(s):  
Sara Matrisciano ◽  
Franz Rainer

All major Romance languages have patterns of the type jaune paille for expressing shades of colour represented by some prototypical object. The first constituent of this pattern is a colour term, while the second one designates a prototypical representative of the colour shade. The present paper starts with a short discussion of the controversial grammatical status of this pattern and its constituents. Its main aim, however, concerns the origin and diffusion of this pattern. We have not found hard and fast evidence that Medieval Italian pigment compounds of the type verderame influenced the rise of the jaune paille pattern, which first appears in French in the 16th century. This pattern continued to be a minority solution during the 17th century, but established itself during the 18th century. In the 19th century, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese adopted the pattern jaune paille, while it did not reach Catalan and Romanian before the 20th century.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Megan Ward

<p>Writers on 18th-century musical ornamentation have traditionally focused on the execution of notated ornaments, and on certain disputes arising from ambiguous and contradictory primary sources. Less attention has been given to the addition of ornaments where not prescribed by the composer. Such ornaments can be short, defined, patterns such as trills, turns, and mordents, or larger measured or unmeasured additions known as diminutions, divisions, or passaggi.  Additions of this nature are only in the rarest of cases compulsory. However, the practice of more or less spontaneous embellishment by the performer was so integral to pre-19th-century musical culture that this must have had a significant effect on composition.  The scope of this thesis is loosely defined by its titular composers, covering the period between Georg Muffat‟s later publications in the last years of the 17th century and G.P. Telemann‟s death in 1767. Both lived and worked in the German states, a region which had traditionally looked to Italian models of composition and performance. This period saw a flowering of German composition into its own unique and diverse genre which integrated aspects of various styles, most prominently Italian and French music.  This thesis centres on stringed instruments, but is directly relevant to woodwind players. Many aspects are also transferrable to the keyboard and to vocal music; however, these musicians will find a large volume of more targeted research elsewhere.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 11-41
Author(s):  
Maciej Ziemierski

17th century testaments of the Królik family from Krakow The article is dedicated to the Królik family from Krakow, who lived in the town from the late 16th century until the first years of the 18th century. The family members initially worked as tailors, later reinforcing the group of Krakow merchants in the third generation (Maciej Królik). Wojciech Królik – from the fourth generation – was a miner in Olkusz. The text omits the most distinguished member of the family, Wojciech’s oldest brother, the Krakow councillor Mikołaj Królik, whose figure has been covered in a separate work. The work shows the complicated religious relations in the family of non-Catholics, initially highly engaged in the life of the Krakow Congregation, but whose members gradually converted from Evangelism to Catholicism. As a result, Wojciech Królik and his siblings became Catholics. This work is complemented by four testaments of family members, with the first, Jakub Królik’s, being written in 1626 and the last one, Wojciech Królik’s, written in 1691.


Author(s):  
Elwira Buszewicz

The main aim of this paper is to analyze several early-modern Neo-Latin poems written by Polish authors; the poems deal (in different ways) with old age. The poets undertake a kind of intertextual game with the reader, applying various stereotypes and clichés. On can speak about a “semiotic landscape” of old age. The authors taken into consideration are Jan Kochanowski, Grzegorz of Sambor, Thomas Treter (16th century) and Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, Albert Ines (17th century).


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