Music in the Renaissance
by Gustave Reese
Period: Renaissance
Born: Monday, October 8, 1551 in Tivoli, Italy
Died: Monday, December 10, 1618 in Florence,
Italy
Nation of Origin: Italy
Major Works:
The opera Euridice
Operas, songs, and choral works
He is famous for Le nuove musiche (New Music) of 1602 which
illustrated the new monodic style of the early Baroque with
canzonets and madrigals.
Other Information:
Caccini bridges the Renaissance and Baroque eras. His music
represents an emphasis on monody (solo vocal music with harmonic
accompaniment) instead of the Renaissance ideal of four equal
voices in counterpoint. In addition to composing, Caccini was known
as a singer, lutenist, and an excellent gardner. He worked in
Florence for Cosimo I de' Medici around 1565. There he associated
with a group of poets and musicians organized by Count Giovanni de
Bardi (1534-1612) and the Italian nobleman Jacopo Corsi
(1561-1602). This group is known as the Florentine Camerata. They
met in the homes of aristocrats in Florence between 1573 and 1590.
The chief products of this group were the first operas in music
history and an expressive monodic style called stile
rappresentativo.
General Bibliography:
Kennedy, Michael, The Oxford Dictionary of
Music, Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition, 1997, ISBN:
0198691629
Reese, Gustave, Music in the Renaissance, W.W. Norton &
Company; November 1959, ISBN: 0393095304
Sachs, Curt, The Rise of Music in the Ancient World , W. W.
Norton & Company, 1943, ASIN: 0393097188
Sadie, Stanley and Tyrrell, John; Editors, The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Groves Dictionaries, Inc.,
January 2001, ISBN: 1561592390
Slonimsky, Nicolas and Kuhn, Laura; Editors,
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Gale Group,
December 2000, ISBN: 0028655257
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