Caccini: Amarilli mia bella

A new style! A solo voice singing “passionately” over a simple accompaniment. That may not sound so innovative, but it was a radical departure from the complex multi-voiced polyphony of the late Renaissance. Giulio Caccini (1551-1618) helped to chart the path into the Baroque era and into that new form of staged drama that we now call opera.

Caccini belonged to a group of artists and intellectuals known as the Florentine Camerata, which sought to revive Greek drama and return to the musical styles of the ancient Greece. They succeeded in many things, although a return to authentic styles of Greek music was not one of them. They may not have gotten it right in terms of ancient Greece, but they got it right in many other respects.

Caccini’s melodies and harmonies fit what we tend to listen for in songs today. You find a clear, predominant melodic line. The tonal system (major and minor) is taking shape. The singer would typically improvise various ornaments or embellishments to the melody to enhance the emotion. This, of course, continues as well in many of today’s pop styles, each with its own collection of standard ornaments.

Out of all this would come in 1607 the first opera: Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi. Caccini would also write operas (setting tales of Greek mythology). But his songs have become his most important works, especially the 1602 collection Le nuove musiche, from which Amarilli mia bella is taken. The text and English translation can be found here.