The Chamber Cantatas Of Antonio Vivaldi

Detailed survey of Vivaldi's unjustly neglected chamber cantatas, showing them to stand comparison with his more famous works. Vivaldi's chamber cantatas for solo voice, some forty in total, are steadily gaining in popularity: but because of their relatively small place in the oeuvre of a composer famed for his productivity, and also on account of the general scholarly neglect of their genre, they are little discussed in the literature. This book comprehensively explores their literary and musical background, their relation to the composer's biography, the chronology of their composition, and their musical qualities. Each cantata is discussed individually, but there is also a broader consideration of aspects concerning them collectively, such as performance practice, topical allusion, and the conventions of Italian verse. The author argues that while Vivalid's cantatas are not as innovative as his concertos and operas, he produced several masterpieces in the genre that rank with his best music. MICHAEL TALBOT is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool.

Vivaldi's chamber cantatas for solo voice, some forty in total, are steadily gaining in popularity: but because of their relatively small place in the oeuvre of a composer famed for his productivity, and also on account of the general scholarly neglect of their genre, they are little discussed in the literature. This book comprehensively explores their literary and musical background, their relation to the composer's biography, the chronology of their composition, and their musical qualities. Each cantata is discussed individually, but there is also a broader consideration of aspects concerning them collectively, such as performance practice, topical allusion, and the conventions of Italian verse. The author argues that while Vivalid's cantatas are not as innovative as his concertos and operas, he produced several masterpieces in the genre that rank with his best music. MICHAEL TALBOT is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool.

The Vivaldi Compendium represents the latest in Vivaldi research, drawing on the author's close involvement with Vivaldi and Venetian music over four decades.

Book URL: https://www.areditions.com/rr/rrb/b172.html The six cantatas included in this edition are the sole surviving compositions of Girolamo Polani. Born in the Venetian state ca. 1670, Polani joined the cappella of San Marco, Venice, in 1689 as a soprano. Between 1700 and 1717 he was also active as a composer for the Venetian stage, once crossing swords with Vivaldi. In 1717 he came to Britain, where he remained¿or at least stayed for long periods¿during the rest of his poorly documented life. He was in the service of Lady Grisell Baillie as a music master in 1735¿36. It was in Britain around the same time that he produced his cantatas: a set of six concise scores for soprano and continuo preserved in the British Library. These remarkably fine works, which manage to combine galant elements with traditional counterpoint in an original way, are testimonies to the Indian summer that the Italian chamber cantata enjoyed on British soil during the period of Handel¿s operas.

As shown by the ever-increasing volume of recordings, editions and performances of the vast repertory of secular cantatas for solo voice produced, primarily in Italy, in the second half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century, this long neglected genre has at last 'come of age'. However, scholarly interest is currently lagging behind musical practice: incredibly, there has been no general study of the Baroque cantata since Eugen Schmitz's handbook of 1914, and although many academic theses have examined microscopically the cantatas of individual composers, there has been little opportunity to view these against the broader canvas of the genre as a whole. The contributors in this volume choose aspects of the cantata relevant to their special interests in order to say new things about the works, whether historical, analytical, bibliographical, discographical or performance-based. The prime focus is on Italian-born composers working between 1650 and 1750 (thus not Handel), but the opportunity is also taken in one chapter (by Graham Sadler) to compare the French cantata tradition with its Italian parent in association with a startling new claim regarding the intended instrumentation. Many key figures are considered, among them Tomaso Albinoni, Giovanni Bononcini, Giovanni Legrenzi, Benedetto Marcello, Alessandro Scarlatti, Alessandro Stradella, Leonardo Vinci and Antonio Vivaldi. The poetic texts of the cantatas, all too often treated as being of little intrinsic interest, are given their due weight. Space is also found for discussions of the history of Baroque solo cantatas on disc and of the realization of the continuo in cantata arias - a topic more complex and contentious than may at first be apparent. The book aims to stimulate interest in, and to win converts to, this genre, which in its day equalled the instrumental sonata in importance, and in which more than a few composers invested a major part of their creativity.

During the first decade of the eighteenth century, a new generation of Italian composers brought the latest styles to a Vienna lagging behind the musical innovations that were occurring in cities such as Venice, Rome, and Naples. Among the intrepid individuals to join the Habsburg court was the north Italian composer Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677–1726). When Antonio began his service to the Habsburg emperor, he was still a young and little-known composer, but it was in Vienna that he distinguished himself as one of his generation’s most gifted composers of dramatic vocal music. The six cantatas by Antonio Bononcini found in this edition, from the Viennese manuscript A-Wn, Mus.Hs.17607, are written for soprano or alto with strings, and the string instrumentation is unique in specifying two of the violins and the violoncello as di concerto (that is, concertino), and two violins and double bass as di concerto grosso (that is, ripieno). These cantatas represent the new Italian style that flourished at the imperial Viennese court of Emperor Joseph I. Through their innovative use of form, design features, affective harmony, melody, and rhythm, they demonstrate that, although Antonio’s cantata output is much smaller than that of his more famous brother Giovanni, his compositional style reveals a composer of superior craftsmanship and imagination.

"The book combines theory and practice, discussing the theoretical aspects and practical realization of the arrangement of tonal space in terms of their contemporary reception. Brover-Lubovsky's approach is therefore directed toward a study of the musical repertory mapped onto the canvas of contemporary musical thought, including theory, pedagogy, reception, and aesthetics. Tonal Space in the Music of Antonio Vivaldi is a substantial contribution to a better understanding of Vivaldi's individual style, while illuminating wider processes of stylistic development and of the diffusion of artistic ideas in the eighteenth century."--BOOK JACKET.

During the first decade of the eighteenth century, a new generation of Italian composers brought the latest styles to a Vienna lagging behind the musical innovations that were occurring in cities such as Venice, Rome, and Naples. Among the intrepid individuals to join the Habsburg court was the north Italian composer Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677–1726). When Antonio began his service to the Habsburg emperor, he was still a young and little-known composer, but it was in Vienna that he distinguished himself as one of his generation’s most gifted composers of dramatic vocal music. The six cantatas by Antonio Bononcini found in this edition, from the Viennese manuscript A-Wn, Mus.Hs.17587, represent the new Italian style that flourished at the imperial Viennese court of Emperor Joseph I. Through their innovative use of form, design features, and affective harmony, melody, and rhythm, they demonstrate that, although Antonio’s cantata output is much smaller than that of his more famous brother Giovanni, his compositional style reveals a composer of superior craftsmanship and imagination.