Jacopo Peri

Jacopo Peri ( born August 20, 1561 Rome, † August 12, 1633 in Florence, nicknamed Il Zazzerino, the Long-haired / Shaggy ) was an Italian composer.

Jacopo Peri, one of the pioneers of the Opera. He received his first musical instruction from Cristofano Malvezzi. Soon he was known as a good singer and organist, so that he was invited by many nobles to festivals and performances. 1587 made ​​him the princely family of the Medici, and from 1591 Peri was there Kapellmeister, the " dirrettore della Musia e di Musiche ". He was here at the court appreciated so much that he had to fulfill special missions very soon.

Monody and basso continuo

Peris time was the time of the new monody and basso continuo music. This new type or form of the accompaniment of a keyboard or lute instrument was the song that made ​​the word and its meaning of course, a solid support. In the house of Count Giovanni de ' Bardi from the family of the Counts of Vernio in Florence this new music was particularly well maintained. Bardi loved especially the antiquity and the music, his attention was the ancient tragedies. His house became the center of the most productive studies, especially in musical matters. It met here noblemen, poets and musicians; a select circle was born, the Camerata Fiorentina called. This circuit also belonged to Jacopo Peri. By type of learned societies that time, she led the philosophy of art talks, and from it emerged crucial suggestions and attempts to call the lost style of the ancient tragedy to life. Efforts to renew the ancient music, now lay at all in the air. By the reprinting of the ancient theorists, interest had already been piqued in the late 16th century.

Emergence of the Opera

But the poets and musicians of the Camerata Fiorentina did not write operas. Their idea was the revival of ancient dramas - an idea that decency during the Renaissance and humanism well. They knew that the Greek drama associated with music, they knew that this music had been unanimously. What was more, than the ancient materials with the new monody to connect? That was the end of the core of what they have done. However, from this experiment, from an experiment, then, a new art form was created - the opera.

In the spring of 1598 the work was during Carnival at the home of Jacopo Corsi listed, which is now generally regarded as the first opera of music history: " La Dafne favola drammatica " dramatic fairy tale in a prologue and six scenes. The text to the poet Ottavio Rinuccini wrote. Corsi even had some of the text songs composed to define its intentions, but transferred the completion of the opera Jacopo Peri. The music of this opera has been lost. Two fragments of a copy exists in the library of the Conservatory of Brussels.

On October 6, 1600, the pompous wedding of Henry IV of France was celebrated with the Princess Maria de ' Medici in Florence. On this occasion the opera " L' Euridice favola drammatica " dramatic tale was played in a prologue and six scenes in the Palazzo Pitti. The text was in turn by Rinuccini and music by Peri. However, Peri writes in his preface to this opera that parts of the music by Giulio Caccini came.

The third Peri 's opera "La Flora o vero Il Natal de ' Fiori "; it was also listed on October 11, 1628 at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence on the occasion of the wedding of the Duke of Parma Farnese ODOARDO with the Princess Margherita of Toscana.

The styles Nuovo

The nuovo styles that accompanied monody, was the invention of the Italian Renaissance music at the turn of the 16th to the 17th century. However, it was previously long been available, known and has been exercised. The whole secular music of the 14th and 15th century is indeed been a literature of accompanied canto, in our opinion. Much of this literature is accompanied strophic song: the elements of the later cantata were thus in principle already exists. Much of what has been written in the lyrical territory in this new style is not preserved. But obtaining the lyrical pieces of the two local composers of the Camerata Fiorentina: the Nuove of Giulio Caccini Musiche and Jacopo Peri, whose origin dates back proven quite far into the 16th century.

The recitative

The fundamentally new about this style nuovo is the recitative, whose harmony is limited to a few basic chords, and the bass moves little. The voices sing as good as non-stop without being interrupted by instruments. Individual songs have closed form, choirs and dance are final madrigal default. Peri is free and pathetic as Caccini. The few accompanying instruments are limited to harpsichord and lutes.

Peri has left a collection strophic poems, " Le Varie Musiche ", 1609, which are composed in the form of recitatives and solo madrigals in the new monodic style.

What the composer had begun from among the Camerata Fiorentina, took over, expanded and completed another great Claudio Monteverdi. From then on, the opera of Florence in Italy and quickly spread throughout Europe, and it should retain its importance for more than three hundred years.

Works

• " La Dafne favola drammatica " dramatic fairy tale in a prologue and six scenes
• " L' Euridice favola drammatica " dramatic fairy tale in a prologue and six scenes
• " La Flora o vero Il Natale dei Fiori "
• " Le Varie Musiche " a 1,2 e 3 voci con alcuni spirituali (1609 )