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Musical Fire: Literal and Figurative Moments of "Fire" as Expressed in Western Art Music from 1700 to 1750 Sean M. Parr

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THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC

MUSICAL FIRE: LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE MOMENTS OF “FIRE” AS EXPRESSED IN WESTERN ART MUSIC FROM 1700 TO 1750

by Sean M. Parr

A Thesis submitted to the School of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music

Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2003

The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Sean M. Parr defended on August 20, 2003.

________________________ Charles E. Brewer Professor Directing Thesis

________________________ Jeffery Kite-Powell Committee Member

________________________ Roy Delp Committee Member

The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Musical Examples...................................................................................................iv Abstract................................................................................................................................v

1. MUSIC, AFFECT, AND FIRE.......................................................................................1 2. KINDLING FIRE: MONTEVERDI AND THE STILE CONCITATO........................19 3. THE FLAMES OF FRANCE AND GERMANY........................................................36 4. INFLAMED WITH PASSION: ITALY AND ENGLAND.......................................55 5. BEYOND THE BAROQUE TRAILBLAZERS..........................................................79

BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................................................87 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.............................................................................................90

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LIST OF EXAMPLES 1.1 Morley “Fyer, fyer!” 1595..........................................................................................18 2.1 Monteverdi “Luci serene” 1603..................................................................................22 2.2 Monteverdi “Quell’augellin che canta” 1603.............................................................23 2.3 Monteverdi from Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda 1624..............................24 2.4 Monteverdi from Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda 1624..............................25 2.5 Handel from Jephtha 1751.........................................................................................26 2.6 Schütz from Historia der Auferstehung 1623.............................................................29 2.7 Lully from Atys 1676..................................................................................................30 2.8 Lully from Atys 1676..................................................................................................31 2.9 H. Purcell “Let the dreadful engines of eternal will” 1696.........................................34 2.10 H. Purcell “Let the dreadful engines of eternal will” 1696........................................35 2.11 H. Purcell “Let the dreadful engines of eternal will” 1696........................................35 3.1 Rameau from Scene 5 of Pygmalion 1748.................................................................38 3.2 Rameau from Act II, Scene 3 of Platée 1745.............................................................39 3.3 Rameau from Act III, Scene 1 of Platée 1745............................................................40 3.4 Rameau from Act III, Scene 7 of Platée 1745............................................................41 3.5 Royer Le Vertigo 1746................................................................................................43 3.6 Rebel “Le chaos” from Les Eléments 1737-8.............................................................45 3.7 Rebel “Le feu” from Les Eléments 1737-8.................................................................46 3.8 J.S. Bach from first movement of O ewiges Feuer, Cantata No. 34 1746-7..............47 3.9 J.S. Bach “Sind Blitze” from Matthäus-Passion 1727 ......................................49-50 3.10 Telemann No. 4 from Die Donner Ode 1756…........................................................51 3.11 Telemann No. 5 from Die Donner Ode 1756............................................................52 3.12 Telemann No. 6 from Die Donner Ode 1756............................................................53 4.1 A. Scarlatti No. 67 from La principessa fedele 1709.................................................57 4.2 A. Scarlatti No. 62 from La Statira 1690...................................................................58 4.3 D. Scarlatti “Inflammatus et accensus” from Stabat Mater 1713-1719.....................60 4.4 Pergolesi “Fac ut ardeat” from Stabat Mater 1730-1736................................62-63 4.5 Vivaldi “Armatae face” from Juditha Triumphans 1716...........................................65 4.6 Vivaldi first movement of “Summer” from Le Quattro Stagioni 1730s....................66 4.7 Vivaldi second movement of “Summer” from Le Quattro Stagioni 1730s................67 4.8 Vivaldi third movement of “Summer” from Le Quattro Stagioni 1730s...........…....68 4.9 Eccles from Act III, Scene 1 of Semele 1707............................................................71 4.10 Eccles from Act III, Scene 6 of Semele 1707...........................................................71 4.11 Eccles from Act III, Scene 4 of Semele 1707...........................................................72 4.12 Eccles from Act III, Scene 7 of Semele 1707...........................................................72 4.13 Pepusch “By great Cecilia” from The Union of the Three Sister Arts 1723..........74 4.14 Handel “Why do the nations” from Messiah 1742...................................................76 4.15 Handel “But who may abide” from Messiah 1742...................................................77 5.1 Weber final section of Max’s aria from Der Freischütz 1821...................................84

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ABSTRACT

This thesis will describe the quality of musical fire and how the representation of fire in music began and progressed during the Baroque period. In addition to hearing beautiful sonorities, experiencing a visceral thrill is one of the basic aesthetics that makes music such an affecting art in Western culture. For the purposes of this thesis, I will define a “musical fire moment” as a musical passage in which the composer’s language elicits the quality of some fiery context. These contexts will be defined in this thesis. In music of the Baroque period, I consider fire to be an affect which is utilized by composers to attain moments of heightened, fire-like intensity. There are certain musical works which have texts, characters, or titles including the actual word, “fire,” or related words, such as “burn,” “flame,” etc. Composers set such words in different ways in attempting to reflect the appropriate dramatic meaning or emotion musically. These techniques usually yield feelings of excitement, heightened intensity, and/or agitation in the listener. Clearly, such feelings are not limited to vocal music. Purely instrumental music can and does similarly affect listeners. However, these instrumental fiery moments are not as immediately evident without the word cues of fiery moments in vocal music. Nevertheless, one can certainly feel moments of musical “fire” in high intensity moments in pieces such as the “Summer” concerto of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The origins of the musical expression of fire lie in the stile concitato of Monteverdi and the generally rhetorical approach to the expression of passion in music during the Baroque period. Early representations of fire represented in music show that a key fire-like word was more often painted by itself rather than presented as an affect lasting for an entire section of a piece. By the late Baroque, fire is presented more affectively, in complete sections, movements, and entire arias. This thesis will propose a framework which will serve to categorize musical examples of fiery affect.

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CHAPTER 1 MUSIC, AFFECT, AND FIRE

Introduction During particularly dramatic musical moments performers often feel their eyes widen with intensity. At the same time members of the audience feel their skin tingle with anxiety and excitement. Personally identifying such a feeling is much easier than writing about moments that cause such visceral responses. However, the study of music requires that we describe these moments in prose. Why do critics often describe performances and pieces as “fiery”? When did such intensely affective music become commonplace? This thesis will describe the quality of such musical fire and how the representation of fire in music began and progressed during the Baroque period. In addition to hearing beautiful sonorities, experiencing a visceral thrill is one of the basic aesthetics that makes music such an affecting art in Western culture. For the purposes of this thesis, I will define a “musical fire moment” as a musical passage in which the composer’s language elicits the quality of some fiery context. These contexts will be defined in this chapter. In music of the Baroque period, I consider fire to be an affect which is utilized by composers to attain moments of heightened, fire-like intensity. There are certain musical works which have texts, characters, or titles including the actual word, “fire,” or related words, such as “burn,” “flame,” etc. Composers set such words in different ways in attempting to reflect the appropriate dramatic meaning or emotion musically. These techniques usually yield feelings of excitement, heightened intensity, and/or agitation in the listener. Clearly, such feelings are not limited to vocal music. Purely instrumental music can and does similarly affect listeners. However, these instrumental fiery moments are not as immediately evident without the word cues of fiery moments in vocal music.

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Nevertheless, one can certainly feel moments of musical “fire” in high intensity moments in pieces such as the “Summer” concerto of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The idea of fire in the Baroque period should also be considered in relation to Baroque psychology. Artists and philosophers were quite interested in the “passions of the soul.”1 They were preoccupied with representing various extreme feelings, such as the ecstasy of loving and knowing God and the sorrowful depths of mourning the loss of a loved one. Just as portrait artists strove for “verisimilitude – the semblance of reality” in representing faces, so too do Baroque composers attempt to depict the passions musically as naturally and realistically as possible.2 Early representations of fire in music show that a key fire-like word was more often painted by itself rather than presented as an affect lasting for an entire section of a piece. By the late Baroque, fire is presented more affectively, in complete sections, movements, and entire arias. This chapter will first describe the musical context of the high Baroque (1700-1750), considering affect, rhetoric, and aesthetics, in addition to describing the quality and emotional affect of fire in music further. Then the concept of fire as an affect in a variety of contexts will be discussed. Finally, I will propose a framework which will serve to categorize musical examples of fiery affect in subsequent chapters. Baroque Affect, Rhetoric, and Aesthetics In determining fire as an affect, it is important to define what the role of an affect actually entails. Affects are “rationalized emotional states or passions.”3 The concept of representing a passion in music as an affect is rooted in Greek and Latin doctrines of oratory and rhetoric. Writers and orators such as Aristotle and Cicero used rhetorical devices to “control and direct the emotions of their audiences.”4 In many Baroque treatises on music, such as Jochim Burmeister’s Musica poetica (Rostock, 1606), this

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John Rupert Martin. Baroque. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1977, 13. Martin, 91. 3 George J. Buelow. “Affects, theory of the.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. New York: Macmillan, 2001, 1:181. 4 Ibid. 2

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rhetorical concept directly applied to music, as the composer uses musical-rhetorical devices to move the listener in a manner similar to impassioned oratory.5 Indeed, rhetorical concepts serve as the basis of most compositional theory and practice during the Baroque period. Baroque music endeavored to attain a “musical expression of words comparable to impassioned rhetoric.”6 During the Baroque period composers sought to paint affects that expressed the texts being set to music. Sections of arias or movements of programmatic works most often expressed only one affect, which followed the inherent meaning of the text. The painting of words with musical figuration of one or more of the elements of music such as pitch level and interval, dynamics, rhythm, timbre, articulation, harmony, imitation, and repetition often produces an overriding affect, especially when the meaning of the text implies a particular passion. Word painting has been employed throughout the history of Western art music. One rhetorical term, Hypotopsis, is particularly applicable to the subject of fire and affect. In Burmeister’s Musica poetica, Hypotopsis is described along with many other rhetorical terms with specific relation to musical figures. The rhetorical device consists of a large group of figures which all serve “to illustrate words or poetic ideas and frequently stressing the pictorial nature of the words.”7 Burmeister defines it as: De Hypotyposi. Hypotypsis est illud ornamentum, quo textus signification ita deumbratur ut ea, quae textui subsunt et animam vitamque non habent, vita esse praedita videantur. Hoc ornamentum usitatissimum est apud authenticos artifices.

Hypotopsis. Hypotopsis is that ornament whereby the sense of the text is so depicted that those matters contained in the text that are inanimate or lifeless seem to be brought to life. This ornament is very much in evidence among truly master composers.8

Affects such as anger, sadness, joy, and fire are all represented in music with figurations that fit into this rhetorical category.

5

George J. Buelow, Blake Wilson, and Peter A. Hoyt. “Rhetoric and music.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. New York: Macmillan, 2001, 21:262. 6 Ibid. 7 Buelow, “Rhetoric and music.” 267. 8 Joachim Burmeister. Musical Poetics. Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by Benito V. Rivera. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993, 174-5.

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Burmeister’s treatise details musical-rhetorical terms, giving examples of each. Burmeister seems to have used classical oratorical authorities, such as Cicero, in defining affect in music. In his De Inventione, Liber I (ca. 88 B.C.), Cicero wrote: Affectio est animi aut corporis ex tempore aliqua de causa commutatio, ut laetitia, cupiditas, metus, molestia, morbus, debilitas et alia quae in eodem genere reperiunter

Affect is a temporary change in body or spirit due to some cause, such as joy, desire, fear, vexation, illness, weakness, and others things which are found in the same category.9

Burmeister defines musical affect as: Affectio musica est in melodia vel in harmonia periodus clausula terminata, quae animos et corda hominum movet et afficit.

A musical affection is a period in a melody or in a harmonic piece, terminated by a cadence, which moves and stirs the hearts of men. 10

When describing his list of musical ornaments (figures or parts of speech), Burmeister qualifies his work, explaining that “their variety is known to be so wide and great among composers that it is hardly possible for us to determine their number.”11 Indeed, the beginning of the seventeenth century saw the addition of many innovations in the expression of text and affect in music, far beyond the Renaissance examples cited by Burmeister. While many German musicologists strove to create a consistent doctrine of affect, Affektenlehre, recent research has shown that Baroque theorists did not establish a single overarching theory of affect.12 Many theorists did attempt to classify affect in their treatises, examining the emotive connotations of musical figures, instrumentation, forms, and styles. Baroque theorists realized that the effort to base musical affect on impassioned rhetoric was a common element in the craft of most composers of the time. We cannot be sure that terminology was consistent in the various countries, but the fact that “musical-rhetorical emphases exist in their music cannot be questioned.”13 Regardless of nationality, most Baroque composers aimed to arouse focused emotional

9

Burmeister, xlix. Ibid. 11 Burmeister, 157. 12 Buelow, “Rhetoric and music.” 267. 13 Buelow, “Rhetoric and music.” 263. 10

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states, affects, in the listener. The musical representation of affect was “the aesthetic necessity of most Baroque composers.”14 This necessity is reflective of the state of philosophical thought during the time period. The concept of affect was greatly shaped by writings of seventeenth-century philosophers. René Descartes’s Les passions de l’âme (The passions of the soul, Amsterdam, 1649) is a work which may have most decisively influenced musical representation of the passions, because of Descartes’s rationalist, scientific notion of giving a physiological nature to the passions.15 The idea of affect pervaded all the arts as a result of this natural philosophy of the 1600s. Descartes confirmed earlier theoretical writings, such as those of Giulio Caccini, Michael Praetorius, and Charles Butler, which all referred to the moving of the affects of the soul.16 These earlier works described music’s power to arouse the passions in listeners. Descartes provided a rational, scientific explanation for the physiological nature of the passions, thereby giving philosophical reasoning for the listener’s physical response to musical sound intended to arouse an affect. Composers during the Baroque period used an intense painting of one passion to arouse that same passion in the audience. Subsequent composers continued using musical affect to express words and passions. Fire as Affect Most studied affects deal with concrete emotions or passions, such as intense sadness (a lament affect), joy, anger, and so forth. The idea of studying and labeling fire as an affect is new, and is both more broadly defined than the above passions, and also more focused as an affect deeply connected to textual indications, i.e., the word fire and its associated terms, such as “burn,” “flame,” etc. It is more broadly defined in the sense that the fire affect encompasses a variety of emotive contexts which include a mixture of passions. To avoid confusion, all examples in this document will have a clear textual relation to fire. This will focus fire as the affect because of the explicit text relation to the intense feeling elicited. Most passionate musical affects do not rely on explicit textual clues to be interpreted. One would easily deem Dido’s lament in Henry Purcell’s Dido

14

Buelow, “Rhetoric and music.” 269. Ibid. 16 Ibid. 15

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and Aeneas (1689) as portraying a sad affect, even without the textual inclusion of “sorrow” in the lyrics. Why, then, is fire to be considered an affect? The answer lies in the age-old connection between fire and emotion. Particularly excited emotions have historically been compared to fiery feeling. “Heated passion,” “ardent desire,” and “burning rage,” all are single emotions without the fiery adjective. With such a descriptor, the affect becomes a fire affect, a generally intensely felt, excited or agitated passion. To see that fire can indeed be viewed as an affect during the Baroque period, we only need to look at Descartes’s work on the passions. In Descartes’s writing on the passions of the soul, he explains five of the primitive passions (Love, Hatred, Desire, Joy, and Sadness) in terms of the excitations of the soul and the physiological cause. He connects all causes to variable actions of the heart. The heart is powered by a fire that is extinguished in death. The fire fluctuates in level (heartbeat, level of warmth, valve opening, etc.), controlled by a fine wind called animal spirits. Descartes describes this fire as essential to one’s very being: Art. 8. Quel est le principe de toutes ces fonctions.

What the principle of all these functions is.

. . . pendent que nous vivons il y a une chaleur continuelle en notre coeur, qui est une espèce de feu que le sang des veines y entretient, et que ce feu est le principe corporel de tous les mouvements de nos membres.

. . . while we live there is a continual heat in our heart, which is a species of fire that the venous blood maintains in it, and that this fire is the bodily principle of all the movements of our members. 17

Descartes states that the primitive passions are affected by the state of the heart and blood in characteristic ways. The fire in the heart helps to cause these passions through the movements and changes in the heart. For example, with Hatred, there is an accompanying “sharp and prickling heat”; with Joy a quicker pulse and pleasant warmth; with Desire “it agitates the heart more vigorously than any of the other Passions”; and with Love it excites a strong heat.18 Descartes’s notion of affect was very much in the minds of composers and theorists, as performer, composer, teacher, and theorist Johann Mattheson writes in his Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739):

17

René Descartes. The Passions of the Soul. Translated and Annotated by Stephen Voss. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1989, 23. 18 Descartes, The Passions of the Soul. 72-74.

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Die Lehre von den Temperamenten und Neigungen, von welchen lektern Cartesius [de passionibus animae] absonderlich deswegen zu lessen ist, weil er in der Music viel gethan hatte, leisten hier sehr gute Dienste, indem man daraus lernet, die Gemüther der Zuhörer, und die klingenden Kräffte, wie sie an jenen wirden, wol zu unterscheiden.

The doctrine of the temperaments and emotions, concerning which especially Descartes [the passions of the soul] is to be read because he dealt with music a lot, serves very well here since it teaches one to distinguish well between the feelings of the listeners and how the forces of sound affect them. 19

Mattheson confirms that affect is the still the overriding compositional principle during the early eighteenth century, writing that in both vocal and instrumental works “the purpose of music is to stimulate all affections solely through tones and through their rhythmum.”20 Mattheson also confirms that an awareness of fire represented musically existed during his time. He examines exclamatory texts, such as: Eröffne dich, Rache, der schmauchenden Hölle! Reiss mich zu deiner Glut hinein! Ich liefre dir meine verzweifelte Seele!

Vengeance, open yourself, to densely smoking hell! Draw me to thy fire! I deliver unto thee my despairing soul! 21

While Mattheson seems to dislike such heated negative emotions in music, he states that such texts should be properly portrayed musically, with “confused intervals which have an unruly relationship with one another” or “a frenzied tumult, fiddling and whistling for accompaniment . . . for which a Pyrrhic meter is well suited.”22 Mattheson refers to Pyrrhic meter, which is a reference to a poetic meter in which the foot consists of two unstressed syllables. In music, this refers to a war-like meter that tends to be quite quick or speed up.23 Mattheson clearly refers to string tremolo and quick figuration and tempo as being key textures in expressing such a fiery affect. His mention of a standard compositional technique to express intense feeling and Descartes’s ideas of affect and fire in the heart supports the interpretation of fire represented in music as an intensifying

19

German from Johann Mattheson. Der vollkommene Capellmeister. Edited by Margarete Reimann. Kassel and Basel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1954, 15. English from Der vollkommene Capellmeister A Revised Translation with Critical Commentary by Ernest C. Harriss. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1981, 104. 20 Mattheson, 291. 21 Mattheson, 401. 22 Ibid. 23 Thomas J. Mathiesen. “Pyrrhic.” The New Grove Dictionary of Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed [18 June, 2003]), http://www.grovemusic.com

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affect. The idea of fire as essential to the feeling of intense emotion substantiates the idea that fire itself is a powerful affect, evident in a variety of contexts. The Term “Fire” What does the term “fire” encompass? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word has many meanings. To present a basic idea of the breadth of these meanings, some definitions, contexts, and etymologies are listed below:24 1. a. The natural agency or active principle operative in combustion; popularly conceived as a substance visible in the form of flame or of ruddy glow or incandescence. 1622 MABBE tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. I. 49 With a face as red as fire. 1781 GIBBON Decl. & F. III. lxxi. 802 Fire is the most powerful agent of life and death. b. as one of the four ‘elements’. 1576 BAKER Jewell of Health 170a, Mans blood…out of which draw, according to Art, the fowre Elements… But the fyre purchased of it is more precious…This fyre is named the Elixir vitæ. 1700 DRYDEN Fables, Pythag. Philos. 517 The force of fire ascended first..Then air succeeds. c. with reference to hell or purgatory; sometimes in pl. Also in Alchemy, Fire of Hell = ALKAHEST. 1667 MILTON P.L. I. 48 In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire. d. Volcanic heat, flame, or glowing lava; a volcanic eruption. 1734 POPE Ess. Man IV. 124 Shall burning Ætna..Forget to thunder and recall her fires? ... 2. a. State of ignition or combustion. In phrases: on fire (also of a fire, in (a) fire): ignited, burning; fig. inflamed with passion, anger, zeal, etc. to set (or put) on fire (also in (a) fire, on a fire): to ignite, set burning; also fig. to inflame, excite intensely. To set the Thames on fire: to make a brilliant reputation. 1697 W. DAMPIER Voy. I. xv. 414 The Sea seemed all of a Fire about us. b. transf. and fig.; also in phr. near the fire. Phr. fire in the (or one's) belly: ambition, driving force, initiative. 1611 BIBLE Jas. iii. 6 The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquitie. 1633 P. FLETCHER Purple Isl. V. iii, So shall my flagging Muse to heav'n aspire…And warm her pineons at that heav'nly fire. 24

J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner, ed. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, www.oed.com [Accessed 28 May, 2003]

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1709 POPE Ess. Crit. 195 Some spark of your celestial fire. c. fire of joy: a bonfire; = FEU DE JOIE 1. c1674 CLARENDON Relig. & Policy (1711) I. vi. 314 Preparations...by the magistrates for making fires of joy. ... 7.

Lightning; a flash of lightning; a thunderbolt. More fully, levenes fire, fire of heaven. Electrical fire: the electric fluid, electricity. 1747 FRANKLIN Lett. Wks. 1840 V. 186 He imagined that the electrical fire came down the wire from the ceiling to the gun-barrel. 1748 Ibid. 215 Vapors, which have both common and electrical fire in them. 1820 SHELLEY Ode W. Wind ii. 14 From whose solid atmosphere Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst. ...

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a. Luminosity or glowing appearance resembling that of fire. 1591 SHAKES. 1 Hen. VI, I. i. 12 His sparkling Eyes, repleat with wrathfull fire. 1605 Macb. I. iv. 51 Starres, hide your fires, Let not Light see my black and deepe desires! 1735 POPE Prol. Sat. 5 Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand. b. fires of heaven, heavenly fires: (poet.) the stars; fires of St. Elmo: 1607 SHAKES. Cor. I. iv. 39 Or by the fires of heauen, Ile leaue the Foe. 1667 MILTON P.L. XII. 256 Before him burn Seaven Lamps as in a Zodiac representing The Heav'nly fires.

11.

Heating quality (in liquors, etc.); concr. in jocular use, ‘something to warm one’, ardent spirit. 1737 FIELDING Hist. Reg. II. Wks. 1882 X. 223 We'll go take a little fire for 'tis confounded cold upon the stage. ...

13.

In certain figurative applications of sense. a. A burning passion or feeling, esp. of love or rage. 1598 SHAKES. Merry W. II. i. 68 The wicked fire of lust. 1694 F. BRAGGE Disc. Parables xii. 408 Rage, and fury, and impatience…are frequently attended with the epithet of fire. b. Ardour of temperament; ardent courage or zeal; fervour, enthusiasm, spirit. 1601 SHAKES. Jul. C. I. ii. 177, I am glad that my weake words Haue strucke but thus much shew of fire from Brutus.

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1709 STEELE Tatler No. 61 1 Among many Phrases which have crept into Conversation...[is] that of a Fellow of a great deal of Fire. c. Liveliness and warmth of imagination, brightness of fancy; power of genius, vivacity; poetic inspiration. 1680-90 TEMPLE Ess. Poetry Wks. 1731 I. 237 The Poetical Fire was more raging in one, but clearer in the other. 1737 POPE Hor. Ep. II. i. 274 Corneille's noble fire. 1847 Illust. Lond. News 10 July 27/1 As an actress, she has fire and intelligence. The common definition of fire as the “natural agency or active principle operative in combustion” is useful as a starting point, because this idea of activating or inflaming may be extrapolated to many other contexts.25 Beyond language – “feuer,” “le feu,” “fuoco,” or “fire,” among other variations (burn, flame, rage, incensed, ignite, etc.) – fire in music can be taken in literal and often figurative contexts. Following is a table of terms associated with fire in the languages of the countries discussed in this thesis: Table 1.1. Terms associated with fire. English Fire

Latin Italian ignis (lit.); fax Fuoco (foco); (facis); ardor (fig.); incendio

Flame Fiery

flamma igneus (lit.); ardens (fig.) accendere scintillare

To fire To flame

To ignite

To burn

French feu; incendie

fiamma ardente; infocato

flamme de feu (passion); plein (blazing sun) infiammare enflammer (fig.) andare in fiamma; s'enflammer; infiammarsi di rabbia s'embraser; (fig.) accendere enflammer

accendere; flammam concipere (fig.) urere; cremare; bruciare; in fiamma flagrare; ardere (burning)

German Feuer; Brand; Glut Flamme feurig brennen; feuern flammen

zünden

incendier; bruler; ardent (burning faith) être en feu incinére; incendier

brennen; verbrennen

entzünden; aufleuchten

To be on fire To set on fire

ardere incendere

in fiamma dare fuoco

To light up (fig.)

hilaris fieri

illuminarsi

s'éclairer; briller de joie

To inflame

inflammare; incendere (fig.) ardor ardens

infiammare

enflammer; entzünden exacerber; aggraver ardeur Eifer; Inbrust; Glut passioné; fervent feurig; eifrig

Ardor Ardent

25

ardore; fervore ardente

Simpson, 942.

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in Brand anfeuern

English To excite

Latin Italian excitare; incendere eccitare; agitare (fig.)

To agitate

agitare; perturbare agitare; turbare

Agitated

tumultuos; turbulentus (fig.)

Heat

calor; ardor; fervor; calore; intenso chaleur; feu; animé aestus (fierce); (fig.) - fuoco; (heated) ardore

Hot

calidus; fervens; aestuos; acer; ardens

Lightning

fulgur; fulmen lampo, fulmine (destructive effects) tonitrus tuono; fulmine (thunderbolt)

Thunder

agitazione

French exciter; enthousiasmer; animé (excited) faire compagne agité; inquiet

caldo; fig. - accanito; chaud; fièvreux ardente; violento; (fever) focoso

To thunder Rage To rage

tonare furor furere; saevire

To incense (to anger) Mad Anger To anger Angry

incendere furios ira irritare iratus

Hatred To hate Rapture To enrapture Ecstasy Fervor Fervent Proud (roots related) Love

odium odisse exsultatio rapere ecstasis; elatio fervor ardens Superbus amor

To fall in love with

amorem incendere essere innamorato

Heart (fig.)

Animus

German erregen; aufregen

agitieren; beunruhigen agitatorisch (inflammatory) Hitze; Wärme; Heizung (heating); Brunst (sexual); Eifer (battle); brunsten (to be in heat) heiss; stechen (sun);

éclairs; fulgurant

Blitz

tonnerre; foudre (thunderbolt);

Donner; Gewitter (thunderstorm)

tuonare collera; furia infuriare (storm)

tonner donnern rage; colère Wut faire rage; tempêter wüten; toben; in Wut geraten; wütend machen (to enrage) infuriare outré (incensed) erzürnen; aufhetzend (incendiary) matto; pazzo; furioso fou/folle; furieux verrückt; böse rabbia colère Zorn arrabbiare en colère erzürnen arrabiato; furioso; furieux; de colère zornig; böse; infiammato entzündet odio odiare; detestare esaltato rapire estasi fervore fervido Fiero amore

cuore (core)

haine; aversion détester; haïr ravissem*nt s'extasier extase ferveur fervent Fièrement amour; le coup de foudre (love at first sight) être tomber amoureux

Hass hassen Entzückung hinreissen Verzückung Inbrust inbrüstig stolz Liebe

coeur

Herz; Mut fassen (take heart)

sich heftig verlieben in

From the various sources consulted, these applicable contexts will be grouped into the six basic qualitative categories which follow.

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Literal Fire - The Four Elements Aside from the definition above, fire literally constitutes one of the four elements, along with earth, water, and air.26 During the Baroque period, the successful imitation of nature was one of the highest artistic aims. With their origins in Greek philosophy and science, the four elements serve as aspects of nature from classical antiquity that have often been represented artistically. The ancient Greeks viewed fire as the single primal element which made up the whole of matter. Fire to them was both rational and divine, “with no distinction between its spiritual and material aspects.”27 Aristotelian physics held that fire was hot and dry, air, hot and moist, water, cold and moist, and earth, cold and dry. By the Baroque period, the four elements still functioned as basic divisions of matter. Descartes refers to the four elements as basic to nature, and to a species of fire as essential to the life of the human heart.28 While fire began to be considered a process by which elements and materials transform in science and alchemy, many seventeenthcentury scientists and philosophers still perceived fire as the basic natural element. In nature, fire is a physical phenomenon associated with the burning sun, heat, volcanoes, lightning, and other intense lights.29 Common synonyms in this context include “combustion,” “flame,” “incandescence,” “ignition,” “conflagration,” and “radiance.”30 Texts of pieces musically depicting this type of fire include the corresponding language’s word or related word for “fire.” The power of fire to destroy, to provide light, to burn, and to flame provided composers with ample imagery to paint in music. Fire as Rage As already mentioned, fire is also associated with many emotive qualities. Most people can easily relate to feelings of intense, burning anger, and this aspect of fire is also reflected in many pieces of music. Descartes describes Anger as a type of Hatred that is often mixed with Desire to avenge, and with Love for oneself, yielding a vengeful rage.

26

Ibid. Robert B. Todd. “Stoicism.” In The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Gary B. Ferngren. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 2000, 132. 28 Descartes, The Passions of the Soul. 12. 29 Hans Kurath, ed. Middle English Dictionary. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1952, 579581. 30 Addison Wesley Longman, ed. Longman Synonym Dictionary. New York: Rodale Press, 1979, 411. 27

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Rage creates an agitation which enters the heart and “excites a heat more sharp and burning than that which can be excited there by Love or by Joy.”31 Baroque rage arias often contain this type of musical fire, where the heat of vehemence, hate, wrath, jealousy, or vengeance is clearly evident in the music.32 Very often, the texts of such pieces, when in Italian, contain the word vendetta, which indicates vengeful action. Composers during the Baroque period frequently use sweeping motivic gestures and driving pulses to set up such agitated feelings. Fire as Love Love is sometimes associated with sweet melodies in music, but the type of fiery love applicable to this topic is a passionate, burning emotion. In fact, the Latin idiomatic expression for “to fall in love” is amorem incendere, which literally translates as “to burn with love.” The type of love varies, depending on the context. It may be a lusty, desirous love, which “agitates the heart more vigorously than all the other Passions” according to Descartes.33 It may be a deep ardent love, exciting a strong heat in the heart agitating the brain.34 In song, it is sometimes the god Cupid who fires an arrow to incite characters to feel such ardent love. In other texts, the feeling is simply an intense passionate feeling (e.g., the Italian amore) between lovers. Other phrases which are roughly equivalent to this feeling of fiery love in this context include “burning passion,” and “full of ardour.”35 Spiritual Fire Possibly one of the most powerful of fires is the spiritual kind, in which people are changed by the power of God. Christianity heavily influenced the musical culture of the Baroque period. Many composers made their livelihood by working as church musicians in various capacities. Consequently, powerful spiritual transformations such as those performed by the grace of the Holy Spirit were often depicted musically. According to Christian doctrine, the liturgical color of Pentecost is red, the color of the Holy Spirit. This is because Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy

31

Descartes, The Passions of the Soul. 126. Kurath, 582. 33 Descartes, The Passions of the Soul. 73. 34 Descartes, The Passions of the Soul. 74. 35 Longman, 411. 32

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Spirit in the form of tongues of red fire over the heads of the Apostles gathered together in a space safe from hostile street crowds.36 After being infused and inflamed by those flaming tongues, the Apostles left their refuge and boldly preached the risen Christ to any people they would encounter.37 The inspired, aroused, and exalted state that the apostles exhibited showed such a great external lack of contact with reality that they were judged to be in a drunken, otherworldly condition.38 Fervent religious attitudes are often associated with this type of passionate fire. Fiery religious devotion can create an ardent desire to convert others as the Holy Spirit has transformed the minds and hearts of believers in Christianity. Divine love can cause spiritual fire through influence and inspiration, especially in the case of the arts. St. Cecilia, patron saint of music, has been the object of many artistic works, often inspiring artistic creativity as an intermediary with fiery influence. The complex Greek mythological character, Orpheus, has also been an inspiration for the arts. The subject of at least three pioneering operas at the beginning of the seventeenth century, Orpheus is the voice of Music, and “presides over the transformations and interaction of poetry and science in the period 1600-1800.”39 Orpheus as a myth metamorphosed through the centuries into a figure with Christian and pagan implications. As a singer who moved animate and inanimate creatures with his music, Clement of Alexandria interpreted Orpheus to be a character who aides in the understanding of Christ and His power.40 During the Renaissance, the Orpheus myth took on a fiery affect which influenced subsequent artistic works. The writer Marcilio Ficino compares the power of the sun to the power of God, and thereby burns divine inspiration into the eyes of Orpheus: The singer (or artist) performs in an inspired state ‘aroused by the Muses’ frenzy.’ ‘Then his eyes burn, and he rises up on both feet and he knows how to sing tunes that he has never learnt….’ It is this state of God-given frenzy, this furor divinus, that enables the mind to perceive and understand the symbolic structure of the universe. It is divinus because it comes from God and raises to God. The artist under the influence of this madness is free to range beyond his normal limits, he is lifted 36

G. Paul Parr, ed. St. John the Baptist Book for Catholic Worship. Reading, PA: St. John’s Press, 1974, 260-261. 37 Ibid. 38 Ibid. 39 John Warden, ed. Orpheus: The Metamorphoses of a Myth. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982, 4. 40 Warden, 51.

14

to the height of heaven like Ganymede on the back of the divine eagle. The state of inspiration is visible in the rapt expression on the face and the ‘Orphic’ pose. 41

Orpheus is said to possess the four phases of furor: the poetic, which calms the agitation of the soul, the sacerdotal, which prepares the soul for exaltation, the prophetic, which raises the soul to the level of the angels, and the erotic, which unites the soul with God.42 The Holy Spirit, Orpheus, and St. Cecilia are exemplars of the type of spiritual love which can burn, change us like a fire, or inspire us to create. During the Baroque period, the power of Christianity mixed with the spiritual overtones of well-known myths provided a source of deeply affective concepts for artistic expression. Fire of Hell These last two emotive categories are combinations of the above fire qualities. Fiery rage combined with religious fire leads us to the fiery pits of Hell, where sinners are punished eternally for their evil actions.43 Artists were certainly aware of the Biblical implications of Hell. Texts which reference this fiery place often contain the word “Hell.” The fires of Hell are depicted as extremely intense, as are musical settings of such ideas. Fiery Love for God The final category of fire used here is a combination of the ardent passionate love for God by the religiously fervent. Deep, burning love for God, showing ardent devotion and Christian ideals, is characterized as having the capacity to purify one’s soul.44 In a book on the Catholic liturgy, William Zumbar further describes this fire: “The Holy Spirit helps to move our hearts to feel the love of Christ and to realize that this fire is communicated not only from the Holy Spirit to the person, but also between the person and his neighbors.”45 Many liturgical texts, especially the Stabat Mater, include words such as inflammatus, accensus, and ardeat that have often been interpreted as this type of fire and set to music in an appropriately corresponding manner. In Baroque terms,

41

Warden, 98. Ibid. 43 Simpson, 942. 44 Kurath, 582. 45 Parr, 260-261. 42

15

understanding the greatness and glory of God led to spiritual ecstasy, such as when St. Theresa described herself as “all on fire with a great love of God” after an angel thrust a golden spear into her heart.46 The fire-like ecstasy of comprehending the glory of God is very often represented by a profound intensity in music. A Framework for the Fire Affect From the time of Plato, music has impelled the human heart to momentary emotional states and to permanent shaping of character. The power of music to express passion became known as a device of musical affect during the Baroque period. The connection between passion and bodily causation led composers to attempt to elicit emotional and bodily response through music in a single, focused affect. The philosophical writings of the Baroque point to fire as a key concept in the causation of such affect. The heat and agitation caused by the excitation of fire changes the quality of the passion felt. Fire is an affect on its own in pure form, or as an intensifier of a passion or mixture of passions. Composers and musical theorists of the Baroque period were well aware of Descartes’s writings, as well as the idea of using music to depict an affect vividly in a manner similar to an impassioned rhetorical delivery. The French composer and theorist Jean-Philippe Rameau affirms this idea of music and affect stirring the audience in his Observations sur notre instinct pour la musique, et sur son principe (1754): Pour joüir pleinement des effets de la Musique, il faut être dans un pur abandon de soi-même, & pour en juger, c’est au Principe par lequel on est affecté qu’il faut s’en rapporter. Ce principe est la Nature même, c’est d’elle que nous tenons ce sentiment qui nous meut dans toutes nos Opératons musicales, elle nous en a fait un don qu’on peut appeller Instinct.

46

The full enjoyment of the effects of music calls for a sheer abandonment of oneself, and the judgment of it calls for a reference to the principle by which one is affected. That principle is Nature itself; it is through Nature that we possess that feeling which stirs us in all our musical instinct. 47

Martin, 103. French from Jean-Philippe Rameau, Observations sur notre instinct pour la musique, et sur son principe. From Facsimile of 1754 Paris edition. New York: Broude Brothers, 1967, aij. English from Edward A, Lippman, The Philosophy and Aesthetics of Music. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1999, 111.

47

16

A Transitionary Example Before delving into Baroque examples of fire and affect, it is important to note that Renaissance composers were already concerned with expressing ideas of fire in their compositions. Thomas Morley (1557/8-1602) “Fyer, Fyer!” (1595) This musical example from the Renaissance period serves as a bridge to the Baroque. The text is fairly explicit in describing burning love and desire, including cries for help (“Ay me”). Morley uses polyphonic imitative technique to achieve a sense of this burning desire. One voice consistently enters just a bit earlier than the rest to drive the madrigal forward. The “my heart” entrances are also staggered and the placement paints an anxiously beating heart. Instead of using typical polyphonic technique with voices entering at even rhythmic intervals, Morley chooses to offset just one voice for the “fyer” entrances, and then offset more of the voices, but in quick succession for the beating heart entrances. The unpredictability of these imitative entrances and their close proximity to each successive entrance give this piece its fiery quality of love desperate for fulfillment. Composers during the Baroque continued to paint words in manners similar to Renaissance style and in more innovative ways. The framework of categories of fiery affect described above will serve as an aesthetic framework for the following chapters. It is important to qualify carefully what constitutes an idea that has not been defined previously, especially when that idea has such affective/emotive qualities. The idea of music and affect combining into a concept of intense, exciting musical fire has been presented in this chapter. The following chapter will focus on the musical, cultural, and social background of the Baroque period leading up to 1700. It will begin by examining some musical examples, both literal (when the text contains “fire” or related words) and figurative (implied fire). Use of the framework to establish clear cases of the fire affect leading up to the early eighteenth century will commence with this chapter.

17

Example 1.1. Morley “Fyer, Fyer!” 1595. Source: Oxford Book of English Madrigals. Ed. by Phillip Ledger. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.

18

CHAPTER 2 KINDLING FIRE: MONTEVERDI AND THE STILE CONCITATO

Before examining the late Baroque, it is important to provide a historical background of the preceding century in Europe. This chapter will present an overview of the history and musical styles of Italy, France, Germany, and England focusing on the musical expression of fire leading up to the eighteenth century. The musical examples will provide a basis for showing types of musical fire in various contexts. The examples in this chapter will show how a key fire-like word was more often painted by itself rather than presented as an affect lasting for an entire section of a piece. Europe in 1600 It is important to note that Europe in 1600 was in the midst of a number of changes in political, religious, and artistic practice. The Protestant Reformation had a significant impact on the previous century that continued into the seventeenth century. The Renaissance mentality of reclaiming classical ideas and widening intellectual horizons led to certain radical notions which would greatly shape Western thought. In addition to Martin Luther’s religious ideas, Galileo’s publications in the early 1600s questioned earlier scientific beliefs as to the nature of the cosmos. The beginning of the Baroque brought about a progressive mentality. This mentality was not widespread in 1600, but pioneers in science, religion, politics, and the arts began to pave the way for change. Music in the 1600s began to diversify and distinct national musical styles began to take shape. In the sixteenth century, musical style and performance was more hom*ogenous; roughly the same type of music was being performed from England to Italy.1 The aesthetic of musical rhetoric–placing emphasis on the dramatic setting of text, or word-painting–greatly influenced this change. Because of the emphasis on a clear evocation of text in music, words became a foremost consideration to composers. As discussed in the previous chapter, rhetoric in music became a prevailing concern during

1

David Schulenberg. Music of the Baroque. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001, 2.

19

the Baroque period. The inherent linguistic differences of accent, inflection, and vowel and consonant sounds led to music that reflected nationality. Music migrated southward from northwest Europe during the Middle Ages, but this trend reversed by the beginning of the Baroque.2 Italy became a key instigator in changing musical style. Italian artists and musicians traveled to Germany, England, and France, while German, English, and French musicians also traveled to Italy to learn from the creators of opera.3 While this thesis focuses on Western art music, it should be noted that the omission of discussion on Spanish and Portuguese music has to do with its limited influence on the rest of Europe. This chapter will set up the years 1700-1750 by discussing the new compositional styles and representative examples of growing musical fire in Italy, Germany, France, and England. Italy, Monteverdi, and the seconda pratica The rise of new genres, strikingly distinct national musical styles, the use of specific instruments with correspondingly idiomatically composed parts, ornamentation, and improvisation all contributed to the changing practice of musical composition beginning around 1600. Opera was just one of many new genres (oratorio, cantata, concerto, etc.) that emerged during the Baroque period. The importance of affect and rhetoric in musical composition also became more prominent. Along with Giulio Caccini (1551-1618) and Jacopo Peri (1561-1621) of the Florentine Camerata, Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) prioritized affect and musical rhetoric in helping to establish opera as a new musical genre. The musical style of Monteverdi, Peri, and Caccini focused on a clear elucidation of the text. Such an emphasis led Monteverdi to use traditional Renaissance techniques of musical rhetoric, but also led him to the creation of new devices to present the text more vividly and dramatically in music. Because of his new techniques, music theorist Giovanni Maria Artusi (1546-1613) accused him of deviating from traditional methods of composition.4 Monteverdi defended himself by saying that his method, the seconda pratica, was justified as a means to the clear

2

Schulenberg, Music of the Baroque. 8. Ibid. 4 Margaret Murata, ed. Source Readings in Music History, Vol. 4, The Baroque Era. Leo Treitler, general editor. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998, 18. 3

20

expression of the meaning and emotion in the text.5 This debate is emblematic of the controversy over artistic expression going on at the beginning of the seventeenth century as musical conventions were undergoing a transition. Prima pratica composers, such as Palestrina, used strict compositional techniques of counterpoint, voice leading, and harmony. The more adventurous (harmonically and otherwise) seconda pratica was used by Monteverdi and his followers. Monteverdi explored new compositional techniques, such as unprepared dissonances in accordance with the meaning of the text, in search of similitudine del affetto, “resemblance of emotion.”6 In this goal, he shows a clear stress on text and affect, and his compositions reflect such concerns. His contemporary, Caccini, also stresses the importance of affect, saying that it is: …nothing other than the expression of the words chosen to be sung and their ideas, by means of the power of different notes and their varied stresses, tempered by softness and loudness, a power capable of moving the affection of the listener. 7

Monteverdi’s early approach to the expression of fiery text is reminiscent of Renaissance word painting techniques. His Quattro libro de madrigali (Venice, 1603), displays a mixture of old and new techniques. The dissonance treatment reflects his new seconda pratica, but some of the word painting reflects traditional techniques from Renaissance music. For example, word painting occurs in “Luci serene,” as the words foco and strugge are set by a vivid, quick twisting figure and syncopated rhythm (in the tenor line m. 42 and 44).8 The text below provides the context behind painting a fiery affect. The fiery imagery throughout the text clearly indicates a fiery desire and love. Luci serene e chiare, Voi m’incendete, voi, ma prov’il core Nell’incedio diletto, non dolore. Dolci parole e care, Voi mi ferite, voi, ma prov’il petto Non dolor ne la piaga, ma diletto. O miracol d’amore: Alma ch’è tutta foco e tutta sangue Si strugg’e non si duol, muor e non langue.

Eyes serene and clear, You inflame me, you, but my heart feels In burning delight, not pain. Sweet words and dear, You pierce me, you, but my breast feels Not pain in the wound, but delight. Oh, miracle of love: That a spirit that is all fire and all blood Is consumed but does not suffer, dies but does not languish.

5

Murata, 27. Murata, 157. 7 Murata, 223-224. 8 Schulenberg, Music of the Baroque. 36. 6

21

In “Quell’ augellin che canta,” the word ardo is set in a melismatic scalar ascending line. The figure is first sung by the first soprano and is quickly imitated by the second soprano. Such quick imitation between the two upper voices reflects the ardency of both the word and the overall affect.

Example 2.1. Monteverdi “Luci serene” 1603. Source: Music of the Baroque: An Anthology of Scores. Ed. by David Schulenberg. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Quell’ augellin che canta Si dolcemente e lascivetto vola Or da l’abete al fa*ggio Ed or dal fa*ggio al mirto, S’avresse umano spirto, Direbbe: “Ardo d’amore,” E chiam’ il suo desio che li rispomd’: “Ardo d’amor anch’io.” Che sii tu benedetto Amoroso, gentil, vago augelletto

That little bird which sings So sweetly and flies merrily Now from the fir to the beech And now from the beech to the myrtle, If it had human understanding, It would say: “I burn with love.” And his love would say “I also am burning with love.” Blessings on you, loving, gentle, charming little bird.

22

Example 2.2. Monteverdi “Quell’ augellin che canta” Monteverdi 1603. Source: Music of the Baroque: An Anthology of Scores. Ed. by David Schulenberg. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Monteverdi went on to pioneer new ways of achieving figurative fire in music. He narrowed the passions or affections down to three (as opposed to the five listed by Descartes): anger, moderation, and humility.9 He equated these passions with corresponding musical terms of “agitated, soft, and moderate,” with agitated being a new kind of musical expression.10 The Italian word for agitated is concitato, which can also be translated as “excited” or “emotional.” Monteverdi refers to Plato as a source for his reasoning that there should be such an affect, especially to express war. Monteverdi pioneered an extremely important compositional technique of achieving agitation in music, the stile concitato or agitated style.11 He accomplished this affect through the use of tremolo and pizzicato.12 He used contrasting figurations to heighten the affect–by juxtaposing a fast tempo, repeated sixteenth notes, and agitated leaps with a slower tempo and a calmer texture.

9

Murata, 157. Murata, 158. 11 Schulenberg, Music of the Baroque. 76. 12 Ibid. 10

23

The combination of Monteverdi’s expertise as a violinist along with the instrument’s nature as an articulator of pitch at a pace faster than most instruments led to the violin’s crucial role in the achievement of agitated textures in music. We cannot be certain whether it was an occasional improvisatory practice to use string tremolo at appropriate dramatic moments before Monteverdi’s writings. However, his 1638 preface to his eighth book of madrigals, Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi, actually implies that Monteverdi believes that his creation of this affect was “the first essay in this genus.”13 Monteverdi emphasized the dramatic setting of text in music with his adventurous use of various styles, dissonances, and rhythmic gestures. He used instruments both to prompt and reflect changes in characters’ moods and emotions as well as changes in the setting. In his Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda Monteverdi uses the stile concitato to effect a warlike scene–galloping horses, heated emotion, and actual battling. The result is quite effective. The narrator’s rapid declamation of the text and the strings’ quick, short rhythmic figures set the tone of the scene and the fiery anger and battle-ready attitude of the characters. The first instance of the strings’ tremolo occurs when the Testo is describing the two battlers as Quai due tori gelosi e d’ira ardenti (“Like two bulls jealous and with anger burning”).14

13 14

Murata, 158. Schulenberg, Music of the Baroque: An Anthology of Scores. 56.

24

Example 2.3. Monteverdi from Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda 1624. Source: Music of the Baroque: An Anthology of Scores. Ed. by David Schulenberg. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Later in the scene the actual battle is described in the agitated style, when the narrator sings of the violence, rage, and the warriors’ quest for revenge. As he describes the two warriors closing in on each other and the fight growing (D’hor in hor più si mesce e più ristretta Si fa la pugna e spada oprar non giova; “Closer and closer they move, and closer grows the fight, so that swords are useless”), the tessitura of the Testo’s vocal line jumps a third higher. The strings tremolo also leaps in pitch twice and crescendos to forte to heighten the battle intensity further, thereby creating a fiery rage affect. Monteverdi’s foreword to this piece directs that the singer and instruments “reflect the changing emotional character of the text, implying changes of tempo and dynamics beyond those indicated in the score.”15

15

Schulenberg, Music of the Baroque: An Anthology of Scores. 62.

25

Example 2.4. Monteverdi from Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda 1624. Source: Music of the Baroque: An Anthology of Scores. Ed. by David Schulenberg. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001

Monteverdi’s seemingly unprecedented use of these compositional techniques paved the way for later Baroque composers to use this agitated style in their musical writing of fiery moments. Handel actually labeled a musical passage in Jephtha “concitato” over 100 years after Monteverdi first used this style.16

Example 2.5. Handel from Jephtha 1751. Source: Music of the Baroque. By David Schulenberg. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Rhetoric, affect, and the influence of Monteverdi northward Monteverdi’s radical innovations in musical composition greatly influenced the future of Western art music. However, even though Italian musical influence traveled northward during the 1600s, the boldness of the Italian style did not take hold

16

Schulenberg, Music of the Baroque. 202-203.

26

immediately in other countries. Distinctive national attitudes toward music and its function were forming in France, Germany, and England. In eventually absorbing Italian musical styles, each country adapted the new techniques to the vernacular language of the people there. Countries became identified with national temperaments, which then corresponded to national musical styles. Athanasius Kircher (1601/2-1680) was a teacher and writer well-versed in national styles of music-making, particularly in Germany, France, and Italy. In his treatise, Musurgia universalis (Rome, 1650), he stressed that “there is an appropriate style according to the customs of the nation.”17 Kircher also emphasizes the musical leadership and boldness of the Italians, saying that: Italy justly appointed to itself the first place in music from the beginning, for there has not been a single age when all the principal composers did not produce music out of Italy, to the continual wonderment of all, with the most precious works. . . They used all styles appropriately and with the best judgment, and were truly born for music. . . They do not affect just the ears with this variety, but they also draw out both the torments and the passions of the soul, arousing them in every possible way with great power. 18

This distinction between musical styles manifested itself in the musical treatment of agitated feelings. Italians were quick to be excited by emotion, but other countries were more accustomed to restraint, preferring a studied dignity to free, natural expression of affect.19 This does not mean there was never an occasion for a fiery passion to be portrayed in the music of other regions, but it does indicate why such bold gestures were rarer. In German-speaking regions, the favored musical style according to Athanasius Kircher was “serious, moderate, sober, and choral,” corresponding to the national temperament that was “serious, strong, constant, solid, and toilsome.”20 Heinrich Schütz’s career and compositional output as the leading German composer of the midseventeenth century is representative of the emerging German musical style of the Baroque. Schütz (1585-1672) served as Capellmeister in Dresden through the Thirty

17

Murata, 200. Murata, 202-203. 19 Ibid. 20 Murata, 201. 18

27

Years’ War. He took trips to Venice in 1609 and 1629 and studied with both Giovanni Gabrieli (c1554-7-1612) and Monteverdi. His compositional style reflects these influences. Much of Schütz’s music consists of polychoral textures in a style reminiscent of Gabrieli. While his compositions do indicate an emphasis on spatial relations between sounds and the harmonic language of his early works reflects Gabrieli’s style, Schütz was clearly influenced by Monteverdi’s emphasis on clear declamation of text. Schütz did not use many of the new devices Monteverdi pioneered, but he did use word painting techniques to elicit the meaning of the text in music. His music shows the integration of musical figuration with the stresses and texture of the German language. Schütz did not use an agitated style, per se, but he certainly was aware of fire as a stirring intensity. The following example from his Historia der Auferstehung Jesu Christi, SWV 50 (1623) depicts the reaction of two disciples after speaking with the risen Christ. They are surprised and spiritually inflamed as they say Brannte nicht unser Herz in uns (“Did not our heart burn within us”). Schütz sets the word brannte (“burn”) on a quick ascending gesture which is closely imitated by the second voice. The figuration is repeated three times, climaxing the third time on the highest pitches of the section (the G in the first tenor part). The effect paints the idea being aroused by Jesus’ presence and excited by the fire inspired in their hearts which causes them to exclaim their passionate response. According to Kircher, the French are “more changeable” than the Germans, possessing a style that is “cheerful and lively.”21 The French heavily integrated dance rhythms into their music and emphasized a fluidity through sections, evident in the lack of clear section demarcations between recitative and aria in French opera. In France, the music of the seventeenth century was dominated by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) who served in the court of Louis XIV for most of his career. Lully established the genre of French opera with its court airs and ballets. French language is inherently without accent and French music of the period often reflects this with the absence of regular meter. Meter shifts fluidly and stress is achieved through trills, duration, and melismatic embellishments.

21

Murata, 201.

28

Example 2.6. Schütz from Historia der Auferstehung 1623. Source: Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke: Herausgegeben im Auftrag der Neuen Schütz-Gesellschaft. Ed. Walter Simon Huber. Basel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1956.

Extreme moments of passion do occur in French opera, but the agitated affect was not prominent in the court music of the seventeenth century. It seems that such musical intensity is displayed only in moments of divinely inspired madness. In Lully’s Atys (1676), the title character is cursed by Cybele and driven so mad that he kills his beloved Sangaride thinking she is a monster. A messenger from Hell comes with a flaming torch with which to cast an evil spell on Atys. Lully uses wild string figures to paint the flame cursing Atys. The intense violin texture presages the fire of Hell that condemns Atys at the beginning of the next scene when he kills Sangaride in a fit of insanity. The agitated quality reflects the agitation of both the cursed and the cursers, the trembling fear and vengeful anger.

29

Example 2.7. Lully from Atys 1676. Source: Les Chefs-d’oeuvre classiques de l’opéra français. Volume 16. [microfilm] Ed. by Theodore Michaelis. Piano/Vocal reduction. Washington D.C., 1880?-1883?

Near the end of the final act an instrumental passage concludes with the quaking of the earth and flashes of lightning, representing nature’s violent response to the horror of Atys’s act. The thunder and lightning are painted with agitated string figurations (see second system of Example 2.8).

30

Example 2.8. Lully from Atys 1676. Source: Ibid.

While England maintained a strong musical heritage of madrigals and lute songs during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the rich tradition was virtually gone by the mid 1600s. This was caused by war and the Commonwealth government’s ban on elaborate sacred and theatrical music.22

22

Schulenberg, Music of the Baroque. 126.

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English musical style during the sixteenth century was influenced by Italian and French styles. During the Restoration, composers such as John Blow (1649-1708) and Henry Purcell (1659-1695) began composing more dramatic works in the form of masques. Before the growing wealth and prosperity brought an influx of Italian composers and musicians to England at the beginning of the eighteenth century, English passion was reflected in the affect of airs in these semi-operas. The lament affect was most prominent in these works, displayed in airs such as Dido’s lament “When I am laid in earth” from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (1689). Agitated passion in English Baroque music of the seventeenth century is not clearly discernible until late in the century with the emergence of the mad song genre. “Let the dreadful engines” (c. 1696) is an example of such a Purcell aria. It is nearly a showpiece mad song that was used as incidental music for a theatrical setting of “The Comical History of Don Quixote” by Thomas D’Urfey. In a style reminiscent of Monteverdi, Purcell uses quick declamatory text to express such heated anger, in many quasi-recitative sections of the piece. Rapid rhythms and angular vocal lines climaxing on high pitches express the driven, burning tone of the text. The mad song begins with a vivid depiction of fiery lightning and thunder roaring in melismatic phrases in the voice. The heat of anger is then expressed with repeated text growing in intensity and increasing in pitch (“my rage is hot, is hot, is hot”). The fire of Hell is represented by mounting flames on a mounting dotted run reaching its height at the high pitch on “skies” (E flat). Rapid declamation of fiery text is also evident in recitativo passages of the song, indicating the incensed passion and mad fury of the singer though quickly articulated text. While not explicitly indicated in the continuo part, quick pulsing and rapid tremolo figurations would certainly fall within the norms of performance practice, thereby aiding the painting of the fire of the character’s madness, during and between sections. Let the dreadful engines of eternal will, The thunder roar and crooked lightning kill, My rage is hot as theirs, as fatal too, And dares as horrid executions do.

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Or let the frozen North its rancour show, Within my breast far greater tempests grow; Despair’s more cold than all the winds can blow. Can nothing warm me? Yes, Lucinda’s eyes. There Etna, there Vesuvio lies To furnish Hell with flames that mounting reach the skies. Ye pow’rs, I did but use her name And see how all the meteors flame! Blue lightning flashes round the court of Sol And now the globe more fiercely burns than once at Phaeton’s fall. Ah! Where are now those flow’ry groves Where Zephir’s fragrant winds did play? Where guarded by a troop of loves, The fair Lucinda sleeping lay. There sung the nightingale and lark, Around us all was sweet and gay, We ne’er grew sad till it grew dark, Nor nothing fear’d but short’ning day. I glow, but ‘tis with hate. Why must I burn for this ingrate? Cool it then, and rail, Since nothing can prevail. When a woman love pretends, ‘Tis but till she gains her ends, And for better and for worse Is for marrow of the purse. Where she jilts you o’er and o’er. Proves a slattern or a whor*. This hour will tease and vex, And will cuckold ye the next. They were all contriv’d in spite, To torment us, not delight, But to scold and scratch and bite And not one of them proves right But all are witches by this light. And so I fairly bid ‘em, and the world goodnight.

This chapter has examined the beginnings of new compositional techniques for the expression of agitated passion in music. Monteverdi’s new devices and seconda pratica techniques led to the incorporation of this affect in music of Italy and later in the music of Germany, France, and England, albeit in national musical styles representative of the respective temperament and language of the respective countries.

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The end of the seventeenth century leads us to the height of the Baroque period. In the following chapters we will see how composers express fire even more vividly during the high Baroque era from 1700-1750. Example 2.9

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Example 2.10

Example 2.11

Examples 2.9-2.11 H. Purcell “Let the dreadful engines of eternal will” 1696. Source: Henry Purcell Songs, Volume 5. Ed. by Tippett and Bergmann. London: Schott and Company, Limited, 1996.

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CHAPTER 3 THE FLAMES OF FRANCE AND GERMANY

France In the early eighteenth century French music was still very court centered. Louis XIV was king until his death in 1715, and the shadow of Lully extended well into the 1700s. Paris was the center of political, social, and musical life. Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), composer, harpsichordist, and theorist greatly contributed to many musical genres, including the cantata, motet, keyboard music, and opera. He dominated the French music scene once he established himself as a composer of opera with Hippolyte et Aricie (1733). Early eighteenth-century French composers such as Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) continued the Lullian tradition of composing tragedies, embracing the idea of depicting physical phenomena in music.1 Rameau traveled to Italy for a brief period around the turn of the eighteenth century, and the premiere of his first opera (in France) met with mixed reviews because of the apparent Italian influence.2 He adopted the basic forms that Lully established in his operatic works, but he intensified the emotional outbursts, declamation of text, and agitated scenes with tremolo, scalar melismatic phrases, and generally agile orchestral textures.3 Italian influence is further evident in the more virtuosic vocal lines and emotionally-charged monologue arias full of pathos. Diderot claimed that before Rameau "no-one had distinguished the delicate shades of expression that separate the tender from the voluptuous, the voluptuous from the impassioned, the impassioned from the lascivious."4

1

François Lesure. “France.” The New Grove Dictionary of Music Online. ed. L. Macy. (Accessed [23 May, 2003]), 2 Graham Sadler. “Rameau, Jean-Philippe.” The New Grove Dictionary of Music Online. ed. L. Macy. (Accessed [23 May, 2003]), 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid.

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Rameau expressed fire in music as a word to paint and as an overriding affect. The following is an example of the former use, showing a vivid depiction of fire with melismatic vocal writing. Jean-Philippe Rameau Scene 5 from Pygmalion 1748 In this scene Pygmalion sings praise to Amour, god of Love, for infusing him with his fire. Rameau uses a joyfully buoyant musical setting to show the intense happiness spurred by the love arrow fired by Amour. Coloratura and a quick entrance that darts to the forefront on the word Lance (the verb “to fire”) characterize his compositional approach in representing the fire of love. Pygmalion urges Amour to fire arrows and set his fire burning bright. The brilliant melismatic phrasing, sparkling string gestures, and flaring onsets on the word Lance set the fire affect clearly. Regne, Amour, fais briller tes flammes, Lance tes traits dans nos âmes. Sur des cœurs soumis à tes lois Epuise ton carquois. Tu nous fais, dieu charmant, le plus heureux destin. Je tiens de toi l’objet dont mon âme est ravie, Et cet objet si cher respire, tient la vie Des feux de ton flambeau divin.

Reign Love, make your flames shine, Fire your power into our hearts. Our hearts subjected to your laws Exhausted by your quiver. You make for us, charming god, the happiest destiny. I show you the object who has delighted my heart, And this precious object breathes, sustaining the life Of my fires and your divine torch.

Rameau used various orchestral and vocal gestures to express particularly fiery moments in his dramatic works. He used such writing in moments of extreme fury, natural disasters or lightning storms, and ardent desire. In his Platée (1745), Jupiter appears accompanied by une pluie de feu tombe du ciel (“a rain of fire falling from the sky”) demonstrating his power. The god’s thunderbolts continue as Platée cries out Ciel! Qu’elle terrible rosée! (“Heavens! What a terrible visitation!”). Rameau uses string tremolo and scalar melismatic gestures in the violins punctuated by the continuo and probably non-notated manufactured sounds of thunder to depict lightning and Jupiter’s sudden arrival musically. The harmony is fairly static as the instrumental texture is the primary means of expressing fire. Musical fire is used as an atmospheric affect to set the image of lightning as a “rain of fire.”

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Example 3.1. Rameau from Scene 5 of Pygmalion 1748. Source: Oeuvres Complètes. Tome XVII Première Partie. Published under the direction of C. Saint-Saëns. Ed. by Henri Büsser New York: Broude Brothers, 1968.

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Example 3.2. Rameau from Act II, Scene 3 of Platée 1745. Source: Oeuvres Complètes Tome XII. Ed. by Georges Marty. 1968.

Later in the opera Jupiter’s jealous wife Juno arrives on stage in a rage. Her jealous rage is often the disposition that is emphasized in mythologically-based dramatic

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works. While not a rage aria in the Italian tradition (see the following chapter), this scene paints the word rage, with an agitated string gesture reminiscent of the stile concitato. Descartes connected jealousy, anger, and rage together under the general Hate passion. This use of an agitated string figure is an example of fire expressed as rage.

Example 3.3. Rameau from Act III, Scene 1 of Platée 1745. Source: Oeuvres Complètes Tome XII. Ed. by Georges Marty. 1968.

Juno arrives later in the act even angrier, as she attempts to stop Jupiter from marrying Platée. Juno arrive en fureur (“arrives in a fury”) accompanied by a constant stream of string tremolo through her entire display of blazing anger. The fire affect is

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more pronounced than her first outburst with more active harmonic and melismatic figurations.

Example 3.4. Rameau from Act III, Scene 7 of Platée 1745. Source: Oeuvres Complètes Tome XII. Ed. by Georges Marty. 1968.

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It is interesting to note that when Platée herself becomes angry and rages the music reflects her lesser power. Rameau’s music lightly portrays her anger seemingly making fun of her lack of godlike powers and her laughable looks (grotesque and ugly). Beyond Rameau Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer (1700-1755) was one of the many overshadowed French contemporaries of Rameau. He was a prolific composer and an excellent harpsichordist. Royer’s operatic output (he wrote at least six operas) is reflected in one of his most dramatic keyboard pieces, Le Vertigo, from his Pieces de Clavecin, Premier Livre (1746). While the title does not directly connote fire, it does suggest a disposition which would certainly have been thought of as a stirring of blood rushing to the brain causing dizziness. As a physicist looking to the passions to explain physiological states, Descartes compared the spirits that move the mind to states of trembling, fear, and general excitation to “the parts of a flame that emanates from a torch.”5 This heated, excited blood would be caused by an active fire in the heart that stirs those animal spirits to the point of dizziness. The varied musical passages in this piece can easily be imagined to be different emotional states brought on by a general state of vertigo, which during the 1700s was thought of as “a disordered state of mind, . . . comparable to giddiness” and as accompanied by a “throbbing in the forehead” reflecting nervous affections.6 The fire in the brain is also reflected by Royer’s expression marking of Vif, which means “excited” or “sharp” and during the eighteenth century was associated with les passiones violentes (“violent passions”), being brillans et pleins de feu (“brilliant and full of fire”), and extrêment enflamée (“extremely fiery”).7 Royer uses very thick chordal sonorities, quickly repeated sixteenth notes, tremolo figurations, and colorful ascending scalar gestures to depict this fiery affect.

5

Descartes, The Passions of the Soul. 134. Simpson, www.oed.com. 7 Dictionnaire de L’Académie française, fifth edition. 1798. University of Chicago - Database of Historical French dictionaries. Accessed [23 May, 2003]. 6

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Example 3.5. Royer Le Vertigo1746. Source: Pièces de Clavecin. Ed. by Lisa Goode Crawford. Paris: Heugel and Company, 1990.

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Jean-Fery Rebel Les Elèments 1737-1738 In this example from the French Baroque, Rebel treats fire as one of the four pure elements, along with earth, water, and air. In Le cahos, Rebel uses harmonic confusion through a near cluster chord which is used as a rhythmic chord motive throughout the movement. The elements battle each other, leading to this chaos in nature. The bulk of the chord is voiced in the strings, which are the instruments used to represent fire. In his Avertissem*nt to this work, Rebel writes: Enfin les violins par des traits vifs et brillans représentent l’activité du feu.

Finally the violins, by means of lively and brilliant music, represent the activity of Fire.8

In the above quote, Rebel indicated that fire is represented by the violins. In Le chaos the prominence of the violins in the opening reflects the great importance of fire in creating the dramatic confusion of the first movement. Rebel starts the pattern with a measure of quarter notes, followed by a measure of eighth notes, and then three measures of sixteenth notes. This gradual rhythmic acceleration is reminiscent of the agitated style of Monteverdi. The pedal point D in the bass and the sustained A natural played by the flute heighten the tension already created by the pulsing of the other instruments. In fact, the repetition of this chord actually prolongs the tension by functioning as a diminished C