“The Noble Manner of Singing”

Abstract

As no treatise on violin playing exists from this time, the Preface to Giulio Caccini’s Nuove Musiche (1602), emphasizing music’s “power to move the affections of the soul,” is an invaluable source of information on contemporary expression. Caccini shuns long, distracting passaggi, advocating instead specific expressive devices. These include the intonatio, the “growing and diminishing of the voice” and exclamations of varying intensity. A gruppo enhances a cadence and a cascata is a series of freely falling notes. Rhythmic alteration adds interest to equal notes and sprezzatura implies, among other things, “not submitting oneself to strict rhythm.” Some of these devices are here ‘translated’ into terms of violin technique by means of exercises: the trillo, an ornament on a single note, translates as a bow vibrato or staccato. Caccini’s annotated madrigal “Deh, dove son fuggiti” is reproduced in full as a piece pointing the way to the earliest violin sonatas.