ARIOSO summer programme 2010

'O che nuove miracolo'
 - exploring new musical styles which emerged during the
16th century

ARIOSO presents an exciting show of vocal and dance music spanning the 16th and early 17th
centuries centred around the significant musical happening of the age: the Florentine celebrations
of 1589. This eclectic programme includes some of the best loved renaissance music, such as
famous dances by Praetorius, broken consort pieces favoured by Queen Elizabeth, songs by
Dowland, as well as pieces from the 1589 spectacle itself and works from the very beginnings
of the 'baroque' including music by Monteverdi and Ramsey's atmospheric and innovative setting
of a musical drama involving the Witch of Endor, Saul and the ghost of Samuel! This enjoyable
and highly accessible mix will be popular with all types of concert-goers.


 

                                        PROGRAMME LISTING

 When the Florentine court’s prima donna, Vittoria Archilei, descended on her cloud from the flyloft
of the Uffizi theatre in 1589, not only did her aria inaugurate the performance of the most spectacular
Intermedio ever seen but also she stood, metaphorically, on the cusp of  two musical styles: the old
renaissance and the new baroque. Our concert today explores this musical transfiguration through the
16th century and into the early 17th.

1.  ‘Joyne Hands’ for the broken consort (The First book of Consort Lessons,1599) with its
vocal original 'See, see, mine owne sweete  jewel’                    Thomas Morley (1557-1602) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
2.  Pavan Lesquercade and basse danse La rocque, from Phalese’s Premiere Livre de
Danseries together with a sequence on Sermisy’s celebrated chanson ‘Tant que vivray’.
                                                                                              Claudin de Sermisy (c.1490-1562)
                                                                                             
3.  Three Italian lute songs  'Mi parto', 'Trista sorte', 'Mi vorria' 
                                                                                                    Cosima Bottegari  (1554-1620).

4. Phalese’s setting of the  Pavana Ferrareze  followed by a sequence on the  popular villotta
 ‘Chi passa per ’sta strada’ by Filippo Azzaiolo (1530 - 1569)

5. Music for the London stage by Thomas Morley.  The Bachelars Delight and  The Frog
Galliard for broken consort and a celebrated song ‘Who is it that this dark night’   

6. Fit for court.  Two dances The Cradle of Conceits and The Fairie rounde by Anthony
Holborne (c.1545-1602), with two famous  songs ‘Come heavy sleep’ and ‘His golden locks’
 by John Dowland (1563-1626).                                                       
                                                           
 7.  From the acclaimed Florentine intermedio of 1589 La Pellegrina: Aria del Gran Duca
 'O che nuove miracolo'  and the ground breaking soprano aria 'Delle piu alte sfere' 
                                                                                                Emilio de Cavalieri (1550-1602)          

8.  Three dances from Praetorius’s popular book of dance music Terpsichore (1612):
Ballet, Courante, Bouree                                                     Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)

9.  ‘Tempro la cetra’ - the virtuoso tenor solo  from Settimo libro de madrigali (1619). 
                                                                                              Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

10. Two dances in the new style: La Lisfeltina and Salterello La Frascada from Zanetti’s
Il Scolaro (1645)                                                            Santino Garsi da Parma (1542-1604)   

                                                  
 11.  ‘Browning Madame’ -  the well known  ballad tune with a fine string-consort setting
                                                                                                           Elway Bevin (1554-1638)

12.  'In guilty night' - a  ‘dramatick dialogue’  for the Witch of Endor, Saul and the ghost
of Samuel  (Ms Z.134. c.1628).                                                 Robert Ramsey (c.1590-1644)

The new declamatory style was increasingly copied all over Europe and in England Robert Ramsey
was amongst the first to write in this way. The setting of ‘In guilty night’ dates from the 1620s and is
a dramatisation of a dialogue (recounted in the Book of Samuel) between Saul and the Witch of Endor
who is persuaded to summon the Ghost of Samuel to foretell Saul’s future -- alas – doom-laden….....
Ramsey’s setting was clearly popular, surviving in at least six separate sources, and was almost certainly
used as the model by Purcell for his later setting of the same text.