Leseprobe_Anklaenge 2020-2021

15
INTRODUCTION
During the first half of the 17 th century, several publications appeared in Italy with
music for one or more solo voices whose title contains the addition ‘per cantare
nel gravicembalo’ and thus specifies how the instrumental bass part accompanying
the vocal parts, i.e. the basso continuo, is to be scored. 1 The term ‘basso continuo’
triggers certain primary associations, so to speak, in all those who have a certain basic
knowledge of music history. These range from the ‘age of basso continuo’ or ‘baroque
music’ to the turn of the century around 1600, which has been apostrophized as a
‘Stilwandel’ and is still partly regarded as the threshold of an epoch, to terms such
as monody or seconda pratica and to the notational phenomenon of figures added to
the bass line. All of these associations are, of course, not completely wrong. But
if simplifications or distortions of historical and musical reality are to be avoided,
differentiation and, above all, embedding in a broader historical horizon are required.
For some time now, it has been an established consensus in the research that the often
cited ‘innovations’ around 1600 did not signify a radical break but can appropriately be
understood only against the background of, if not as the result of, a long prehistory. In
other words, they stand in a close and continuous relationship to traditions, styles, and
practices that can be observed at least since the earlier 16 th century. This is particularly
true of basso continuo, whose historical preconditions lie in practices of accompaniment
on chordal instruments, and indeed of playing on chordal instruments in general,
which in some cases go back a long way. In addition, these practices not only led to
the basso continuo itself, but also contributed significantly to the development of a
whole complex of phenomena in which the phenomenon of basso continuo was, as it
were, interwoven. Among these were the solo song with chordal accompaniment, the
texture based on the outer voices, the beginnings of a ‘vertical’ or chordal conception
of a polyphonic texture, the aesthetics and practice of expressive performance as well
1 E.g. Raffaelo Rontani, Le varie musiche a una, a due, e tre voci, per cantare nel gravicembalo, overo, nella
tiorba […] libro secondo (Rome: Giovanni Battista Robletti, 1618); Girolamo Frescobaldi, Primo
[bzw.] Secondo libro d’arie musicali per cantarsi nel gravicembalo, e tiorba. A una, a dua [sic], e a tre voci
(Florence: Giovanni Battista Landini, 1630); Annibale Gregori, Ariosi concenti cioè la ciaccona, ruggieri,
romanesca, più arie a 1 & 2 voci da cantarsi nel gravicembalo o tiorba (Venedice: Bartolomeo Magni, 1635);
Bartolomeo Spighi, Musical concerto d’arie e canzonette a una, due, tre voci, per cantare nel gravicembalo, o
chitarrone (Florence: Zanobi Pignoni, 1641).