Baron, Musical Quarterly 1968 PDF

Monody: A Study in Terminology
Author(s): John H. Baron

Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Oct., 1968), pp. 462-474
Published by: Oxford University Press
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MONODY: A STUDY IN TERMINOLOGY
By JOHN H. BARON
T HEcalterms
histories and"monody"
lexicons where theyand "monodic
are used as if they connotestyle" recur continually in musi-
precise musical phenomena. Their ambiguity, however, has often been
overlooked or, at best, circumvented with various, sometimes contradic-
tory, adjectives. Although most sensitive musicologists are aware of this,1
too many of their colleagues and students and nearly all the standard
reference works are confused by the "agreed" but decidedly hazy defini-
tions. A review of how the two terms were used during the past 350 years
will perhaps clarify them and show the pitfalls that result when "creative"
musical scholars embellish words with imaginative references to which
their original definitions cannot relate.
As far as we now know, the first use of the words "monody" and
"monodic style" was not by members of the Florentine Camerata in the
1580s but by Giovanni Battista Doni.2 In 1635 he defines "monodie" as a
solo song sung by a single singer, in contradistinction to "chorodie," a
solo song sung by a choir in unison or octaves. (Presumably both "mono-
die" and "chorodie" are unaccompanied. )' Later, in an index, he equates
"melodia monodica" or "stylus monodicus" with "stile recitativo," 4 but
in several discussions of recitativo he does not use the word "monodie." 5
The most frequent appearance of the term is in his "Discorso sopra la
1 The problem has been clearly stated by Friedrich Blume, Das monodische Prin-
zip in der protestantischen Kirchenmusik (Leipzig, 1925) ; Hans H. Eggebrecht, Mon-
odie, in MGG, IX, 475-79; and Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era (New
York, 1947), pp. 25-31.
2 Neither Michael Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum, Vol. III (Wolfenbiittel, 1619),
fasc. ed. by Guslitt (Basel, 1953) nor Marin Mersenne, "Trait6 des Consonances," in
Harmonie Universelle, Vol. II (Paris 1636), facs. ed. by Lesure (Paris, 1963), pp. 356-
58, mention the word "monody" in their descriptions of contemporary Italian music.
3 Compendio del Trattato de' Generi e de' Modi della Musica (Rome, 1635), p. 68.
4 Patricii florentini de praestantia musicae veteris, Vol. III (Florence, 1647), 251,
and Lyra barberina, Vol. II (Florence, 1763), 272.
5 Compendio, pp. 90 ff., and Lyra barberina, II, 22 ff.
462
Monody: A Study In Terminology 463
perfettione delle Melodie," where "monodie" is specifically linked to

ancient Greek manner of solo singing that was revived in Florence in
1580s.' This vocal style is soloistically conceived and is subservient to a text
declamation that stresses the affective content of the words. The "perfect"
music (monody)7
consists in singing beautifully and graciously and in making all the poetic sen
ments understood without the words being lost, and not in the fullness and swee
ness of the harmony which without fail would sound better for artificial inst
ments, e.g. flutes, than for voices; and granted, then, that in sweetness monodie
inferior [to madrigals], it is of little consequence . .. since a good comprehension of th
words is much more essential and important, the goal of music being not pleasure
the arousing of the affects.
Except in his initial reference to unaccompanied solo song, Doni d

fines monody consistently. He uses "monodie" and "stylus monodicus"
refer to the accompanied dramatic songs and recitative style develop
by the Florentine Camerata. Florentine composition expresses the drama
declamation of the text; this is possible only when a single voice, uno
scured by counterpoint, simply follows the poetic rhetoric. Such a solo song
contrasts sharply with other types of song that grew out of 16th-centu
madrigals and motets. Specifically not referred to as "monodic" are t
accompanied solo songs of Caccini's Le nuove musiche and the many s
madrigals, arias, and cantatas stemming therefrom. Strophic and two-
three-voice songs, even when monophonic, are eliminated by definition. An
instrumental accompaniment is assumed, but in discussions limited to t
word "monody," Doni is less concerned with its details than with its fu
tion: it should support, not obscure, the voice.
Nearly every subsequent music historian who writes of the develop
ment of recitative by the Florentine Camerata follows Doni's account
yet very few of these later writers treat the term in the manner in which
Doni introduced it. Athanasius Kircher, a German 6migre working in
Rome from 1635, must have known Doni's treatises. His Musurgia un
versalis (1650) distinguishes between monodia, defined as plainchant o
cantus firmus song (apparently for more than one voice in unison)8 an
6Compendio, pp. 95 ff.
7 Monody "consiste nel bello e gratioso cantare; e nel fare intendere tutti i sen
menti del poeta; senza che le parole si perdino; e non nella pienezza, e soauit' d
Concento: il quale piui sonoro senza fallo si pu6 fare con instrumenti artificali, pe
essempio Pifferi, che con le voci humane: e date poi che nella soauitA le Mono
restassero al disotte, non e cio . . . di tal conseguenza, che la buona intelligenza de
parole non sia molto pidi essentiale, & importante: non essendo il fine della Music
Diletto; ma la commotione degl' Afetti." Compendio, p. 103.
8 Musurgia universalis, pp. 315-16.
464 The Musical Quarterly
monodica (music for one singer).? This parallels Doni's

chorodie and monodie. Also like Doni, Kircher traces mo
Greek practice of recitation, wherein the text was rend
with great diversity of expression by the music."1 Both
monodica are opposed to polyodia (polyphony). Kircher a
that all three types can exist in organica (instrumental
vague reference to instrumental monody contradicts bo
Doni's understanding of monody as the vocal rendition o
inconsistency, overlooked by later historians who use
authority, perhaps gave impetus to the later wide a
"monody" to nonvocal music (see below).
At the end of the 17th century a new monodic concept
gang Caspar Printz, in his Historische Beschreibung der e
Kling-Kunst," considers the soloistic music of Viadana th
dies.12 As a result, the "origin" of the basso continuo in
is linked to the "origin" of monody. Modern scholarship
premises - that Viadana originated either monody or the
and that the phenomena are linked in his music 13" - but
of monodic style with basso continuo performance practi
today. A confusion in the meaning of basso continuo prev
cently among many writers on Baroque music.'4 The var
basso continuo realization - homophonic or contrapun
on older or newer concepts of dissonance, harmony, and
allowed for a variety of musical styles, all linked by Pri
Thus not only late Baroque recitativo secco but also poly
ceived solo music as in Viadana's Cento concerti came to
Printz and most subsequent writers under the term "mon
this conflicted with Doni's use of the term, which did n
recitative in the later Baroque sense and which eliminated
solo song.
9 Ibid., p. 538.
10 Ibid., pp. 544-55.
11 Dresden (1690), pp. 132-33.
12 Praetorius, op. cit., pp. [124] ff., draws attention to Viadana, who was excep-
tionally well known in Germany in the early 17th century. His Cento concerti was
republished there four times. See F. Mompellio, Viadana, in MGG, XIII, 1576. But
Praetorius does not label Viadana's music specifically "monody."
13 See F. T. Arnold, The Art of Accompaniment from a Thorough-Bass (London,
1931), p. 2, and Eggebrecht, "Arten des Generalbasses im friihen und mittleren 17.
Jahrhundert" in Archiv fiir Musikwissenschaft, XIV (1957), 61.
14 Eggebrecht, ibid., pp. 61-82, clarifies the function and related styles of the
basso continuo.
The theorists who follow in the 18th century add nothing so drasti
ally new to "monody" as did Printz in 1690. J. G. Walther's Lexik
(1732) distinguishes between monodia, a solo song sung by one person
and cantus monodicus."5 The latter is Choral-Gesang - i.e. the singing o
sacred chant by a group of people in unison. This is the same distinctio
made by Doni and Kircher, but Doni's terms are less susceptible to conf
sion and probably therefore remained in later works - such as Je
Jacque Rousseau's Dictionnaire (1768).16 To Johann Mattheson monody
is an admired practice of the remote early Baroque composer who wa
preoccupied with faithful dramatic expression of the text." Monody as
simple solo song with instrumental accompaniment was modified
Mattheson's contemporaries who often subverted the original purpose
operatic song (as defined by Doni and, earlier, the Florentine Camera
to mere vocal exhibitionism. Mattheson understands recitative primari
in the sense of the early Baroque, and his arguments against too man
artifices that obscure the text resemble the Camerata's reasons for intro-
ducing it 150 years earlier.
Padre Giambattista Martini was in a unique position to trace the
development of the term "monody," since he was responsible for the re-
publication of some of the works of Doni as well as for the first publica-
tion of many of his manuscripts."8 However, he adds his own ideas to those
of his predecessor. He specifically relates the new monody of Florence to
the lugubrious, morose monodies accompanied by the Pitaulo "9 in ancient
Greece, and, as a whole, his references to classical authors are more pre-
cise and abundant in connection with monody than were Doni's.20 His
description of monody as part recitative and part aria is consistent when
recitative and aria are understood in a late 18th-century setting. But the
description is no longer valid when the dichotomy between recitative and
aria is considered under early 17th-century conditions where both words
15 Walther, Musikalisches Lexikon (Leipzig, 1732), pp. 138, 419.

16 P. 301.
17 Critica Musica, Vol. II (Hamburg, 1725), 59.

18 In Lyra barberina (see note 4).
19 Martini, Storia della Musica, II (Bologna, 1770), 273, 278, mentions the
Pitaulo (or Pithaulo) as a particularly common instrument for theatrical productions,
and Ottavio Tiby, La musica in Grecia e a Roma (Florence, 1942), pp. 64-65, points
out the similarity of "pitaulo" to "aulo pitico" (auloi pythikoi), which Curt Sachs,
Reallexikon der Musikinstrumente (repr. Hildesheim, 1964), p. 24, shows is specifically
associated by Diomedes with the accompaniment of songs in Roman comedies. It seems
likely, then, that Martini is referring to the auloi pythikoi.
20 Martini, ibid., pp. 136 ff.
have other meanings. Failure to distinguish the song

two periods led to the misapplication of "monody" to
aria of the 18th century instead of to a third type of
recitative) that contains elements of each of the other
means is a solo, declamatory song that is more lyric t
century recitativo secco and simpler than the ornate
and Classical Periods.
During the period from Doni to Martini, the terms "monody" and
"monodic style" referred more or less to a single musical phenomenon:
expressive recitative. Although it is always a solo song, "monody" does not
apply merely to any single-voice work but only to a lyric-recitative type.
Its "origins" in Greek theater music and its "revival" by a group of
Florentine intellectuals were universally accepted. Three theorists en-
larged on Doni's "monody": Kircher, who allowed an undefined instru-
mental monody; Printz, who followed mistaken notions in relation to
Viadana; and Martini, who described monody as half recitative and half
aria. Harmless as these deviations from accepted usage may have been at
first, they sowed seeds of later misinterpretation and distortion. In the
analysis of the music of the Early Baroque and in reference to other
musical eras, the writers who followed the above authors bent "monody"
into various shapes. They were often justified, figuratively, within the
context in which they wrote; but all too often what they wrote was ac-
cepted literally outside of context.
The first important 19th-century musicologist to take great liberties
with "monody" was Raphael Georg Kiesewetter. In his Geschichte der
europiiisch-abendliindischen . . . Musik (1834), he defines monody as
song for one voice with harmonic instrumental accompaniment that orig-
inated in Florence.21 But his examples of "monody" defy this definition.
The three examples by Galilei, Caccini (Le nuove musiche), and Viadana
(Cento concerti) require for the most part a contrapuntally realized
instrumental accompaniment. All still fit more or less into a poly-
phonic tradition against which the Camerata and Doni were fighting with
monody. Sometime between 1834 and 1841 Kiesewetter became ac-
quainted with Doni's works, and in his Schicksale und Beschaffenheit des
weltlichen Gesanges (1841)" he is more careful of his terminology. He
now recognizes a distinction between recitative and lyric song and be-
tween monodic (soloistically conceived) song and a solo song derived from
polyphony. Although the three examples in his earlier book remain the
21 Pp. 73-75.
22 Pp. 41-52.
prime examples of monody in the later one, there is one very notable
addition: a scena from Peri's Euridice (1600) that corresponds ideally t
Doni's understanding of "monody." Kiesewetter seems to have begu
with false ideas yet, upon being confronted with the facts (examples
and treatises on music ca. 1600), seems to have only partially correcte
himself. His readers, however, who comprised all subsequent 19th-centur
musicologists, did not recognize the ambiguity of his statements regarding
"monody" and thus perpetuated the ambiguity. Monody remained a so
song, but it no longer connoted only soloistically conceived solo song.
"Monodic style," therefore, became an ambiguous term and any subse
quent use of the term required explanatory qualifications that it only s
dom received.
F. J. Fetis, Kiesewetter's rival as music historian in the first half of the

19th century, agreed with his German contemporary that Le nuove
musiche contains monodies.a He mentions that in 1590 Caccini set a
"poeme d'une monodie, sorte de scene a voix seule," a mysterious refer-
ence which shows that Fetis had only a vague notion of what monody is.
In the later 19th century, Hugo Riemann applied "monody" so
diversely that it soon was bereft of any precise meaning. At one point he
defines it according to Doni - i.e. as Einzelgesang with instrumental ac-
companiment sung about 1600 by Peri, Caccini, and Cavalieri.2' How-
ever, Riemann noticed that solo song existed well before 1600, and there-
upon applied "monody" (Einzelgesang without further qualifications) to
folk music and the music of the Middle Ages, to 16th-century solo songs
with lute accompaniment, and homophonic madrigals.25 Of special in-
terest is the 14th-century "monody," the simple 14th-century Florentine
madrigal, which served the same purpose of protest against excessively
complicated polyphony that its late-16th-century counterpart did.26 In a
moment of weakness Riemann admitted a distinction between actual
monody ("wirkliche Monodie"), where the text is declaimed as in all
pre-Camerata song, and pure monody ("echte Monodie"), where the
voice is accompanied by a slow-moving bass.27 As he sees it, a basso con-
tinuo moving in slow notes in relation to the declaiming voice is the chief
characteristic of Florentine Camerata monody that distinguishes it from
23 F6tis, Biographie universelle des musiciens, Vol. III (Brussels, 1837), 2.

24 Riemann, Musik-Lexikon, 3rd ed. (Leipzig, 1887), p. 641.
25 Riemann, Geschichte der Musiktheorie im IX. - XIX. Jahrhundert (Leipzig,
1898), p. 414, and Musik-Lexikon,;loc. cit.
28 Riemann, Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, Vol. 11.2 (Leipzig, 1912), 8.
27 Riemann, Handbuch, Vol. 11.3 (Leipzig, 1913), 6.
all other kinds. Riemann fails to grasp the essential natur

a specific musical rhetoric (expressive recitative) ca. 1600;
the idea but becomes too absorbed in relatively superf
basso continuo.
And Riemann goes still further. Since Le nuove musiche contains

only solo songs, its entire contents are monodic; since Heinrich Albert and
other Germans wrote solo songs, their lieder are monodic.28 It is not new
to admit Viadana to the ranks of the monodists, but to emphasize imita-
tion between bass and voice as a legitimate feature of monody gives added
strength to the polyphonic aspects that defy Galilei and Doni's intentions.
Since any solo song is now monody, "monodic" can refer to any soloistic
treatment, even when it occurs in purely instrumental music. Thus the
sonatas of 1600 are called "monodic" 29 and - can one go further? -
so are those passages in Beethoven's symphonies that are scored for a solo in-
strument accompanied chordally by the rest of the orchestra! 30 Where
Kircher suggests an instrumental monody, Riemann presents it as an
established fact. Riemann's failure to understand the word resulted in his
consistent but unique use of it, and, because of his immense influence, his
peculiar definition became standardized in musical reference works. What
once was a more or less specific term became so generalized and widely
applied as to lose almost any meaning. Other musicologists followed with
inevitable confusion. Luigi Torchi, to cite but one example, considered
solo song in the intermedii ca. 1500 monodic, while in his discussion of the
developments in Florence and the rest of Italy ca. 1600, he omits the
term altogether.31
In present musicological parlance there are two types of composition
to which the word "monody" (without modifiers) usually refers: 1) Flor-
entine recitative, best represented in the earliest operas (not 18th-century
recitative), and 2) early 17th-century Italian accompanied solo song
28 Ibid., Vol. 11.2, 329 ff. The fallacy of this assertion is shown in my Foreign
Influence on the German Secular Solo Continuo Lied in the Mid-Seventeenth Century,
Brandeis Univ. diss. 1967, Chap. II. Herrmann Kretzschmar, Geschichte des neuen
deutschen Liedes (Leipzig, 1911, and Hildesheim, 1966), is more cautious than Rie-
mann and, while pointing out the similarity between Caccini's Le nuove musiche and
German lieder, does not go so far as to call these lieder monodic.
29 Riemann, Handbuch, Vol. 11.2, pp. 85-125, and Geschichte der Musiktheorie,
p. 415. This was developed at length by Hugo Leichtentritt, "Der monodische Kam-
mermusikstil in Italien bis gegen 1650," in A. W. Ambros, Geschichte der Musik, 3rd
ed. (Leipzig, 1909), Vol. IV, 775-892.
30 Riemann, Handbuch, Vol. II, 3, 176.
31 "L'accompagnamento degli istrumenti nei melodrammi italiani della prima meta
del seicento," in Rivista Musicale Italiana, I (1894), 7-38.
largely deriving from Caccini's Le nuove musiche (often called "lyr

monody" 32). We have seen how they acquired the common term du
several centuries of musicological discussion.
The term "monodic style," however, must be treated separately
with special care. Today, in the most penetrating studies, it refers not t
musical style but to a specific relationship between music and text
stile rappresentativo or musical realization of dramatic rhetoric). S
numerous musical phenomena are associated with both early opera
early 17th-century Italian song where the musical rhetoric peculia
monodic style exists, "monodic" without further qualification indi
no precise musical style. The several possible musical styles present
monodic style (as heightened rhetoric) obtains must be recognized
then properly distinguished one from another.
The musical styles of recitative-monody are clearly defined by D
and in recent studies by Friedrich Blume, H. H. Eggebrecht, and oth
An exceptionally poignant example contrasting two of them is an ex
from Peri's Euridice (see Ex. 1 ). The dialogue before the arrival of D
superbly captures the actors' joyfully spoken intonations; the gay eff
Ex.1 J. Peri, Eurldice, facs. cd. by. E. M. Dufflocq, Rome, 1934, pp. 12-13.
Orfeo
. . .E per te, Tr - s mio, ri - me - nil So - le Sem - pre le not-te,el
Dafne
di -lie - ti, e ri - den - ti Las - sa! che di spa-

O11 11
ven- to, e di pie - ta - te Ge-la-m ilcor nel se - no! Mi-se-ra-bil
S b 4 # 1 4 3 2 0 4
32 For example, by Federico Ghisi, Alle Fonti della Monod

33 See note 1.
achieved largely through a musical exuberance (note the c

contour around "dilieti"). When at the entrance of Dafne
denly becomes impassioned, the music follows closely
musical exhilaration is supplanted by short-winded decla
entirely subservient to the highly charged message of the
recitatives, but even within the one general pattern of
musical style varies. Monodic style here connotes a soloist
a text wherein the music, serving only one purpose, hei
matic declamation. When the text changes mood, the mu
and the musical style very likely changes accordingly. Monod
simply cannot be equated with just a single, recitative-like m
This is even more apparent in Caccini's first collection
Le nuove musiche (1602). Since Caccini wrote opera r
Peri's, it seems probable that the dynamism of the mono
be transferred to the solo song. This frequently happened,
styles are different. What works are monodic? In the st
Le nuove musiche there can be no monodic style. If a
expresses suitably one line of text, the same music rarel
effect on another verse. When numerous strophes are repeate
Ex.2 G. Caccini, Le nuove musiche. 1602, facs. ed. by F. Vatielhi, Rome, 1934, p.36.*
Bel-le ro se pur - pu - ri - ne. che tra spi - ne su-1'Au-ro ra.
non a - pr - te Ma mi - ni - stre de - gl'a - mo - ri Bei te so

6 6 11 10 !
ri Di bei den ti cus - to- di - te...
11 o10
* No attempt has been made to rebar.
music, the natural declamation of the text is sacrificed. In some arias (see
Ex. 2) the music is self-sufficient without the text and could be instru-
mentally transcribed; the connection with polyphonic dance songs of the
same period is often clear. Since the musical rhythms are more important
than the text, the dance song is not monodic.
In Caccini's through-composed madrigals and strophic variations,
however, the possibility for monodic style exists. There are moments when
it occurs in Example 3. Yet essentially "Ard'il mio petto misero" is a
display of vocal technique and lyricism. Doni states that singing should
be beautiful, but not at the expense of the proper expression of the words.
Caccini's song technically conforms to this, but the impression it gives (as
do all his madrigals and strophic variations) is of a change in the com-
poser's emphasis. The purely musical aspects of the vocal line are more
Ex.3 Ibid., pp.29-31
Strophe 1.
. ,,t , .L . . . . . . . . . .
Ar - d'il mio pet - to mi - se - ro Al - ta fi6 - ma lu - cen -
(4) 6 11 010
i I
te si co -medu-restel-le.al - trui per nmi - se-ro E ben-che las-soilcor ne pe-ni ar
den - te non se ne pen - te, Non se ne pen - te.

11 #10 10l 11 1101014
Strophe 2. Strophe 3.
Dic' ei quan -tun que-af-flig - ga- mi Co - si fol - le con-so - la st...
r.__- r r i ron I - ."" -._. ---
crucial to the composer here than a strict musical represe

matic rhetoric. In any case, the musical styles of this and oth
dies in Le nuove musiche are radically different from tho
tative monody (see Ex. 1).
"Monodic style" applies to a vocal line and only indire
companiment which must assist the voice. In recitative-
companiment satisfies this basic requirement by eliminat
ally oriented basses and substituting simple sustained ch
Both Galilei and Doni described such basses in reference to
only in Riemann do they assume the focal position around
developed. His premise is false; the bass with simple susta
not generate recitative monody but was accepted as a me
the only one) to assist it. The sustained bass became inex
ated with later Baroque recitativo secco - e.g. in Hand
Ex.4 Ibid., p.2.
Que - ste la gri-m'a - ma - - - re Que-st'an-go scio

S6 4 03 6
Grup
so pian - to plan - to non c ma

7 06
san - gue del mi - se - ro cor mlo

66 11 0
fe - ri - to da lo stra .. le...
b6 6 06
In 6, ..o
!:" . ' 11" l !:
Bach's cantatas and passions - but was itself merely an adjunct to the
motivating force behind early recitative: the monodic, declamatory sty
The sustained bass, a characteristic of the musical style of only on
type of early 17th-century monody, is of little consequence in the oth
monody types. In Examples 2, 3, and 4 the basses generally move wit
the voice, slowing down significantly only at vocal melismas and contr
uting independent motion occasionally (see Ex. 3, mm. 6-7). In Examp
3, the repetition of the bass, when coupled with vocal repetition, seriou
jeopardizes the monodic style, and the huge melisma near the end
strophe 3 suggests not only another text-music relationship but anoth
purely musical style.
Caccini's songs are usually monodic - that is, they are declamatory
and in several distinct musical styles. The recitative styles with sustain
bass are absent in Le nuove musiche. Instead we find the solo madrig
the dance-song, and the simple aria styles.34 The first (solo madrigal) c
tains a free flowing vocal line with numerous melismas and a frequent
contrapuntal relationship with the accompaniment (see Ex. 4); the sec
ond one conforms to an instrumental dance rhythm, is syllabic, and po
sesses a homophonic accompaniment (see Ex. 2) ; and the third, similar
but freer than the second, allows some melismas, avoids consistent dan
rhythms, and permits a partially independent bass (see Ex. 3). In none
these styles is there a sustained basso continuo of the sort found in Exa
ple 1. The forms the three pieces take are often related to their music
styles: through-composed, binary, and strophic, respectively (stroph
variations vary from style 1 to 3).
Since monodic style refers to a text-music relationship independent
the actual musical style, numerous types of pieces in Peri's Euridice an
Caccini's Le nuove musiche " are in the same tradition despite th
obvious musical dissimilarities. In the solo songs by followers of Cacci
the different musical styles are further developed. Many are dance son
where dance rhythms determine the length and character of the notes;
but they are not in the monodic style. Almost from the beginning the coll
tions become more concerned with musical criteria than with declama-
tion. Only a few of these "monodies" are therefore "monodic" - a para-
34 This categorization expands upon that by Nigel Fortune, "Italian Secular Mon-
ody from 1600 to 1635" in The Musical Quarterly, XXXIX (1953), 182 ff.
35 Not all pieces in Euridice and Le nuove musiche are monodies; the strophic
songs and the polyphonic passages in Euridice are obviously not included here.
36 See Putnam Aldrich, Rhythm in Seventeenth-Century Italian Monody (New
York, 1966).
dox that has created much confusion in terminology. The

has covered a realm of compositions that are related through
cal styles but not through their treatment of text.
At present, the word "monody" stands for two groups
between 1590 and 1635, and "monodic style" stands for a
lationship affecting some of these works. These words p
confusion without compounding the issue with other, ext
ences. Nonvocal music is certainly never "monodic" (by d
solo-singing in general must meet very specific requirem
rarely does, except in the early-17th-century repertoire
sidered) before it can be so labeled. Folksong is usually mo
not artistically produced "monody," which is based on height
oratory. The name "pseudomonody," in reference to the i
phonic precursors of Florentine monody, is more justifie
does not imply "actual" and must be carefully applied fo
reference to be drawn.

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Monody: A Study in Terminology

Author(s): John H. Baron

perfettione delle Melodie," where "monodie" is specifically linked to

Except in his initial reference to unaccompanied solo song, Doni d

monodica (music for one singer).? This parallels Doni's

15 Walther, Musikalisches Lexikon (Leipzig, 1732), pp. 138, 419.

17 Critica Musica, Vol. II (Hamburg, 1725), 59.

have other meanings. Failure to distinguish the song

F. J. Fetis, Kiesewetter's rival as music historian in the first half of the

23 F6tis, Biographie universelle des musiciens, Vol. III (Brussels, 1837), 2.

all other kinds. Riemann fails to grasp the essential natur

And Riemann goes still further. Since Le nuove musiche contains

largely deriving from Caccini's Le nuove musiche (often called "lyr

. . .E per te, Tr - s mio, ri - me - nil So - le Sem - pre le not-te,el

di -lie - ti, e ri - den - ti Las - sa! che di spa-

ven- to, e di pie - ta - te Ge-la-m ilcor nel se - no! Mi-se-ra-bil

32 For example, by Federico Ghisi, Alle Fonti della Monod

achieved largely through a musical exuberance (note the c

Bel-le ro se pur - pu - ri - ne. che tra spi - ne su-1'Au-ro ra.

non a - pr - te Ma mi - ni - stre de - gl'a - mo - ri Bei te so

ri Di bei den ti cus - to- di - te...

* No attempt has been made to rebar.

te si co -medu-restel-le.al - trui per nmi - se-ro E ben-che las-soilcor ne pe-ni ar

den - te non se ne pen - te, Non se ne pen - te.

Dic' ei quan -tun que-af-flig - ga- mi Co - si fol - le con-so - la st...

r.__- r r i ron I - ."" -._. ---

crucial to the composer here than a strict musical represe

Que - ste la gri-m'a - ma - - - re Que-st'an-go scio

so pian - to plan - to non c ma

san - gue del mi - se - ro cor mlo

dox that has created much confusion in terminology. The

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