Orazio Vecchi and the Madrigal Comedy

Two principal currents may be distinguished in 16th century Italian poetry: the “Petrarchan” and complementary “Bernescan”.  The former, with its select vocabulary, subly refined in utterance and in its distinctive sentiments, was resorted to for all the demands of exalted and emotionally charged lyrical expression, whereas the latter was suitable for the jesting humours, realistic and even grotesque vitality. Both these tendencies are also reflected in the profane polyphonic music of the period and suffuse a great deal of artfully wrought and continuous writing (the madrigal) as well as the arioso, strophic character of the canzonetta, villanelle and similar forms.

Don Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605), a native of Modena, was deeply interested in the Bernescan repertory. He was active as maestro di cappella in the cathedrals of several towns on the plain of the Po (Salò, Modena, Correggio, Modena again), and finally also at the court of the Este family that had been installed in Modena since 1597. At the same time, an interesting result is created in his printed secular output by the attempt to organize the contents of each book according to unifying designs that place the individual pieces within a more or less consistent framework. Although there had already been attempts at structural cohesiveness – albeit tenuous and somewhat in the nature of a pretext – in a kind of Canzoniere volume, Vecchi’s books, however, evince a more sensible and unified overall design: a well-characterized landscape sketch (Selva di varia ricreazione, 1590), a theatrical piece (a comedy, L’Amfiparnaso, 1597), an episode from social life (the banquet and evening of entertainment, Il Convito musicale, 1597 and Le veglie di Siena, 1604).

L’Amfiparnaso is derived from the contemporary comedy, whether it was written or improvised. It is sub-titled “commedia armonica” (i.e. musical), while its title (literally “the twin-peaked Parnassus”) is an allusion to its being “composed of a two-fold novelty”, as stated in the Prologue, meaning poetry and music. Each scene is introduced by a recapitulatory triplet that functions as a tenuous connecting link, and a series of situations in dialogue, typifying the contemporary comedy, passes in review: conflicts between masters and servants, between lovers (young and old, including the mercenary variety), scenes of pathos, the serenade, the pawnshop scene in the ghetto. The stereotypical nature of the characters and situations made it easier for the listeners to patch together the individual scenes into a plausible whole.

Far from being, even embryonically, a forerunner of the sung theatre with which experiments were beginning to be conducted in Florentine circles during the same period, L’Amfiparnaso, with its polyphonic language, proposes a type of imaginary theatre in as much as the voice and the character do not coincide with one another, and each of them is projected by several simultaneous voices, thereby making any concrete representation impossible. It is treated as a “spectacle that is apprehended by the mind / into which it enters by the ears and not by the eyes”, as Lelio so nicely puts it in the Prologue, concluding with the eloquent invitation to the ideal spectator to “be silent, therefore / and instead of looking, now listen”. This did not, however, prevent Vecchi from sprinkling his essentially madrigalesque polyphonic writing with individualizing features: bars devoted to single voices, small contrasting vocal groups, sudden leaps in compass, opposing melodic-rhythmic devices and contrapuntal techniques, the introduction of characteristic stylistic elements (e.g. Jewish chanting), and a refrain denoting a particular character (like Isabella in the final scene). The emergence of these elements inside the densely woven polyphonic texture in which the poetic word spread themselves over the trellice formed by the combination of the various vocal parts causes at least the shadows of the protagonists now and then to appear fleetingly on the imaginary stage.

The same thing takes place in Il Convito musicale which, in addition, offers a fine example of a mixture of styles and the society games with which the “brigate”  of friends amused themselves the most delightful illustration of this element is probably the mimicking of the sounds of instruments and the counterpoint of the animals.

Paolo Fabbri