THE BEGINNINGS OF OPERA.
Early commencement of opera—The Bardi
enthusiasts—What they achieved—Peri and
Caccini—A logical commencement—Its imperfections.
It is a curious and interesting fact that the birth of opera should be
due more or less to accident, and should owe its origin to a group of
amateurs: but so it is, and to the blind gropings in the dark after a
something (they knew not what) of a small circle of polished scholars,
we owe the form of opera as we have it to-day.
It is impossible to trace back to the earliest times the addition of
music to a stage play; from the constant references to the use of the
art made by the Greek poets, we know that it was a handmaid to the
drama from very early times. In the Middle Ages, too, there is plenty
of evidence to show that, at certain stated intervals in the course
of the drama, music was introduced; but such music as this was always
written in the church style of the period, and had no significance of
its own.
It was the annoying and incongruous presentation of polyphonic music
(written in strict contrapuntal style, and in the church manner) with
the performance of dramas, in which such music was utterly out of
place, that led the band of amateurs mentioned above to search for a
more suitable means of clothing the dramatic ideas and stage situations.
[Sidenote: =The Bardi Enthusiasts (1585, about)=]
[Sidenote: =What they Achieved=]
This band of dilletanti is generally known by the name of the “Palazzo
Bardi” coterie, from the fact that their chief representative was a
certain Count Bardi, and that their meetings were usually held at his
palace in Florence. This city was, at the period of which we write
(the last part of the sixteenth century), highly interested in the
masterpieces of literary antiquity, more especially in the magnificent
dramas of the older Greek poets. Although the Florentines knew that
these tragedies had some form of musical accompaniment, they were quite
in the dark as to what that music was; they felt, however, that the
one and only prevalent kind of music of their day—_i.e._, sacred
music, was by no means adequate for the expression of the ideas to be
represented. The Bardi amateurs therefore turned the steps of their
native musicians towards other paths, and induced them to write music
of a kind which they believed to be dramatically fit and suitable. That
this music was a failure does not matter in the least, for although
it was unable to give any genuine idea of what these enthusiasts
sought—namely, a reproduction of Greek tragedy consistent with its
original form—it invented a new medium and method of expression,
of which composers soon availed themselves in setting to music the
dramatic productions of the day. The first of these early composers
to achieve success in this field was Peri, who produced in 1594 (or
1597) _Daphne_, and a few years later, in 1600, _Euridice_. _Daphne_
was semi-privately performed, but _Euridice_ was put before the world,
and achieved such success that its method and style of composition were
soon taken as models for stage music. Hence the date 1600 is assigned
as that of the birth of real opera; the same year seeing the production
of the first real oratorio, as we now understand the term. We quote the
whole of the short prologue to the earliest known opera:
Prologue to “Euridice”
[Music: Prologue to “Euridice.” (Peri, A.D. 1600.)
LA TRAGEDIA.]
Io che d’al te sospir vagae di pianti
spar s’or di doglia or di minacie volto
Fei negli ampi teatri al popol fol to scolorir
di pieta voltie sembian ti.
while for an example of early operatic dance-music the final
“Ritornello” from the same opera may serve as illustration.
[Music: Final Ritornello in Peri’s “Euridice.”
Questo Ritornello va riplicato più volte, e ballato da due Soli del
Coro.]
[Sidenote: =Peri and Caccini=]
Peri led the way; others followed. In a short decade the North of Italy
produced a whole school of writers who had grafted their ideas on those
of the composer of _Euridice_, chief among them being Caccini, who
won great fame in the new style. But the chief merit must be accorded
to Peri, for it was to him that we owe the invention of the dramatic
recitative; that is to say, instead of coupling the dialogue to music
that might have been designed for the church, as his predecessors
had been content to do, he endeavoured in his operas to allow the
singing voice to depict the ideas expressed by inflections such as
would be made by the speaking voice under similar circumstances. As he
himself tells us in his preface to _Euridice_, he watched the various
modifications in sound made by the speaker in ordinary conversational
dialogue, and sought to reproduce these in music: “Soft, gentle speech
by half-spoken, half-sung notes on an instrumental bass; more emotional
feelings by melody of more disjunct character, and at a quicker rate,”
etc.
[Sidenote: =A Logical Commencement=]
Thus was opera, in our modern meaning of the term, begun, and this,
too, on a proper, logical, æsthetic basis. It was in 1600 a new form,
an untried and questionable innovation; but it contained the elements
of strength and endurance, and by rapid steps grew and developed, until
within a few short years all other methods of accompanying stage plays
by music were obsolete, and the new “Monodic” style held unquestioned
sway.
[Sidenote: =Its Imperfections=]
Crude it certainly was, for modern tonality, as we understand it, was
still undeveloped; harsh and ugly much of its music must have been,
for melody was unknown, time was practically non-existent, and of
form there was none. And yet, in so far as it sought in its music to
faithfully reproduce the dramatic situation, such work was more truly
of the essence of opera than many another of more recent date and of
greater success. Unlike the polyphonic choral music of its date, it
will not bear performance in our own day, yet for it must be claimed
truth, strength, and clearness of aim; as pioneer work it has been
invaluable.