Music at the House of Medici: About the Program
Dr. C. Matthew Balensuela
The Medici’s rose to prominence through banking and business dealings in the fourteenth century. They used their wealth to enrich not only their home city of Florence, but to influence politics and the arts throughout Italy and Europe over three centuries. Ferdinando I de’ Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany (r. 1587-1609), helped support the earliest operas. Almost 100 years later, Ferdinando III de’ Medici, the Grand Prince of Tuscany (1663-1713), also lavished his support on musicians and musical institutions, including his funding of the Florentine inventor Bartolomeo Cristofori—the creator of the pianoforte.
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) worked for many years as the music master of the Pio Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, an orphanage for young women which was supported by Prince Ferdinando III. Vivaldi’s Sinfonia G Major begins with an Allegro featuring broad, dramatic gestures in the violins spanning the range of the instrument, while the second movement Andante, is a stately, duple meter in G minor. The concluding Allegro returns the work to G major in the feel of a lively minuet.
Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739) was born into a Venetian noble family. He did not need to make a living in music, but pursued composition for his own enjoyment and as an expression of his good taste. He was invited by several Italian courts to perform his music, including the Medicis. In the aria from Arianna (1727), “Come mai puoi vedermi piangere?” (How can you see me weeping?) Marcello uses repeated fermatas, or holds, in the music—giving the aria a halting feel to express Arianna’s grief over Theseus’s abandonment of her.
Giovanni Legrenzi (1629-1690) was a composer and organist active in northern Italian cities such as Ferrara and Venice. Like Marcello, he was invited by the Medicis to perform his music in Florence. His Sonata Quinta á 4 Violini in G Minor, Op. 10 (1673) demonstrates his assured facility in composing chamber music and the use of motivic and contrapuntal styles that would later be developed in the works of Corelli and others.
Vivaldi’s collection of twelve violin concertos published as L’estro armonico (1711) was dedicated to Ferdinando III de’ Medici. This work established Vivaldi’s approach to the concerto as a model to be emulated. The Concerto No. 9 in D major begins with a stately Allegro in ritornello form, where the orchestra alternates with the soloist several times throughout the movement. The following Larghetto is also in D major; the orchestra maintains a foundation of repeated eighth notes over which the soloist spins out a lyrical obbligato. The concluding Allegro, features repeated chords in the orchestra (almost an accelerated version of the Larghetto) which alternates with the soloist’s virtuoso passage work.
Marcello’s Sinfonia No. 3 in G major was most likely written early in his career, sometime between 1716-26. It begins with a brief dramatic opening, before moving directly into an agitated Presto. A brief Largo featuring dotted rhythms introduces the concluding Presto in triple meter that develops a rising figure in counterpoint.
Alessandro Scarlatti’s (1660-1725) career as a composer was enhanced by the patronage of Ferdinando III de’ Medici who funded many of his works. Il Giardino di Rose-La Santissima del Rosario, an oratorio honoring Mary as Our Lady of the Rosary, was composed in Rome for Lenten services in 1707. In the work, several allegorical figures, including Charity and Patience, protect a garden (which includes roses) from the destructive forces of the icy wind. In “Mentr’io godo in dolce oblio” (While I enjoy a sweet oblivion), Hope reflects on the joys of the garden’s fragile beauty. The ABA aria begins with alternating step motion to represent the gentle breezes, first in the orchestra and then by the soloist. The B section uses the same neighbor note motion as the contemplative mood continues before a repeat of the opening A, allowing for ornamentation by the soloist as in a da capo aria. The plot of Scarlatti’s opera La Griselda (1721) is a fidelity test where the poor wife endures a series of calamites before the happy ending. Through it all, Griselda remains true in her love for her husband, as seen in the aria “Se il mio dolor t’offende” (If my pain offends you). The aria begins with a slow opening that represents Griselda’s true sorrow before moving into a vivacious triple meter with rapid accompaniment to reflect her feigned happiness. In the B section, with a less frantic accompaniment, she reflects on her constancy and faithfulness. The da capo repeats the slow opening, reminding the audience of her inner grief.
Handel’s Ariodante (1734) is a tale of betrayed love set in Medieval Scotland to a libretto by Antonio Salvi, court poet of Prince Ferdinando III. The Sinfonia to Act II presents a gentle, homophonic orchestral setting over a descending bass pattern in D Major. In the concluding act, Dalinda (the attendant of Gineva, daughter of the King of Scotland) realizes that the nobleman Polinesso does not really love her, but has been using her to gain access to Gineva and separate her from her true love, the knight Aridoante. Her anger is expressed in a brief recitative “Ingrato Polinesso!” (Ungrateful Polinesso) before her da capo rage aria in G minor, “Neghittosi or voi che fate?” (Apathetic gods, what are you doing), in which virtuoso passage work expresses her wish to see Polinesso punished.
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) was a composer and violinist who helped to solidify the role of instrumental music as a path to a career music. His opus 6 publication was dedicated to Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, Prince Ferdinando III’s sister. In the Concerto grosso in D major, Op. 6, no. 4, Corelli sets the string orchestra and continuo in contrast with a small group of soloists consisting of two violins and cello. The work is in four movements. The first begins with a brief orchestral Adagio, which allows Corelli to start the following Allegro with the soloists, rather than the full orchestra (as is more typical). The Adagio is a stately presentation of repeated chords, allowing for chromatic voice leading throughout the movement. The third movement is in a fast triple featuring trills and step-wise motivic motion. The concluding Allegro is in duple meter but the pervasive use of triplets gives the movement the feel of gigue, until the sixteenth-note motion in the coda confirms the duple meter.
