The Rebirth of Tragedy

With the age of Baroque music beginning, many changes in the arts made in the

Renaissance made even further progress. In the world of music, composers were moving even

closer to the modern concept of tonality as well as switching from mensuration to meter.

Humanism was still on the rise, and as such many Humanist scholars looked back to Greek

practices for inspiration. The Opera was a form of performance meant to reinvent Greek Ideals of

dramaticism.

The predecessors of Opera lied as recent as the Renaissance era. Occasionally, plays

would use songs or choruses while others used music between their acts known as Intermedi.

These Intermedi grew in popularity as during grand celebrations such as a wedding they would

be made into highly produced performances that included large ensembles and solo singers with

costumes and extravagant sets. These were where some of the greatest minds in choreography,

poetry, performing, composing and art would collaborate. Many of the known Intermedi writers

would go on to assist in the earliest known operas. (Hanning 188-189)

Girolamo Mei was a scholar from Florence who believed, after reading many ancient

Greek treatises, Greek music would consist of a single line. The Greeks found that the use of a

single voice could amplify any emotions through expressive delivery. Vincenzo Galilei then

studied Meis findings and used them to oppose and criticize the current theoretical practice of

music. Opposing the modern counterpoint, Galilei believed in the revival of Greek Monodia

which was an ancient style of singing alone. This was meant to further unite poetry and music.

The argument was that the complexity of Italian Madrigals were only used to show off

compositional genius and technical ability of the singers. Many voices doing separate things
while being separated in rhythm was argued to be ultimately harmful against what the text was

meant to convey. (Hanning 190)

One of the first Operas known to have been made using these ideals was L’Euridice.

Modeled after the Greek tale of Orpheus and Euridice, there was truly no greater tragedy to write

of. However, due to the nature of it being performed at a wedding, the ending was rewritten to be

happier in nature. L’Euridice was a good example of the importance of Speech in the Opera.

Humanists were drawing back to a Greek belief that the way one speaks reveals emotion. The

melody usually obscured in polyphony could shine through and suggest its own natural contours

and rhythms. This new singing style was known as the recitative, a combination of Speech and

Song. (Hanning 191)

Using the recitative, Opera became a massive hit and continued to grow and push

humanistic ideals. The rekindling of emotive poetry in music was one that still continues on

today in the world of Musical Theater or even in modern Solo pieces. The use of Greek

methodology ties everything back into Western Music. These focuses on a single singer and

emotive melody would ultimately dominate the music world and the Opera for centuries.