English, German and Italian music of the 17th century

Thursday 24 August 2023 / 19:00 / Marian Church

Nadine Balbeisi – soprano

Fernando Marín – Viola da gamba (lyra-viola)

Vocal music in the 16th and 17th centuries underwent a shift from polyphony to accompanied monody, a new Italian style that spread throughout Europe. The songs of this period exhibited a significant, some would say primary, relationship between music and text. Composers sought to set to music the most beautiful and popular poems (often with ancient as well as contemporary themes) in ways that were not only intelligible, but also deliciously enhanced by the music.

The depiction of the passionate feelings of love has become a very popular concept of musical performance. A typical and widespread technique for depicting these feelings was ornamentation.

Solo singing with the viola was thus widespread and from the early Renaissance onwards this style became a sophisticated and sought-after art, ideal for accompanying songs.

According to the aesthetics of the time, the strings of the viola imitated the sweetness of the human voice and songs were masterfully interwoven polyphonically by the individual voices.

Later, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English, influenced by the Italian lyre de arco, developed a distinctive musical style of song accompaniment of the highest artistic and poetic level, performed by the lyre da gamba or viola da gamba. This musical practice became a true icon of European artistic humanism. Numerous examples of this influence can also be found in Italy and Germany.

The title of the program refers to Henry Purcell’s song “Music for a while”. a moment in which music can heal our sorrows.