Caccini: Le Nuove Musiche

Featuring

Riccardo Pisani
Ricercare Antico
Giulio Caccini

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Compositional Technique

Caccini's artistic credo was to combine classical ideals with contemporary techniques, always prioritizing the sung text with a continuo accompaniment contoured to the vocal line.

Composition History

Caccini's two volumes of 'Le Nuove Musiche', published in 1602 and 1614, codified his musical language and served as a manifesto for a new style of singing.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Caccini aimed to create music where 'one could speak in the harmony', emphasizing the sung text and using a 'noble negligence of song' with dissonances over a sustained bass.

Composer Biography

Giulio Caccini, born in Rome in 1551, was a member of the Camerata de' Bardi, a group of humanists, musicians, poets, and intellectuals in late-Renaissance Florence.

Recording & Production

This album includes world premiere recordings of Filippo Nicoletti's instrumental songs 'La Trictella' and 'La Capricciosetta', found in Manuscript 156 in Rome.

Performer Biography

Riccardo Pisani, the tenor on this album, was a puer cantor of the Cappella Musicale Pontificia 'Sistina' from 2000-2003 and has performed Monteverdian roles internationally.

Instruments

Caccini was also skilled in accompanying himself and others on plucked string instruments like the chitarrone, lute, and double harp, which were common in 16th-century Italian courts.