Sances: Capricci Poetici, Vol. 1

Featuring

Irene Morelli
Diego Cantalupi
Giuseppe Schinaia
Beatrice Mercuri
Giovanni Felice Sances

Did you know?

1/7

Critical Reception

Johann Joseph Fux, a later Kapellmeister, wrote in 1715 that he had never seen a Kapellmeister who wrote as much music as Sances, whose compositions still filled the Imperial Chapel.

Composer Biography

Giovanni Felice Sances, born around 1600, came from a musical family; his father Orazio and uncle Lorenzo were singers who appeared in early Roman operas.

Composition History

Sances' early compositions, including the Capricci Poetici, were influenced by the Venetian musical environment and the dominant style of Monteverdi.

Composer Biography

In 1636, Sances began a long career at the Habsburg Imperial Chapel in Vienna, rising from 'musico' (performer/composer) to Kapellmeister by 1669.

Compositional Technique

Sances' cantatas elaborate Monteverdi's seconda prattica, alternating recitative, declamatory style, and extended singing, foreshadowing later opera and chamber cantata forms.

Historical Context

The Habsburg court's strict Counter-Reformation Catholicism and the Thirty Years' War influenced Sances' musical language, initially imposing a conservative style.

Composer Biography

Sances was expelled from the Collegio Germanico, a college in Rome, in 1614 after his father arranged his unauthorized participation in the opera L'Amor Pudico.