Lettera Amorosa - Musical Love-Letters in Early Modern Italy

In early modern Italy, letters were not only written and read but, in some cases, sung. Musical settings of love letters rekindled a complex kind of vocality which was rooted in the letters of antiquity and endured in the musical sub-genre of the lettera amorosa. Epistolary poetry served to transform, or, to echo Achillini's lettera set by Monteverdi (1567-1643), to 'distill' a lover's thoughts and emotions into verse, and the music that set it was equally transformative. The history of musical letters spans several centuries. It begins in the early sixteenth with a setting of Ovid's Heroides by Tromboncino; returns in the early seventeenth through the lettere amorose of Monteverdi, D'India, and Frescobaldi; and ends with epistolary cantatas by Carissimi, Melani, and Domenico Scarlatti. This Element traces the breadth and significance of the musical love letter with a focus on the provocative lettere amorose of the seventeenth century.

List of contents

Preface; List of Figures and Music Examples; Prologue; 1. Voices of Antiquity; 2. The Epistolary Madrigal; 3. Monteverdi's Love Letters; 4. Lettera amorosa in the Seventeenth Century; 5. The Epistolary Cantata; Epilogue; Bibliography.

Product details

• Authors: Roseen Giles, Roseen (Duke University) Giles
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.03.2025
• EAN: 9781009517447
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0951744-7
• No. of pages: 104
• Series: Elements in Music, 1600-1750
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > Miscellaneous; Music, History: specific events & topics, European History, MUSIC / General, Italy, Classical texts, History of Music, 17th century, c 1600 to c 1699, Theory of music & musicology, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, C 1600 To C 1700, European history: Renaissance, Ancient, classical and medieval texts, Theory of music and musicology