Baroque Beginnings: New Music!
Highlights from Giulio Caccini’s Le Nuove Musiche (1602)

Michael Skarke, altus

Mario Aschauer, harpsichord

The invention of monody, a single voice accompanied by a chordal instrument, constitutes the quantum jump from the polyphonic Renaissance to the emotionally charged Baroque period. The new aesthetic of a dramatically charged solo voice paved the way for the development of opera. One of the spear heads of this musical revolution was Italian singer and composer Giulio Caccini who not only contributed music to the first operas of music history, but also published perhaps the most influential collection of monodies: his Nuove Musiche (“New Musics”) of 1602. Our program features the highlights from this collection: love poetry by some of the most renowned Italian poets of his time—Guarini, Strozzi, and Rinuccini—with the sweet melodies and lush harmonies of opera’s first star.