monody - Main composers of monody, References and further reading

In music, a single vocal or instrumental line, in contrast to polyphony. Gregorian chant and unaccompanied folksong are both examples of monody, but the term is often applied more specifically (though perhaps less accurately) to the continuo-accompanied solo vocal music of the early 17th-c.

(In the context of ancient Greek literature, monody, μονῳδία could simply refer to lyric poetry sung by a single performer, rather than by a chorus.)

In music, monody is a solo vocal style distinguished by having a single melodic line and instrumental accompaniment. The term is used both for the style and for individual songs (so one can speak both of monody as a whole as well as a particular monody).

In monody, which developed out of an attempt by the Florentine Camerata in the 1580s to restore ancient Greek ideas of melody and declamation (probably with little historical accuracy), one solo voice sings a melodic part, usually with considerable ornamentation, over a rhythmically independent bass line. While some monodies were arrangements for smaller forces of the music for large ensembles which was common at the end of the 16th century, especially in the Venetian School, most monodies were composed independently.

Other musical streams which came together in the monody were the madrigal and the motet, both of which developed into solo forms after 1600 and borrowed ideas from the monody.

Contrasting passages in monodies could be more melodic or more declamatory: these two styles of presentation eventually developed into the aria and the recitative, and the overall form merged with the cantata by about 1635.

The parallel development of solo song with accompaniment in France was called the air de cour: the term monody is not normally applied to these more conservative songs, however, which retained many musical characteristics of the Renaissance chanson.

An important early treatise on monody is contained in Giulio Caccini's song collection, Le nuove musiche (Florence, 1601).

Main composers of monody

Vincenzo Galilei (1520 - 1591) Giulio Caccini (c.1545 - 1618) Emilio de' Cavalieri (c.1550 - 1602) Bartolomeo Barbarino (? 1638) Sigismondo d'India (c.1582 - 1629) Claudio Saracini (1586 - c.1649)

See Texture (music)

References and further reading

Nigel Fortune, "Monody", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed.