Romanesca

- FRANCESCA CACCINI (18 September 1587 † after 1641) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesca_Cacciniwas SECULAR SONGS FRANCESCA CACCINI, Italian Composer, Singer, Lutenist, Poet, and Music Teacher of the early Baroque Era, was also known by the nickname "La Cecchina", originally given to her by the Florentines and probably a diminutive of "Francesca". She was the daughter of Giulio Caccini, and was one of the best-known and most influential female European composers between Hildegard of Bingen in the 12th century and the 19th century. Her stage work, 'La liberazione di Ruggiero', has been widely considered the first Opera by a woman Composer. Francesca, who assumed an important role in the seventeenth century as a Voice Teacher in the 'Medici Court', also developed a compendium of contemporary styles, ranging from intensely moving, harmonically adventurous laments to joyful sacred songs in Italian and Latin, to witty strophic songs about the joys and perils of romantic Love; 'Il primo libro delle Musiche', a collection of thirty-six solo songs and soprano-bass duets, as a pedagogic material for singers published in 1618 and dedicated to her patron the Cardinal de' Medici (1596 † 1666). Very little of her music survives. Most of her stage music was composed for performance in comedies by Poet Michelangelo Buonarroti The Younger (grand-nephew of the artist) such as 'La Tancia' (1613), 'Il passatempo' (1614) and 'La Fiera' (1619). She is believed to have been a quick and prolific Composer, equal in productivity to her court colleagues Jacopo Peri and Marco da Gagliano. 'Il Primo Libro Delle Musiche', 1618 'The Secular Monodies' Instrumental Piece: «ROMANESCA» The Pieces are titled variously Sonetto, Madrigale, Aria, Canzonatta, Psalme, Motetto, Hinno. A large number of these are based on the Romanesca ground bass. COURT OPERAS & DRAMATIC WORKS Francesca Caccini (1587 † after 1641) FIRENZE: : La fiera (5 intermedi, Buonarroti), Florence, Palazzo Pitti, 11 Feb 1619) Giovanni Battista da Gagliano (1594-1651) & Francesca Caccini (1587-1637): Il martirio di S Agata (J. Cicognini), Florence, Compagnia di S Giorgio in Costa, 23 Jan 1622, [roles of S Agata and Eternità and minor women’s parts by Caccini] : Il ballo delle Zingane (balletto, F. Saracinelli), Florence, Palazzo Pitti, 24 Feb 1615 : La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (prol., 4 scenes, Saracinelli, after L. Ariosto), Florence, Villa Poggio Imperiale, 3 Feb 1625 (Florence, 1625), ed. D. Silbert, SCMA, vii (1945) : Rinaldo innamorato (?commissioned 1626, MS, formerly owned by G. Baini, lost) : S.Sigismondo (?commissioned 1626) [:'Il Primo Libro Delle Musiche', 1618 'The Secular Monodies'] PISA: : La stiava (Pisa, 1607, Lib. Buonarroti II) -