My Dear Captain - SATTB a cap

Background Notes

 

Horatio Vecchi's 1594 madrigal comedy "l'Amfiparnaso" ("The Environs of, or Striving toward, Mt. Parnassus"), is an allegorical title referring to that mountain of sublime artistic aspirations in Greece, frequented by the Muses.  Allegorical titles had come very much into vogue at the close of the 16th century in the publication of secular vocal works.  Elusive titles attracted attention and were found to stimulate purchases.  In the light of such a practical expedient we are perhaps more content to dismiss the enigma and accept the Italian title into our own language.  The subtitle, "Comedia armonica" signifies a musical comedy, a term which has come down to our own day.

 

Madrigalesque dramas were produced toward the end of the 16th century which at that time reached the end of a long road from the 14th century caccia or chace through the 15th century frottola, canto carnascialesco, villanesca and like types of multi-voiced compositions, all in jocose vein.  They include, among other works, the Alessandro Striggio "Cicalamento delle donne al bucato" ("Chattering of Women at the Laundry"), the Giovanni Croce "Triaca Musicale" ("Musical Treacle"), the Adriano Banchieri "Zabaione Musicale" ("Musical Eggnog"), "Barca di Venezia per Padova" ("Canal Boat Voyage from Venice to Padua"), and "Festino nella sera del giovedì grasso avanti cena" ("Feast on the evening of fat Thursday before supper"), the Horatio Vecchi "Selve di Varia Ricreatione", ("Forest of Diverse Recreations"), "Convito Musicale", ("A Musical Banquet"), "Veglie di Siena", ("Soirées of Siena") and, above all, his "l'Amfiparnaso", the uncontested masterpiece of the genre.

 

Set in the popular Italian "commedia dell'arte" or "comedy of masks" tradition, "l'Amfiparnaso" is based on a story, the unity of subject matter of which was provided by a tale so familiar to the average Italian audience of the time that the characters in the drama needed no introduction or explanation.  So well understood was the story, and so affectionately accepted were its characters, that very little real drama was necessary to the successful comprehension of the work.  Indeed, most often when the comedy was presented as a spoken piece, only the barest skeleton of a plot was previously outlined, the dialog of the scenes being given extemporaneously to bring the required action to pass.  In "l'Amfiparnaso" the scenes represent mere moments in the unfolding of a story familiar to all Renaissance Italians.  The real development of the story takes place between the scenes, as the dialog clearly indicates.  The scenes are divided into three acts preceded by a prologue.  Act I contains three scenes, all in dialog.  Act II consists of five scenes — two soliloquies and three dialogs.  Act III contains five scenes, all in dialog.

 

The music of "l'Amfiparnaso" is set for five voices: Canto, Alto, Quinto, Tenore and Basso.  The distribution of the parts varies from scene to scene, however, as the Qinto part is written variously for a tenor (or low alto) and a soprano.  The vocal range is not consistent throughout the work, for the part marked Basso is scored in all numbers except one in the tenor clef and takes the singer as high as G above middle C several times, while in the remaining madrigal the part is written in the bass clef, taking the singer as low as F, an octave and fifth below middle C, two tones lower than he is asked to sing elsewhere in the work.  This discrepancy is easily explained in the fact that this lone number is a parody of a madrigal of Cipriano de Rore, said to be very familiar to 16th century audiences.  As a matter of course Vecchi used the same clefs employed by Rore, clefs which are not identical with those employed in the remainder  of "l'Amfiparnaso".  

 

It is clear that this inconsistency presents a problem in performance  At the original pitch the necessary singers would be two high sopranos, one alto, three tenors, and one bass.  This combination is usually hard to procure; furthermore the bass would be utilized in only one scene.  For practical purposes, therefore, I have transposed my singing edition being published by Alliance Publications (which is primarily designed for use in performance) to a pitch one tone lower than the original, with the exception of the single madrigal to which reference is made above, which is retained at the original pitch.  Thus the ranges are reconciled throughout, and the work may be performed by a group consisting of two soprano parts, one alto, two tenors and one bass.

 

The text of "l'Amfiparnaso", presumable written also by Vecchi, is in several dialects, as befit the characters 

representing various parts of Italy and Spain: the Venetian Pantalone, the Bolognese Gratiano, the Bergamasks Pedrolino and Zanni, and the Spanish Captain Cardone.  Vecci depends for his humor almost entirely upon the plays on words which he is able to introduce through these various dialects  However, the serious scenes are all in elevated Tuscan, and one is made aware in these scenes of a delicate pathos and dramatic sadness.  A fine balance is maintained between the comic and serious elements, the scenes of the one type being alternated with those of the other.

 

Unlike Monteverdi's opera which succeeded it shortly, "l'Amfiparnaso" employs the chorus to sing the lines of all the characters.  In Lucio's soliloquy (Act II, Scene 1) and Isabella's  soliloquy (Act II, Scene 4), the chorus is employed as a unit, the texture of the music being alternately homophonic and polyphonic.  In the scenes with more than one character, however, the chorus is usually divided in such a way that the female character is represented by the higher voices (Canto, Alto, Quinto), the male character by the lower voices (Quinto, Tenore, Basso).  This is not invariably the case, however.  A notable exception is Act II, Scene 2, where Captain Cardone and Zanni are each variously represented, first by each section alone and then by both sections together.  In the dialogs slightly complex chordal writing seems preferred to more complicated polyphony.