Monody

One voice and a chordal instrument put the text and its feelings back at the centre.

Related

BaroqueAriaMadrigalVoice

Late sixteenth-century Florentines believed that Greek tragedy drew its power from a single singer with a lyre. They gave up dense polyphony and put the text, its accent and its feeling back into one solo line.

Time and place

Florence, roughly 1570–1600. Count Bardi's Camerata discussed ancient Greek music, and Caccini, Peri and Rinuccini turned theory into works. Caccini published Le nuove musiche in 1601–1602.

What happened

Monody is one singer with a chordal instrument, usually over a bass line. Instead of five voices speaking at once, one voice carries the verse while the accompaniment supplies chords at the key points. The singer can add ornaments and change the accent, so anger, plea and sigh in the text become audible. It differs from basso continuo: continuo is an accompanying technique, monody is an aesthetic that puts the voice in front.

What changed

The voice became the protagonist and harmony moved into support. Recitative, aria, cantata and opera all grew from this solo line, and the madrigal ceased to be the only secular vocal form. Composers began to write for particular singers, and singers began to own a personal style. The centre of European music shifted from how many voices interweave to how one voice expresses.

Listen for the turn

Begin with Caccini's Al fonte al prato, where the voice moves freely over simple chords; then hear Monteverdi's Lamento della ninfa, with a ground bass under a lament; finally Francesca Caccini's Non sò se quel sorriso, a solo song by a woman composer.

Related

This turn belongs to Baroque and connects Aria, Madrigal and Voice.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Monody" — dates and terms checked, not quoted
• Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music (Oxford University Press) — narrative checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.