Monody
Accompanied solo song around 1600.
What it means
Monody designates the accompanied solo song as it arose around 1600 in Italy: a singing voice over a figured bass that supplies the harmony. Decisive is the priority of the text — the melody follows the speech rhythm and stress instead of running in even periods, and the accompaniment subordinates itself. Monody thereby sets a deliberate contrast to the polyphonic vocal music of the sixteenth century, in which the text often remained unintelligible because of the interweaving of the voices.
Musical use
Behind the innovation stood the idea of connecting to the expressive power of ancient music, about which little reliable was known. In practice it led to a new genre of solo song and to the possibility of representing action on stage through singing — from this opera arose. From monody, recitative and aria develop as separate types of movement; at the beginning the two are not yet separated, and the performance shifts fluidly between speech-like declamation and song-like elaboration. The figured bass, which arises here, shapes the music of the following century and a half.
Monody arose around 1600 in Florence in the circle of the Camerata, which wanted to revive the solo song of antiquity. Giulio Caccini published in 1602 the collection Le nuove musiche, in which a solo voice is accompanied by a figured bass. From this, opera emerged.
Performance practice
Start from the text: speak it aloud, determine stresses and units of meaning, and orient time-shaping and ornaments accordingly. Note values are guides, not a rigid grid. In the continuo, follow the voice, keep the texture thin, and choose the chord voicing so that the singer stays free. Ornaments belong to the execution and are not written out; work them out deliberately and sparingly. Clarify the pitch standard and the scoring of the continuo beforehand.
Bear in mind that the boundary between recitative and aria is not yet drawn in this early music: the performance shifts fluidly between speech-like declamation and song-like elaboration, and these transitions need to be shaped. Mark them in the text. Ornaments are not written out and are to be worked out sparingly.