A battaglia is a form of

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

and

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

programme music imitating a battle. The Renaissance form is typically in the form of a madrigal for four or more voices where cannons, fanfares, cries, drum rolls, and other noises of a battle are imitated by voices. The Baroque form is more often an instrumental depiction of a battle.

Vocal battaglia works

* Janequin ''La Guerre'' or 'La Bataille' - chanson written to commemorate the

Battle of Marignano The Battle of Marignano was the last major engagement of the War of the League of Cambrai and took place on 13–14 September 1515, near the town now called Melegnano, 16 km southeast of Milan. It pitted the French army, composed of the be ...

in 1515, first printed in 1529, *

Matthias Werrecore Hermann Matthias Werrecore (village of Warcoing, Pecq, ca. 1500after 1574) was a Flemish composer in Italy. He was ''maestro di cappella'' of Milan Cathedral from 1522 to 1550 where he was in charge of eleven adult singers and seven choirboys. Wor ...

''La Battaglia Taliana'' or ''Die Schlacht vor Pavia'' 1544, for 4 voices - after the

Battle of Pavia The Battle of Pavia, fought on the morning of 24 February 1525, was the decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521–1526 between the Kingdom of France and the Habsburg empire of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor as well as ruler of Spain, Au ...

1525. *

Orazio Vecchi Orazio Vecchi (6 December 1550 (baptized) in Modena – 19 February 1605) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance. He is most famous for his madrigal comedies, particularly ''L'Amfiparnaso''. Life He was born in Modena, and ...

''Battaglia d'Amor e Dispetto'' - an extended madrigal dialogue - allegorical and not related to any battle. But closer to the original battaglia genre than Monteverdi's ''amor'' versus ''guerra'', contrasts in that composer's 8th Book of Madrigals. *

Mateo Flecha Mateo Flecha (Catalan: Mateu Fletxa) (1481–1553) was a Catalan composer born in Kingdom of Aragon, in the region of Prades. He is sometimes known as "El Viejo" (the elder) to distinguish him from his nephew, Mateo Flecha el Joven, Mateo Flecha "E ...

''La Guerra'' - an

ensalada (music) The (Spanish for salad) is a genre of polyphonic secular music mixing languages and dialects and nonsensical quodlibets. The term is known mainly through a publication, ' Prague (1581), by Mateo Flecha the Younger, that contains six long four-par ...

in Spanish *

Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered ...

Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda ''Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda'' (''The Combat of Tancredi and Clorinda''), SV 153, is an operatic ''scena'' for three voices by Claudio Monteverdi. The libretto is drawn from Torquato Tasso's ''La Gerusalemme Liberata''. It was firs ...

'' (1624)

Instrumental battaglia works

Andrea Gabrieli Andrea Gabrieli (1532/1533Bryant, Grove online – August 30, 1585) was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance. The uncle of the somewhat more famous Giovanni Gabrieli, he was the first internationally renowned member of the Ven ...

''Battaglia à 8 per strumenti da fiato'' *

William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English composer of late Renaissance music. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native England and those on the continent. He ...

"The Battell", for keyboard *

Annibale Padovano Annibale Padovano (1527 – March 15, 1575) was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance Venetian School. He was one of the earliest developers of the keyboard toccata. Life Padovano was born in Padua — hence his na ...

''Battaglia à 8 per strumenti da fiato'' *

Heinrich Biber Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber ( bapt. 12 August 1644, Stráž pod Ralskem – 3 May 1704, Salzburg) was a Bohemian-Austrian composer and violinist. Biber worked in Graz and Kroměříž before he illegally left his employer, Prince-Bishop Karl Li ...

: ''Battalia à 10'' for solo violin, strings, and continuo

Later battle music not called ''battaglia''

* Franz Christoph Neubauer: Sinfonie 'La Bataille' -

Battle of Focșani The Battle of Focșani (also Battle of Fokschani or Battle of Focsani; hu, Foksányi csata) was a battle in the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792) fought on 1 August 1789 between the Ottoman Empire and the alliance of the Russian Empire and the Ha ...

1789 *

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

: ''Wellington's Victory'' - requiring muskets and cannons. To be contrasted with

Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led ...

's tribute ''Battle of the Nile'' which does not sonically attempt to depict the battle. *

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

: ''1812 Ouverture'' *

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer ...

: ''Battle on the ice'' from

Alexander Nevsky Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (russian: Александр Ярославич Невский; ; 13 May 1221 – 14 November 1263) served as Prince of Novgorod (1236–40, 1241–56 and 1258–1259), Grand Prince of Kiev (1236–52) and Grand P ...

- Battle of Lake Peipus, 1242 *

Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...

: first movement of

Leningrad Symphony Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60, nicknamed the ''Leningrad'', was begun in Leningrad, completed in the city of Samara (then known as Kuybyshev) in December 1941, and premiered in that city on March 5, 1942. At first dedica ...

, despite Shostakovich's disclaimers,Robert Cowley, Geoffrey Parker - The Reader's Companion to Military History - Page 390 2001 "In the first movement of his Seventh (Leningrad) Symphony (1941), Dmitri Shostakovich's (1906-1975) musical portrayal of the German invasion of the Soviet Union is obvious, his disclaimer not to have written battle music notwithstanding." * Kurpiński: ''The Battle of Mozhaisk'', also known as ''Grand Symphony Imagining a Battle''.

References

{{Authority control Renaissance music Baroque music