''Le nuove musiche'' ("The New Musics") is a collection of monodies and songs for solo voice and

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing the ...

by the composer Giulio Caccini, published in Florence in July 1602. It is one of the earliest and most significant examples of music written in the early

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 ...

style of the '' seconda pratica''. It contains 12

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number ...

s and 10

aria In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...

s. The volume was dedicated to Lorenzo Salviati and is dated February 1601, '' stile fiorentino'' (1602, ''stile comune''); it was to be published early in 1602 but the printer, Giulio Marescotti, died before publication was completed, and its release was delayed until July 1602. The introduction to this volume is probably the most clearly written description of the purpose, intent and correct performance of monody from the time. It includes musical examples of ornaments—for example, how a specific passage can be ornamented in several different ways, according to the precise emotion that the singer wishes to convey. Caccini expressed disappointment at inappropriate ornamentation by the singers of his day. The preface also includes effusive praise for the style which he himself invented, and amusing disdain for the work of more conservative composers of the period. An abridged English translation of ''Le nuove musiche'''s preface was printed in John Playford's ''Introduction to the Skill of Music'' from 1664 to 1694. ''Le nuove musiche'''s success inspired many similar collections in the seventeenth century, and it is regularly anthologized in modern collections.

References

*Carter, Tim, H. Wiley Hitchcock, Suzanne G. Cusick, and Susan Parisi. "Caccini, Giulio". ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' Online. {{DEFAULTSORT:Nuove Musiche Compositions by Giulio Caccini Baroque compositions 1601 books