Seconda pratica,

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...

for "second practice", is the counterpart to

prima pratica ''Stile antico'' (literally "ancient style", ), is a term describing a manner of musical composition from the sixteenth century onwards that was historically conscious, as opposed to '' stile moderno'', which adhered to more modern trends. ''Prim ...

and is sometimes referred to as Stile moderno. The term "Seconda pratica" first appeared in 1603 in

Giovanni Artusi Giovanni Maria Artusi (c. 154018 August 1613) was an Italian theorist, composer, and writer. Artusi fiercely condemned the new musical innovations that defined the early Baroque style developing around 1600 in his treatise ''L'Artusi, overo Dell ...

's book ''Seconda Parte dell'Artusi, overo Delle imperfettioni della moderna musica'' (''The Second Part of The Artusi, or, Imperfections of Modern Music''), where it is attributed to a certain L'Ottuso Accademico. In the first part of ''The Artusi'' (1600), Artusi had severely criticized several unpublished madrigals of

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 ...

. In the second part of this work, L'Ottuso Accademico, whose identity is unknown, defends Monteverdi and others "who have embraced this new second practice". Monteverdi adopted the term to distance some of his music from that of e.g.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina ( – 2 February 1594) was an Italian composer of late Renaissance music. The central representative of the Roman School, with Orlande de Lassus and Tomás Luis de Victoria, Palestrina is considered the leadin ...

and

Gioseffo Zarlino Gioseffo Zarlino (31 January or 22 March 1517 – 4 February 1590) was an Italian music theorist and composer of the Renaissance. He made a large contribution to the theory of counterpoint as well as to musical tuning. Life and career Zarlino w ...

and to describe early music of the

Baroque period 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 th ...

which encouraged more freedom from the rigorous limitations of dissonances and counterpoint characteristic of the prima pratica. ''Stile moderno'' was coined as an expression by

Giulio Caccini Giulio Romolo Caccini (also Giulio Romano) (8 October 1551 – buried 10 December 1618) was an Italian composer, teacher, singer, instrumentalist and writer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was one of the founders of the genre o ...

in his 1602 work ''

Le nuove musiche ''Le nuove musiche'' ("The New Musics") is a collection of monodies and songs for solo voice and basso continuo by the composer Giulio Caccini, published in Florence in July 1602. It is one of the earliest and most significant examples of music w ...

'' which contained numerous monodies. New for Caccini's songs were that the accompaniment was completely submissive in contrast to the lyric; hence, more precisely, Caccini's Stile moderno-monodies have ornamentations spelled out in the score, which earlier had been up to the performer to supply. Also this marks the starting point of

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 ...

which also was a feature in Caccini's work. In the preface of his 5th Book of Madrigals (1605) Monteverdi announced a book of his own: ''Seconda pratica, overo perfettione della moderna musica'' (''Second Practice, or, Perfection of Modern Music''). Such a book is not extant. But the preface of his 8th Book of Madrigals (1638) seems to be virtually a fragment of it. Therein Monteverdi claims to have invented a new “agitated” style (''Genere concitato'', later called

Stile concitato ''Stile concitato'' (rather ''Genere concitato'') or "''agitated style''" is a Baroque style developed by Claudio Monteverdi with effects such as having rapid repeated notes and extended trills as symbols of bellicose agitation or anger. Kate Van ...

) to make the music "complete/perfect" ("perfetto").Gerald Drebes: ‘‘Monteverdis ''Kontrastprinzip'', die Vorrede zu seinem 8. Madrigalbuch und das ''Genere concitato''‘‘, in: ''Musiktheorie'', Jg. 6, 1991, p. 29-42, online:

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Further reading