Rutilante in Nocte by Aquilino Coppini
I have for you this morning another Aquilino Coppini transformation of a Monteverdi madrigal. As you might recall, Coppini wrote entirely new sacred poetry which matched, in terms of syllable count and accent pattern, the original secular poems for many of the madrigals in Monteverdi's Fourth (1603) and Fifth (1605) books. The piece resulting from this procedure is termed a contrafactum.
The creation of a contrafactum may not involve (as it does here) a shift from secular to sacred (or the reverse). Actually, any singing translation is a contrafactum, and it's not an easy task to create these, for one must balance syllabification, accents and (of course) meaning. Usually compromises have to be made.
In creating an entirely new text--in Coppini's case, a sacred Latin text to fit a secular Italian madrigal--the special challenge is to adapt the new text to take advantage of any moods or word-painting in the original piece. For example, if quick rising lines were used in the original to depict people (or animals, or aliens) running up a hill, the new text which coincides with the rising lines should employ an image to match. Or if the original poem used harsh, dissonant chords to represent grief or internal turmoil, this too must be accommodated in the new poem.
Coppini is incredibly good at solving these rather challenging problems. He must have closely studied the original music and text, and plotted out his new poems to take full advantage of each feature in the original. In today's example, he was looking at Monteverdi's 'Io mi son giovinetta', from 'Il quarto libro dei madrigali a cinque voci'. As you can see from the attached text-translation sheet, the anonymous poem for this piece is a dialog between a pretty young woman and a besotted young man. She prances and laughs to the tune of quick eighth-note runs, and he admiringly capers in similar fashion. But she puts the kibosh on his hopes, telling him to 'fly from passion' (note the fleeting notes on 'fuggi'), because springtime will never come for him.
Over this music, Coppini lays a poetic re-telling of the Annunciation to the Shepherds from Luke's gospel. In virtually every case, special musical treatment in the original is matched with equally appropriate text. Take a look at the eighth-note of 'Exultant' and 'cantantes'; at the declamatory quasi-homophony of 'Ecce angelorum'; at the trembling movement at 'tremunt'; at the divagating soprano lines depicting the shepherds and sheep running for cover; or above all at the lines near the end depicting the shepherds, following the angelic encouragement, heading enthusiastically to Bethlehem to worship the Child.
In short, somehow Coppini manages to make Monteverdi's music--superbly adapted to the original poem--work equally well for an entirely different purpose. It's nothing short of a poetico-musical tour de force!
Scores, recordings and text-translation for both versions are attached.
I have for you this morning another Aquilino Coppini transformation of a Monteverdi madrigal. As you might recall, Coppini wrote entirely new sacred poetry which matched, in terms of syllable count and accent pattern, the original secular poems for many of the madrigals in Monteverdi's Fourth (1603) and Fifth (1605) books. The piece resulting from this procedure is termed a contrafactum.
The creation of a contrafactum may not involve (as it does here) a shift from secular to sacred (or the reverse). Actually, any singing translation is a contrafactum, and it's not an easy task to create these, for one must balance syllabification, accents and (of course) meaning. Usually compromises have to be made.
In creating an entirely new text--in Coppini's case, a sacred Latin text to fit a secular Italian madrigal--the special challenge is to adapt the new text to take advantage of any moods or word-painting in the original piece. For example, if quick rising lines were used in the original to depict people (or animals, or aliens) running up a hill, the new text which coincides with the rising lines should employ an image to match. Or if the original poem used harsh, dissonant chords to represent grief or internal turmoil, this too must be accommodated in the new poem.
Coppini is incredibly good at solving these rather challenging problems. He must have closely studied the original music and text, and plotted out his new poems to take full advantage of each feature in the original. In today's example, he was looking at Monteverdi's 'Io mi son giovinetta', from 'Il quarto libro dei madrigali a cinque voci'. As you can see from the attached text-translation sheet, the anonymous poem for this piece is a dialog between a pretty young woman and a besotted young man. She prances and laughs to the tune of quick eighth-note runs, and he admiringly capers in similar fashion. But she puts the kibosh on his hopes, telling him to 'fly from passion' (note the fleeting notes on 'fuggi'), because springtime will never come for him.
Over this music, Coppini lays a poetic re-telling of the Annunciation to the Shepherds from Luke's gospel. In virtually every case, special musical treatment in the original is matched with equally appropriate text. Take a look at the eighth-note of 'Exultant' and 'cantantes'; at the declamatory quasi-homophony of 'Ecce angelorum'; at the trembling movement at 'tremunt'; at the divagating soprano lines depicting the shepherds and sheep running for cover; or above all at the lines near the end depicting the shepherds, following the angelic encouragement, heading enthusiastically to Bethlehem to worship the Child.
In short, somehow Coppini manages to make Monteverdi's music--superbly adapted to the original poem--work equally well for an entirely different purpose. It's nothing short of a poetico-musical tour de force!
Scores, recordings and text-translation for both versions are attached.