Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, dramatic cantata (from Book 8), SV 153 (ca.1638)
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie
Stage works with music, such as mysteries, moralities, sacred dramas, and masques, have a long history. Combattimento -- partly ballet and partly acting -- was, however, a novel concept for its time. It was composed for a private entertainment at the Palazzo Giralmo Moncenigo in 1624 on the occasion of an aristocratic wedding, and performed by musicians from St. Mark's, where Monteverdi was maestro di cappella. The work was not published until 1638. Described by Monteverdi as a dramatic cantata, it is set to a classical text by Tasso (verses 52-68 of Canto XII of Jerusalem Delivered). In his introduction to the score he states that all details of both action and words should be strictly observed by the singers, actors, and instrumentalists. (i.e., not dictated solely by the music). The narrator (testo) who describes and comments on the events portrayed remains detached from the action, and is instructed to sing clearly and articulate correctly. Sound recordings of Combattimento are bound to be less than satisfactory by omitting, as they must, the visual aspects of the work.
The orchestra is small: a quartet of strings, contrabass, and harpsichord. Tancredi, a Christian knight, has fallen in love with Clorinda, a Saracen warrior. She has attacked and burned a Christian fort and, not recognizing her in armor, Tancredi pursues her as she returns from the assault. Thinking she is a man, he challenges her to mortal combat. This is the point at which the cantata begins. After the narrator has announced the theme of the story, the orchestra immediately launches into a galloping pursuit in 6/8 time and the narrator begins his description of the phases of the fight. Before an orchestral sinfonia, a beautiful inspiration called "Invocation to Night," a tremolando passage, is heard. This new device of rapidly repeated slurred notes, or stile concitato (agitated style), is used by Monteverdi to convey one of the three qualities of human emotion named by the Greek philosophers: agitated, soft, and moderate; even the narrator is required to quickly speak some of the lines to achieve a similar effect. Evidence of Monteverdi's determination to emphasize such connections is also found in his Preface. Music, he said, is represented by the soft (molle) and temperate, and he intends to introduce new devices to represent it: the string tremolo and string pizzicato. Both soon became commonplace in music. In the middle of the battle the combatants rest, their exhaustion reflected in the music, which is headed Guerra, when they return to the fight. At last Clorinda falls dying. She forgives him and asks for Christian baptism. He fetches water from a stream, raises the visor of her helmet and recognizes her. As he baptizes her she sings a last rising phrase and dies. [Allmusic.com]
Art by Giorgione
