Im Stile passeggiato – Die Kunst der Diminution.
Diminution, also known as the technique of replacing a large musical value with an equivalent amount of smaller values, is a technique that goes back to numerous treatises from the 16th and 17th centuries. These treatises teach this technique through the presentation of many diminished passages and examples of complete musical works. The treatise by Christoph Bernhard (1628-1692) is one of the most valuable sources for understanding the art of diminution in 17th-century Italy. He writes: "The manner of singing in passeggiato or alla Lombarda is a manner in which one does not dwell on the notes one encounters, but instead changes them with diminutions or coloraturas. (...) A diminution is when a note, maintaining the correct beat, is divided; that is, a note worth half a beat is divided into four fusas, eight semifusas or sixteen subsemifusas, without dwelling on the note, but gliding over it in an elegant manner." This recording is intended as a tribute to this artistic technique, which marks an important step in the development of instrumental music for violin and served as a testing ground for composers to experiment with new compositional techniques.
The project is inspired by the study of fundamental texts on the diminution technique by Rognoni (Ricardo and Francesco), Dalla Casa, Bassani, Ortiz and others, as well as by the study of the improvisation style of authors such as Giovanni Battista Fontana and Marco Uccellini. For the original compositions, which were written entirely anew based on existing madrigals, we sought a middle ground between the written tradition of the treatises and the freedom of composition. In the playlist, the alternation of repertoire pieces and other works, written as if by composers from that era, is a virtual embrace of the spirit of the times, a blend of nostalgia for the past and the taste of creativity.
Dario Castello (Venice, 1602 – Venice, 1631), who lived in the first half of the 17th century, was a violist at the San Marco Basilica, where Monteverdi was maestro di cappella. His sonatas in Stilo Moderno are fundamental to the musical literature of that time and achieved considerable distribution. Castello was strongly influenced in his instrumental music by the revolutionary current in Monteverdi's music, with whom he worked closely. Monteverdi's music from the Seconda Prattica aimed to use all musical means to emphasize the emotional content of the dramatic text and move the listener, through alternating musical genres, rhetorical elements, dissonance and an uninhibited use of alterations. All these elements are found in Dario Castello's music. We note in particular how in the toccata sections of his sonatas a refined form of diminution, characteristic of vocal music, and the technique of cantare passeggiato are explicitly expressed.
Girolamo Frescobaldi (Ferrara, 1583 – Rome, 1643) was a composer, organist and harpsichordist and is considered one of the greatest composers for harpsichord and organ of the 17th century. The style of Frescobaldi's instrumental music is aimed at evoking emotions through sound, following the techniques of the Seconda Prattica that were characteristic of the vocal music of that time. The Toccata for Spinetta and Violin is unique in its genre, as the violin and harpsichord play together, sometimes imitating each other in fugue-like imitations and sometimes as soloists in lyrical sections.
Marco Uccellini (Forlimpopoli 1603 (or 1610) – Forlì, 1680) was a virtuoso violist and explorer of the technical and expressive possibilities of his instrument. His musical innovations, in which he combined contrapuntal and improvisation styles, often presented daring and extreme musical solutions, a natural continuation of Monteverdi's ideas in purely instrumental music.
Francesco Rognoni Taeggio (Milan, second half of the 16th century – after 1626) is best known for his work "Selva de varii passaggi", a treasure trove of information for the study of both vocal and instrumental music, and one of the most important treatises on the technique of diminution. It contains complete polyphonic pieces – motets and madrigals by composers such as Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso – which are diminished for various instruments.
In the music of Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli (Montepulciano, 1624 – ca. 1687), lyrical sections alternate with dance sections. The latter offer a suitable stage for virtuosos to display their improvisational skills, while the lyrical sections are rich in diminutions. These diminutions, which, with the development of an increasingly idiomatic instrumental technique, transcend the boundaries of singing and give way to daring and rapid figures.
The Sonata Prima by Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani (Florence, July 15, 1638 – Pistoia, ... after 1692) is a work in which the diminution technique is fully expressed. The lyrical and toccata sections with which the sonata begins and ends, with their now strict and then again cantabile diminutions, form a framework for the extensive variation section, in which the composer displays his creative and technical skills.
The CD ends with the Fourth Sonata by Arcangelo Corelli (Fusignano, February 17, 1653 – Rome, January 8, 1713). Estienne Roger and John Walsh published the diminutions of the Adagios in 1710 and claimed that they were based on Corelli's own performances. After studying Corelli's various techniques, we wanted to add our own diminutions to the two Adagios of the Fourth Sonata, exactly as a performer from that era would have done."
