In Peri's "Eurydice" the aria occupies the smallest possible place.
Giulio Caccini, his amateur co-worker, has an aria published in 1600
from "Nymphes des Ondes," called _Fere selvagge che per monti errato_,
which is in the key of G, moderato, two periods, eight and six measures.
The air by Peri, already mentioned, was sixteen measures, in sustained
tones, symmetrical, and fulfilling the proper place of aria, which is
that of emphasizing and idealizing an important moment in the drama.
Gavaert's collection contains one by Marco Gagliano, a duet for two
voices, _Alma mea dove ten vai_, which is in the key of D minor, and
runs in thirds in the regulation Italian style. It is evident that here
we have not to do with the representative style, but with a folks song
more or less idealized. A cantata for solo voice, by Luigi Rossi, 1640,
printed in Gevaert's collection, had the theme resumed after the middle
part, in a manner quite equivalent to the _da capo_. This song also
is notable for the amount of vocal running work which it contains (an
interesting circumstance, considering the comparatively early period of
its production after the discovery of the representative style); in this
there are from eight to sixteen notes to a syllable, sixteenths in common
time. Even the recitative in the dramatic part of this cantata has the
pyrotechnic divisions. Cavalli, an aria from whose "Giasone" appears in
Gevaert's collection (1649), seems to have held rather a meagre idea of
the possibility of the aria. One of the more interesting of these early
specimens is the aria or canzone, _Farci pazzo da caterna_, which is
practically a duet with its own accompaniment, the voice answering the
leading motive in the bass. It is somewhat defective in symmetry, but its
general effect is admirable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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