Giulio Caccini

Giulio Caccini (ca. 1545-1618), an Italian singer and an early opera composer, wrote "Le nuove musiche," the first important and, in the 17th century, most influential publication of the new style of monodic recitative in vocal music with figured bass accompaniment.

Giulio Caccini was born in Rome, the son of Michelangelo Caccini. The only musical instruction that Giulio is known to have received was from Cipione del Palle (or Palla), a noted voice teacher in Rome, and it was as a singer that Caccini first made a name for himself. He was employed at the Medicean court in Florence, principally as a singer, from 1564 to his death on Dec. 10, 1618. He married twice, both wives being voice pupils of his. The first, Lucia, bore him three children: Pompeo, Francesca (called "La Cecchina," also a composer), and Settimia. He had no children by his second wife, Margherita.

Probably about 1579 Caccini became a member of the Florentine Camerata, a literary and musical society founded by Count Giovanni de' Bardi, who implies, in a letter to Caccini (ca. 1580), that he was the first to encourage Caccini to write in the new style. The letter bears out Caccini's claim in the dedication to Bardi (dated Dec. 20, 1600) of his opera Euridice that he had been composing in this style for more than 15 years, that is, at least as early as 1585.

In 1589 Caccini took part, as performer and conductor, in the wedding festivities of Ferdinand de' Medici. Three years later, when he visited Rome with Bardi as the later's secretary, Caccini sang some of the songs performed earlier at the Florentine Camerata, several of which he published in Le nuove musiche (1602).

When Maria de Médici married Henry IV of France in Florence, as part of the celebrations the nobleman Jacopo Corsi staged, on Oct. 6, 1600, what is sometimes regarded as the first opera—Euridice, with a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini and music mostly by Jacopo Peri, also employed as singer and composer at the Medicean court. Caccini, who was in charge of the performance, unscrupulously replaced some of Peri's arias with his own. Three days later Caccini presented Il rapimento di Cefalo, for which he wrote most of the music, but it received little acclaim, unlike Peri's Euridice. Clearly spurred by jealously, Caccini hurriedly composed his own setting of the Euridice libretto and published it, probably in January 1601, shortly before the publication of Peri's version on February 6. Caccini's version was not performed until Dec. 5, 1602; it was not revived.

The success of Peri's Euridice, and his patronization by Corsi, Bardi's influential successor, resulted in Caccini's gradual decline in esteem during his remaining years, despite the importance and popularity of Le nuove musiche, and the publication of two other collections by Caccini— Fuggilotio musicale (2d ed. 1613) and Nuove musiche e nuova maniera de scriverle (1614).

Further Reading

Information on Caccini is available in Manfred F. Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era from Monteverdi to Bach (1947); Donald J. Grout, A Short History of Opera (1947; 2d ed. 1965); and The New Oxford History of Music, vol. 4; Gerald E. H. Abraham, ed., The Age of Humanism, 1540-1630 (1968). There is an interesting chapter on the Florentine Camerata in Zesta De Robeck, Music of the Italian Renaissance (1928; repr. 1969). □

Caccini, Giulio

Caccini, Giulio, Italian composer (called Romano, because he lived mostly in Rome), father of Francesca Caccini; b. probably in Tivoli, Oct. 8, 1551; d. Florence (buried), Dec. 10, 1618. He was a pupil of Scipione delle Palla in singing and lute playing. His first compositions were madrigals in the traditional polyphonic style, but the new ideas generated in the discussions of the artists and literati of the “Camerata,” in the houses of Bardi and Corsi at Florence, inspired him to write vocal soli in recitative form (then termed “musica in stile rappresentativo”), which he sang with consummate skill to his own accompaniment on the theorbo. These first compositions in a dramatic idiom were followed by his settings of separate scenes written by Bardi, and finally by the opera II combattimento d’Apolline col serpente (poem by Bardi). Next was Euridice (1600; poem by Rinuccini) and II rapimento di Cefalo (in collaboration with others; first perf., Oct. 9, 1600, at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence). Then followed Le nuove musiche, a series of madrigals for Solo Voice, with Bass (Florence, 1602; new eds., Venice, 1607 and 1615; a modern ed. of the 1602 publ., prepared by H. Wiley Hitchcock [Madison, Wise, 1970], includes an annotated Eng. tr. of Caccini’s preface, realizations of the solo madrigals, airs, and the final section of II rapimento di Cefalo, an introductory essay on Caccini, the music, the poetry, MSS, other eds., and a bibliography. A tr. of the preface is also available in O. Strunk, Source Readings in Music History [N.Y., 1950]). The song Amarilli mia bella from the first series became very popular. Caccini also publ. Fuggilotio musicale (Venice, 2^nd ed., 1613; including madrigals, sonnets, arias, etc.). From 1565 Caccini lived in Florence as a singer at the Tuscan court. He was called, by abbate Angelo Grillo, “the father of a new style of music” Bardi said of him that he had “attained the goal of perfect music.” But his claim to priority in writing vocal music in the “stile rappresentativo” is not supported by known chronology. Caccini’s opera II rapimento di Cefalo was performed three days after Peri’s path-breaking Euridice; the closeness in time of operatic productions by both Caccini and Peri is further emphasized by the fact that when Peri produced Euridice in Florence (1600), he used some of Caccini’s songs in the score. Caccini later made his own setting of Euridice (1600), but it was not produced until Dec. 5, 1602. On the other hand, Caccini was undoubtedly the first to publish an operatic work, for his score of Euridice was printed early in 1601, before the publication of Peri’s work of the same title.

Bibliography

A. Ehrichs, G. C. (Leipzig, 1908); F. Schmitz, G. C., Nuove musiche (1602/1614): Texte und Musik (Pfaffenwiler, 1995).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

Caccini, Giulio (b Rome or Tivoli, 1551; d Florence, 1618). It. singer, composer, and lutenist. Taken to Florence by Cosimo I de’ Medici, c.1565. Sang in 1579 at festivities for wedding of Francesco de’ Medici and Bianca Cappello. One of members of Count Giovanni de Bardi's Camerata, some of his mus. was incl. in Peri's Euridice to Rinuccini's lib. which he then also set in rivalry in 1600. From 1595 to 1600 worked in Genoa, returning to Florence 1600 on receiving commission to comp. opera Il rapimento di Cefalo, perf. Florence 1600 for wedding of Maria de’ Medici to Henri IV of France. Canzonets and madrigals published in Le nuove musiche (New Music) 1602, marking change to monodic style.

Caccini, Giulio (1550–1618) Italian composer, one of the Florentine camerata group which pioneered opera. His opera Euridice was the first to be printed (probably 1601), and his Le Nuove Musiche (1602) was one of the most influential collections of vocal music in the new monodic style.