Music and the myth of Arcadia in Renaissance Italy
Giuseppe Gerbino (Author)
"The idea that there was a time when men and women lived in perfect harmony with nature and with themselves, though rooted in classical antiquity, was one of the most fertile products of the Renaissance literary and artistic imagination. This book explores one specific aspect of this idea: the musical representation and stylization of the myth of Arcadia in sixteenth-century Italy Giuseppe Gerbino outlines how Renaissance culture strove to keep this utopia alive, and demonstrates how music played a fundamental role in the construction and preservation of this collective illusion. Covering a range of different music genres, including the madrigal, music for theater, and early opera, the book overcomes traditional barriers among genres. Illustrative music examples, including previously unpublished music, serve to remind the reader's knowledge of this important repertory, and provide new insights into the role of music in the formation and dissemination of cultural myths."--Jacket
Criticism, interpretation, etc
ix, 445 pages : illustrations, music ; 26 cm.
9780521899567, 9781107659223, 0521899567, 1107659221
268793380
Music in Arcadia : an unsettled tradition. The idiosyncrasies of chronology
The return of the shepherd
Musical remedies
On the cusp between language and music
Musical eclipses
Theater. The boundaries of the genre
Singing like shepherds, singing like peasants
Ruzante's song and the rustic picturesque
Re-founding pastoral theater
The (female) performance of high culture
The madrigal. A pastoral society
The dark side of Arcadia
Marenzio's utopia of the senses
Lost in Arcadia
Epilogue : Pastoral, opera, and the impossibility of tragedy