Caro mio ben, an aria by Giuseppe
Giordani
Biographical information:
Giuseppe Giordani is an Italian composer that is
most notable for his opera and oratorios, as well as some sacred music. He was
born in Naples in 1751 and died in Fermo in 1798. He was musically gifted and
started learning music at a young age. He studied under a number of people
including Antonio Sacchini and Fedele Fenaroli. He was noted as a top composer
in Naples during his early twenties. He got married in 1779 to Emanuela Cosmi,
who was a singer at the time. His career was a successful one. He became the
maestro di cappella at Fermo Cathedral in 1789 and in 1791 took a post at the
Holy Spirit Church. He continued composing throughout his life. Caro mio ben was published in 1785. Although,
it is noted that Tommaso Giordani is the real composer of this aria.
a. Caro mio ben was published in 1785, but another
source said 1783. Maybe it was between the two. I did not find why it was
composed and where it was first heard. It could have been a song to his wife.
b. This is an aria. I like that it is simple and
easy to listen to. There is just a solo singer in this type of genre
accompanied by strings. There is somewhat of a call and response between the
instrumentation and the singing. This piece stays very well balanced. It is
pretty usual of the genre.
c. This is in ternary form. It flows very nicely.
There isn’t a lot of variation, it is pretty clean cut. It is typical in that
it is in an A-B-A form and the characteristics fit for the time period. He does
follow rules of this form except that he does not make room for embellishment
for the end of the piece.
d. It is meant to be sung alone with just strings
and continuo. This aria is one that would be typically seen more in opera
seria. The form of A-B-A was more typical during the Classical era. There is a slight moderation in this form
which could be related to the changing times and movement into the Romanticism
era in which the aria-form did change some to A-B-A-B. However, this aria lakes
this and sticks to the traditional. The way in which there isn’t much
embellishment from the singer also adds a characteristic that is more serious
and formal which shows the strong emotion from the piece which reminds me of
the reform opera.
References
Matthews, Jeff. (2016
May). Caro mio ben. Retrieved from http://www.naplesldm.com/caromioben.php
Cummings, Robert. (2017).
Giuseppe Giordani. Retrieved form http://www.allmusic.com/artist/giuseppe-giordani-mn0001213173/biography
I loved performing this piece! The form helped with memorizing the text because it was the same in the A section.
ReplyDeleteIf Tommaso Giordani is the real composer of this aria, then how did Giuseppe Giordani become known as the composer?
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