Florence – Early Opera is a drama that combines soliloquy, dialogue, scenery, action, costume, and continuous music. Caccini would be a perfect composer for this. He was a singer and composer. He wrote in a more lyrical style based on the madrigal and on the airs that poets and singers used when singing or reciting poetry. Music from the opera Euridice by Giulio Caccini. Caccini also developed a tuneful style of solo songwriting that did not distort the text. He wanted to have clear and flexible declamation of the words, with melodic embellishments at appropriate places. He wrote 2 types of these songs (Airs – strophic and Madrigals – through composed [music for each stanza of poetry different]). The collection Le nuove musiche by Caccini – you can listen to examples on the following website: http://www.last.fm/music/Giulio+Caccini.
Also, Monteverdi’s opera “Orfeo” is very popular at this time.
Rome – Vocal Chamber Music. The strophic aria was developed. This song form offered the best framework for setting poetry without interfering with the poem’s continuity. Composer repeated same melody for each stanza of poetry, but they would write new music of each stanza for the accompanying instruments. A specific type was called the Romanesca. The was the air for singing a poem organized in eight-line stanzas and having a rhyme scheme of abababcc. Monteverdi’s Ohime dov’e il mio ben (Alas, where is my love) is an example. This piece is a duet. There is also the composer by the name of Barbara Strozzi. She was huge back in the 17th cen. She composed cantata’s for the voice. These were compositions that were continuous, usually for solo voice, lyrical text that included recitative and aria sections. Her most significant is “Lagrime mie” my tears.
Venice – Opera and Choral music. The music composed in this city was characteristically full and rich in texture, homophonic rather than contrapuntal, varied and colorful in sonority. Opera was available to the paying public now. There was also Monteverdi’s “Poppea”. This was his masterpiece. It can be listened to here: http://www.amazon.com/Monteverdi-Lincoronazione-Poppea-Hanchard-Gardiner/dp/B0000057F0
Choral music includes composer Giovanni Gabrieli and a piece entitled “In ecclesiis”.
Instrumental music – improvisatory compositions flourished under Girolamo Frescobaldi who was an organist at St. Peter’s in Rome. He wrote toccatas which were “warm-up” pieces, full of scalar and other florid, fast moving passages that burst forth from the player’s fingers at irregular intervals. http://www.last.fm/music/Girolamo+Frescobaldi
Madrigals – used during this time to express the text through harmony rather than following the traditional rules of counterpoint. Used dissonances more freely. Monteverdi is a good composer for this style. http://www.naxosdirect.com/MONTEVERDI-Madrigals-Book-5-Il-Quinto-Libro-de-Madrigali-1605/title/8555311/
Oratorio – written by Giacomo Carissimi. Look at his mid-century oratorio called Jephte. Pieces like this were performed as a part of church during the sermon and singing of devotional songs.
Other composers to consider looking up compositions are Francesco Cavalli and Antonio Cesti. They both composed opera. One thing to remember, all the mentioned composers did compose all types of genres during the Baroque period, they just excelled in particular areas.
All of the above is from "Concise history of western music" - Barbara Russano Hanning.
