Le “serenate-cantate” per voce e basso continuo di Antonio Farina. Sprazzi di “notturno sereno”

Description

The main theme of the project was Neapolitan chamber music of the latter half of the seventeenth century, referring to the time before Scarlatti. After a preliminary discussion on the protean character of the vocal serenata, special attention will be given to the monodic serenata and its formal characteristics, taking as concrete examples five compositions for voice and basso continuo by Antonio Farina, of which a critical edition has been published.

From a poetic-textual point of view, certain cardinal topoi stand out: the evening/night-time setting and the recurrence of a performative dynamic, declined in an ‘ideal dialogic mode’ of the lyric self.

In this way, the vision of Antonio Farina emerges as a prominent author of the 17th century chamber music repertoire, who, with regard to his own compositional corpus, stands out not only for his monodic serenatas concerted with violins, but also for his own ‘serenate-cantatas’ for voice and basso continuo.