Basso Continuo on the Harp for “Alma che ti sollievi” (Orazio Michi)

Published: 16.03.2021     Author:

Abstract

Video recording and related materials to “Alma che ti sollievi”, canzonetta for voice and basso continuo by Orazio Michi.

Keywords

basso continuo; arpa doppia; arpa a tre ordini; Orazio Michi; 1600; music in Rome

Research project

Realising the basso continuo on the Italian “arpa a tre ordini”

How to cite

"Basso Continuo on the Harp for “Alma che ti sollievi” (Orazio Michi)". Forschungsportal Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, 2021.
https://forschung.schola-cantorum-basiliensis.ch/en/forschung/basso-continuo-on-harp/alma-che-ti-sollievi.html (retrieved: DD MM YYY)

Licence

The text of this article is provided under the terms of the Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0

Metadata
Title Basso Continuo on the Harp for “Alma che ti sollievi” (Orazio Michi) -
Keywords basso continuo, arpa doppia, arpa a tre ordini, Orazio Michi, 1600, music in Rome
Research project Realising the basso continuo on the Italian “arpa a tre ordini”
Published: 16.03.2021
Dokumententyp Article / video recording
Herausgeber Martina Papiro
Sprache en
Quelle Forschungsportal Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.
available
https://forschung.schola-cantorum-basiliensis.ch/en/forschung/basso-continuo-on-harp/alma-che-ti-sollievi.html
Licence

The text of this article is provided under the terms of the Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0

Video Recording of “Alma che ti sollievi”

Alma che ti sollievi (O. Michi); Link: https://youtu.be/g1sexNUEgJY

Credits

Orazio Michi (c. 1595–1641): “Alma che ti sollievi”


Mara Galassi, arpa a tre ordini & realisation of the basso continuo

María Cristina Kiehr, soprano

Arpa a tre ordini, copy of the Arpa Barberini, Girolamo Acciari, Rome 1632 by Dario Pontiggia, 2009, Milano (Italy)

Recorded on 4 February 2018
at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Basel (Switzerland), Kleiner Saal

Sound engineer: Oren Kirschenbaum

Video production & editing: Elam Rotem

Project manager & concept: Martina Papiro

Special thanks to: Masako Art, Thomas Drescher, Martin Kirnbauer, Birgit Knab, Isabell Seider

© Schola Cantorum Basiliensis

Sources for “Alma che ti sollievi”

Citta del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barb. lat. 4151, cc. 30v–31r
This manuscript was compiled by several hands, probably between 1629–1638 ca. The first ten vocal pieces in the manuscript are by Orazio Michi and have been identified as autographs, but the subsequent n. 11, which is “Alma che ti sollievi”, is only attributed to Michi’s hand, cf. Lindgren & Murata 2018: 156, 158, 162; formerly, Margaret Murata had suggested that n. 11 was copied by the young singer Marc’Antonio Pasqualini, cf. Murata 2005, 336.

View the manuscript: https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Barb.lat.4151/0032

Roma, Biblioteca Nazionale, Mss. musicali 56, cc. 23v–24v

c. 23v
c. 24r
c. 24v

Text of “Alma che ti sollievi” (Anonymous)

Alma che ti sollievi
a un dolce lume
piega le piume.
Soverchio ti sospinge
un van pensiero,
un ardir troppo altero
saettar gl’immortali
han per costume.

You, my soul, who find relief
near a sweet light,
fold your wings;
too far you are pushed
by a vain thought.
Haughty boldness
is usually punished
by the Immortals.


Ah, che son tuoi desir’
folli e fallaci.
Chiudi, chiudi nel sen
tuo foco e taci.


Ah, how foolish and deceptive
are your desires!
Lock this craving in your breast
and hold your tongue.


Ben che lagrime amare
a tuoi dolori
versi Licori,
non creder ch’a tue fiamme
il cor s’accenda,
ne ch’Amor l’alma prenda.
Conversi in sospir
volin gli ardori.


Although Licori sheds
bitter tears
over your sorrows,
think not that your flames
will ignite her heart,
nor that Love will conquer the soul:
Converted into sighs
passions shall fly.


Ah, che son tuoi desir’
folli e fallaci.
Chiudi, chiudi nel sen
tuo foco e taci.


Ah, how foolish and deceptive
are your desires!
Lock this craving in your breast
and hold your tongue.
(Translation: Martina Papiro)

Selected Bibliography

Galassi & Granata 2020. Mara Galassi & Chiara Granata, “ ‘Tanto che non si potrebbe sentir cosa più bella’. The Harp as Basso Continuo Instrument in Rome at the Time of Orazio Michi”, in: Martina Papiro (ed.): Groß Geigen um 1500 • Orazio Michi und die Harfe um 1600, Basel: Schwabe Verlag 2020 (Basler Beiträge zur Historischen Musikpraxis 39), 313–344.

Lindgren & Murata 2018. Lowell Lindgren and Margaret Murata (eds.), The Barberini Manuscripts of Music, Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana 2018 (Studi e testi 527).

Murata 2005. Margaret Murata, “More Observations on Italian Florid Song in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, in: Sabine Ehrmann-Herfort and Markus Engelhardt (eds.), Vanitatis fuga, aeternitatis amor. Wolfgang Witzenmann zum 65. Geburtstag (Analecta Musicologica 36), Laaber: Laber 2005, 329–354.

Papiro 2020. Martina Papiro (ed.): Groß Geigen um 1500 • Orazio Michi und die Harfe um 1600, Basel: Schwabe Verlag 2020 (Basler Beiträge zur Historischen Musikpraxis 39).

Ziane 2020. Alexandra Ziane, “Orazio Michi: Contemporary Testimonials, Documents, and Work”, in: Martina Papiro (ed.): Groß Geigen um 1500 • Orazio Michi und die Harfe um 1600, Basel: Schwabe Verlag 2020 (Basler Beiträge zur Historischen Musikpraxis 39), 243–272.

Supported by the Maja Sacher Foundation