ADONIA
16TH CENTURY ITALIAN MUSIC TO LAMENT A FALLEN GOD
7 musicians. 70 minutes 2020-
Through centuries of re-telling the myth of Venus and Adonis, the ritualistic Adonia festival held in ancient Athens has remained a part of the story which fascinated a number of literary figures during the Italian Renaissance. The ritual was both a lamentation of love cruelly stolen by the hands of fate, and a feverish “final dance” with all of life’s short-lived pleasures and desires.
The ensemble Phaedrus partakes in an experimental musical staging of the Venus and Adonis mythos as transmitted during the Italian Renaissance by setting extracts of Marino’s 1623 Adone and from Girolamo Parabosco’s La favola d’Adone, published in 1545, to early frottole music. Phaedrus surrounds these newly arranged frottole with instrumental music inspired by the tragic life of Adonis. Elevating the voice with traverso consort and lute, Adonia aims to find points of commonality between historical aesthetics and contemporary experiences of love, amorality, and ecstatic bereavement.
7 musicians
MARA WINTER
Artistic direction, arrangements, traverso
MIRIAM TREVISAN
Voice
RENAISSANCE TRAVERSO CONSORT
Mara Winter
Charlotte Schneider
Liane Sadler
Luis Martinez Pueyo
BOR ZULJAN
Lute
MASSIMILIANO DRAGONI
Percussion
MUSICAL CONTENT
Duration
70 minutes
PROGRAM
Invocation
Io chiamo te per cui si volge e move (Se tu sapesti) Modena F.9.9
1. Birth of Adonis
Il ben ti venga - Bandura - La Falilela Francesco Bendusi, Opera nova de balli,1553
Viva viva li galanti li amorosi tucti quanti che non Anonymous, Manuscript, I-PEcMS 431
Là nella region ricca e felice (Se per fede) Modena F.9.9
2. To the underworld with Persephone
O dolce notte Philippe Verdelot, Il terzo Libro de madrigali 1537
In una parte del superbo e bello uscio (Sine nomine) Modena F.9.9
Donna, quando pietosa Jacques Arcadelt, Il vero secondo libro de madrigali 1539.
*arranged by Mara Winter
3. Aphrodite and Adonis in love
Lute improvisation on “Se lieta”
Se lieta e grata morte Philippe Verdelot Intavolatura de li madrigali 1536. *Solo diminutions in the style of S. Ganassi by Mara Winter.
Il bianco e dolce cigno Jacques Arcadelt, Il primo libro de madrigali a 4 voci 1539
Co I bianchi cigni (Poiché la lingua mia) Modena F.9.9
Calata di Strambotti-Saltarello-Piva Joan Ambrosio Dalza, Intabulatura de Lauto, Libro6/8 1508. *arranged by Mara Winter
4. Death of Adonis
Questa anima gentil Adrian Willaert, Musica Nova 1559
O del mondo Tiranno (Vidi Hor Cogliendo Rose) Alessandro Demophon, Petrucci, Frottole, Libro 7 1507
Mia benigna fortuna Cipriano de Rore (ca.1515-1565), Tutti i madrigali a quattrovoci 1544
Caccia d’Amore Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi (ca.1554-1609), Balletti a cinque voci 1591
5.Adonia: Ecstatic lamentation
Non val acqua Bartolomeo Tromboncino, Petrucci, Frottole, Libro I 1504
Tedescha - Saltarello Giorgio Mainerio (ca.1535-1582), Il Primo Libro de Balli 1578
Schiarazula marazula/Son due fiaccole ardenti Giorgio Mainerio, Il Primo Libro de Balli 1578