MONODY

style of accompanied solo song in which a melody is accompanied by simple, often expressive, harmonies. It came to the fore about 1600, particularly in Italy, as a response to the contrapuntal style (based on the combination of simultaneous melodic lines) of 16th-century vocal genres such as the madrigal and motet. Ostensibly in an attempt to emulate ancient Greek music, renewed emphasis was placed on proper articulation as well as expressive interpretation of often highly emotional texts, a goal that could be achieved only by abandoning counterpoint and replacing it by simply accompanied recitative. This new monodic style, pioneered by the Florentine Camerata and other humanistic circles in Italy, quickly grew into the dramatic stile rappresentativo of early opera as well as the concertato style that revolutionized sacred music shortly after 1600. In both instances the dense textures of 16th-century polyphony yielded to the polarization of treble parts and the ubiquitous basso continuo, or figured bass, played by an instrumentalist or instrumentalists to whom was confided the free execution of the accompaniment in accordance with the harmonic dictates of figures written above the bass part. Giulio Caccini's Le nuove musiche (1602; The New Music), a collection of solo songs with continuo accompaniment, exemplifies early monody, as do many virtually contemporaneous solo compositions of Claudio Monteverdi. The use of the word monody to designate an unaccompanied melodic line, properly called monophony, is confusing, its long tradition, especially in Great Britain, notwithstanding.