Le nuove musiche

Le nuove musiche ("The New Musics") is a collection of

.

The volume was dedicated to Lorenzo Salviati and is dated February 1601, stile fiorentino (1602, stile comune); it was to be published early in 1602 but the printer, Giulio Marescotti, died before publication was completed, and its release was delayed until July 1602.

The introduction to this volume is probably the most clearly written description of the purpose, intent and correct performance of monody from the time. It includes musical examples of ornaments—for example, how a specific passage can be ornamented in several different ways, according to the precise emotion that the singer wishes to convey. Caccini expressed disappointment at inappropriate

by the singers of his day. The preface also includes effusive praise for the style which he himself invented, and amusing disdain for the work of more conservative composers of the period.

An abridged English translation of Le nuove musiche's preface was printed in John Playford's Introduction to the Skill of Music from 1664 to 1694. Le nuove musiche's success inspired many similar collections in the seventeenth century, and it is regularly anthologized in modern collections.

References

• Carter, Tim, H. Wiley Hitchcock, Suzanne G. Cusick, and Susan Parisi. "Caccini, Giulio". New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Online.