Due Clori ritrovate di Giovanni Bononcini

Abstract

Giovanni Bononcini's catalogue has recently been enriched by the discovery of two chamber cantatas in a private collection. The works have various features in common: the scoring for alto voice, the period of composition, the iconographic model (the nymph Clori) and the stylistic environment. Moreover, the manuscripts have been transmitted together with a fragment of an aria for alto and strings, thus suggesting that they constituted samples from a specific singer's repertoire, if not even part of a programme for a specific academy. The dominant piece is the lament Pastor d'Arcadia, è morta Clori, a work that sets its text with a strong sense of drama. Here, in fact, one notes an effective use of dissonant harmonies, while the cello part, which has a certain concertante role, exceeds the dimension of mere continuo instrument and engages in dialogue with the singer. Other distinctive elements of these cantatas are the systematic adoption of the instrumental motto in place of the vocal 'Devise', the 'classic' ordering of the various components (two arias preceded by recitative) and the affirmation of a manifestly lyrical approach. These are all features that help place these cantatas in a mature Emilian school, within which the Bononcini brothers contributed to give the genre formal stability.