Gia Il Solee Dal Gange Essay

Performance practice is “the attempt to perform music in the way envisaged originally by the composer” (Naxos). The importance of performance practice is a matter that is constantly considered by performers of historical music. Some believe that music should always be performed as close as possible to the original intent of the composer. Others think historical context is not at all significant in modern performance. Most people, however, take a viewpoint somewhere in between. Most musicians agree that historical context is important, but they recognise it’s disadvantages. The history of a song is important to the performance of a piece because historical context can affect the choices made by the performer. In the song Gia Il Sole Dal Gange
the performance is affected by many factors. The song’s history is one factor that affects the performance of this piece. The use of historically accurate instruments, and the availability of these instruments to the modern performer is also something that needs to be taken into account. Another thing to consider in this aria is the use of ornamentation, which would have been added by the performer in the Baroque period. The use of word painting is another prominent influence on the way this song should be performed. These performance factors affect the performance of any historical piece and should be considered by the performer.
One important factor to consider when performing historical music is the history behind the song.
Gia Il Sole Dal Gange is an Italian aria from the opera L'honesta negli amori by Alessandro Scarlatti. It was first performed in the home of a wealthy man named Giovanni Bernini. The original performance would have been for a small audience in Bernini’s palace. Gia il sole dal gange is a popular Italian aria from the baroque period. It describes the beauty of the sun rising over the Ganges river. The mood is set with a major key and a fast pace, creating a happy flowing melody. According to The Accompaniment Company, “Scarlatti composed this opera (his second) at age nineteen. This is one of Scarlatti’s best known and most performed arias” (The Accompaniment Company). This piece has a flowing characteristic that allows the listener to picture the setting of calm tranquility as the sun rises. This information is useful to a performer because the performer would want to convey this imagery in their performance through facial, and musical expression. This is especially true when performing for an audience that doesn’t understand the language because the performer would want to show the tranquility of the piece using facial
expression.
Another factor in historical performance is the use of historically accurate instruments.
According to Baroque-Music.com the most common baroque instruments were “string instruments such as the lute, violin, viola, cello and double bass. Brass instruments like the trumpet, horn and sackbut [were also used]...Wind instruments included the recorder, flute, oboe and bassoon. Baroque keyboard music was often composed for the organ or the harpsichord.” A performer may want to use these instruments in a performance if they intend to be historically accurate. Luciano Pavarotti is an italian opera singer. In his performance of this piece, he uses violins and horns as accompaniment, which would be similar to the original performance. This recording is interesting because Pavarotti uses these instruments rather than piano as accompaniment, like most other modern recordings of this song. Recordings using piano are not as historically accurate because the piano had not been invented in the Baroque period. This historical inaccuracy is often overlooked, however, because of the beneficial qualities piano gives to a performance. In another recording of this piece Renato Brunson uses piano accompaniment. In this recording the piano creates a more prominent background, and makes it unnecessary to use several string instruments as the accompaniment. It is important to know the historical context of a piece of music, but it is not always necessary to perfect every historical aspect of a
performance. A piano accompaniment can often improve a performance, even if it is not completely accurate to the time period of the song.