Lagrime come plettri

The present essay stems from my interest in probing a particular aspect of the manuscript corpus of music by Antonio Farina, an author of uncertain origin, but particularly active in Naples in the pre-Scarlattian period as a talented composer with regard to the topoi and stylistic features of the monodic serenata. The focus on this author and this particular sub-category of the serenata as a genre is linked to Tiziana Affortunato’s recent contribution as regards the definition of certain examples from the cantatistic repertoire as ‘serenata-cantatas’. The initial objective was to detect, within Farina’s corpus (already including serenatas set to music with instruments), the presence of any compositions that might conform to the research direction initiated by the aforementioned scholar also with regard to music for voice and basso continuo. In fact, in the five compositions chosen as the primary object of analysis, it was possible to detect the very elements suggested by Affortunato, in order to make them identifiable as ‘serenata-cantatas’ (given their apparent indistinguishability from the remaining Farinian cantatas). In particular, from a poetic and textual point of view, two cardinal topoi emerged: the theme of the evening/night-time setting and its further motifs and specifications, as well as the recurrence of a performative dynamics, stated in an ‘ideal dialogic mode’ of the lover poet. Once this reconnaissance of Farina’s compositions without additional instrumental ensembles has been completed, poetic and textual analysis can be further extended to the seven serenata-cantatas including instruments: Di Pausilippo, Ardon le sfere, Con questa flebil cetra (uncertain attribution), Sovra carro stellato, Cintia dolente e mesto (uncertain attribution), Eccomi o Lilla (uncertain attribution), Riposa o bella. Their intrinsic features will be considered, with reference to their dual aspect as poetic and musical texts, with the possibility of extending the analysis to extrinsic characters, in relation to the peculiarities of the manuscript tradition that has handed them down. The purpose is to provide a more complete perspective of Farina’s work for the sub-genre at issue, in order to enhance two specific and complementary components for Naples in the second half of the 17th century: the experimentation of the monodic serenata, a niche for its precise formal features, and the production of Antonio Farina, a niche not because of its compositional quality, but for the paucity of information available on this author.