PERI, JACOPO

Jacopo Peri, a Florentine composer, singer, and instrumentalist, is best known as the creator of dramatic recitative, a form of monody that made possible the development of opera. Born in Rome, Peri moved to Florence at a young age. From as early as 1573 he held a number of posts in Florence as both singer and organist. In 1588 he was employed by Grand Duke Ferdinando I for service in the Medici court. During the 1580s it is possible that he participated in discus­sions with the Florentine Camerata at Giovanni de Bardi's home. The ideas this group expressed concerning the revival of ancient Greek practices in music and drama certainly influenced Peri's experiments in operatic recitative.

Recitative is a musical style that lies somewhere between speech and song.In Peri's recitative, the roles of voice and accompaniment are adjusted in a way that allows the music to follow the natural pacing of its text. This form of music fueled the development of opera in that it provided a vehicle for narrative verse, dialogue, and other text forms that require rapid delivery, all of which are nec­essary for a dramatic production.

Most of Peri's compositions are in some way related to music theater, and he frequently worked in collaboration with other Florentine artists, in particular the poet Ottavio Rinuccini.* Peri provided music for Rinuccini's pastoral Dafne in 1598. Shortly thereafter they again collaborated in a pioneering effort to produce the opera Euridice (1600), the earliest surviving example of its kind. This influential work, written for the wedding celebration of Maria de' Medici and Henri IV of France, contains many examples of Peri's characteristic reci­tative style.

Peri's contribution to musical form had a profound impact upon music after 1600. Baroque opera, church music, and even chamber monody are all shaped by his innovations. His many imitators include the composers Giulio Caccini and Claudio Monteverdi.*

W. Porter, "Jacopo Peri," in The New Grove Dictionary ofMusic and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie, vol. 14, 1980: 401-405.