Battaglia (music)

A battaglia is a form of Renaissance and Baroque programme music imitating a battle. The Renaissance form is typically in the form of a madrigal for four or more voices where cannons, fanfares, cries, drum rolls, and other noises of a battle are imitated by voices. The Baroque form is more often an instrumental depiction of a battle.[1]

## Vocal battaglia works[edit]

* Janequin La Guerre or 'La Bataille' - chanson written to commemorate the Battle of Marignano in 1515, first printed in 1529,
* Matthias Werrecore La Battaglia Taliana or Die Schlacht vor Pavia 1544, for 4 voices - after the Battle of Pavia 1525.
* Orazio Vecchi Battaglia d'Amor e Dispetto \- an extended madrigal dialogue - allegorical and not related to any battle. But closer to the original battaglia genre than Monteverdi's amor versus guerra, contrasts in that composer's 8th Book of Madrigals.
* Mateo Flecha La Guerra \- an ensalada (music) in Spanish
* Claudio Monteverdi Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (1624)

## Instrumental battaglia works[edit]

* Andrea Gabrieli Battaglia à 8 per strumenti da fiato
* William Byrd "The Battell", for keyboard
* Annibale Padovano Battaglia à 8 per strumenti da fiato
* Heinrich Biber: Battalia à 10 for solo violin, strings, and continuo

## Later battle music not called battaglia[edit]

* Franz Christoph Neubauer: Sinfonie 'La Bataille' - Battle of Focșani 1789
* Beethoven: Wellington's Victory \- requiring muskets and cannons. To be contrasted with Haydn's tribute Battle of the Nile which does not sonically attempt to depict the battle.
* Tchaikovsky: 1812 Ouverture
* Prokofiev: Battle on the ice from Alexander Nevsky \- Battle of Lake Peipus, 1242
* Shostakovich: first movement of Leningrad Symphony, despite Shostakovich's disclaimers,[2]
* Kurpiński: The Battle of Mozhaisk, also known as Grand Symphony Imagining a Battle.

## References[edit]

1. ^ Harvard dictionary of music - Page 86 Willi Apel - 1969 "Battaglia [It.]. Name for a composition in which the fanfares, cries, drum rolls, and general commotion of a battle [It. battaglia] are imitated. This was a favorite subject of *program music from the 16th through the 18th centuries. Late 14th-century ..."
2. ^ Robert Cowley, Geoffrey Parker - The Reader's Companion to Military History - Page 390 2001 "In the first movement of his Seventh (Leningrad) Symphony (1941), Dmitri Shostakovich's (1906-1975) musical portrayal of the German invasion of the Soviet Union is obvious, his disclaimer not to have written battle music notwithstanding."

Authority control databases: National |

* Germany

|