But Rosamond could also sing "Black-eyed Susan" with effect, or Haydn's
canzonets, or "Voi, che sapete," or "Batti, batti"--she only wanted to know what her audience liked.
For instance, Caccini's
canzonet, "Amor ch'attendi," from the 1614 Nuove musiche e nuova maniera di scriverla, is set to a tight quinario metric scheme, whose lines fall into S-w-w-S-w or w-S-w-S-w patterns, set in triple meter musically.
The second part (thirteen sonnets, with a Petrarchan
canzonet and two madrigals) is unusual in its assertion of a vengeful attitude, pitted against the resilience of his love, figured as a phoenix.
The results on display in this edition range from a grave and fine-wrought, almost Shakespearean, rendering of one of Michelangelo's sonnets for Vittoria Colonna to the following irresistible little carved cherry-stone titled "A Neapolitan
Canzonet." One morning, on the sea-shore as I strayed, My heart dropped in the sand beside the sea; I asked of yonder mariners, who said They saw it in thy bosom,--worn by thee.
The music appears to be a
canzonet or light madrigal for five or six voices, of which only three are now present.
Canzonet 3 ("Thus to the Muses"), for instance, opens with a stately [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] canon in which Venus ineffectually commands some muses to adorn her altar, lest her son "assume his potent darts." Abrupt changes of meter and tempo follow as the narrator pithily reports the muses' response: "twang goes the bow." Averse to worldly pleasures, the muses display "settl'd" thoughts and "intent" looks, set to the parallel minor and sung "slow." "Spiritoso" melismas portray Cupid's flight.
The volume of Sacred Hymnes of 3, 4, 5 and 6 Parts for Voyces and Viols (London: Edward Allde, 1615) by the East Anglian composer John Amner (1579-1641) is also very welcome, and Morehen's argument that it belongs within The English Madrigalists series is strengthened by the fact that this composer was clearly much influenced by the secular forms of his day (the ballet--in which "Fa la" is replaced by "Alleluia"--and
canzonet in particular), although the pieces with viols are as much in the idiom of the verse anthem as of the consort song.
A typical example is the review of Novello's
canzonet "Concealed Love" in the number for May 1814:
452017399) Solo Thomas Augustine Six
Canzonets London: J.
Stuart Wortley" contains Giacomo Gotifredo Ferrari's Four
canzonets & two duetts, with piano accompaniment, published in London in 1830 and dedicated to Miss Louisa Harcourt Stuart-Wortley (1788-1848).
Ravenscroft's clever and engaging
canzonets usually play on the theme of quaffing good, strong ale--something The Gemsmen takes very seriously.
Jankova explains how she chose the nine arrangements from the four hundred: "While I discovered the
Canzonets as a young girl, these songs were a revelation to me.