This one is from Monteverdi’s Lamento D’Arianna. It’s so common, in fact, that it’s known as the ‘pianto’, Italian for ‘crying’. The falling minor second is actually a very common motif to represent weeping or grief as from the 16 th century. When we cry, we generally take much shorter breaths.
It’s broken up into short fragments separated by rests so the singer is forced to stop and start several times as if losing breath. Notice also how the structure of the melody itself imitates crying. In this context, it’s the perfect choice of interval to express sadness. This is the opening of the piece and in simple words, it translates to “Let me cry about my bad fate.” Apart from being in a minor key, notice how the melody moves by a half step on the words ‘ch’io pianga’ (meaning ‘that I cry’) and ‘crude sorte’ (meaning ‘cruel fate’). Here the character is crying and expressing grief.
Here’s an Aria (a classical song performed by a soloist, usually part of an opera) from Handel’s opera Rinaldo.
Note: To learn music composition with me, check out the Online Tuition page. For example, we’d write a melody that goes up on words such as ‘rising’, ‘uphill’ and ‘climbing’ or have the music go really quiet on words such as ‘soft’, ‘peaceful’ and ‘calm’. Tone painting is the technique of shaping vocal music according to the meaning of the words.
