Byron Adams

Serenate in Stile Antico

My Serenata in Stile Antico is strongly influenced by Italian Baroque music of the 17th century. The opening movement, Ciaconna, is based on a repeating bass line of four bars. The following Siciliana in modo hypodorico is a tribute to Father Athanasius Kircher, a Jesuit and polymath who wrote about music theory as well as science and archaeology and possibly founded one of the first natural history museums. The third movement, Aria, is a fantasia on one of the most famous monodies of the 17th century, 'Amarilli, mia bella' by Giulio Caccini, published in 1601. The finale is a theme with variations and is based on a lively canzonetta by Father Orazio Vecchi, 'So ben mi c'ha bon tempo' (which can be translated as 'I know someone who has a good time'). The coda of this last movement is itself a variant of a variation of Vecchi's Canzonetta as it appears in Terpsichore by Michael Praetorius, a collection of around 300 dances from 1621. I have scored the Serenata in Stile Antico for oboe and strings. However, it is by no means an oboe concerto: the oboe rather represents an extremely small woodwind section consisting of only one instrument. My idea regarding the "performance practice" of this Janus-faced work is quite simple: it should be played tastefully on modern instruments and in a modern way. In composing it, I took my inspiration from the enchanting Antiche arie e danze by Ottorino Respighi. The Serenata in Stile Antico is dedicated to Margie Cooper. Margie and her husband Grant have been close musical and personal friends of mine for decades. - Byron Adams