Battaglia (music)

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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]

Contents

Vocal battaglia works

Instrumental battaglia works

Later battle music not called battaglia

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References

  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."