"Hor Che Apollo" by Barbara Strozzi

"Hor Che Apollo" by Barbara Strozzi 1664

In "Hor Che Apollo" Strozzi utilizes multiple instruments; the harpsichord, two violins, a cello, and a Soprano female opera singer. The song, in its length, takes on multiple sections. Each part alternates between instrumental playing only, and the singer with harpsichord accompaniment. The instrumental sections are played at an increased tempo than those of the singing sections. The lyrics seem to have a common chorus within each singing section. After around 7:30 of the song, the singing changes by including 15 second bursts of rapid singing. While this adds some novelty to the song, the range of the vocals continue to be very broad, the volume more on the subtle and quiet side, and to be mainly syllabic. Another observation I made about "Hor Che Apollo" was that with the ending of every instrumental section, the last chord was played in ascending intervals, which really slowed down the song and signified that the phrase had ended.

While doing my research about Strozzi I learned that while, "Singing was a fairly common activity for a woman during this period, composition, certainly published composition, was not." (New Historical Anthology of Music by Women) Additionally, author James Briscoe cited that Strozzi's fame and ability to be such a strong female composer was "clearly thanks to her father." (New Historical anthology of Music by Women) By learning this it brought a new element to the song. At the time of composition, a woman still needed a man to support her in order to have her music accepted and recorded.