Italian opera "Dafne" by Jacopo Peri was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today. Peri's works, however, did not arise out of a creative vacuum in the area of sung drama. An underlying prerequisite for the creation of opera proper was the practice of monody. Monody is the solo singing/setting of a dramatically conceived melody, designed to express the emotional content of the text it carries, which is accompanied by a relatively simple sequence of chords rather than other polyphonic parts. Italian composers began composing in this style late in the 16th century, and it grew in part from the long-standing
Jacopo Gaddi Jacopo Gaddi Jacopo Gaddi (c. 1600 - after 1658) was an Italian Neolatin and Italian writer from Florence. Born to a wealthy noble family, Gaddi was well known in Florence and was in correspondence with numerous figures outside his birthplace, including cardinals of the Roman "curia", the painter Cristofano Allori, and, during his sojourn in Florence, English writer John Milton. In 1628 he published a volume of Latin "Poemata". Between 1636 and 1637 he published several works in Italian and Latin, including "Elogia", "Adlocutiones", and some short historical essays and poems. In two folios in 1648 and 1649 Gaddi published