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 di Cione Jacopo di Cione Jacopo di Cione (c. 1325 – after 1390) was an Italian Gothic period painter in the Republic of Florence. Born in Florence between 1320 and 1330, he is closely associated with his three older brothers Andrea di Cione di Arcangelo (called Orcagna), Nardo di Cione and Matteo di Cione. The di Cione (pronounced dee choh’ nay) brothers often worked collaboratively. Jacopo lived in the popolo Sancte Marie Novelle and, later in life, in the popolo Sancti Laurentii. In 1366–68 Jacopo worked on a large chamber in the guildhall of the judges and notaries, Florence (a surviving altarpiece