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Ensemble Oni Wytars was founded in 1983 to explore new ways of interpreting Early Music and to create a synthesis of the different elements and traditions which have influenced and enriched European culture.The focus of the ensemble‘s work lies in the interconnections between art and popular music of the Mediterranean area from 13th t o the 17th centuries.
The Ensemble’s instrumentalists and singers originate from the most diverse cultural backgrounds; its music from the European Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque as well as from the Arab and Ottoman world.
Three musical worlds met in the Spanish Kingdom of Naples in the 16th century. The first was the world of the Tarantelle, Villanelle and Frottole of the Neapolitan poets and musicians such as Giulio Cesare Cortese and Velardiniello. The second was the world of the Recercadas and the Villancicos of the Spanish composers Diego Ortiz and Luys de Narváez, and the third consisted of the artistic organ works of the Flemish masters like Giovanni de Macque who were occupied as maestri di capella at court.
Probably the most typical kind of southern Italian song is the Tammurriata . Accompanied at first only by the Tamburello and simple castanets, it changed around 1500 into the melodic, harmonised song called the Villanella (=country song) which climaxed in popularity during the heyday of Spanish rule in the Kingdom of Naples. Performed not only in noble academic circles in Naples and Rome, but also in the Neapolitan pubs, accompanied by “Colasciune, Tammorielle, Mandòle e Tiorbe“, the Villanella soon became a serious competitor to the Villancico which had been imported by the little-loved Spanish establishment.
Set to folk-like melodies and abounding in allegory, the texts often dealt with the grief of the singer who desperately begs to grant admittance to the heart of his beloved. The so-called “Villanelle a doppio senso“ report incredible occurences from the world of animals and plants.
Others openly criticise living conditions under Spanish rule. This could have been one of the reasons why some composers, for example Giovanni Domenico Del Giovane da Nola, maestro of the Annunziata, published his “Canzoni villanesche“ of 1541 in far-away Venice; in Naples he could have ended up on the gallows for this.
Other composers, such as Joan Ambrosio Dalza and Adriano Willaert also published their music in Venice, causing a wave of popularity wich soon “flooded“ half of Europe with Ricercate and Villanelle alla napolitana . Around 1600 the Villanella gradualy lost its typically light, popular character, and in the 17th century it was absorbed into more serious art music.
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