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This article undertakes a historiographical review of the composer Sebastián Raval as a case study illuminating the influence of ideology on the shaping of history and the perpetuation of established views. The portrayal of Raval as an arrogant Spaniard originated in his participation in two musical contests celebrated in Rome and Palermo. Whereas this characteristic was mainly understood as a stereotypical description in the Early Modern period, the influence of nationalism in the nineteenth century led to it becoming an objectionable personal flaw. This was enough to start a process of vilifying the composer in which the assessment of his professional stature outweighed the actual analysis of his music.
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A Musical Quintana Of all the madrigal collections of the sixteenth century, L'amorosa Ero (1588) has one of the most intriguing histories. 1 Conceived and carefully planned by the Brescian nobleman and composer Marc'Antonio Marti-nengo, the collection stages a musical competition in which the soggetto of the text—Ero (Hero) in love—is to be ''depicted by the most celebrated musicians of Italy with the same words and in the same tone.'' The result is a collection of eighteen settings of the same text in the same
Revista de Musicología, 37, nº 1 (2014), 107-139
The Lamentation settings of Cristóbal de Morales present us with a complex network of seemingly contradictory relationships owing to the variety of versions that have come down to us. In fact, some sources –whether in manuscript or print– transmit such distortions of both the original music and the original liturgical texts of some of these lessons for the Office of Tenebrae that the composer’s intentions are obscured almost beyond recognition. Thus, questions related to the authenticity and the authorship of the Lamentations have dominated the research objectives of an important group of scholars in the last five decades. The critical comparison of all of the Lamentations attributed to Morales, however, now enables the updating of the composers worklist together with a clear differentiation of the versions actually composed by Morales and those that were altered after his death. In addition, other lessons of doubtful attribution have impeded our tracing the enigmatic path of these works in their pre- and post-Tridentine liturgical contexts. The Lamentations –whose performance by the papal chapel in Rome assured them a preeminent position of international renown in the second half of the 16th century– were, together with the Masses and the Magnificats, the most widely known works of the composer. Las lamentaciones de Cristóbal de Morales presentan una compleja red de relaciones contradictorias debido a la variedad de versiones conservadas. De hecho, la música y los textos originales de algunas de estas lecciones de tinieblas han sido distorsionadas de tal manera en diversas fuentes manuscritas e impresas que casi no se reconoce la intencionalidad de su autor, de ahí que los problemas relacionados con la autenticidad y autoría de sus lamentaciones han dominado las investigaciones de un importante grupo de estudiosos en las últimas cinco décadas. A través de la colación crítica de todas las lamentaciones atribuidas a Morales ha sido posible la actualización de su catálogo, y la diferenciación de las lecciones compuestas por el propio compositor y las versiones alteradas que se produjeron después de su muerte. Además, otras lecciones de dudosa autoría han dificultado el desentrañar, en el proceso de su catalogación, la trama enigmática de estas obras en sus contextos litúrgicos pre y postridentino. Un repertorio que, desde la práctica musical de la capilla papal en Roma, disfrutó de una fama internacional preeminente en la segunda mitad del siglo XVI. Las lamentaciones de Cristóbal de Morales fueron, junto con sus misas y magníficats, las obras más conocidas del compositor.
2006, ANUARIO MUSICAL
In 1575, Rocco Rodio published a “Fantasia” on the hymnus “Ave maris stella” in Naples in his Libro di ricercate. In the context of the progressive contributions to music for keyboard instruments of his contemporaries Antonio Valente (1575), Claudio Merulo and Andrea Gabrieli, Rodio’s setting of cantus firmus seems nothing short of anachronistic. But Rodio’s intention lies in the implementation of counterpoint. For him, the art of counterpoint was the decisive basis of the composer’s craft. Rodio’s intention is illuminated by the circumstances of his creative activity – the academies in Naples, always eager to dispute, - and by certain events in Rome and Palermo that culminated in the appearance of the Spaniard named Sebastián Raval. The original context regarding the history of music for Rodio’s “Ave maris stella” is in the liturgical organ music by Antonio de Cabezón, Manuel Rodriguez Coelho und Jean Titelouze und perhaps by António Carreira. (in german)
2013, Estudios. Tomás Luis de Victoria. Studies. Música Hispana. Textos. 18. ISBN: 978-84-89457-49-2
"Tomás Luis de Victoria’s polyphonic settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah –a manuscript version copied in codex I-Rvat CS 186 preserved at the Sistine Chapel and a printed edition published in the Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae (Rome, 1585)– have been subject to close attention from some of the most important scholars of the life and work of this composer. Yet, despite current knowledge of these Tenebrae lessons, a large and varied number of questions have been generated that have yet to be answered definitively. The aim of this research is to present a critical and up-to-date study of Victoria’s Lamentations in the musical and liturgical context of post-Tridentine Rome and to encourage further work on the Lamentation genre in the Catholic world after the Council of Trent. It should be emphasized that almost all the composers active in Italy from 1568 until 1600 did not strictly follow the liturgical ordering of the texts in Pope Pius V’s Roman breviary when composing polyphonic Lamentations. The majority of these Italian post-Tridentine settings reflect the use of a common textual practice –the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church– which differed from the standardization established in Pius V’s Breviarium romanum. There is no doubt that the liturgical impact of the 1568 Roman breviary on Catholicism has to be reconsidered, at least in regard to Lamentations. Las colecciones polifónicas de las lamentaciones de Jeremías de Tomás Luis de Victoria –una versión manuscrita copiada en el códice I-Rvat CS 186 de la Capilla Sistina y una edición impresa publicada en el Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae (Roma, 1585)– han recibido una detallada atención por parte de los más importantes estudiosos de la vida y obra de este compositor. Sin embargo, a pesar del conocimiento que se tiene de estas lecciones de tinieblas, son muchos y variados los interrogantes que todavía permanecen sin una respuesta definitiva. El objetivo de esta investigación se centra en presentar un estudio crítico y actualizado de las lamentaciones de Victoria dentro del contexto litúrgico y musical de la Roma postridentina, y promover un trabajo más extenso sobre el género lamentación después del Concilio de Trento. Se debe poner en valor que casi la totalidad de los compositores activos en Italia desde 1568 hasta 1600 no siguieron estrictamente la ordenación litúrgica de los textos normalizados en el breviario romano de Pío V para componer sus lamentaciones polifónicas. La mayor parte de estas colecciones postridentinas italianas trasmiten el uso de una práctica textual común –la tradición de la iglesia de Roma– que se diferenció de la normalización establecida en el Breviarium romanum de Pío V. No hay duda de que el impacto litúrgico del breviario romano de 1568 en el catolicismo debe ser reconsiderado, al menos en lo que respecta a las lamentaciones."
Contiene 6 artículos de investigación, reseñas bibliográficas y discográficas, tesis doctorales y noticias, 376 p. Javier Marín López, editor-in-chief.
Recercare, XXXIII (2011) pp. 131-173
2014
2017, Revista de Musicología
2014, Revista de Musicología
En plena II República española se creó el Cuerpo Técnico de Directores de Bandas de Música Civiles (Ley de 20 de diciembre de 1932) dependiente del Ministerio de la Gobernación Dirección General de la Administración Local—, excepción en el contexto internacional. Vigente hasta entrada la Democracia (Ley 7/1985) como cabeza visible de las bandas de las corporaciones oficiales, el organismo desempeñaría un papel cultural, educativo, propagandístico y de representación en la vida musical de los municipios pasado por alto hasta el momento en pro de otros aspectos de la creación musical contemporánea. La Tesis que se presenta en este artículo tiene como objetivo primordial estudiar las causas y procesos que llevaron al apoyo y legislación de las bandas de música civiles en España por parte de los diferentes gobiernos en las décadas centrales del siglo XX, así como la articulación y desarrollo de la normativa, sin perder de vista sus implicaciones estéticas e ideológicas que, en muchos casos, trascendieron el plano bandístico para situarse en el escenario general del pensamiento y política culturales. Con el fin de comprobar el cumplimiento real de las disposiciones y particularidades de la administración a pequeña escala se ha abordado el caso de la provincia de Jaén, una de las de mayor concentración de bandas municipales del país.
2014, Revista de Musicología
The private foundation of chaplaincies and anniversary devotions, as well as other kinds of votive endowments, represents an important manner in which religious institutions increased their wealth. The donor not only aided his salvation, but he also ensured his personal memory and social status for future generations while forming a cohesive bond among members of a specific lineage. The cult and ritual associated with death generated, under the auspices of private sponsors, diverse musical activity of considerable importance within the cathedral precincts that extended throughout the religious establishment of Seville during the transition from late medieval to early modern society. The different types of endowments linked to death are discussed, as well as the direct and indirect musical implications arising from their foundation: for example, the creation of new performance spaces, the direct increase in musical forces, the economic improvement of those already in existence, and the composition of new repertory.
2016, "I primi Lincei. Le biografie manoscritte", a cura di M. Guardo ("L'Ellisse" - numero monografico)
Sigismondo D’India (1582 ?-1629 ?), contemporain de Claudio Monteverdi, est un compositeur parmi les plus importants du début du XVIIe siècle : l’un des pères fondateurs de la musique moderne. La présente thèse entend le situer dans un contexte qui nécessite d’être reconstitué, celui de la cour de Turin où le musicien s’est établi de 1611 à 1623, période la plus fructueuse de sa carrière musicale dont l’étude s’organise autour de trois problématiques : la musique, le mécénat et l’identité nobiliaire. Il s’agit, dans un premier temps, d’étudier la circulation des musiciens, artistes, imprimeurs et sources musicales mais également d’analyser certaines œuvres du compositeur. Ainsi, D’India, chanteur, joueur de théorbe, compositeur et poète, apparaît comme l’un des musiciens les plus audacieux et les plus singuliers de son temps. Le mécénat artistique accompagne sa carrière musicale : il favorise ses déplacements, relie les différentes villes où se trouvent le musicien et ses dédicataires et facilite l’émulation créatrice. L’étude du mécénat à travers sa production musicale dévoile notamment la multiplicité des rapports entre D’India et ses dédicataires. Enfin, par identité nobiliaire, nous entendons étudier la manière dont le compositeur contribue à la construction de l’identité culturelle d’une cour en même temps qu’il construit son propre statut de noble. L’identité nobiliaire peut être ainsi considérée comme un préalable à l’identité nationale. Nous voulons par ailleurs montrer que D’India remplit parfaitement le rôle de musicien-gentilhomme et que sa musique participe à la construction d’un modèle d’urbanité.
2013, Estudios. Tomás Luis de Victoria. Studies, ed. by Javier Suárez-Pajares and Manuel del Sol (Madrid: ICCMU, 2013), 163-198
Tomás Luis de Victoria’s and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s motets are surprisingly understudied. On the other hand, recent analytical comparisons have clearly (and intriguingly) demonstrated that Victoria knew Palestrina’s music, reworked it, modelled his own works on it in different ways and in different phases of his career, but most notably in his first published collection of 1572. Thus, the aim of the article is twofold: to study Palestrina’s motets published before 1572 and Victoria’s motets of the same year focusing on formal design and sonic architecture; and to shed new light on the compositional relationship between the two masters. Palestrina’s "Motecta festorum totius anni" (1563), "Liber primus motettorum" (1569), "Motettorum … liber secundus" (1572), and Victoria’s "Motecta" (1572) are taken into consideration. Issues of imitatio and originality, the problem of form in the motet, and questions regarding the definition of sonic styles in late sixteenth-century polyphony are discussed. The results of this analytical survey confirm Palestrina’s role as a ‘great inspirer’, and at the same time show that Victoria, while setting up an enduring compositional dialogue with his senior colleague, used and developed his own, highly individual voice.
2010, California Italian Studies
The Mdina Cathedral Museum in Malta owns the most important collection of Italian baroque music south of Naples. The collection consists mostly of sacred music since it originated in the archives of the music chapel in St. Paul's Cathedral, but there are also secular compositions reflecting the tastes of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who made their home on the island from 1530 to 1798. The museum's musical holdings consists of 159 printed works by Italian seventeenth-century composers and over 600 manuscripts, some anonymous, of Italian and Maltese music. The number (33) of unique works, editions, or partbooks adds interest to the fund and makes it relevant to the history of Italian music with regard to the activity of music publishers-Roman, Venetian and Sicilian, in particular-who found in Malta a profitable market for their exports. The edition of a manuscript madrigal for tenor, bass and harpsichord continuo by a lesser Sicilian composer, Filippo Muscari, evidences the widespread, early baroque fashion for madrigalian duets started by Northern Italian composers such as Monteverdi and Grandi whose works are present in the Maltese collection.
Published in: Revista de Musicología, 39/1 (2016), pp. 77-115. ||ABSTRACT|| Bermudo's Declaración, published in 1555, is one of the most important testimonies to teaching methods for keyboard players in mid-sixteenth-century Spain. Besides learning from the best teachers and players, Bermudo considered that becoming acquainted with vocal polyphony was a sine qua non for instrumentalists. The rigour demanded of him ensured that students would get to know large quantities of both national and imported polyphonic repertories by playing them on the keyboard. His explanation of a system of scoring-up and intabulating this music («poner obras») provides considerable insight into this didactic process. Emphasis throughout is on learning to play and understand the music of the great Franco-Flemish masters such as Josquin, Gombert and others, besides that of Morales and other Spanish composers. It is clear that Bermudo had access to a large number of collections of masses and motets that included the early prints of Antico, Petrucci, later Italian collections, and the mass books of Morales, a number of which are revealed in his work. His knowledge of mensural music (canto de órgano) was also obtained from the profound study of copious treatises, including the works of Gaffurius and Glarean. In addition, he gives the names of famous keyboard players of the time whom he saw as «excellent» masters. This study concludes with a survey of repertories in the two main surviving keyboard collections—Venegas de Henestrosa’s Libro de cifra nueva (1557) and Cabezón’s Obras de música (1578), both of which provide ample evidence of how vocal polyphony was intabulated and rearranged for keyboard performance.
Alfonso Colella, Musica profana a Napoli agli inizi del Cinquecento: i villancicos della Cuestión de amor; Jeffrey Levenberg, Worth the price of the Musurgia univer-salis: Athanasius Kircher on the secret of the "metabolic style"; John Whenham, The Messa a quattro voci et salmi (1650) and Monteverdi's Venetian church music; Paolo Alberto Rismondo, Giovanni Rovetta, «uno spirito quasi divino, tutto lume in nere et acute note espresso»; Eleonora Simi Bonini-Arnaldo Morelli, Gli inventari dei «libri di musica» di Giovan Battista Vulpio (1705-1706). Nuova luce sulla «original Stradella collection»; Francesco Zimei, Ars nova disvelata. Sulla restituzione digitale del palinsesto San Lorenzo 2211 alla luce di due studi recentemente pubblicati. XXVIII/1-2 2016 LIM RECERCARE XXVIII/1-2 2016 issn 1120-5741 € 24,00 (numero doppio)
Il contributo prende in esame alcuni casi di falsi nell'arte: viene privilegiata la creazione letteraria e musicale perpetrata a scopo ludico, la parodia che si prende gioco di particolari comunità e che spesso contiene indizi per essere smascherata. I casi sono numerosi, specie in letteratura, da Anton Francesco Doni a Giacomo Leopardi; anche la storia della musica e della musicologia presentano episodi interessanti ed esilaranti, dalla Preghiera di Stradella alla Piccola cronaca di Anna Magdalena Bach, passando dall'Ave Maria di Arcadelt. L'articolo si sofferma su casi estremi di contraffazioni, come quelle di Félix Fourdrain, Émile Martin o Winfried Michel, che possiedono la caratteristica propria all'esecizio di stile, apparentandosi così all'estetica dell'Oulipo, l'Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle.
2016, Ensayos. Historia y teoría del arte
At the end of 16th century, Bologna was one of the most influential cities of the Papal States and culturally one of the main centres in Italy where a network of political and artistic forces connected the activities of civic and church institutions. The Concerto Palatino of the Signoria of Bologna took part in liturgical and pa-raliturgical events that included musical instruments in the vocal ensemble where the various combinations of voices and instruments offered new sonic solutions that influenced the development of local musical repertoires. The civic church of San Petronio was one of the main centres of musical innovation of the city and its archival sources allow for a reconstruction of local performance practice at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
2016, Revista Catalana de Musicología
The National Library of Catalonia possesses a collection of eighty printed books of polyphony published between 1503 and 1628. This is one of the richest and most diverse collections of printed music to be found in the archives and libraries of the Iberian Peninsula and the only known collection here to contain exemplars of the first editions of Ottaviano Petrucci. This set of printed books does not come from any ecclesiastical institution in particular but rather it reached the Library’s holdings in the early 20th century from the personal collections of various scholars and bibliophiles and from subsequent acquisitions and donations of different provenances. The institutions or individuals who possessed these books in the 16th and 17th centuries, however, are unknown to us. This paper presents a complete census of the collection of these printed books at the National Library of Catalonia and traces the possible origin of some of the books through inscriptions and indications of use found on their pages or covers, or through book inventories kept in Barcelona’s archives.
2013, Ph.D. Diss., Case Western Reserve University (Advisor: David J. Rothenberg)
Might composers of solo song and opera c.1600 have modelled these emerging musical forms, in part, on plainchant recitation? As this dissertation demonstrates, chant and monody were contiguous musical practices, united in their imitation of ancient speech-like song, with composers like Jacopo Peri, Giulio Caccini, and Claudio Monteverdi inserting chant-like formulas into their solo vocal works. The evocation of plainchant in early monody may have had a pointed purpose: to gesture musically towards antiquity and to formulate a distinct melodic character for solo-voiced music. This was by virtue of plainchant’s apparently “antique” remnants: use of mode, extended recitation, and centrality of text. By exploring intersections between sacred and secular spheres in Early Modern Italy, and by examining chant, monodies, and theoretical writings from ca. 1600, this dissertation highlights the previously obscured triangle of plainchant, ancient song, and monody. It furthermore provides new tools for analysis of music in the formative years of the first operas, and reframes sixteenth-century plainchant—largely neglected in music histories—as a significant creative force in Early Modern musical culture.
International Conference Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, 24–27 May 2017 Organized by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage) in collaboration with Basilica Cattedrale di San Marco, Venezia Archivio Storico del Patriarcato di Venezia Swiss National Science Foundation Spazio Svizzero (Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi, Venice) Fondazione Svizzera Pro Venezia On the basis of new perspectives offered by urban history, humanistic geography and historical anthropology, the conference aims to bring together inter- and multidisciplinary approaches to the significance of soundscape in the context of the rich and complex urban system of early modern Venice. As a supreme example of “ceremonial city”, Venice is particularly suitable for investigating how soundscape interacts with urban space in the creation of an elaborate social and cultural identity. The international conference forms part of The Sound of Eternity. A Digital Platform for the Polyphonic Choir-Books of the Ducal Chapel of St Mark’s, Venice, a research project funded by the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (in continuation of The Sound of Eternity. Investigating the Choir-Books of the Ducal Chapel of St Mark’s, Venice, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation). The official languages of the conference are English and Italian. Organizing Committee: David Bryant, Augusto Celentano, Luigi Collarile, Renzo Orsini Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Recercare xxvi/1-2 2014, pp. 109-123.
The article offers the first substantiated evidence of the use of natural horns (corni da caccia) in early eighteenth-century Roman orchestras. The first well-documented case is the performance of Giovanni Bononcini’s serenata Sacrificio a Venere, text by Paolo Rolli, which was performed in Rome to celebrate the Austrian Empress’ Elisabeth Christine’s birthday on 28 August 1714. The author succeeded in tracking down score of this serenata — which was thought to have been lost — at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. Giovanni Bononcini and, subsequently, Antonio Caldara and Benedetto Micheli introduced natural horns in their compositions as a tribute to eminent personalities connected to Austria, or as a consequence of the influence of Austrian performance practice. The article proceeds to briefly chart the course of the use of natural horns in early eighteenth-century Rome and other cities, such as Mantua, Venice, and Naples; here, the use of horns was often politically and culturally connected to Austria. Between 1714 and 1720 Vivaldi used them in compositions performed in Venice, in Mantua (inhonour of Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, governor of Mantua on behalf of the Austrian emperor) and, perhaps, in Rome. Starting 1720, maestro di cappella Girolamo Chiti used horns in many different instrumental ensembles, in works composed for several churches in Rome. At the same time, noble Roman patrons such as princes Ruspoli, Borghese and Colonna, as well as Cardinal Ottoboni, increasingly appreciated the use of natural horns in orchestras, to the point that — by the 1730s — the use of this instrument, both in Rome and in the rest of Italy, gradually affranchised itself from its Austrian matrix and adapted to the Italian context. By mid-century, natural horns had earned a permanent place in Italian secular music, whereas, on the contrary, their use in liturgical music was forbidden for a long time, especially in Roman churches, as a consequence of a papal bull issued by Benedict xiv in 1748. L’articolo presenta le prime testimonianze documentate dell’uso dei corni nelle orchestre romane nel primo Settecento. Il primo caso documentabile si riferisce alla serenata Sacrificio a Venere di Giovanni Bononcini su testo di Paolo Rolli, eseguita a Roma il 28 agosto 1714 per il compleanno dell’imperatrice d’Austria Elisabetta Cristina. La partitura della serenata — fino a poco tempo fa ritenuta perduta — è stata rintracciata dall’autrice presso la Österreichische Nationalbibliothek di Vienna. Giovanni Bononcini e, successivamente, Antonio Caldara e Benedetto Micheli introdussero i corni nelle loro composizioni come gesto di omaggio a personaggi di alto rango legati all’Austria o per l’influenza subìta dalla prassi musicale di quel paese. Viene poi tracciato un sintetico excursus sull’uso dei corni a Roma nella prima metà del diciottesimo secolo, e in altre città, come Napoli, Mantova, Venezia. Anche a Napoli, l’uso dei corni fu spesso legato politicamente e culturalmente all’Austria. Tra il 1714 e il 1720, Vivaldi li adoperò in alcune composizioni eseguite a Venezia, Mantova (per Filippo Assia Darmstadt, governatore di Mantova per l’Austria) e, forse, a Roma. Dal 1720, il maestro di cappella Girolamo Chiti usò i corni in svariati organici strumentali nella musica composta per diverse chiese di Roma. Nello stesso periodo, nobili committenti romani come i principi Ruspoli, Borghese e Colonna, e il cardinale Ottoboni gradirono sempre di più l’impiego dei corni nelle orchestre. È soprattutto negli anni Trenta del Settecento che l’uso dei corni, a Roma e nel resto d’Italia, si emancipò progressivamente dalla sua matrice austriaca per adattarsi al contesto italiano. A metà del Settecento, i corni avevano conquistato un posto fisso nella musica profana in Italia; mentre, al contrario, nella musica sacra l’uso ne fu impedito per lungo tempo, in particolar modo nelle chiese di Roma, in conseguenza di una bolla papale emanata da Benedetto xiv nel 1748.
2019, The Seventeenth Century
Ferrante Pallavicino (1615–44) counts as one of the most controversial authors of his time. His manifold literary production includes many of the genres then en vogue, like poetic eulogies, novelle (short tales), polemical pamphlets, historiography and, above all, novels, of which hewrote around ten. Some of these novelsmay have been influential not only on other novelists, but also, indirectly, on a few opera libretti, although Ferrante himself did not author a single libretto. In fact, in many of his writings he airs a sharp contempt and antipathy towards singers and castrati in particular, the major protagonists of early opera. This aversion may have partly originated from a thwarted love affair and is clearly articulated in a few passages from his epistolary novel Il corriero svaligiato (1641) and, most provocatively, in his pseudorhetorical dialogue La retorica delle puttane (1642).
2018, The Viola da Gamba Society Journal
The discovery of the Ruffo Music Book and the compositions of Federico and Francesco Ruffo and Filippo Muscari has enriched the viol repertoire with some interesting and technically thought-provoking music—works which, whilst undoubtedly not of the highest quality, are attractive and original. At the same time the manuscript is a reminder that those researching the history of the viol are never safe from surprises. Nobody was expecting to find that a bass viol in A was in use in a high Baroque palace in Sicily.
Cinquecento Rome was the cradle of one of the most influential syntheses of Western music, the one that is usually labeled with the name of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. In the following centuries, this synthesis – no matter if misinterpreted or subjectively reshaped – would become a myth. How did this peculiar and multifaceted formulation of a paneuropean polyphonic style come into being? What kind of influences turned a chapelmaster of provincial origins into the supreme arbiter of Roman musical style? This paper explores from a broad perspective the confluence of international and local musical trends towards Rome during the Sixteenth century, and the subsequent global dissemination of the new Roman music. And since music was a crucial factor in city life, it also address the unmistakable coincidence of this process with the powerful renewal of “l’image de Rome” (Labrot) in the post-Tridentine era, trying to capture the evolving soundscape corresponding to this image.
Ten newly discovered fugues found in Rome attached to the Biblioteca Casanatense’s copy of the "Elogio Storico della Signora Maria Rosa Coccia Romana" may show Maria Rosa Coccia’s direct involvement in the dispute over her status as Maestra di Capella. Maria Rosa Coccia (1759-1833) was the first woman to achieve that title in 1774 after she successfully completed the qualifying exam, which consisted of writing an extemporaneous fugue on a given antiphon before a jury. Coccia’s exam was published in 1775 and publicly criticized by Francesco Capalti, Maestro di Cappella of Narni, in 1780. The controversy is investigated by examining the contrapuntal conventions of Coccia’s time, and by comparing her examination fugue to those of her contemporaries. In addition to the abundant evidence of extraordinary capabilities, the case of Maria Coccia is valuable as a perspective into the rapidly evolving public sphere of the eighteenth century, one in which women were more visible. Like other high-achieving Italian women of the age, Coccia was praised as an exceptional woman, a term used to bring fame to families and academies who nurtured them but did little to promote their careers.
2007, Polifonie, VII/2, 2007, pp. 137-150 (English version, pp. 151-159)
Giuseppe Baini’s Memorie storico-critiche della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1828) is an early example of an outstanding life-and-works monograph centred on a composer of the past. The result of original research and a profound knowledge of the cultural and institutional contexts in which Palestrina operated, it provided the documentary basis for all Palestrinian studies to come for at least the following fifty years or so. Even though the factual foundations remained unchanged for the most part of the nineteenth century, the biographical and critical works that a number of Italian musicographers devoted to Palestrina display irreconcilable traits due to the different historical conceptions and methods adopted by the respective authors, and to the different ways in which they perceived the historiographical, ideological and aesthetical issues of their own time. Although the connotations varied, Palestrina was generally acknowledged as the hero who revealed the true features of Italian music, which were viewed as a prominent element of national identity and a crucial issue in the Risorgimento, i.e., the period which led to the administrative and cultural unification of the country. In the last decades of the century, further insights into the history of early modern music suggested that the emergence of the Italian musical spirit was to be first detected in the frottola or in the melodia popolare (folk song), therefore in a previous age, dating from the very beginning of the sixteenth century or even earlier, and in the realm of secular instead of sacred music.
2013, Studi musicali
From the late Middle Ages, wind bands were long established as independent groups in urban centres or as members of royal or noble households. In 1526, Seville cathedral chapter decided to place them on the pay roll. Since then, these groups of ministriles became formalized at Spanish major ecclesiastical institutions and a major distinguishing feature of them. From at least the beginning of the sixteenth century, and separate from their likely participation in the performance of improvised polyphony, these instrumentalists made use of music books, including those of vocal polyphony, compiled or acquired exclusively for them. Into these books was copied a varied repertory that allowed them to fulfil the diverse services required of them. Four extant books for wind-players, and the detailed inventory of a fifth book now lost, bear witness to the existence and use of these books in Spain and Spanish America. These books generally include works by important local composers as well as imported international repertory of the highest quality. The paper examines the group of pieces originally in Italian or created by Italian composers in this context. Some of these works are known only through these instrumental sources; others may have been copied, directly or indirectly, from prints. Many elements in these books suggest a degree of selection in the repertory and a direct line of transmission through instrumentalists who were also copyists. With instrumental performance, the limits between vernacular and sacred were blurred, making the wind band one of the most important agents for the circulation of international repertory in the Spanish crowns.
Ricordo di Maria Adelaide di Raffaello Monterosso e Anna Maria Monterosso Vacchelli Una lettera interrotta e mai inviata di Maria Adelaide Bacherini Bartoli FEDERICO BARDAZZI Musiche per la Divina Commedia STEFANO CAMPAGNOLO Nota sul «più antico polifonista italiano del secolo XIV» GIANLUCA D’AGOSTINO Ancora su Musica e Umanesimo: spigolature braccioliniane JOHN NÁDAS Some New Documentary Evidence Regarding Heinrich Isaac’s Career in Florence PEDRO MEMELSDORFF John Hothby, Lorenzo il Magnifico e Robert Morton in una nuova fonte manoscritta a Mantova BLAKE WILSON Jannes, Jean Japart, and Florence ANTHONY M. CUMMINGS The Semiotics of Ceremonial Space and Sound in Pope Leo X’s Rome LAURA MELOSI Fasti medicei in una raccolta di nuptialia JOHN WALTER HILL Francesca Caccini and Jacopo Peri: New Ascriptions ALBERTO MAMMARELLA Echi cacciniani e ‘stile antico’ nel Prato di sacri fiori musicali di Antonio Brunelli (1612) PIERO GARGIULO Da «favola» a «opera». Musica per il teatro da Euridice (1600) a Poppea (1643) TERESA M. GIALDRONI Una nuova fonte per Uccialì: da Roma a Firenze, fra storia e mito AGOSTINO ZIINO “Canzon da me ti parti, che non ti può dar vita altri, ch’il Sarti”: un omaggio poetico di Romolo Bertini a Domenico Sarti ANTONELLA D’OVIDIO Sul mecenatismo musicale di Vittoria della Rovere, granduchessa di Toscana: alcune considerazioni GIULIA GIOVANI Tra mondanità e ufficialità. Ancora sulla prima visita a Venezia del Gran Principe Ferdinando de’ Medici GIOVANNI CARLI BALLOLA Le opere italiane di Cherubini GREGORIO NARDI Il giovane Luigi Ferdinando Casamorata: spunti per un approfondimento sul primo Romanticismo a Firenze ANTONIO CAROCCIA Un’amicizia epistolare: Mabellini e Florimo MARCELLO DE ANGELIS Giovanni Rosadi interlocutore di Puccini e Mascagni e… la gelosia di Elvira PAOLA GIBBIN La Sala Musica prima della Sala Musica. Vicende alle origini delle collezioni musicali della Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze JOHANNES STREICHER Le corrispondenze fiorentine di Arnaldo Bonaventura per la rivista «Musica» (1907-1912) MILA DE SANTIS Presenze di Don Giovanni di Mozart nella drammaturgia musicale di Dallapiccola Elenco delle pubblicazioni di Maria Adelaide Bartoli Bacherini Indice dei nomi
2019, Master's Thesis
In Europe, the trombone was generally in use from its murky appearance in the 15th century, reaching its high peak in the late Renaissance and early Baroque. We do not have any concrete information about trombone and trombone ensemble in Croatia in the period, but by looking at evidence from Rector’s Chapel in Dubrovnik and trombone players’ nationalities, I suggest that they were present and active. Renaissance Croatia was not so different than the rest of the Europe: it was a humanist melting pot of cultures and ideas. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Croatian lands were governed by two political powers: in the east by the Republic of Venice, which ruled over Dalmatia and Istria, and in the west by the Habsburg Empire. The bright spot was modern-day city of Dubrovnik, which stood as a free democratic republic. After the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia in 1463, Croatia was open to forces from the southeast, therefore becoming surrounded by three political and war powers – Venice on the west, Habsburg on the north and Ottoman empire from the south. All three threatening cultures left some cultural impact already in the early days of oppression, but the quickly-spreading Italian humanismus was far the most implemented one. It first took root on the Adriatic coast, which was to become the musical focal points for hundreds of years. Italian, or more precisely, Venetian, renaissance compositional style was flourishing with new ideas, with trombones, cornetts and other wind instruments being the most widely used instruments. As we know, musicians travelled for work, and coastal Croatia, as a part of Venice, was not excluded as a work destination. Italian humanists, theorists, philosophers, merchants, and finally, musicians frequently visited and worked in Croatia (as well as the other way around), opening a door to ongoing cultural exchange. Given its place in the Venetian empire, it is hard to believe that Croatia at the time did not hear or use cornetts and trombones in their cities, as the culture of its usage is so widespread and known in neighbouring countries. The main goal of this thesis is to define where and when trombone and ensembles including trombone was used, who were the musicians, if there were any preferred ensembles etc, between 1400 and 1600. In the course of research, I use primary sources in form of historical documentation and secondary sources including recent research on different aspects of Croatian early music. With good understanding of social-historical context and through thorough analysis of historical documents of the Republic of Dubrovnik, musical terminology in early Croatian lexicons, and correlation with Renaissance instrumental performance practice, I will try to present the potential course of trombone playing in early modern age Croatia.
2013, Revista de Musicologia (SEDEM, Sociedad Española de Musicología), Vol. XXXVI/1, pp.141-170.
From the etiquette of the Royal Chamber to new public and private sociabilities: the activities of the violinist and composer José Palomino in Lisbon (1774-1808) ABSTRACT: The violinist and composer José Palomino (1753-1810) left the court of Madrid in 1774 to settle in Lisbon, where he stayed until the departure of the Portuguese Royal Family for Brazil in 1807. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Las Palmas, where he ended his days as chapel master of the cathedral. In Portugal, his main professional activity was play- ing violin in the Royal Chamber Orchestra (participating in the most important religious events patronized by the monarchy, court operas, and concerts at the royal residences), but at the same time he was also extremely active outside the official sphere of the court. He performed as an instrumentalist, and/or «director» (festero), musical events promoted by the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, and by a number of civic and religious institutions, and he composed stage music for Lisbon’s public theatres. Palomino’s output reflects these different contexts, including instrumental works such as the Violin Concerto and the Quintet for harpsichord or fortepiano, two violins, viola and bass, dramatic music, church repertoires, as well as entertainment music intended for domestic contexts and related to the new practices of urban social life (sonatas for keyboard, short chamber pieces, canzonette and Portuguese modinhas). His career brings together the duties of the court ceremonial of the Ancien Régime with the musical practices linked to private initiative within a society that slowly began to encompass the challenges of the public sphere. From the aesthetic point of view, his music combines Iberian traditions (Spanish and Portuguese) with more cosmopolitan features (expressed, for example, through a profound knowledge of Haydn’s music). Despite being a figure already known to Iberian musicology, José Palomino’s activities in Lisbon have not yet been studied systematically. Based on an extensive and assorted set of historical and musical sources, the present paper seeks to give, for the first time, a detailed overview about the multiple facets of his professional career in Portugal, taking into consideration the specificities of the local context without losing sight of the larger picture of European culture as a whole.
1997, Rivista italiana di musicologia», XXXII
2007
IPPOLITO SABINO Opera omnia - Volume I Edizioni Bongiovanni, Bologna pp. LIX-129.