General framework
In the properly musical
ambit of sonic esperience, the European Renaissance is characterised by
an unparalleled enrichment: the development of instrumental families
and their repertoire, the multiplication of genres, the experimentation
of new sonic solutions (polychorality, concertato…), the progressive
growth of formal architectures – just to mention some of the most
striking phenomena – determined a dramatic expansion of opportunities.
Around all this (sometimes overlapping, sometimes intertwined), there
are the non- (or para-) musical elements of sonic experience, still much too neglected by music historians.
The aim of the present project is to raise, or re-evaluate, some great questions concerning the musical civilisation of the Renaissance focusing on sonic experience and its fundamental elements: non-musical factors, silence, the voice, instrumental sound, sound in space, the perceivable aspects of musical structures, the persistence of genres, repertoires and performance practices, the spatial and temporal accessibility of music, the symbolic apparatus connected to all these topics.
The aim of the present project is to raise, or re-evaluate, some great questions concerning the musical civilisation of the Renaissance focusing on sonic experience and its fundamental elements: non-musical factors, silence, the voice, instrumental sound, sound in space, the perceivable aspects of musical structures, the persistence of genres, repertoires and performance practices, the spatial and temporal accessibility of music, the symbolic apparatus connected to all these topics.
Case studies
Sonic Afterworld. Mapping the Soundscape of Heaven and Hell in Early Modern European Cities
An essay accepted for publication in a volume ed. by I.D. Biddle and Kirsten Gibson (in preparation, scheduled for 2013).
Abstract: Early modern Europe inherited the far from obvious idea of a sonic afterworld from earlier Christian tradition. After resuming the main traits of this conception through the words of two leading authors in coeval spiritual literature (Luis de Granada and Jeremias Drexel), this essay shows how deeply 16th-17th-century soundscape-building policies were influenced by this idea.
The conception of a celestial soundscape animated by voices and instruments was modelled (at least in part) on aural experiences in this world, but it affected in turn the active shaping of the contemporary soundscape, intended as an anticipation of the heavenly one. The possibility of an interaction between terrestrial and celestial soundscapes was explored (in liturgy and in other forms of public celebration) by means of architectonic, musical and visual strategies. This invested the configuration of sacral spaces, the development of an ‘angelic’ ideal of performers, as well as, for instance, the preference given to some stylistic options or to specific timbres. The association of strong sonic markers like polyphony, polychorality, congregational singing with sacred places which were nodal points of the cityscape supported the identification of the city with its celestial counterpart, the Heavenly Jerusalem. And a careful planning of devotional itineraries through the city served the same purpose.
The infernal soundscape, on the other hand, characterized by the association with tormenting noise and perverted music, was less present in everyday aural experience (having virtually no place in liturgy and other ‘positive’ representations). It constituted, though, a very attractive theme particularly for dramatic music: the dual opposition of heavenly and infernal soundscapes stands, significantly, at the very beginning of the operatic genre (Cavalieri, Monteverdi).
Keywords: Soundscape - Heavenly music - Heaven & Hell - Polychorality - Early Modern spirituality
Related publications by the author: Selva armonica. La musica spirituale a Roma tra Cinque e Seicento (Tournhout: Brepols, 2008)
An essay accepted for publication in a volume ed. by I.D. Biddle and Kirsten Gibson (in preparation, scheduled for 2013).
Abstract: Early modern Europe inherited the far from obvious idea of a sonic afterworld from earlier Christian tradition. After resuming the main traits of this conception through the words of two leading authors in coeval spiritual literature (Luis de Granada and Jeremias Drexel), this essay shows how deeply 16th-17th-century soundscape-building policies were influenced by this idea.
The conception of a celestial soundscape animated by voices and instruments was modelled (at least in part) on aural experiences in this world, but it affected in turn the active shaping of the contemporary soundscape, intended as an anticipation of the heavenly one. The possibility of an interaction between terrestrial and celestial soundscapes was explored (in liturgy and in other forms of public celebration) by means of architectonic, musical and visual strategies. This invested the configuration of sacral spaces, the development of an ‘angelic’ ideal of performers, as well as, for instance, the preference given to some stylistic options or to specific timbres. The association of strong sonic markers like polyphony, polychorality, congregational singing with sacred places which were nodal points of the cityscape supported the identification of the city with its celestial counterpart, the Heavenly Jerusalem. And a careful planning of devotional itineraries through the city served the same purpose.
The infernal soundscape, on the other hand, characterized by the association with tormenting noise and perverted music, was less present in everyday aural experience (having virtually no place in liturgy and other ‘positive’ representations). It constituted, though, a very attractive theme particularly for dramatic music: the dual opposition of heavenly and infernal soundscapes stands, significantly, at the very beginning of the operatic genre (Cavalieri, Monteverdi).
Keywords: Soundscape - Heavenly music - Heaven & Hell - Polychorality - Early Modern spirituality
Related publications by the author: Selva armonica. La musica spirituale a Roma tra Cinque e Seicento (Tournhout: Brepols, 2008)
Sonic Styles in the Music of Tomás Luis de Victoria
A paper delivered at the conference «Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611). Contextos y practicas musicales» (Avila, Spain, 23-24 September 2011). An expanded version has been published in «Revista de Musicología», XXXV/1, 2012 (but 2013), monographic issue on Tomás Luis de Victoria.
Abstract: «Palestrina was simply a great bureaucrat of counterpoint», according to Igor Stravinsky’s famous boutade of 1960. More than fifty years have passed, but to judge from generic discussions of form in Renaissance music, and particularly in ‘free’ genres like the motet, it seems that this kind of prejudice still exists. And not against Palestrina alone. Sixteenth-century composers are seen like automatic music machines: you feed text into the machine, and beautifully woven segments of counterpoint come out on the other side. End of the text, end of the piece, and that’s it. Adherence to the text, additive form, and varietas seem to be the only working concepts. We tend to underestimate the composers’ interest in the problem of form, and especially of perceivable form, and the creative efforts they made in this direction. But the compositional reality challenges our historical clichés. To speak of variety or kaleidoscopic multiplicity is not enough: deliberate formal strategies are at work in this repertoire, and a phenomenological approach can help to describe and understand them. Even though today analysis seems to be out of fashion, to the advantage of contextual studies, I contend that we need to start again to analyse the works of composers such as Palestrina and Victoria: and if we want to do that, we should give up monofactorial analysis, and examine multifactorial interactions and constellations of parameters, on the different levels of the compositional project. In this paper, I will try to demonstrate how the definition and identification of different ‘sonic styles’ can provide a flexible and efficient tool for the analysis of Victoria’s music, and of late sixteenth-century music in general.
Keywords: T.L. de Victoria (?1548-1611) - Polychorality - Polyphony - Sonic styles
Related publications by the author: Tomás Luis de Victoria (Palermo: L’Epos, 2008); Polychoral Rewritings and Sonic Creativity in Palestrina and Victoria, in «Polifonie»
A paper delivered at the conference «Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611). Contextos y practicas musicales» (Avila, Spain, 23-24 September 2011). An expanded version has been published in «Revista de Musicología», XXXV/1, 2012 (but 2013), monographic issue on Tomás Luis de Victoria.
Abstract: «Palestrina was simply a great bureaucrat of counterpoint», according to Igor Stravinsky’s famous boutade of 1960. More than fifty years have passed, but to judge from generic discussions of form in Renaissance music, and particularly in ‘free’ genres like the motet, it seems that this kind of prejudice still exists. And not against Palestrina alone. Sixteenth-century composers are seen like automatic music machines: you feed text into the machine, and beautifully woven segments of counterpoint come out on the other side. End of the text, end of the piece, and that’s it. Adherence to the text, additive form, and varietas seem to be the only working concepts. We tend to underestimate the composers’ interest in the problem of form, and especially of perceivable form, and the creative efforts they made in this direction. But the compositional reality challenges our historical clichés. To speak of variety or kaleidoscopic multiplicity is not enough: deliberate formal strategies are at work in this repertoire, and a phenomenological approach can help to describe and understand them. Even though today analysis seems to be out of fashion, to the advantage of contextual studies, I contend that we need to start again to analyse the works of composers such as Palestrina and Victoria: and if we want to do that, we should give up monofactorial analysis, and examine multifactorial interactions and constellations of parameters, on the different levels of the compositional project. In this paper, I will try to demonstrate how the definition and identification of different ‘sonic styles’ can provide a flexible and efficient tool for the analysis of Victoria’s music, and of late sixteenth-century music in general.
Keywords: T.L. de Victoria (?1548-1611) - Polychorality - Polyphony - Sonic styles
Related publications by the author: Tomás Luis de Victoria (Palermo: L’Epos, 2008); Polychoral Rewritings and Sonic Creativity in Palestrina and Victoria, in «Polifonie»
Formal design and sonic architecture in the motet around 1570. Palestrina and Victoria
A paper delivered at the conference «Tomás Luis de Victoria» (León, Spain, 8-12 November 2011). An expanded version will be published in Javier Suárez-Pajares, Manuel del Sol (eds), Tomás Luis de Victoria (Madrid: Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, in preparation).
Abstract: Less than ten years separate Palestrina’s and Victoria’s editorial debut in the field of motet (Motecta festorum totius anni 1563 and Motecta 1572, respectively). The two collections are quite different: one is the four-voice summa of an already well-known chapelmaster, the other the less unified opera prima of a much younger composer. By comparing them, however, one can gain an insight into Palestrina’s and Victoria’s ‘idea’ of motet, and their strategies concerning the design of form and sonic architecture. The main aim of this paper will be to shed new light on the compositional relationship between the two Rome-based authors. During this exploration, we will be confronted with issues of imitatio and originality, with the problem of form in the motet, and with questions regarding the definition of sonic styles in late-Cinquecento vocal music.
Keywords: G.P. da Palestrina (?1525-1594) - T.L. de Victoria (?1548-1611) - Motet - Form - Sonic styles
Related publications by the author: Tomás Luis de Victoria (Palermo: L’Epos, 2008); Polychoral Rewritings and Sonic Creativity in Palestrina and Victoria, in «Polifonie»
A paper delivered at the conference «Tomás Luis de Victoria» (León, Spain, 8-12 November 2011). An expanded version will be published in Javier Suárez-Pajares, Manuel del Sol (eds), Tomás Luis de Victoria (Madrid: Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, in preparation).
Abstract: Less than ten years separate Palestrina’s and Victoria’s editorial debut in the field of motet (Motecta festorum totius anni 1563 and Motecta 1572, respectively). The two collections are quite different: one is the four-voice summa of an already well-known chapelmaster, the other the less unified opera prima of a much younger composer. By comparing them, however, one can gain an insight into Palestrina’s and Victoria’s ‘idea’ of motet, and their strategies concerning the design of form and sonic architecture. The main aim of this paper will be to shed new light on the compositional relationship between the two Rome-based authors. During this exploration, we will be confronted with issues of imitatio and originality, with the problem of form in the motet, and with questions regarding the definition of sonic styles in late-Cinquecento vocal music.
Keywords: G.P. da Palestrina (?1525-1594) - T.L. de Victoria (?1548-1611) - Motet - Form - Sonic styles
Related publications by the author: Tomás Luis de Victoria (Palermo: L’Epos, 2008); Polychoral Rewritings and Sonic Creativity in Palestrina and Victoria, in «Polifonie»
Towards a Phenomenology of Polychorality
A paper delivered at the conference «Central-Eastern Europe versus the Italian musica moderna – Reception, Adaptation, Integration» (Warsaw, Poland, October 2011).
A related paper, entitled Per una fenomenologia sonora della policoralità, has been read in Italian at the conference «Musicorum et cantorum magna est distantia? La prassi della polifonia vocale all'epoca di Palestrina» (Cremona, 26-28 April 2012).
Abstract: In music historical narratives, polychorality usually deserves no more than a few words, almost invariably in connection with ‘the Gabrielis’, or in the course of some reflections on the emancipation of ‘early Baroque’ music from strict sixteenth-century counterpoint towards more modern and sonic-oriented stylistic options. The literature on the subject remains sparse and scattered, the seminal Cori spezzati by Anthony F. Carver (1988) being an isolated accomplishment. An inadequate perception of longue durée structures in the period 1550-1650 is at least partly responsible for this underestimation: but, surprisingly, even an authoritative book aiming to bridge the gap between the two centuries like European Music 1520-1640 (ed. by James Haar, 2006) omits any detailed account of polychorality.
Recent researches, however, force us to acknowledge, on the one hand, the specificity of polychorality, and on the other its widespread diffusion over time, space and performing circumstances. In this paper I will try to reflect on polychorality in a systematic and phenomenological way, exploring its status as a new field of sonic possibilities, mapping genres and functions, defining its relations with sacred and secular rituals, as well as with the spirituality of the period. Can we identify distinct models of polychorality? Which authors contributed to establish these models? When and where? And how could they be related to geopolitical and cultural spheres of influence? Inevitably, I will have more questions than answers: sciscitantes, Troiam pervenere Graeci…
Keywords: Polychorality - Reception of Italian music in Europe
Related publications by the author: Polychoral Rewritings and Sonic Creativity in Palestrina and Victoria, in «Polifonie»
A paper delivered at the conference «Central-Eastern Europe versus the Italian musica moderna – Reception, Adaptation, Integration» (Warsaw, Poland, October 2011).
A related paper, entitled Per una fenomenologia sonora della policoralità, has been read in Italian at the conference «Musicorum et cantorum magna est distantia? La prassi della polifonia vocale all'epoca di Palestrina» (Cremona, 26-28 April 2012).
Abstract: In music historical narratives, polychorality usually deserves no more than a few words, almost invariably in connection with ‘the Gabrielis’, or in the course of some reflections on the emancipation of ‘early Baroque’ music from strict sixteenth-century counterpoint towards more modern and sonic-oriented stylistic options. The literature on the subject remains sparse and scattered, the seminal Cori spezzati by Anthony F. Carver (1988) being an isolated accomplishment. An inadequate perception of longue durée structures in the period 1550-1650 is at least partly responsible for this underestimation: but, surprisingly, even an authoritative book aiming to bridge the gap between the two centuries like European Music 1520-1640 (ed. by James Haar, 2006) omits any detailed account of polychorality.
Recent researches, however, force us to acknowledge, on the one hand, the specificity of polychorality, and on the other its widespread diffusion over time, space and performing circumstances. In this paper I will try to reflect on polychorality in a systematic and phenomenological way, exploring its status as a new field of sonic possibilities, mapping genres and functions, defining its relations with sacred and secular rituals, as well as with the spirituality of the period. Can we identify distinct models of polychorality? Which authors contributed to establish these models? When and where? And how could they be related to geopolitical and cultural spheres of influence? Inevitably, I will have more questions than answers: sciscitantes, Troiam pervenere Graeci…
Keywords: Polychorality - Reception of Italian music in Europe
Related publications by the author: Polychoral Rewritings and Sonic Creativity in Palestrina and Victoria, in «Polifonie»
Earthly Music, Interior Hearing, and Celestial Harmonies. Philippe de Monte’s First Book of Spiritual Madrigals (1581)
An article published in the «Journal of the Alamire Foundation» 3/2, 2011 (special issue on Philippe de Monte).
Abstract: This article examines Philippe de Monte’s first book of spiritual madrigals, underlining the pioneering character of this collection in the history of the genre and its relationships with Jesuit environment and spirituality. Two new attribution of texts to Vittoria Colonna and Laura Battiferri are discussed within an overall description of the book, its themes, and its structure. Three madrigals dealing with spiritual themes in terms of musical metaphors and imagery are analyzed in the context of sixteenth-century ideas on music and Christian spirituality, and as an open reflection by de Monte on the real value of music beyond the ephemeral appreciation of human judgement.
Keywords: Philippe de Monte (1521-1603) - f. Claudio Acquaviva S.J. (1543-1615) - Laurentius Coteman (fl. 1580 ca) - Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547) - Laura Battiferri degli Ammannati (1523-1589) - Spiritual madrigal - Jesuits & music - Music & spirituality - Musico-mystical metaphors - Spiritual senses
An article published in the «Journal of the Alamire Foundation» 3/2, 2011 (special issue on Philippe de Monte).
Abstract: This article examines Philippe de Monte’s first book of spiritual madrigals, underlining the pioneering character of this collection in the history of the genre and its relationships with Jesuit environment and spirituality. Two new attribution of texts to Vittoria Colonna and Laura Battiferri are discussed within an overall description of the book, its themes, and its structure. Three madrigals dealing with spiritual themes in terms of musical metaphors and imagery are analyzed in the context of sixteenth-century ideas on music and Christian spirituality, and as an open reflection by de Monte on the real value of music beyond the ephemeral appreciation of human judgement.
Keywords: Philippe de Monte (1521-1603) - f. Claudio Acquaviva S.J. (1543-1615) - Laurentius Coteman (fl. 1580 ca) - Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547) - Laura Battiferri degli Ammannati (1523-1589) - Spiritual madrigal - Jesuits & music - Music & spirituality - Musico-mystical metaphors - Spiritual senses
A Sonic Life of Carlo Borromeo
This is the subject of a paper delivered at the Med-Ren conference 2011 (Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Barcelona
5th-8th July 2011). A related paper was read in Italian at the Congresso Internazionale di Musica Sacra (Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra, Rome, May 26-June 1, 2011).
The part on Carlo Borromeo will be published, in expanded form and in Italian, in the proceedings of the Congresso Internazionale di Musica Sacra, ed. by F. Luisi (in preparation, scheduled for 2013), with the title Carlo Borromeo e la musica, «a lui naturalmente grata». The part on Victoria and the exchange of letters will be published separately in a forthcoming article.
Abstract: When the name Carlo Borromeo turns up in musicological contexts, it is invariably associated either with the ‘textual intelligibility’ issue (the Cardinals’ Commission, Vincenzo Ruffo, etc.) or with the liturgical repercussions of the reforms he carried out in Milan (the disciplining of church musicians and the clergy, the revision of the Ambrosian rite, and so on). This stereotyped view has obscured many other aspects of Borromeo’s experience of music. Following clues contained in recent interdisciplinary literature on the Milanese scene, and browsing through Carlo’s early biographies and other documents, one can gain a much more vivid and accurate picture of the future saint’s ‘sonic life’. His music therapy sessions as a (worn out) student in Pavia, a late exchange of letters with Tomás Luis de Victoria, the musical homages he received during his life and after his death, the impressive details on the soundscape of Borromean Milan given by his biographers, all suggest that the relation between this key figure of the Italian Cinquecento and the musical civilization of his time was rich and complex, well beyond the clichés, and that it deserves to be studied with fresh interest.
Between the fourth centenary of St. Charles Borromeo’s canonization (1610-2010) and the fourth centenary of T.L. de Victoria’s death (1611-2011).
Keywords: St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) - T.L. de Victoria (?1548-1611) - Milan in the Sixteenth century - Lauda - Motet - Soundscape
This is the subject of a paper delivered at the Med-Ren conference 2011 (Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Barcelona
5th-8th July 2011). A related paper was read in Italian at the Congresso Internazionale di Musica Sacra (Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra, Rome, May 26-June 1, 2011).
The part on Carlo Borromeo will be published, in expanded form and in Italian, in the proceedings of the Congresso Internazionale di Musica Sacra, ed. by F. Luisi (in preparation, scheduled for 2013), with the title Carlo Borromeo e la musica, «a lui naturalmente grata». The part on Victoria and the exchange of letters will be published separately in a forthcoming article.
Abstract: When the name Carlo Borromeo turns up in musicological contexts, it is invariably associated either with the ‘textual intelligibility’ issue (the Cardinals’ Commission, Vincenzo Ruffo, etc.) or with the liturgical repercussions of the reforms he carried out in Milan (the disciplining of church musicians and the clergy, the revision of the Ambrosian rite, and so on). This stereotyped view has obscured many other aspects of Borromeo’s experience of music. Following clues contained in recent interdisciplinary literature on the Milanese scene, and browsing through Carlo’s early biographies and other documents, one can gain a much more vivid and accurate picture of the future saint’s ‘sonic life’. His music therapy sessions as a (worn out) student in Pavia, a late exchange of letters with Tomás Luis de Victoria, the musical homages he received during his life and after his death, the impressive details on the soundscape of Borromean Milan given by his biographers, all suggest that the relation between this key figure of the Italian Cinquecento and the musical civilization of his time was rich and complex, well beyond the clichés, and that it deserves to be studied with fresh interest.
Between the fourth centenary of St. Charles Borromeo’s canonization (1610-2010) and the fourth centenary of T.L. de Victoria’s death (1611-2011).
Keywords: St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) - T.L. de Victoria (?1548-1611) - Milan in the Sixteenth century - Lauda - Motet - Soundscape
The sonic experience of Prince Władysław Vasa in 1624-1625
Work in progress.
Keywords: Władysław IV Vasa (1595-1648) - Soundscape - Opera - Dance - Italy - Poland
Work in progress.
Keywords: Władysław IV Vasa (1595-1648) - Soundscape - Opera - Dance - Italy - Poland
