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The book is an investigation of the Venetian Renaissance organ, a compendium of the visual arts (architecture, sculpture, painting) at the service of music and worship. The historical period that I took into consideration (the two... more
The book is an investigation of the Venetian Renaissance organ, a compendium of the visual arts (architecture, sculpture, painting) at the service of music and worship.
The historical period that I took into consideration (the two centuries between the beginning of the 15th and the early decades of the 17th) was a golden age for the Venetian organ; the instrument roused both curiosity in common people (citizens and travellers) and remarkable suggestions in cul-tured men. Some of these, such as Gioseffo Zarlino (one of the most important Venetian composers, Kapellmeister of the Ducal chapel and music theorist) and Girolamo Diruta (organist, composer and author of one of the most important musical treatises of the Renaissance), described the organ as «a wonderful machine comparable to a living creature».
The loss of these “marvellous machines” prevents us today from understanding their importance and artistic value; only a few organ cases with their balconies are now surviving almost intact. Numerous works that decorated the organ doors or the parapets (painted by artists such as Giovanni Bellini, Sebastiano del Piombo, Tintoretto, Francesco Vecellio, Paolo Veronese, Palma il Giovane) have become mural paintings inside many Venetian churches, or part of museum and private collections.
The book – by means of archival documents, published sources, and more than 400 bibliographi-cal references – reconstructs the artistic and cultural context that gave the organ the significance of an architectural and pictorial monument, whose function and liturgical role were similar to that of an al-tar. It is composed of four introductory chapters (1. The organ in the Ancient World and the Middle Ages; 2. The Venetian organ between the 15th and 17th century; 3. The Venetian organ and the trea-tises; 4. The organs of the basilica of Saint Mark) and a catalogue that contains eighty essays, each dedicated to a different church, with a reconstruction of the architectural context of the buildings, the position of the Renaissance instruments (e. g. the tradition of placing monastic and chapter choirs in the middle of the nave, or above raised structures over the main door of the church, required in fact particular locations for the organs) and their original decorations.
All of information collected allows us to better understand the liturgical and musical functionality of the Venetian churches between the 15th century and the beginning of the 17th, and to comprehend the social and the historical reasons that led to radical changes in the following centuries.
The historical period that I took into consideration (the two centuries between the beginning of the 15th and the early decades of the 17th) was a golden age for the Venetian organ; the instrument roused both curiosity in common people (citizens and travellers) and remarkable suggestions in cul-tured men. Some of these, such as Gioseffo Zarlino (one of the most important Venetian composers, Kapellmeister of the Ducal chapel and music theorist) and Girolamo Diruta (organist, composer and author of one of the most important musical treatises of the Renaissance), described the organ as «a wonderful machine comparable to a living creature».
The loss of these “marvellous machines” prevents us today from understanding their importance and artistic value; only a few organ cases with their balconies are now surviving almost intact. Numerous works that decorated the organ doors or the parapets (painted by artists such as Giovanni Bellini, Sebastiano del Piombo, Tintoretto, Francesco Vecellio, Paolo Veronese, Palma il Giovane) have become mural paintings inside many Venetian churches, or part of museum and private collections.
The book – by means of archival documents, published sources, and more than 400 bibliographi-cal references – reconstructs the artistic and cultural context that gave the organ the significance of an architectural and pictorial monument, whose function and liturgical role were similar to that of an al-tar. It is composed of four introductory chapters (1. The organ in the Ancient World and the Middle Ages; 2. The Venetian organ between the 15th and 17th century; 3. The Venetian organ and the trea-tises; 4. The organs of the basilica of Saint Mark) and a catalogue that contains eighty essays, each dedicated to a different church, with a reconstruction of the architectural context of the buildings, the position of the Renaissance instruments (e. g. the tradition of placing monastic and chapter choirs in the middle of the nave, or above raised structures over the main door of the church, required in fact particular locations for the organs) and their original decorations.
All of information collected allows us to better understand the liturgical and musical functionality of the Venetian churches between the 15th century and the beginning of the 17th, and to comprehend the social and the historical reasons that led to radical changes in the following centuries.
Knowledge and debate in the field of sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Venetian music has greatly benefitted in recent decades from studies of major institutions, composers, repertories and sources, as also from investigations of... more
Knowledge and debate in the field of sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Venetian music has greatly benefitted in recent decades from studies of major institutions, composers, repertories and sources, as also from investigations of the quantitative aspects of musical life in what was one of the largest, richest and most commercially oriented cities on the Italian peninsula: the Venetian musical phenomenon includes, on the one hand, regular or sporadic musical activities in the city’s many churches and private palaces (activities which provided significant earnings for large numbers of musicians, whether or not salaried members of the ducal cappella) and, on the other, the auxiliary trades of music printing and instrument making. The transmission of the musical repertories has also received notable attention: in particular, the contemporary and later reception of Venetian musical repertories in different political, linguistic and/or confessional areas. Central, too, have been questions of ‘sound’, both with regard to the particular interaction between musical composition, the spatial peculiarities and the specific liturgical and ceremonial traditions of the Venetian ducal chapel, and in the context of music-making at large.
This collection of essays on the life, times and works of a composer who ranks among the most outstanding musical personalities of his day variously unites these strands in an albeit partial attempt to interpret Giovanni Gabrieli’s output and activities in their Venetian context and, at the same time, cast light on their broader historiographical significance: on the one hand Gabrieli as point of synthesis of a complex Venetian musical tradition, on the other his interaction with and impact on contemporary musical life, his influence on later generations of composers both at home and abroad, the rediscovery of his achievements by nineteenth- and twentieth-century historians and performers, the revisitations of his music by twentieth-century composers.
Reviews:
– Rivista Italiana di Musicologia 53 (2018), p. 285–291 (Michelangelo Gabbrielli)
– Early Music 46 (2018), p. 167–169 (Eleanor Selfridge-Field); reply: Early Music 46 (2018), p. 367–368
– Renaissance Quarterly 71 (2018), p. 776–777 (Tim Shephard)
– Music & Letters 100 (2019), p. 543–546 (Tim Carter)
This collection of essays on the life, times and works of a composer who ranks among the most outstanding musical personalities of his day variously unites these strands in an albeit partial attempt to interpret Giovanni Gabrieli’s output and activities in their Venetian context and, at the same time, cast light on their broader historiographical significance: on the one hand Gabrieli as point of synthesis of a complex Venetian musical tradition, on the other his interaction with and impact on contemporary musical life, his influence on later generations of composers both at home and abroad, the rediscovery of his achievements by nineteenth- and twentieth-century historians and performers, the revisitations of his music by twentieth-century composers.
Reviews:
– Rivista Italiana di Musicologia 53 (2018), p. 285–291 (Michelangelo Gabbrielli)
– Early Music 46 (2018), p. 167–169 (Eleanor Selfridge-Field); reply: Early Music 46 (2018), p. 367–368
– Renaissance Quarterly 71 (2018), p. 776–777 (Tim Shephard)
– Music & Letters 100 (2019), p. 543–546 (Tim Carter)
- by Rodolfo Baroncini and +2
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- Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Music, Early Music
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