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The Duet in Early Seventeenth-Century Italian Church Music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Jerome Roche
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Extract

Let us picture an average parish church of a north Italian city at the beginning of the seventeenth century—a church not of cathedral status, and one run on a fairly limited budget. What kind of music might one have heard there of a Sunday? Here there would be none of the pomp of Counter-Reformation Rome and its suave, sonorous polyphony; none of the stereophonic splendours of Venetian polychoral music. The total assembly of musicians could probably be counted on the fingers of the hand, and performance of sixteenth-century polyphony even in the least feasible number of parts (usually four) would have been poor. It was impractical for this type of choir.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 93 , 1966 , pp. 33 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © 1967 The Royal Musical Association and the Authors

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References

1 Cf. B. Barbarino, Il prima libro delli Motetti, Venice, 1610.Google Scholar

2 Adrio, A., Die Anfänge des Geistlühen Konzerts, Berlin, 1931, pp. 14–15.Google Scholar

3 Fortune, N., ‘Italian Secular Monody, 1600–1635’, The Musical Quarterly, xxxix (1953). 171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 This motet is reprinted along with several other of the Cento Concerti in F. T. Arnold, The Art of Accompaniment from a Thorough Bass, London, 1931, pp. 21 ff.Google Scholar

5 Ex. I. pp. 44–46.Google Scholar

6 Ex. II, pp. 47–50.Google Scholar

7 Concerti Ecclesiastici a 2 3 4 et 5 voci, Venice, 1618.Google Scholar

8 Terzo Libro di Nuovi Pensieri Ecclesiastici, Bologna, 1613.Google Scholar

9 Rovetta, G., Salmi concertati a 5 e 6 … con Motetti a 2 e 3 coci, Venice, 1626.Google Scholar

10 Cf. Tutte le Opere, ed. G. F. Malipiero, xiv. 170.Google Scholar

11 ibid., xvi. 409.Google Scholar

12 ibid., xvi. 454 and 467.Google Scholar

13 Arnold, D., ‘Music at the Scuola di San Rocco’, Music & Letters, xl (1959), 229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Tutte le Opere, ed. G. F. Malipiero, xv. 736.Google Scholar

During the course of the lecture, Richard White and Neil Jenkins (tenors) sang the following illustrations, accompanied by Robert Lay (gamba) and Christopher Hogwood (harpsichord):Google Scholar

  1. a

    a Laetare Jerusalem, from L. Viadana, Opera Omnia Concertuum Ecclesiasticorum, Frankfurt, 1613; British Museum, London.

  2. b

    b Hodie nobis de caelo, from A. Grandi, Il primo libra de Motetti a 2, 3, 4, 5 et 8 voci, Venice, 1610; Library of the Conservatorio G. B. Martini, Bologna.

  3. c

    c Anima Christi, from A. Grandi, Celesti fiori… Libra quinlo de Concerti, Venice, 1619; Library of the Conservatorio G. B. Martini, Bologna.

  4. d

    d Ut flos ut rosa, from G. B. Crivelli, Il primo libra dtlli Motetti Qmcertati, Venice, 1626; Library of the Conservatorio G. B. Martini, Bologna.

  5. e

    e Salve Regina (second setting), from C. Monteverdi, Selva Morale e Spirituale, Venice, 1640; Library of the Conservatorio G. B. Martini, Bologna.