Abstract
The period of Venetian music history with which this essay is concerned falls neatly into two parts. The first, closely linked to the past, is dominated by music at the Basilica of St Mark’s. The second, representing a fundamental change of focus, and very much looking to the future, is dominated by opera. These two formidable institutions, the one essentially sacred, the other secular, were quintessen-tially Venetian, helping to promote the reputation of the Serenissima at home and abroad.
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Notes
Convenient surveys of Venetian history are offered in F. C. Lane, Venice: a Maritime Republic (Baltimore, 1973) — which, as its title suggests, views that history from an appropriately maritime perspective — and J. J. Norwich, A History of Venice (London, 1982), a more general and popular account. Specific studies of relevant aspects of that history are: W. J. Bouwsma, Venice and the Defense of Republican Liberty: Renaissance Values in the Age of the Counter Reformation (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968);
B. Pullan, Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice (Oxford, 1971), a pioneering study of the structure and role of the scuole grandi;
E. Muir, Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (Princeton, 1981), an excellent discussion of the pageantry of Venice. Particular aspects of the economic history of Venice are considered in Crisis and Change in the Venetian Economy in the 16th and 17th Centuries, ed. B. Pullan (London, 1968).
O. Logan, Culture and Society in Venice: 1470–1790 (London, 1972), offers a broad survey of aspects of Venetian culture in their historical context; the richest consideration of the complexities of culture and society can be found in the various contributions to Dalla controriforma alla fine délia repubblica: il Seicento, Storia della cultura veneta, iv/1 (Vicenza, 1983).
Visual arts
For developments in late Renaissance painting, see D. Rosand, Painting in Cinquecento Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto (New Haven and London, 1982).
R. Pallucchini, La pittura veneziana del Seicento (Milan, 1981).
Architecture is best surveyed in D. Howard, The Architectural History of Venice (London, 1980).
The iconography of the ducal palace is the subject of two important monographs: S. Sinding-Larsen, Christ in the Council Hall: Studies in the Religious Iconography of the Venetian Republic (Rome, 1974)
W. Wolters, Der Bilderschmuck des Dogenpalastes: Untersuchungen zur Selbstdarstellung der Republik Venedig im 16. Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden, 1983).
Literature
There is an unfortunate paucity of material in English on Venetian literature of this period. The most useful general survey in Italian is the essay by G. Getto, ‘Lettera-tura e poesia’, in La civiltà veneziana nel’età barocca (Florence, 1959). Several excellent essays in Dalla controriforma alla fine della repubblica: il Seicento, Storia della cultura veneta, iv, treat individual aspects of the literature in greater detail: M. L. Doglio, ‘La letteratura ufficiale e Poratoria celebrativa’, F. Erspamer, ‘Petrarchismo e manierismo nella lirica del secondo Cinquecento,’ G. Baldassarri, ‘“Acutezza” and “ingegno”: teoria e pratica del gusto barocco’, and G. Auzzas, ‘Le nuove esperienze della narrativa: il romanzo’. For dramatic literature in particular, see N. Mangini, ‘La tragedia e 1a commedia’, and E. Povoledo, ‘I comici professionisti e la commedia dell’arte: caratteri, tecniche, fortuna’, in the same volume. Two further essays by Povoledo provide important background concerning the pre-operatic theatrical tradition in Venice: ‘Una rappresentazione accademica a Venezia nel 1634’, Studi sul teatro veneto fra rinascimento ed età barocca, ed. M. T. Muraro (Florence, 1971), 119–69, which contains a chronological list of academic spectacles covering the period 1593–1642, and ‘Scène et mise en scéne à Venise: de la décadence des Compagnie de la Calza jusqu’à la représentation de Y Andromeda au théâtre de St-Cassian (1637)’, Renaissance, Maniérisme, Baroque: XI Stage international du CESR de Tours, 1968 (Paris, 1972), 87–99. The best survey of theatres is N. Mangini, / teatri di Venezia (Turin, 1971), which brings together much of the available documentation on their history.
Music
For a general discussion of the importance of music to the Venetian political image, see E. Rosand, ‘Music in the Myth of Venice’, Renaissance Quarterly, xxx (1977), 511–37.
The classic survey of music at St Mark’s is F. Caffi, Storia della musica sacra nella già cappella ducale di S. Marco in Venezia (dal 1318 al 1797) (1853), rev. E. Surian (Venice, 1987). Two recent scholars have made particularly important contributions to an understanding of music at St Mark’s: J. H. Moore, in a book, Vespers at St. Mark’s: Music of Alessandro Grandi, Giovanni Rovetta and Francesco Cavalli (Ann Arbor, 1981), and three articles, ‘The Vespro delli cinque laudate and the Role of salmi spezzati at St. Mark’s’, JAMS, xxxiv (1981), 249–78, ‘Venezia favorita da Maria: Music for the Madonna Nicopeia and Santa Maria della Salute’, ibid, xxxvii (1984), 299–355 and ‘The Liturgical Use of the Organ in Seventeenth-Century Italy: New Documents, New Hypotheses’, Frescobaldi Studies, ed. A. Silbiger (Durham, North Carolina, 1987), 351–83;
D. Bryant in, among other articles, ‘The “Gori Spezzati” of St Mark’s: Myth and Reality’, EMH, i (1981), 165–88.
D. Arnold’s numerous studies of music in Venice cover a wide variety of important topics, in particular the scuole (‘Music at the Scuola di San Rocco’, ML, xl (1959), 229–41), the two Gabrielis (Giovanni Gabrieli and the Music of the Venetian High Renaissance (London, 1979)) and some of their successors at St Mark’s, including Monteverdi (Monteverdi (London, rev. 3/1990 by T. Carter)). More recently, music at the scuole has been exhaustively treated by J. Glixon in, among other articles, ‘A Musicians’ Union in Sixteenth-Century Venice’, JAMS, xxxvi (1983), 392–421.
The most recent and useful survey of music at the ospedali is a catalogue: G. Ellero, J. Scarpa and M. C. Paolucci, Arte e musica all’Ospedaletto: schede d’archivio sul Vattivita musicale degli ospedali dei Derelitti e dei Mendicanti di Venecia (sec. XVI-XVIII) (Venice, 1978).
Much information on music at St Mark’s as well as at the other institutions is also found in E. Selfridge-Field’s important book Venetian Instrumental Music from Gabrieli to Vivaldi (Oxford, 1975).
Two of the most interesting recent books on Monteverdi are P. Fabbri, Monteverdi (Turin, 1985),
G. Tomlinson, Monteverdi and the End of the Renaissance (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1986).
The most comprehensive study of opera is E. Rosand, Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: the Creation of a Genre (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1991).
Excellent briefer treatments of the material may be found in L. Bianconi, Music in the Seventeenth Century, trans. D. Bryant (Cambridge, 1987),
A. L. Bellina and T. Walker, ‘II melodramma: poesia e musica nell’esperienza teatrale’, Dalla controriforma alla fine délia repubblica: il Seicento, Storia della cultura veneta, iv/1 (Vicenza, 1983).
An important socio-historical study that compares opera in Venice with that in two other, different social contexts is L. Bianconi and T. Walker, ‘Production, Consumption and Political Function of Seventeenth-Century Opera’, EMH, iv (1984), 209–96.
The best book on Venetian scenography is P. Bjurström, Giacomo Torelli and Baroque Stage Design (Stockholm, 1961).
Venetian opera is the subject of important articles by N. Pirrotta in Music and Culture in Italy from the Middle Ages to the Baroque: a Collection of Essays (Cambridge, Mass., 1984): ‘Monteverdi and the Problems of Opera’, ‘The Lame Horse and the Coachman’ and ‘Commedia dell’arte and Opera’. Another of his major contributions to the field, ‘Early Opera and Aria’, first published as an article in 1968, was revised and published as Chapter 6 of N. Pirrotta and E. Povoledo, Music and Theatre from Poliziano to Monteverdi, trans. K. Eales (Cambridge, 1982).
Facsimiles of a representative sample of Venetian opera scores and librettos may be found in two series: Italian Opera: 1640–1770, éd. H. M. Brown (New York, 1978–82); and Drammaturgia musicale veneta (Milan, various dates).
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Rosand, E. (1993). Venice, 1580–1680. In: Price, C. (eds) The Early Baroque Era. Man & Music. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11294-4_4
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