Music In Renaissance Florence

Based primarily on previously unpublished documents, the studies assembled here in this first selection by Frank D'Accone set the background for the musical efflorescence that occurred in Florence in the later 15th century and for the emergence in the early 16th century of a new Florentine school of composers. He traces the origins and development of musical chapels at the Cathedral and Baptistery, and the growth of musical establishments at several other churches such as the Santissima Annunziata, Santa Trinita and San Lorenzo.

This collection of reprinted essays starts from the author's doctoral research on Jacopo Peri and the rise of opera and solo song in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Florence. It extends to broader issues concerning music and patronage in the city as they affected individual composers, patrons and institutions, and thence to the commerce of music printing and the book trade. It concludes with an attempt to suggest a broader view of these various issues as they impact upon musical life in the 'provinces' in Tuscany. There is a great deal of new documentary and other information here, but the aim is also to expand methodological horizons so as to prompt new ways of thinking about music in its contexts.

Based on previously unpublished documents, Frank D'Accone sets the background for the musical efflorescence that occurred in Florence in the later 15th century and the emergence in the early 16th century of a new Florentine school of composers. Tracing the origins and development of musical chapels at the Cathedral and Baptistery, and the growth of musical establishments at several other churches such as the Santissima Annunziata, Santa Trinita and San Lorenzo, D'Accone examines the effect of Medici patronage, on the one hand, and the impact of Savonarola, on the other, and at the careers of individual composers such as Heinrich Isaac.

This second selection of studies by Frank D’Accone, again based principally on the documentary evidence, follows the development through the mid 16th century of musical chapels at the Cathedral and the Baptistery of Florence and of musical establishments at the Santissima Annunziata and San Lorenzo. The lives, careers and works of composers associated with these churches are illustrated and their works analyzed, particularly the theoretical treatise by Fra Mauro, the madrigals of Mauro Matti and the ambitiously conceived canzone cycle of Mattia Rampollini. The final studies, moving into the 17th century, look at the music for Holy Week, and the unprecedented programme of performances at Santa Maria Novella.

Relatively little is known about musical and religious life in Renaissance Florence and the aspirations of its average citizens. This book documents and interprets the corporate patronage of a significant Florentine musical repertory over a period of some 200 years.

A comprehensive account of music in Florence from the late Middle Ages until the end of the Medici dynasty in the mid-eighteenth century. Florence is justly celebrated as one of the world’s most important cities. It enjoys mythic status and occupies an enviable place in the historical imagination. But its musico-historical importance is not as well understood as it should be. If Florence was the city of Dante, Michelangelo, and Galileo, it was also the birthplace of the madrigal, opera, and the piano. Music in Golden-Age Florence, 1250–1750 recounts Florence’s principal contributions to music and the history of how music was heard and cultivated in the city, from civic and religious institutions to private patronage and the academies. This book is an invaluable complement to studies of the art, literature, and political thought of the late-medieval and early-modern eras and the quasi-legendary figures in the Florentine cultural pantheon.

"This book breaks the silence that has artificially surrounded one of the greatest masterpieces of Early Renaissance Florence: Luca della Robbia's Cantoria. This silence has never regarded the quality or historical significance of Luca's famed organ loft--far from it, in fact. Since its installation in Florence Cathedral in 1438, Luca's Cantoria--his first documented work--has been recognized as an undisputed masterpiece, epitomizing the classical spirit of the Renaissance"--

Through forty-five creative and concise essays by an international team of authors, this Cambridge History brings the fifteenth century to life for both specialists and general readers. Combining the best qualities of survey texts and scholarly literature, the book offers authoritative overviews of central composers, genres, and musical institutions as well as new and provocative reassessments of the work concept, the boundaries between improvisation and composition, the practice of listening, humanism, musical borrowing, and other topics. Multidisciplinary studies of music and architecture, feasting, poetry, politics, liturgy, and religious devotion rub shoulders with studies of compositional techniques, musical notation, music manuscripts, and reception history. Generously illustrated with figures and examples, this volume paints a vibrant picture of musical life in a period characterized by extraordinary innovation and artistic achievement.

Based on extensive documentary and archival research, Music in Renaissance Ferrara is a documentary history of music for one of the most important city-states of the Italian Renaissance. Lockwood shows how patrons and musicians created a musical center over the course of the fifteenth-century, tracing the growth of music and musical life in rich detail. It also sheds new light on the careers of such important composers as Dufay, Martini, Obrecht, and Josquin Desprez. This paperback edition features a new preface that re-introduces the book and reflects on its contribution to our modern knowledge of music in the culture of the Italian Renaissance.

Euridice was one of several music-theatrical works commissioned to celebrate the wedding of Maria de' Medici and King Henri IV of France in Florence in October 1600. As the first 'opera' to survive complete, it has been viewed as a landmark work, but its libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini and music by Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini have tended to be studied in the abstract rather than as something to be performed in a specific time and place. Staging “Euridice” explores how newly-discovered documents can be used to precisely reconstruct every aspect of its original stage and sets in the room for which it was intended in the Palazzo Pitti. By also taking into account what the singers and instrumentalists did, what the audience saw and heard, and how things changed from creation through rehearsals to performance, this book brings new aspects of Euridice to light in startling ways.