Published articles by Lucia Marchi
This article considers the relationship between Raphael’s Sistine Madonna and the surrounding cho... more This article considers the relationship between Raphael’s Sistine Madonna and the surrounding choir stalls in the Cassinese monastery of San Sisto in Piacenza (Italy). Although the altarpiece seems silent, the abundant music carved in the stalls (instruments and four mensural compositions) dialogues with the painting and exalts its intrinsic musicality. The study also compares the music represented with the actual practice in the monastery and analyzes its symbolic meaning in the broader prospective of 16th-century Cassinese culture.
Journal of the Alamire Foundation , 2024
This article analyses Margaret’s use of music and musical symbolism to assert her legitimacy as d... more This article analyses Margaret’s use of music and musical symbolism to assert her legitimacy as duchess of Piacenza. She entered the city with great sonic display in 1557 and 1568 and found a lively musical environment that included dance, one of her favorite pastimes. In order to establish Farnese control, the duchess chose Piacenza as her residence from 1557 to 1559 and started the building of the Palazzo Farnese, which was planned to contain a teatro all’antica under her patronage. She elected as her burial place the Cassinese monastery of San Sisto, an institution with a tradition of liturgical chant. The description of Margaret’s solemn funeral in 1586 testifies that the monks performed composed polyphony for the occasion, reflecting her royal dignity with musical magnificence.
Il contributo rivaluta i fogli conservati presso la Newberry Library di Chicago (Case ms 171), m... more Il contributo rivaluta i fogli conservati presso la Newberry Library di Chicago (Case ms 171), mettendone in luce la natura di fascicle-manuscript conservatisi nella loro forma originale, ovvero mai integrati in un manoscritto di dimensioni maggiori, né utilizzati per una legatura. In questo senso, i fogli costituiscono un caso unico tra i testimoni dell’
Ars Nova italiana. Alla luce di questa idea, vengono ripensati alcuni elementi significativi: 1. i rapporti con altri manoscritti (per esempio Pit) ); 2. il ruolo di Paolo a Firenze nella loro compilazione; 3. la loro provenienza e datazione.
The Capirola lutebook, preserved at the Newberry Library of Chicago since 1904, is one of the mos... more The Capirola lutebook, preserved at the Newberry Library of Chicago since 1904, is one of the most important sources of instrumental music of the early 16 th century. Vincenzo Capirola (1474-after 1548) was a Brescian gentleman from a wealthy family with historical links to the nearby town of Leno. In his fundamental study of 1955, Otto Gombosi suggested that the scribe of the manuscript, who self-identifies as Vidal, was a pupil of Capirola trying to preserve the knowledge of his master; this idea is still accepted in musicological literature. By contrast, this essay reexamines a different reading of the name suggested in 1981 by Orlando Cristoforetti: VIDAL as a nickname for Capirola himself (VIncenzo DA Leno). If the scribe and the lutenist are one and the same person, the splendidly decorated manuscript can be viewed as the selffashioning of a gentlemen and musician, one whose art contributes to the definition of his identity according to the rules of aristocratic code of behavior. A fresh codicological examination of the manuscript deconstructs Gombosi's dating of the manuscript (Venice, 1515-20), suggesting instead a wider range of time and place for its creation, which could have happened somewhere in the Venetian territories, possibly in Brescia, in the first half of the Cinquecento.
(1795-1846) is known as one of the heroes of the Risorgimento, a victim of the harsh detention of... more (1795-1846) is known as one of the heroes of the Risorgimento, a victim of the harsh detention of Italian patriots in Austrian prisons. Compared to such political fame, his musical talents seemed undistinguished, and are mostly forgotten. Nonetheless, it was as a composer, choir director and vocal coach that he worked through his life. This essay is a first attempt to consider Maroncelli's musical career. If his migration to France was for political reasons, it was music that brought him and his wife, the German contralto Amalia Schneider, to the US in 1833 as part of the third opera troupe summoned by Lorenzo Da Ponte. As part of the Italian community in New York, Maroncelli and his wife taught, wrote and championed Italian musical style. They were also engaged in sacred music: in 1842, Maroncelli inaugurated the new 'French Church', probably to be identified with the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Vincent DePaul. Of particular interest are the musician's letters, which define his taste and testify to his expertise on the operatic voice. A newly-found letter to Elpidio Felice Foresti, who succeeded DaPonte in 1838 as the Chair of Italian Language and Literature at Columbia, is transcribed in full. This letter, written in 1845, sheds new light on the musician's political and musical interests in the last year of his life.
Antonfrancesco Doni (1513-74) published his Dialogo della Musica in April
1544, during the tw... more Antonfrancesco Doni (1513-74) published his Dialogo della Musica in April
1544, during the two years in which the author resided in Piacenza. A critical re-evaluation of the work suggests that the Dialogo was the fruit of the
numerous experiences of its author; at the same time, it reveals a strong link
to Piacenza. Far from being at the margins of the musical scene in the peninsula, the city appreciated the most innovative tendencies in secular practices,
for example the so-called ‘black-note madrigal’. In Piacenza Doni was part of
the Accademia degli Ortolani (dedicated to Priapus, the god of Gardens); its
influence on the Dialogo is evident in the correspondence among characters,
texts and music. In particular, the madrigal Noi v’abbiam donne mille nuov’a
dire (Canto VI of the Dialogo) could have been included because it matched
the Academy’s ironic and irreverent aesthetics.
In the study of the secular repertory of the late Trecento and early Quattrocento, a collaboratio... more In the study of the secular repertory of the late Trecento and early Quattrocento, a collaboration between textual and musical philology is paramount. Our goal here is not to constrain the source study to the limits of these two disciplines, but to take advantage of different kinds of expertise for its better understanding. Using an interdisciplinary edition of the manuscript Torino, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, T.III.2 (Codex Boverio), this essay suggests a number of methodological criteria that can provide rules for text-music relationships in the Ars subtilior repertory, and can help the critical evaluation of the two components.
Studi Musicali 11/1 (2020), pp. 7-30, 2020
Abstract
This essay explores a hypothesis for the lost music of Francis of Assisi’s Canticle o... more Abstract
This essay explores a hypothesis for the lost music of Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of Brother Sun, one of the very first texts of Italian literature. Previous assumptions, for example of a strophic musical form, are refused on the basis of new paleographical evidence. The analysis of the poem’s structure and models, instead, suggests a musical rendition modeled on the recitation of the Divine Office, i.e. as antiphon (for the first four verses) and psalm (for the eight following stanzas). The melodic models for the Canticle could be antiphons for Lauds used in Italy around 1200, and a test of such a possibility can be heard at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vPIX7Whk3g.
The strong link (textual and musical) to the Office supports the idea that the Canticle was part of an original liturgy – possibly in the vernacular – that Francis had created for his early lay congregation, in particular for Lauds. This liturgy, which we call ‘Francis’ liturgy’, had to be abandoned with the 1223 official approval of the Franciscan Order, and substituted by a more standardized one (the ‘Franciscan liturgy’). Therefore, the customary dating of the Canticle (1224-26) could be pushed back to a time of experimentation, in which the vernacular, memory, and oral transmission were an important part of Francis’ primitive community.
Archivio Italiano per la Storia della Pieta', xxxii, 2019
In September 1219, during the fifth Crusade, Francis of Assisi met the Sultan Malik al-Kāmil in D... more In September 1219, during the fifth Crusade, Francis of Assisi met the Sultan Malik al-Kāmil in Damietta (Egypt). This encounter has been interpreted through history in very different ways, ranging from the triumph of Christianity over Islam to a model of ecumenical, peaceful dialogue. This essay considers the sonic aspects of the meeting, hoping that an assessment of musical influences would contribute towards an evaluation of the historical facts. Musically, Francis both modeled himself after the troubadours and sang their sacred repertory. His view of the East would have been shaped by crusade songs, such as the ones by the Aimeric de Peguilhan or Guillelm Figueira. From the other side, the 15th-century chronicle by al-Maqrīzī describes the celebration of the conquest of Damietta (1221), at which Malik al-Kāmil ordered a slave-girl to perform a praise of the victory on her lute. Surprisingly here, its poetic imagery mimics, in reverse, the one used by the troubadours. Finally, sonic exchange between the two worlds is evident in Francis’ Letter to the Rulers of the People, written just after his return from the East in 1220. With a clear reference to the muezzin’s call for prayer, he recommends that even in the Christian West a “crier or another sign”
Abstract
Nel settembre 1219, durante la Quinta Crociata, Francesco d’Assisi incontrò il Sultano Malik al-Kāmil a Damietta, in Egitto. Tale incontro è stato interpretato nei secoli in modi diversi, dal trionfo della Cristianità sull’Islam fino ad un modello di dialogo ecumenico. Questo saggio prende in considerazione gli aspetti sonori dell’incontro, nella speranza che una valutazione delle influenze musicali possa contribuire ad una visione più oggettiva dei fatti storici. Francesco modellava la sua immagine su quella dei trovatori e cantava il loro repertorio. La sua visione dell’Oriente era dunque influenzata dalle canzoni di crociata, per esempio quelle di Aimeric de Peguilhan o di Guillelm Figueira. La cronaca quattrocentesca di al-Maqrīzī descrive la celebrazione della conquista di Damietta nel 1221. Essa riporta come Malik al-Kāmil avesse ordinato ad una schiava di cantare la vittoria accompagnandosi con il liuto: le immagini poetiche di questo canto sono simili – ma opposte – a quelle usate dei trovatori. Infine, un influsso sonoro tra i due mondi è evidente nella Lettera ai reggitori dei popoli, scritta da Francesco poco dopo il suo ritorno dall’Oriente nel 1220. Con evidente riferimento al richiamo alla preghiera del muezzin, il Santo raccomanda che anche nell’Occidente cristiano si segnali l’ora delle lodi a Dio “mediante un banditore o qualche altro segno”.
Il Santo. Rivista Francescana di Storia Dottrina Arte LVII/3 , 2017
Questo studio riflette su due momenti del rapporto tra i Francescani e la musica. Una prima parte... more Questo studio riflette su due momenti del rapporto tra i Francescani e la musica. Una prima parte si concentra sui primi anni dell’ordine attraverso un riesame delle prime fonti biografiche francescane. Il risultato è un’immagine di Francesco che fa proprio il modello dei trovatori e dei trovieri, adottandone il repertorio e lo stile esecutivo (Francesco che canta gallice le lodi di Dio fingendo di suonare la viella, come ce lo descrive Tommaso da Celano). Il famoso invito – descritto dalla Compilatio assisiensis – di Francesco ai suoi frati di essere i ioculatores Domini è reinterpretato alla luce della scoperta che la stessa espressione è usata da uno dei maggiori protagonisti del repertorio polifonico di Notre Dame, Filippo il Cancelliere. Lungi dall’essere ai margini in fatto di preferenze musicali, i primi Francescani appaiono molto ben connessi ai maggiori repertori del tempo. Tale connessione continua nei secoli successivi. L’ultima parte dello studio prende in esame il possesso di un manoscritto di polifonia, il codice Torino, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, T.III.2. da parte di due membri dell’ordine nel corso del Quattrocento.
This essay considers two moments of the relationship between the Franciscans and music. A first part examines the first years of the order through a new analysis of passages from early hagiographical sources. The result is an image of St. Francis who models himself on the French troubadours and trouveres, adopting their repertory and performance style (e.g. Francis singing gallice the praises of God, while pretending to accompany himself on a vielle, as described by Tommaso da Celano). I reinterpret the famous invitation of Francis to his friars to be the ioculatores Domini in light of the discovery that the same expression is used by one of the major protagonists of the Notre Dame polyphonic repertory, Philip the Chancellor. Far from being marginal in their tastes, the first Franciscans appear to have been well connected to the main musical tendencies of their time. This connection continues into the next centuries. The second part of this study looks at the possession of a manuscript of polyphony, the codex Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, T.III.2. by two members of the order in the course of the fifteenth century.
Philomusica Online, 2019
Il codice Chantilly, Bibliothèque du Château, ms. presenta alcuni interessanti casi di attrib... more Il codice Chantilly, Bibliothèque du Château, ms. presenta alcuni interessanti casi di attribuzioni in posizioni inconsuete-per esempio in una delle voci o nel residuum. Partendo da una rivalutazione dell'ipotesi di Allan Atlas secondo cui le doppie attribuzioni indicano una responsabilità condivisa nella composizione, questo contributo suggerisce che uno dei nomi indicati non sia quello dell'autore, ma dell'esecutore del pezzo. Fonti con tracce di esecuzione sono note in tempi successivi-per esempio l'autografo di Palestrina (Roma, Archivio di San Giovanni in Laterano, cod. ) in cui i nomi dei cantori sono notati all'inzio delle voci. Il codice di Chantilly può dunque fornirci uno sguardo inconsueto sull'esecuzione del repertorio tardo trecentesco e sulla complessa relazione tra compositori ed interpreti. Il manoscritto contiene il repertorio dell'Ars subtilior, uno stile caratterizzato da complessità ritmiche e melodiche, normalmente associato con una cultura scritta. La possibilità che la sua circolazione sia legata ai jongleurs tardomedievali getta una nuova luce sulla comprensione di questo repertorio.
Introduction to Eleonora Beck, Boccaccio and the Invention of Musical Narrative, Florence, European Press , 2018
Recercare, 2015
The caccia Dappoi che ’l sole by Nicolò da Perugia appears to unfold the classic metaphor of fire... more The caccia Dappoi che ’l sole by Nicolò da Perugia appears to unfold the classic metaphor of fire to represent the sudden onset of courtly love. The object of passion is a lady whose name is carefully hidden in a numeric senhal: CECILIA. But the scene of the fire and its extinction bears a strong similarity to the martyrdom described in the Passio Ceciliae, in which the saint remains unharmed by the flames of a Roman bath: thus, I argue that the piece celebrates not a woman, but a saint.
This blend of meanings – a sacred theme disguised in the secular form of the Italian caccia – raises two heuristic issues. The first is the possibility of connecting Saint Cecilia with music much earlier than her ‘official’ patronage of the art in the sixteenth century. The second has to do with the legitimacy of viewing products of secular art through sacred lenses and vice-versa, which can significantly shape our understanding of medieval culture.
Essays in Medieval Studies 27 , 2011
Acta Musicologica 80, 2008
Rivista Italiana di Musica sacra , 2011
One of the most successful but also controversial pieces of nineteenth-century sacred music is... more One of the most successful but also controversial pieces of nineteenth-century sacred music is Rossini’s Stabat Mater. After it reached French and Italian audiences in 1841, the public debate over its aesthetics and devotional value became so intense that, only one year later, the Milanese printer Ricordi published a collection of articles pro and contra the work. This book’s anonymous Introduzione poses the central question of the debate: are there two different arts, sacred and profane? And if so, what is the line of separation between the two? This paper aims to elucidate the cultural, religious and aesthetic categories of this debate, using ideas expressed by some of its most authoritative voices: Richard Wagner, the French writer Thèophile Gautier, the liberal Catholic and advocate of church music reform Joseph d’Ortigue, and the opera composer Alphonse Adam.
Despite the unquestionable presence of a “problem” of contemporary sacred music in composers’ self-consciousness and among 19th-century audiences, this debate reveals a strong trend towards a wider theoretical acceptance of a new aesthetic for sacred composition. In it, the traditional stylistic distinctions between sacred and secular, church and theater, become blurred. I argue that this new aesthetic generated by the Stabat debate provides us a more accurate (if still problematic) view of Romantic sacred music.
Antonio Zacara da Teramo e il suo tempo, a cura di Francesco Zimei, LIM, Lucca, 2008
Recercare XV, 2003
Recercare rivista per lo studio e la pratica della musica antica journal for the study and practi... more Recercare rivista per lo studio e la pratica della musica antica journal for the study and practice of early music organo della / journal of the Fondazione Italiana per la Musica Antica autorizzazione del Tribunale di Roma n. 14247 con decreto del 13-12-1971 direttore / editor Arnaldo Morelli comitato scientifico / advisory board
Borderline Areas in Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Music, ed Karl Kuegle and Lorenz Welker, 2009
Uploads
Published articles by Lucia Marchi
Ars Nova italiana. Alla luce di questa idea, vengono ripensati alcuni elementi significativi: 1. i rapporti con altri manoscritti (per esempio Pit) ); 2. il ruolo di Paolo a Firenze nella loro compilazione; 3. la loro provenienza e datazione.
1544, during the two years in which the author resided in Piacenza. A critical re-evaluation of the work suggests that the Dialogo was the fruit of the
numerous experiences of its author; at the same time, it reveals a strong link
to Piacenza. Far from being at the margins of the musical scene in the peninsula, the city appreciated the most innovative tendencies in secular practices,
for example the so-called ‘black-note madrigal’. In Piacenza Doni was part of
the Accademia degli Ortolani (dedicated to Priapus, the god of Gardens); its
influence on the Dialogo is evident in the correspondence among characters,
texts and music. In particular, the madrigal Noi v’abbiam donne mille nuov’a
dire (Canto VI of the Dialogo) could have been included because it matched
the Academy’s ironic and irreverent aesthetics.
This essay explores a hypothesis for the lost music of Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of Brother Sun, one of the very first texts of Italian literature. Previous assumptions, for example of a strophic musical form, are refused on the basis of new paleographical evidence. The analysis of the poem’s structure and models, instead, suggests a musical rendition modeled on the recitation of the Divine Office, i.e. as antiphon (for the first four verses) and psalm (for the eight following stanzas). The melodic models for the Canticle could be antiphons for Lauds used in Italy around 1200, and a test of such a possibility can be heard at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vPIX7Whk3g.
The strong link (textual and musical) to the Office supports the idea that the Canticle was part of an original liturgy – possibly in the vernacular – that Francis had created for his early lay congregation, in particular for Lauds. This liturgy, which we call ‘Francis’ liturgy’, had to be abandoned with the 1223 official approval of the Franciscan Order, and substituted by a more standardized one (the ‘Franciscan liturgy’). Therefore, the customary dating of the Canticle (1224-26) could be pushed back to a time of experimentation, in which the vernacular, memory, and oral transmission were an important part of Francis’ primitive community.
Abstract
Nel settembre 1219, durante la Quinta Crociata, Francesco d’Assisi incontrò il Sultano Malik al-Kāmil a Damietta, in Egitto. Tale incontro è stato interpretato nei secoli in modi diversi, dal trionfo della Cristianità sull’Islam fino ad un modello di dialogo ecumenico. Questo saggio prende in considerazione gli aspetti sonori dell’incontro, nella speranza che una valutazione delle influenze musicali possa contribuire ad una visione più oggettiva dei fatti storici. Francesco modellava la sua immagine su quella dei trovatori e cantava il loro repertorio. La sua visione dell’Oriente era dunque influenzata dalle canzoni di crociata, per esempio quelle di Aimeric de Peguilhan o di Guillelm Figueira. La cronaca quattrocentesca di al-Maqrīzī descrive la celebrazione della conquista di Damietta nel 1221. Essa riporta come Malik al-Kāmil avesse ordinato ad una schiava di cantare la vittoria accompagnandosi con il liuto: le immagini poetiche di questo canto sono simili – ma opposte – a quelle usate dei trovatori. Infine, un influsso sonoro tra i due mondi è evidente nella Lettera ai reggitori dei popoli, scritta da Francesco poco dopo il suo ritorno dall’Oriente nel 1220. Con evidente riferimento al richiamo alla preghiera del muezzin, il Santo raccomanda che anche nell’Occidente cristiano si segnali l’ora delle lodi a Dio “mediante un banditore o qualche altro segno”.
This essay considers two moments of the relationship between the Franciscans and music. A first part examines the first years of the order through a new analysis of passages from early hagiographical sources. The result is an image of St. Francis who models himself on the French troubadours and trouveres, adopting their repertory and performance style (e.g. Francis singing gallice the praises of God, while pretending to accompany himself on a vielle, as described by Tommaso da Celano). I reinterpret the famous invitation of Francis to his friars to be the ioculatores Domini in light of the discovery that the same expression is used by one of the major protagonists of the Notre Dame polyphonic repertory, Philip the Chancellor. Far from being marginal in their tastes, the first Franciscans appear to have been well connected to the main musical tendencies of their time. This connection continues into the next centuries. The second part of this study looks at the possession of a manuscript of polyphony, the codex Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, T.III.2. by two members of the order in the course of the fifteenth century.
This blend of meanings – a sacred theme disguised in the secular form of the Italian caccia – raises two heuristic issues. The first is the possibility of connecting Saint Cecilia with music much earlier than her ‘official’ patronage of the art in the sixteenth century. The second has to do with the legitimacy of viewing products of secular art through sacred lenses and vice-versa, which can significantly shape our understanding of medieval culture.
Despite the unquestionable presence of a “problem” of contemporary sacred music in composers’ self-consciousness and among 19th-century audiences, this debate reveals a strong trend towards a wider theoretical acceptance of a new aesthetic for sacred composition. In it, the traditional stylistic distinctions between sacred and secular, church and theater, become blurred. I argue that this new aesthetic generated by the Stabat debate provides us a more accurate (if still problematic) view of Romantic sacred music.
Ars Nova italiana. Alla luce di questa idea, vengono ripensati alcuni elementi significativi: 1. i rapporti con altri manoscritti (per esempio Pit) ); 2. il ruolo di Paolo a Firenze nella loro compilazione; 3. la loro provenienza e datazione.
1544, during the two years in which the author resided in Piacenza. A critical re-evaluation of the work suggests that the Dialogo was the fruit of the
numerous experiences of its author; at the same time, it reveals a strong link
to Piacenza. Far from being at the margins of the musical scene in the peninsula, the city appreciated the most innovative tendencies in secular practices,
for example the so-called ‘black-note madrigal’. In Piacenza Doni was part of
the Accademia degli Ortolani (dedicated to Priapus, the god of Gardens); its
influence on the Dialogo is evident in the correspondence among characters,
texts and music. In particular, the madrigal Noi v’abbiam donne mille nuov’a
dire (Canto VI of the Dialogo) could have been included because it matched
the Academy’s ironic and irreverent aesthetics.
This essay explores a hypothesis for the lost music of Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of Brother Sun, one of the very first texts of Italian literature. Previous assumptions, for example of a strophic musical form, are refused on the basis of new paleographical evidence. The analysis of the poem’s structure and models, instead, suggests a musical rendition modeled on the recitation of the Divine Office, i.e. as antiphon (for the first four verses) and psalm (for the eight following stanzas). The melodic models for the Canticle could be antiphons for Lauds used in Italy around 1200, and a test of such a possibility can be heard at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vPIX7Whk3g.
The strong link (textual and musical) to the Office supports the idea that the Canticle was part of an original liturgy – possibly in the vernacular – that Francis had created for his early lay congregation, in particular for Lauds. This liturgy, which we call ‘Francis’ liturgy’, had to be abandoned with the 1223 official approval of the Franciscan Order, and substituted by a more standardized one (the ‘Franciscan liturgy’). Therefore, the customary dating of the Canticle (1224-26) could be pushed back to a time of experimentation, in which the vernacular, memory, and oral transmission were an important part of Francis’ primitive community.
Abstract
Nel settembre 1219, durante la Quinta Crociata, Francesco d’Assisi incontrò il Sultano Malik al-Kāmil a Damietta, in Egitto. Tale incontro è stato interpretato nei secoli in modi diversi, dal trionfo della Cristianità sull’Islam fino ad un modello di dialogo ecumenico. Questo saggio prende in considerazione gli aspetti sonori dell’incontro, nella speranza che una valutazione delle influenze musicali possa contribuire ad una visione più oggettiva dei fatti storici. Francesco modellava la sua immagine su quella dei trovatori e cantava il loro repertorio. La sua visione dell’Oriente era dunque influenzata dalle canzoni di crociata, per esempio quelle di Aimeric de Peguilhan o di Guillelm Figueira. La cronaca quattrocentesca di al-Maqrīzī descrive la celebrazione della conquista di Damietta nel 1221. Essa riporta come Malik al-Kāmil avesse ordinato ad una schiava di cantare la vittoria accompagnandosi con il liuto: le immagini poetiche di questo canto sono simili – ma opposte – a quelle usate dei trovatori. Infine, un influsso sonoro tra i due mondi è evidente nella Lettera ai reggitori dei popoli, scritta da Francesco poco dopo il suo ritorno dall’Oriente nel 1220. Con evidente riferimento al richiamo alla preghiera del muezzin, il Santo raccomanda che anche nell’Occidente cristiano si segnali l’ora delle lodi a Dio “mediante un banditore o qualche altro segno”.
This essay considers two moments of the relationship between the Franciscans and music. A first part examines the first years of the order through a new analysis of passages from early hagiographical sources. The result is an image of St. Francis who models himself on the French troubadours and trouveres, adopting their repertory and performance style (e.g. Francis singing gallice the praises of God, while pretending to accompany himself on a vielle, as described by Tommaso da Celano). I reinterpret the famous invitation of Francis to his friars to be the ioculatores Domini in light of the discovery that the same expression is used by one of the major protagonists of the Notre Dame polyphonic repertory, Philip the Chancellor. Far from being marginal in their tastes, the first Franciscans appear to have been well connected to the main musical tendencies of their time. This connection continues into the next centuries. The second part of this study looks at the possession of a manuscript of polyphony, the codex Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, T.III.2. by two members of the order in the course of the fifteenth century.
This blend of meanings – a sacred theme disguised in the secular form of the Italian caccia – raises two heuristic issues. The first is the possibility of connecting Saint Cecilia with music much earlier than her ‘official’ patronage of the art in the sixteenth century. The second has to do with the legitimacy of viewing products of secular art through sacred lenses and vice-versa, which can significantly shape our understanding of medieval culture.
Despite the unquestionable presence of a “problem” of contemporary sacred music in composers’ self-consciousness and among 19th-century audiences, this debate reveals a strong trend towards a wider theoretical acceptance of a new aesthetic for sacred composition. In it, the traditional stylistic distinctions between sacred and secular, church and theater, become blurred. I argue that this new aesthetic generated by the Stabat debate provides us a more accurate (if still problematic) view of Romantic sacred music.
The discussion will feature five/six brief collaborative presentations by faculty, unaffiliated scholars, and students addressing the following issues: the process of conducting liturgical and Digital Humanities research and the problems that arise with creating, maintaining, and using digital resources; we particularly welcome presentations on non-Western and non-Latin liturgies and rituals. We welcome faculty/scholar-student pairs, as well as individual faculty/scholar and student proposals (we could help to coordinate the pairing process) to stimulate an inclusive dialogue about a wide range of digital skills and resources as well as future initiatives for the Study Group.
Please email Luisa Nardini (nardini at utexas.edu) by February 20th 2023 if you are interested in participating, indicating which topics/questions you would like to discuss or if you have suggestions for additional topics. Please provide a working title and a brief rationale for your presentation.
Session committee: Luisa Nardini (chair, The University of Texas, Austin); Suzanna Feldkamp (Case Western Reserve University); Catherine Heemann (The University of Texas, Austin); Christina Kim (Stanford University); Lucia Marchi (DePaul University); Melanie Shaffer (Radboud University).
but also the cultural geography that crosses it, defined by routes of exchange, transmission, tangents of connection and friction. In light of recent trends in critical geography,
postcolonial, and decolonial studies, this roundtable embraces the Mediterranean as a
hermeneutic lens and social construct, and tests its productive potential for the history
and historiography of early music.
The first paper builds on the Mediterranean imaginary identified by Fancy (2016)—a
space of connection associated with trade and a space of division associated with religious conflict—and shows how its ambivalence changed French crusaders’ perception of Saracen military bands in fourteenth-century Damietta before and after the conquest.
According to the second paper, set in late fifteenth-century southern Italy, however,
we observe an ossification of negative connotations of Moors reinforced, if not shaped, through their musical representation. It argues that the fashioning of a Christian Western identity was simultaneously productive to the creation of a European notion of the Other, which encompassed aesthetical judgments about their cultural productions (Bisaha 2004).
The third paper puts into dialogue Ottoman sources with the aesthetic
judgement of Christian travelers and ambassadors on the seventeenth-century Ottoman Empire to retrace contacts, exchanges, and misunderstandings. The Mediterranean is thus explored as a historiographical tool to refract the history of seventeenth-century Ottoman musical practices.
Turning from the cultural encounters between Islamicate and Christianate identities, the fourth paper considers cultural remediations of Italian cultural objects in a mostly Greek-speaking contest. The author analyses the presence of Italian music and music ideas in Crete during the Venetian colonization (1214–1669) aiming to challenge common expectations about identities and music repertoires (van
Orden 2019).
The last two papers focus on the twentieth-century reception and historiography
of early music sources as instruments for ordering Mediterranean coordinates and identities. The fifth paper examines how European historians at the 1932 Cairo Congress relocated the origins of the Western mensural musical system in Al Farabi’s theorizations of rhythm, providing a link that could unite “Oriental” and “Western” history. From the perspective of the Egyptian government, however, this thesis was conducive to the discrimination of pan-Arab identity from the rest of the African continent (“North” vs. “South”).
The last author analyses the use of (real and fictional) early music in Pasolini’s
filmic construction of the Mediterranean. By representing the subaltern through pastiches of early music, Pasolini reignites Orientalist stereotypes. The dyad of Orient and Origin is musicalized through a conflation of folkloric and medieval music.
The contributors to this roundtable aim to challenge the geographical borders and
dichotomies founded on nation-state narratives, and to rethink conventional assumptions on musical identities. The Mediterranean represents an area in which to test the tensions between local and global historiographies, a gauge for the potential of border studies, and an instrument for decentering Europe within the study of early music.
Ne discutono :
Giuseppe Gerbino (Columbia University, New York)
Marco Gozzi (Università di Trento)
Lucia Marchi (Università di Trento)
Francesco Zimei (Università di Trento)