A Companion To Music In Sixteenth Century Venice

Covering all facets of musical life in sixteenth-century Venice, the Companion addresses the city’s institutions (churches, confraternities, and academies), public and private occasions of music making, musicians and instrument makers, and the rich variety of musical genres.

This volume examines the commerce of music and its connection to the printing and publishing industry in mid-sixteenth century Venice. It presents a broad portrayal of the Venetial music booktrade and explores business strategies.

The field of Venetian studies has experienced a significant expansion in recent years, and the Companion to Venetian History, 1400-1797 provides a single volume overview of the most recent developments. It is organized thematically and covers a range of topics including political culture, economy, religion, gender, art, literature, music, and the environment. Each chapter provides a broad but comprehensive historical and historiographical overview of the current state and future directions of research. The Companion to Venetian History, 1400-1797 represents a new point of reference for the next generation of students of early modern Venetian studies, as well as more broadly for scholars working on all aspects of the early modern world. Contributors are Alfredo Viggiano, Benjamin Arbel, Michael Knapton, Claudio Povolo, Luciano Pezzolo, Anna Bellavitis, Anne Schutte, Guido Ruggiero, Benjamin Ravid, Silvana Seidel Menchi, Cecilia Cristellon, David D’Andrea, Elisabeth Crouzet-Pavan, Wolfgang Wolters, Dulcia Meijers, Massimo Favilla, Ruggero Rugolo, Deborah Howard, Linda Carroll, Jonathan Glixon, Paul Grendler, Edward Muir, William Eamon, Edoardo Demo, Margaret King, Mario Infelise, Margaret Rosenthal and Ronnie Ferguson.

Venetian music print culture of the mid-sixteenth century is presented here through a study of the Scotto press, one of the foremost dynastic music publishers of the Renaissance. For over a century, the house of Scotto played a pivotal role in the international book trade, publishing in a variety of fields including philosophy, medicine, religion, and music. This book examines the mercantile activities of the firm through both a historical study, which illuminates the wide world of the Venetian music printing industry, and a catalog, which details the music editions brought out by the firm during its most productive period. A valuable reference work, this book not only enhances our understanding of the socioeconomic and cultural history of Renaissance Venice, it also helps to preserve our knowledge of a vast musical repertory.

Music, Place, and Identity in Italian Urban Soundscapes circa 1550-1860 presents new perspectives on the role music played in the physical, cultural, and civic spaces of Italian cities from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Across thirteen chapters, contributors explore the complex connections between sound and space within these urban contexts, demonstrating how music and sound were intimately connected to changing social and political practices. The volume offers a critical redefinition of the core concept of soundscape, considering musical practices through the lenses of territory, space, representation, and identity, in five parts: Soundscape, Phonosphere, and Urban History Urban Soundscapes across Time Urban Soundscapes and Acoustic Communities Urban Soundscapes in Literary Sources Reconstructing Urban Soundscapes in the Digital Era Music, Place, and Identity in Italian Urban Soundscapes circa 1550-1860 reframes our understanding of Italian music history beyond models of patronage, investigating how sounds and musics have contributed to the construction of human identities and communities.

A Companion to Music at the Habsburgs Courts in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, edited by Andrew H. Weaver, is the first in-depth survey of the Habsburg family’s musical patronage over a broad span of time.

Dowland recounts the story of one of the most important composers to emerge from early modern England. More than a biography, this book contextualizes the geographical, political, religious, cultural, and musical aspects of the life of John Dowland (1563-1626). The narrative follows the master lutenist on his journeys to France, through the German and Italian lands, and to the Danish and English courts of Christian IV and James I, as he developed a musical style that was at once personal and cosmopolitan.

"An extremely impressive achievement. . . . The book is overwhelming in its attention to both detail and the larger picture. It should have a tremendous impact on the field."--Susan McClary, author of "Feminine Endings" "All future discussion of the Italian madrigal . . . will be profoundly indebted to Feldman's musical sensitivities and perceptiveness, to her wide reading in literary theory of the period, and to her extraordinary skill in making musical events palpable."--H. Colin Slim, editor of "A Gift of Madrigals and Motets" "With this book Professor Feldman establishes herself as the leading authority on the subjects of the Venetian madrigal and of humanistic musical culture in 16th-century Venice. There is nothing of this scope and quality to be found in previous scholarly literature."--James Haar, author of "Essays on Italian Poetry and Music in the Renaissance, 1350-1600" "This marvelously interdisciplinary book illuminates the social and intellectual mobility of sixteenth-century Venetian culture, its intricate weave of private and public civic identities, and the paradoxes and tensions of its quest for diversity and unprecedented fusion of rhetorical principles and expressive idioms in music, poetry, and the other arts. It offers an astounding wealth of information and insight for historians of ideas, literary specialists, and music historians."--William J. Kennedy, author of "Authorizing Petrarch"