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Review: Papal Patronage under Urban VIIIAuthor(s): Iain FenlonReviewed work(s):
Music and Spectacle in Baroque Rome: Barberini Patronage under Urban VIII by FrederickHammond
Source: Early Music, Vol. 24, No. 3, Early Music from Around the World (Aug., 1996), pp. 497
498Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3128264
Accessed: 07/10/2008 22:09
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Bookreviews
Iain Fenlon
Papalpatronageunder UrbanVIIIFrederickHammond,Music andspectaclen BaroqueRome:Barberinipatronageunder UrbanVIII
(Yale University Press, 1995), ?25
FrederickHammond s Music and spectacle n BaroqueRome s a welcome additionto the growingliteratureon
musicin RomeduringthepontificateofMaffeo Barberini,
who took the title of UrbanVIII in 1623.As both pontiffand the head (in both economic and political terms) of
one of the most powerful amilies n the city,Urban spat-
ronageof the arts
operatedn the
comparativelyomestic
sphereof the household and the officialenvironment of
theVatican.At the QuattroFontane, he newfamilypalaceon the slopes of the Quirinale on the city s outskirts
(illus.i), theatmospherewasone of enlightenedcultureon
the patternof the Renaissanceprince,a model advocated
by the literatureof manners and one which was, by this
time,deeplyembedded n the traditional urriculumof ar-
istocratic education. The tone is nicely caught by the
Venetianambassador,AlviseContardini,who wrote: he
[Urban]loves life; in the morning he discussespleasant
things, mainlypoetry;and he delights n hearinghis Latin
compositionsset to music . This image of the temporal
princeas the key to Urban smotivationshelps to explainhis approachnot only to the arts,but also to publicaffairs
anddiplomacy.AsLeopoldRanke erselyputsit: Clement
VIIIwasgenerallyound busiedin the studyof StBernard,
Paul V in that of Justinianof Venice;but the table of
UrbanVIII was covered with the newestpoems, or with
plansof fortifications.
Theprivate ideof thisequation,the musicaladjunct o
the newestpoems , survivesin the comparatively mall
repertoryof settings of Urban s own poetry by Vitali,
DomenicoMazzochiandKapsberger.Morefamously, t is
immortalized in Andrea Sacchi s allegoricalportraitof
Pasqualini thefavourite ingerof Urban sbrother,Cardi-
nalAntonio),castin the role of shepherdcaught n the act
of being crowned with the traditional aurelwreathby a
lyre-carryingApollo. As the direct consequencesof en-
lightenedpatronage his does not addupto much; n prac-tice it wasreallyUrban snephewCardinalFrancescowho
set both tone and styleof the Barberinimusicalestablish-
z 7 0. -, -luc -
1 QuattroFontane, he Romanpalazzoof the Barberini
ment at the QuattroFontane.Placed under the direction
of VirgilioMazzochi,this groupincludedKapsbergernd
Frescobaldi(whom Francesco skilfully retrieved from
Mediciservice).For his part,CardinalAntonio wasalso a
majorparticipant; e supported inanciallya successionof
virtuoso composer-performers,ncludingVitali, Sances,
Marazzoli and Luigi Rossi, though in practicemany of
these men divided their careersbetweena number of dif-
ferentemployments.One of the most fascinatingdetailsof
Hammond sbook, the culmination of many years work
on the Barberininterestin music, is his painstakingre-
construction of how the networksof powerfulcardinals
operated,allowingthem to achieve fine artistic(and pub-
licity-attracting)results,often for a comparatively mall
outlay.Forexample,when Frescobaldi eturned romFlo-
rence, it was through Cardinal Francesco s ntervention
that his salaryat the CappellaGiuliawas increased.Simi-
larly,StefanoLandi,who,althoughnot technicallya mem-
berof anyBarberini ousehold,servedboth Urbanandhis
nephews,was imposed on the CappellaPontificiaby the
pope as an alto castrato, his fee paid by Cardinal
Francesco; e was also givenadditionalwork at the cardi-
nal s titularchurch. As exercisesof powerthese were cer-
tainly patronalactions;whetherthey were enlightened ,
or were evenprimarilymotivatedby artisticconcerns, s a
separatequestion.The repertorial consequences of Barberini domestic
patronageof musicians, nevitablyand inextricablynter-
twined with the family s activities in other spheres of
Roman musical ife, arenotable.Nevertheless,a principalfocus of the family s nterest n the artswas theirability o
EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 1996 497
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formpartof a richlyevocativelanguagecapableof under-
scoringthe advantagesand specialcharacteristics f Bar-
berini rule. No one who has steppedinside the palaceat
theQuattroFontanecan everforget heoverwhelmingm-
pressionof splendour,of magnificentia nd munificentia,characteristic rincelyvirtueswhichwere ashighlyvalued
in 17th-centuryRome astheyhad been at the court of Leo
X. At the centre of the architectural cheme, magisterialevenby Romanstandardsof the time (it involved,atvari-
ous stages,Maderno,Borromini and Bernini),stands the
centralpalacebuilding.Thisin turnhouses,at its physicalcentre, the magnificentsalone whose ceiling frescoes,byPietro da Cortona, place a relentless emphasis on the
powerand achievementsof the Barberini, ndparticularlyof Urbanhimself,guidedby DivineProvidence the dom-
inating presence of the centralpanel). Symbolicallyand
strategically lacedabove the major public receptionarea
of the palace, Cortona s complicatedand visually over-
powering allegoryprovidesa neat synthesisof a dynastic
vocabulary hat Urban s artisticadviserswere to call on
elsewhere n buildingand decorative chemesboth privateandpublic.
It was while Cortona sceiling frescoeswere still being
completedthat planswere laid to produceLandi ssacred
opera II Sant Alessio n Cardinal FrancescoBarberini s
anteroomadjoiningthe salone.The firstperformance, n
1632, was to set the pattern for subsequent Barberini
operas, not least through the employment of Giulio
Rospigliosi as librettist. Only two were published, II
Sant Alessiotselfand Erminia ulGiordano, textinspired
by Tasso s Gerusalemme iberataand set to music by
MichelangeloRossi.As Hammond astutelyremarks, the
presentationof a chivalricepic ratherthan a saint s life
reflected he secularside of the Barberiniprogram-their
pretensionsto the style of the Renaissanceprinces,their
military ambitions, and their ascension to the Roman
baronialnobility .In termsof propaganda,however, t was
IISant Alessio,xpandedwith a new prologuethat places
greatemphasison the themeof submission o thepowerof
Rome and on the old commonplaceof the triumphof the
newcityoverthe greatnessof itspaganpredecessorof clas-
sical antiquity,that received more attention. Performed
in this new version at the Quattro Fontane in 1634,the
de-luxeillustrated corewasavailablebythe followingJuly
(for the not inconsiderablesum of loo scudi, as one of
Hammond s many new archivalreferencesreveals).As a
piece of book production,the Sant Alessiocore is in the
traditionof Monteverdi sL Orfeo r, to cite an example
closer to home, the Roman La catena d Adoneof 1626.
formpartof a richlyevocativelanguagecapableof under-
scoringthe advantagesand specialcharacteristics f Bar-
berini rule. No one who has steppedinside the palaceat
theQuattroFontanecan everforget heoverwhelmingm-
pressionof splendour,of magnificentia nd munificentia,characteristic rincelyvirtueswhichwere ashighlyvalued
in 17th-centuryRome astheyhad been at the court of Leo
X. At the centre of the architectural cheme, magisterialevenby Romanstandardsof the time (it involved,atvari-
ous stages,Maderno,Borromini and Bernini),stands the
centralpalacebuilding.Thisin turnhouses,at its physicalcentre, the magnificentsalone whose ceiling frescoes,byPietro da Cortona, place a relentless emphasis on the
powerand achievementsof the Barberini, ndparticularlyof Urbanhimself,guidedby DivineProvidence the dom-
inating presence of the centralpanel). Symbolicallyand
strategically lacedabove the major public receptionarea
of the palace, Cortona s complicatedand visually over-
powering allegoryprovidesa neat synthesisof a dynastic
vocabulary hat Urban s artisticadviserswere to call on
elsewhere n buildingand decorative chemesboth privateandpublic.
It was while Cortona sceiling frescoeswere still being
completedthat planswere laid to produceLandi ssacred
opera II Sant Alessio n Cardinal FrancescoBarberini s
anteroomadjoiningthe salone.The firstperformance, n
1632, was to set the pattern for subsequent Barberini
operas, not least through the employment of Giulio
Rospigliosi as librettist. Only two were published, II
Sant Alessiotselfand Erminia ulGiordano, textinspired
by Tasso s Gerusalemme iberataand set to music by
MichelangeloRossi.As Hammond astutelyremarks, the
presentationof a chivalricepic ratherthan a saint s life
reflected he secularside of the Barberiniprogram-their
pretensionsto the style of the Renaissanceprinces,their
military ambitions, and their ascension to the Roman
baronialnobility .In termsof propaganda,however, t was
IISant Alessio,xpandedwith a new prologuethat places
greatemphasison the themeof submission o thepowerof
Rome and on the old commonplaceof the triumphof the
newcityoverthe greatnessof itspaganpredecessorof clas-
sical antiquity,that received more attention. Performed
in this new version at the Quattro Fontane in 1634,the
de-luxeillustrated corewasavailablebythe followingJuly
(for the not inconsiderablesum of loo scudi, as one of
Hammond s many new archivalreferencesreveals).As a
piece of book production,the Sant Alessiocore is in the
traditionof Monteverdi sL Orfeo r, to cite an example
closer to home, the Roman La catena d Adoneof 1626.
These volumes were not primarily ntended to facilitate
performanceof what was, after all, a unique and elitist
entertainment. On the contrary,their primary purposewas to providetestimonyto the opulence and splendourof the event itself and to virtues of the patronresponsiblefor
bringing
it into
being.
In this sense, the score of II
Sant Alessio erives at least some of its power end effec-
tiveness from its participationn a languageof self-glorifi-cation.In the end it was via opera (andthe engravingsof
feste given duringthe Roman carnival eason)rather han
throughsacred music that the Barberini ent out its mes-
sagesof dynastic superiority o the wider world. It is this
sense of the place of music within a wider context that
providesthe operatingframework or Hammond s book.
Basedon an impressivecommand not only of the Bar-
berini archivesbut also of recentscholarship n a number
of contingentfields,Music and spectaclen BaroqueRome
will need to be studied carefullyby anyone interested in
the culturalconsequencesof 17th-centuryRomanpolitics.
lain Fenlon
Trent-its place in musical historyMusicae societf nellastoriatrentina,
ed. RossanaDalmonte
(Trento:EdizioniUCT,1994),L130,000
For most readersof Earlymusic the name of Trent is
invariably ollowed by the word codices , a conjunctionthatquicklybrings o mind the largestand most important
collection of 15th-centurypolyphonicmusic to have sur-
vived. These seven manuscripts,of various origins and
datesand containinga vastrepertory panningthe first75
yearsof the century,werefirst identified(or at least six of
them were) by Haberl,who discussedthem in his classic
study of Dufaypublishedin 1885.Subsequentlyremoved
to Vienna,where they were studied by Adlerand others,
they werejoined shortlyaftertheir returnto Italyat the
end of the FirstWorldWarby a seventh manuscriptbe-
longingto the same set. Althougha greatdealof work has
been done on the Trentmanuscripts n the centuryor sosincethesepioneeringenquiries,muchremains o be clar-
ified;of the more than 1,800 compositions in the collec-
tion, of whichoverhalfaresettingsof the Ordinaryof the
Mass (Gloria settings predominate), many anonymous
worksremainto be identified,and manyvexed questions
of datingand functionpersist.
These volumes were not primarily ntended to facilitate
performanceof what was, after all, a unique and elitist
entertainment. On the contrary,their primary purposewas to providetestimonyto the opulence and splendourof the event itself and to virtues of the patronresponsiblefor
bringing
it into
being.
In this sense, the score of II
Sant Alessio erives at least some of its power end effec-
tiveness from its participationn a languageof self-glorifi-cation.In the end it was via opera (andthe engravingsof
feste given duringthe Roman carnival eason)rather han
throughsacred music that the Barberini ent out its mes-
sagesof dynastic superiority o the wider world. It is this
sense of the place of music within a wider context that
providesthe operatingframework or Hammond s book.
Basedon an impressivecommand not only of the Bar-
berini archivesbut also of recentscholarship n a number
of contingentfields,Music and spectaclen BaroqueRome
will need to be studied carefullyby anyone interested in
the culturalconsequencesof 17th-centuryRomanpolitics.
lain Fenlon
Trent-its place in musical historyMusicae societf nellastoriatrentina,
ed. RossanaDalmonte
(Trento:EdizioniUCT,1994),L130,000
For most readersof Earlymusic the name of Trent is
invariably ollowed by the word codices , a conjunctionthatquicklybrings o mind the largestand most important
collection of 15th-centurypolyphonicmusic to have sur-
vived. These seven manuscripts,of various origins and
datesand containinga vastrepertory panningthe first75
yearsof the century,werefirst identified(or at least six of
them were) by Haberl,who discussedthem in his classic
study of Dufaypublishedin 1885.Subsequentlyremoved
to Vienna,where they were studied by Adlerand others,
they werejoined shortlyaftertheir returnto Italyat the
end of the FirstWorldWarby a seventh manuscriptbe-
longingto the same set. Althougha greatdealof work has
been done on the Trentmanuscripts n the centuryor sosincethesepioneeringenquiries,muchremains o be clar-
ified;of the more than 1,800 compositions in the collec-
tion, of whichoverhalfaresettingsof the Ordinaryof the
Mass (Gloria settings predominate), many anonymous
worksremainto be identified,and manyvexed questions
of datingand functionpersist.
498 EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 199698 EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 1996