Giovanni Maria Bononcini and the Uses of the Modes

2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-286
Author(s):  
Gregory Barnett

Abstract The persistence of the modes in the seventeenth century, their significance in Baroque-era musical thought, and the impact of modal theory on composition are all exemplified in the work of Giovanni Maria Bononcini (1642––78), violinist, maestro di cappella, and energetic proponent of twelve-mode theory. He sought to incorporate modal technique in an unprecedented array of musical styles, and the realization of his modal principles in his duos, madrigals, and sonatas——motivated in part by professional circumstances and by the interests of his patrons——represents the most detailed demonstration of the modes in his time. As applied in his compositions, Bononcini's modal theory proves to be less a system of tonal organization than a musical symbol——of erudition, history, and Catholic tradition——whose meanings he could shape.

Author(s):  
Mark Burden

Much eighteenth-century Dissenting educational activity was built on an older tradition of Puritan endeavour. In the middle of the seventeenth century, the godly had seen education as an important tool in spreading their ideas but, in the aftermath of the Restoration, had found themselves increasingly excluded from universities and schools. Consequently, Dissenters began to develop their own higher educational institutions (in the shape of Dissenting academies) and also began to set up their own schools. While the enforcement of some of the legal restrictions that made it difficult for Dissenting institutions diminished across the eighteenth century, the restrictions did not disappear entirely. While there has been considerable focus on Dissenting academies and their contribution to debates about doctrinal orthodoxy, the impact of Dissenting schools was also considerable.


Urban History ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Boulton

It is nearly two decades since Tony Wrigley first discussed the possible effects that the experience of London life may have had on changing the society of seventeenth-century England. Despite some excellent work on certain aspects of London's social history, however, his qualification still stands: ‘too little is known of the sociological differences between life in London and life in provincial England to afford a clear perception of the impact of London's growth upon the country as a whole’. Among the obstacles to this latter goal are that metropolitan and provincial society are often seen as qualitatively different and, perhaps in consequence, comparisons between the two have not been seriously attempted. What is needed is a model which might serve to embrace the experiences of both urban and rural inhabitants within a common framework.


1988 ◽  
Vol 113 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-305
Author(s):  
Jerome Roche

It is perhaps still true that research into sacred types of music in early seventeenth-century Italy lags behind that into madrigal, monody and opera; it is certainly the case that the textual aspects of sacred music, themselves closely bound up with liturgical questions, have not so far received the kind of study that has been taken for granted with regard to the literary texts of opera and of secular vocal music. This is hardly to be wondered at: unlike great madrigal poetry or the work of the best librettists, sacred texts do not include much that can be valued as art in its own right. Nevertheless, if we are to understand better the context of the motet – as distinct from the musical setting of liturgical entities such as Mass, Vespers or Compline – we need a clearer view of the types of text that were set, the way in which composers exercised their choice, and the way such taste was itself changing in relation to the development of musical styles. For the motet was the one form of sacred music in which an Italian composer of the early decades of the seventeenth century could combine a certain freedom of textual choice with an adventurousness of musical idiom.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-302
Author(s):  
Raf Van Rooy

Abstract In this paper, I explore the early history of the word standard as a linguistic term, arguing that it came to compete with the designation common language in the seventeenth century. The latter phrase was, in turn, formed by ideas on the Greek koine during the Renaissance and appears to have been the first widely used collocation referring to a standard language-like entity. In order to sketch this evolution, I first discuss premodern ideas on the koine. Then, I attempt to outline how the intuitive comparison of the koine with vernacular norms that were being increasingly regulated resulted in the development of the concept of common language, termed lingua communis in Latin (a calque of Greek hē koinḕ diálektos), in the sixteenth century. This phrase highlighted the communicative functionality of the vernaculars, which were being codified in grammars and dictionaries. Scholars contrasted these common languages with regional dialects, which had a limited reach in terms of communication. This distinction received a social and evaluative connotation during the seventeenth century, which created a need for terminological alternatives; an increasingly popular option competing with common language was standard, which was variously combined with language and tongue by English authors from about 1650 onwards, especially in Protestant circles, where the vernaculars tended to play a more prominent role than in Catholic areas. Of major importance for this evolution was the work and linguistic usage of the poet John Dryden (1631–1700). This essay uncovers the early history of standard as a key linguistic term, while also presenting a case study which shows the impact of the rediscovery of the Greek heritage on language studies in Western Europe, especially through the term common language.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-186
Author(s):  
R. V. Young

Although T.S. Eliot's phrase “dissociation of sensibility,” applied to the changes in poetry during the seventeenth century, made a stir when he introduced it in the review essay “The Metaphysical Poets” in 1921, it draws less attention now, and seems never to have been adequately explained. Since Eliot's claims are, in part, historical, it makes sense to consider the most historically significant changes occurring during the seventeenth century. It is during this period that the Reformation culminates and its effects become permanently established. Several recent studies of the Reformation by Charles Taylor, Brad Gregory, and Carlos M.N. Eire provide clues about how the religious and social cataclysm of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may have affected the poetic imagination. James Smith's classic essay, “The Metaphysical Poets,” offers a way of analyzing the figurative language of seventeenth-century poetry in order to grasp the impact of the religious change. The investigations by Taylor, Gregory, and Eire into the dynamic of the reforming tendency, beginning in the late Middle Ages, as well as the Scotist and nominalist intellectual underpinnings of the Reformation, prove to be pertinent to Eliot's insight regarding seventeenth-century poetry. The growth of individualism, personal anxiety about religious choice, and materialism portend a general movement towards secularization and influence the way poets see the world. Dissociation of sensibility can thus be understood as a result of the effect of the religious and social dislocations of the Reformation in the realm of poetry.


Author(s):  
Nancy Kollmann

This chapter reveals the deep structures of Muscovite politics by explaining first its theoretical foundations (in which written texts and symbolic representations combined to present a consistent worldview) and then its practical operations (heavily dependent on kinship, marriage and patronage networks). Though it focuses on the period from Ivan III (r. 1462–1505) to the end of the seventeenth century, the chapter ends by considering the impact of Peter I (r. 1682–1725). Change trumped continuity with regard to political culture. Yet, even as they constructed a political rhetoric and elite culture on Western models, Peter and his successors echoed traditional Muscovy in their evocations of Orthodoxy, their patronage and largesse, and their patrimonial claims to power. And they achieved time-honoured Muscovite goals by maintaining stability among factional groups, enriching their elites, expanding the Empire and presiding over dynamic economic growth.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-70
Author(s):  
Bikas Karmakar ◽  
Ila Gupta

The Krishnalila narratives have an indelible impact on the architectural imaginations and designs of artisans of Bengal from seventeenth to nineteenth century. The article attempts to identify such portrayals on the front facades of the Baranagar temples of eighteenth century in Murshidabad, West Bengal. It explores the specific reasons for their inclusion and the changing nature of narratives and iconography under the varying impact of Krishna cult. It relies on literary sources, on site interviews with the priest, temple caretaker and local people and visual data collected during field visits. While romance was the primary theme of the seventeenth century temples, the eighteenth century Baranagar temples saw a diversification of themes to include heroic exploits of Krishna; portrayal of other deities attracted the devotees of Vaishnava, Shaiva and Shakta sects. Such depictions while revealing the secular nature of the chief patron also acted as a tool for legitimization of her authority.


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