Seduction and Spirituality: The Ambiguous Roles of Music in Venetian Art

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
FORTINI BROWN PATRICIA
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Sacred Music ◽  
Musical Instruments ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Notable Feature ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Sacred And Profane ◽  
Renaissance Painting

This chapter examines the tensions between the sacred and profane in attitudes towards the art of music as manifested in Venetian Renaissance painting. Choirs of pious music-making angels playing a variety of musical instruments were a notable feature of Venetian altarpieces from the fourteenth century on. And yet, by the early years of the sixteenth century, these concerts of sacred music were eclipsed by secular images of flute-playing shepherds and lute-strumming youths. While household inventories tell us that musical instruments played a central role in family congeniality, paintings of the time also associate musical performance with ladies of dubious respectability. Thus, while music was treasured for its spiritual enlightenment and contribution to refined domesticity, it was also suspect because of its seductive sensuality.

Robert Holcot's Quodlibeta

Traditio ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 480-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard E. Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Medieval Theology ◽  
High Regard ◽  
Theology And Philosophy

As historians of medieval theology and philosophy increasingly turn to study intellectual developments in the early fourteenth century, it is natural that Robert Holcot, O.P. († 1349), should come to stand out as an Oxford master worthy of further investigation. During his own lifetime, when he was associated with the household of Richard de Bury, the famous bishop of Durham, and on even into the early years of the sixteenth century, when several editions of his major works were printed, Holcot was held in high regard as a commentator on the Sentences, as a biblical exegete, and as a supplier of moralizing sermon exempla. His view of predestination was carefully studied by John Eck, and the Parisian master Jacques Almain devoted a treatise to his Sentence commentary.

scholarly journals Instruments of Music Theory

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Rehding
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Musical Instruments ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Test Cases ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Scientific Experimentation ◽  
Instrument Building ◽  
Twentieth Century America

This article explores musical instruments as a source for the historical study of music theory. The figure of Pythagoras, and his alleged penchant for the monochord, offers a way into this exploration of the theory-bearing dimensions of instruments. Musicians tend to think of instruments primarily in terms of music-making, but in other contexts instruments are, more broadly, tools. In the context of scientific experimentation, specifically, instruments help researchers come to terms with “epistemic things”—objects under scrutiny that carry specific (but as yet unknown) sources of knowledge within them. Aspects of this experimental practice can productively be transferred to the study of music theory and are explored in two test cases from different periods of musical theorizing (and instrument building): Nicola Vicentino’s archicembalo from mid-sixteenth century Italy, and Henry Cowell’s rhythmicon from early twentieth-century America.

scholarly journals Il Palagio di Parte Guelfa a Firenze

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Benzi ◽  
Luca Bertuzzi
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Early Years ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Old City ◽  
Present Aspect ◽  
Restoration Work

Dating to the early years of the fourteenth century and enlarged in two successive phases during the fifteenth century, comprising works plausibly attributed to Brunelleschi, the Palagio di Parte Guelfa emerged as the seat of one of the most important magistracies of mediaeval Florence. From the mid sixteenth century, the building underwent numerous alterations which modified its original appearance, starting with the intervention of Vasari. It was not until the early twentieth century that the palazzo, having survived the demolition work entailed in the regeneration of the old city centre, was subjected to significant restoration work, entrusted to Alfredo Lensi, which eventually gave the building its present aspect. Damaged again by German mines in August 1944 and subsequently restored, the Palagio is now one of the most emblematic buildings in the old city centre of Florence.

Mirrors of Heaven or Worldly Theaters?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan E. Glixon
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Sacred Music ◽  
Musical Instruments ◽  
Liturgical Music ◽  
Professional Musicians ◽  
Musical Performances ◽  
Patron Saint ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
Website Features ◽  
Sound Files

This book explores the musical world of the nuns of Venice and its lagoon, concentrating on the period from the sixteenth century to the fall of Venice around 1800. It looks at sacred music performed both by the nuns themselves and by professional musicians they employed. Following a historical introduction, the book considers the nuns as collective patrons, both of musical performances by professionals in their external churches, primarily for the annual feast of the patron saint, a notable attraction for both Venetians and foreign visitors, and of musical instruments, namely organs and bells. Next, the study examines the rituals and accompanying music for the transitions in a nun’s life, most importantly the ceremonies through which she moved from the outside world to the cloister. Then the book turns to liturgical music within the cloister, performed by the nuns themselves, from chant to simple polyphony, and to the rare occasions where more elaborate music can be documented. Two more chapters look at, respectively, the teaching of music to both nuns and girls resident in convents as boarding students, and at entertainment, musical and theatrical, by and for the nuns. Appendices include a calendar of musical events at Venetian nunneries, details on nunnery organs, lists of teachers, and inventories of musical and ceremonial books, both manuscript and printed. A companion website features editions of complete musical works, excerpts from which are included in the text as examples, along with sound files.

Advancements in Actuated Musical Instruments

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Overholt ◽  
Edgar Berdahl ◽  
Robert Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Musical Instruments ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
Electromechanical Systems ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Robotic Instruments ◽  
Ecosystemic Model

This article presents recent developments in actuated musical instruments created by the authors, who also describe an ecosystemic model of actuated performance activities that blur traditional boundaries between the physical and virtual elements of musical interfaces. Actuated musical instruments are physical instruments that have been endowed with virtual qualities controlled by a computer in real-time but which are nevertheless tangible. These instruments provide intuitive and engaging new forms of interaction. They are different from traditional (acoustic) and fully automated (robotic) instruments in that they produce sound via vibrating element(s) that are co-manipulated by humans and electromechanical systems. We examine the possibilities that arise when such instruments are played in different performative environments and music-making scenarios, and we postulate that such designs may give rise to new methods of musical performance. The Haptic Drum, the Feedback Resonance Guitar, the Electromagnetically Prepared Piano, the Overtone Fiddle and Teleoperation with Robothands are described, along with musical examples and reflections on the emergent properties of the performance ecologies that these instruments enable. We look at some of the conceptual and perceptual issues introduced by actuated musical instruments, and finally we propose some directions in which such research may be headed in the future.

The Musical Topic of the Mass in B Minor

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel R. Melamed
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Church Music ◽  
Sacred Music ◽  
The Other ◽  
Entire Spectrum ◽  
Giovanni Pierluigi Da Palestrina ◽  
Early Eighteenth Century

If there is a fundamental musical subject of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B Minor, a compositional problem the work explores, it is the tension between two styles cultivated in church music of Bach’s time. One style was modern and drew on up-to-date music such as the instrumental concerto and the opera aria. The other was old-fashioned and fundamentally vocal, borrowing and adapting the style of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, his sixteenth-century contemporaries, and his seventeenth-century imitators. The movements that make up Bach’s Mass can be read as exploring the entire spectrum of possibilities offered by these two styles (the modern and the antique), ranging from movements purely in one or the other to a dazzling variety of ways of combining the two. The work illustrates a fundamental opposition in early-eighteenth-century sacred music that Bach confronts and explores in the Mass.

Voices on the wind

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Curkpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Orchestral Music ◽  
Australian Society ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Musical Interaction

The musical project Crossing Roper Bar (CRB) is based on a collaboration between Wägilak songmen from Australia’s Northern Territory and the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO). Individuals drawn into this collaboration bring their distinct voices and histories to performance, while opening themselves to those of others. A new, malleable approach to orchestral performance in Australia is the result of this collaboration, which places improvisation at the centre of conversational musical interaction. This chapter introduces orthodox narrative elements of Wägilak manikay (song) that are creatively renewed and sustained in CRB. It highlights how the collaboration demonstrates the compelling play of musical performance that can generate nuanced, respectful and ongoing interactions between individuals, and between individuals and traditions. Amidst the vibrant, cultural diversity of contemporary Australian society, CRB suggests new possibilities for productive and relevant orchestral music-making.

Erasmus the Theologian

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 498-515
Author(s):  
Greta Grace Kroeker
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Years ◽  
The Reformation

Erasmus of Rotterdam developed from a classical humanist to a Christian humanist theologian in the first two decades of the sixteenth century. In the early years of the Reformation, his theological work responded to the theological debates of the age. Although many contemporaries dismissed him as a theologian, he developed a mature theology of grace before his death in 1536 that evidenced his efforts to create space for theological compromise between Protestants and Catholics and prevent the permanent fissure of western Christianity.

scholarly journals Secular and Sacred in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century: The Case of Masses Nasce la pena mia of Bartolomeo Spontone and Costanzo Antegnati

2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-198
Author(s):  
Klemen Grabnar
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Liturgical Music ◽  
Sacred And Profane

Parody masses based on secular compositions are intriguing due to their employment of profane music in strictly liturgical music, which has inspired research in traversing boundaries between sacred and profane. As can be seen from the case of two masses, one by Bartolomeo Spontone and the other by Costanzo Antegnati, based on the madrigal Nasce la pena mia by Alessandro Striggio, secular music in the sixteenth century seems to be transformed in a way to elevate it, turning the attention of the listener toward God. 

Exeter Cathedral: A Conjectural Restoration of the Fourteenth-Century Altar-Screen, Part I

1943 ◽  
Vol 23 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 122-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Percy Morris
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Expert Advice ◽  
Advanced Stage ◽  
New Work ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Receive

The early years of the fourteenth century were memorable ones in the history of Exeter Cathedral, for work on the new presbytery, or novum opus as it is called in the Fabric Rolls, was in progress. When Bishop Bytton died, in 1307, building operations had reached an advanced stage, and the task of completing the work devolved upon his successor, Walter de Stapledon, a Devon man and at the time of his election precentor of the cathedral. At that date the presbytery vaulting was finished, with the exception of its colouring, and the windows were glazed. The transformed chancel of the Norman church was nearly ready to receive the stalls, but the Norman apse still separated the old and new parts of the building. In 1309–10 ‘John of Glastonbury’ was engaged in removing the stalls to the new quire, but we find no record of the date when the linking-up of the Norman building with the new work took place. The Fabric Roll of the following year records a visit of ‘Master William de Schoverwille’, master mason of Salisbury, to inspect the new work: from this we may infer that a stage had been reached when important decisions were pending—the furnishing of the chancel, the building of the altar-screen, and the addition of a triforium arcade and clerestory gallery to the newly built presbytery—and it may have been these undertakings which prompted the chapter to seek expert advice.

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