Liber magnificarum (1607)

The Spanish composer Sebastián de Vivanco (ca. 1551–1622) was born, like his revered contemporary Tomás Luis de Victoria, in Avila. Having secured prestigious cathedral and university posts at Salamanca, Vivanco saw through the press, between 1607 and 1614, three luxury choirbooks containing 18 Magnificats, 10 masses, and 72 motets, spread over a total of more than 900 printed pages. The first of these choirbooks, all of which were printed by the Fleming ArtusTaberniel and his wife Susana Muñoz, is a cycle of Magnificats providing polyphony for the odd- and even-numbered verses in all eight tones, plus one extra Magnificat in each of the much-used first and eighth tones. If Vivanco has been eclipsed for too long by his great contemporary and compatriot, it is in the complexity and ingenuity of the many canons to be found in these Magnificats that Vivanco outshines even Victoria.

Music, patronage and reform in 16th-century Italy: new light on Cardinal Carlo Borromeo

Music historians are certainly familiar with the figure of Cardinal Carlo Borromeo. Important research has illuminated his association with the composer Vincenzo Ruffo, his reform of female convents, and, more generally, his influence over the musical life of Milan, including local churches and confraternities; more recently, Borromeo’s relationship with the musician Tomás Luis de Victoria has been closely examined. However, our knowledge of his role as a promoter of the so-called ‘Counter-Reformation’ in music is fragmentary. In particular, a comprehensive investigation of Borromeo’s private correspondence is lacking. In order to fill this lacuna, this article uses newly discovered letters (housed in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan) to illuminate several interrelated aspects of Borromeo’s activity as a patron and reformer in the aftermath of the Council of Trent: firstly, his support for musicians and the much discussed issue of textual intelligibility, and secondly, the prohibition of musical instruments in church and his directives against public musical entertainments.