Overview

A comprehensive account of music in Florence from the late Middle Ages until the end of the Medici dynasty in the mid-eighteenth century.  Florence is justly celebrated as one of the world’s most important cities. It enjoys mythic status and occupies an enviable place in the historical imagination. But its musico-historical importance is not as well understood as it should be. If Florence was the city of Dante, Michelangelo, and Galileo, it was also the birthplace of the madrigal, opera, and the piano. Music in Golden-Age Florence, 1250–1750 recounts Florence’s principal contributions to music and the history of how music was heard and cultivated in the city, from civic and religious institutions to private patronage and the academies. This book is an invaluable complement to studies of the art, literature, and political thought of the late-medieval and early-modern eras and the quasi-legendary figures in the Florentine cultural pantheon.

Full Product Details

Author:   Anthony M. Cummings
Publisher:   The University of Chicago Press
Imprint:   University of Chicago Press
Edition:   1
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.80cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.853kg
ISBN:  

9780226822785

ISBN 10:   0226822788
Pages:   456
Publication Date:   10 May 2023
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Table of Contents

Preface Book the First Music in Late-Medieval Florence: The Duecento and Trecento Music and the Ecclesiastical and Political Organization of the Late-Medieval City The Duecento 1 * Church and State in Florence circa 1300    Santa Reparata/Santa Maria del Fiore    Palazzo della Signoria    Music at Santa Reparata/Santa Maria del Fiore    The Duecento Lauda    Instrumentalists of the Signoria The Trecento 2 * Secular Polyphony: The Beginnings of the Florentine Tradition    The Social Context of Performance    Johannes de Florentia (fl. ca. 1351) 3 * Secular Polyphony: Francesco Landino and the Central Florentine Tradition    Ser Gherardellus de Florentia (†1362 or 1363)    Donatus de Florentia and Laurentius Masii de Florentia (†1372)    Francesco Landino (†1397) 4 * Secular Polyphony: The Gallicization of Florentine Musical Culture    Some Florentine Kleinmeistern: Magister frater Egidius, Magister Guglielmus frater, and Corradus    Andreas de Florentia (Andrea di Giovanni) (†1415)    Some Florentine Kleinmeistern Redux: Bonaiutus Corsini and Andrea Stefani    Paulus de Florentia (†1436) 5 * Music in Communal Worship and Civic Life    Liturgical Polyphony    The Trecento Lauda    The Herald of the Signoria    Book the Second Music in Renaissance Florence I: The Quattrocento Aristocracy Emulated: The De Facto Medici Regime 6 * The Medici Regime and the Public Ecclesiastical Institutions    Nicolaus Zacharie and the Professionalization of Composing and Performing    The Consecration of the Cathedral of Florence    The Musical Establishments Stabilized    Heinrich Isaac 7 * Tradition and Innovation in Sacred Music    Tradition: Music for the Liturgy    Tradition and Innovation: The Quattrocento Lauda    Innovation: The Sacra Rappresentatione 8 * Heralds, Knights, and Carnival Revelers    Tellers of Tales    Medieval Chivalric Tradition Reimagined    Florentine Carnival and the Canto Carnascialesco 9 * Music and Domestic Life: The House of Medici    Occasions for Music-Making    The Patrons, Their Musicians, and Their Music    The Musical Sources    Varieties of Music-Making 10 * Girolamo Savonarola and the Medici in Exile     Theocratic Censure     The Medici in Exile, 1494–1512 Book the Third Music in Renaissance Florence II: The Cinquecento Aristocracy Achieved: The De Jure Medici Regime, Family as Country, and “Florentinism” 11 * The Medici Restoration: The Florentine-Papal Tandem    The Restoration    Composers in Medici Service    Music in Private Medici Settings: Instrumental Music 12 * A New Institution, a New Technology, a New Genre: The Madrigal    Wellsprings of the Madrigal: The Chanson    Wellsprings of the Madrigal: The Canto Carnascialesco and Trionfo, the Lauda, and Solo Song    The Earliest Madrigals    Florentine Academies and Madrigals for the Theater at Midcentury    Intimate Settings: Isabella de’ Medici, Solo Song, and the Polyphonic Madrigal    Intimate Settings: The Florentine Madrigal after Midcentury 13 * The Church    The Reconstitution of the Polyphonic Chapels    The Reformation and Counter-Reformation    The Cinquecento Lauda and Sacra Rappresentatione    Intermedi Sacri e Morali and Music in Religious Communities for Women 14 * Medici Pageantry, 1539–1589: “L’état, c’est moi”    Book the Fourth    Music in Florence in the Baroque Era    Cross-Genre Influences: Monody, the Stile Recitativo, and the Stile Concertato in Florentine Music of the Seicento and Early Settecento 15 * Opera in Florence, Act 1: The Florentine Aristocratic Phase    Academic Theories Applied    The Beginnings of Opera    Widening Applications of the Innovations    The Meaning of Baroque 16 * Intermedio I: Music in Religious and Dynastic Ritual    Religious Ritual: A Cappella and Concerted Vocal Music    Religious Ritual: Music for Organ    Dynastic Ritual (“L’état, c’est moi”): The Equestrian Ballet 17 * Opera in Florence, Act 2: The Pan-Italian Phase    A New Institution: The Opera House    Beginnings of the Pan-Italian Phase: La finta pazza    A Native Attempt at a Venetian-Style Opera: Celio    Venetian Imports: Ipermestra    A Distinctively Florentine Tradition of Comic Opera: Il potestà di Colognole    Venetian Imports: Ipermestra, Redux    The Baroque Aesthetic on Full Display: Ercole in Tebe, L’Orontea, La Dori 18 * Intermedio II: Devotional and Convivial Uses of Music    Devotional: The Lauda Reimagined: Canzonette Spirituali    Devotional: The Oratorio    Convivial: Ballet Entertainments    Convivial: The Seicento Madrigal    Convivial: The Seicento Cantata    Convivial: Instrumental Genres    Convivial: The Invention of the Piano 19 * Opera in Florence, Act 3: The Pan-European Phase    Opera in Arcadia? The Halting Adoption of Reform Principles—Griselda    Grand Prince Ferdinando and a Restitution of Aristocratic Opera    The Reopening of Teatro della Pergola    Vincer se stesso è la maggior vittoria, or Rodrigo    Opera in Arcadia: The Fuller Adoption of Reform Principles—Catone in Utica    The Settecento Cantata Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index Color illustrations follow page 000.

Reviews

Cummings's history of music in Florence over a five-hundred-year period is a work of brilliant synthesis, bringing together in one place a vast array of sources that few readers could otherwise hope to access, much less encompass. Music in Golden-Age Florence, 1250-1750 succeeds in its author's goal of raising Florentine accomplishments in music to a status comparable to that enjoyed by the city's extraordinary achievements in arts, letters, and science, and in so doing it becomes a compelling argument for why music should be integrated into interdisciplinary considerations of Florentine culture. Specialists and nonspecialists alike will find this a highly readable narrative of this great city's vibrant musical life during the medieval and early-modern periods. * Blake Wilson, Dickinson College * Whether one is studying human endeavors in the areas of humanism, architecture, painting, or literature or evaluating musical inventions such as the Renaissance madrigal, opera, or pianoforte, the city of Florence emerges as a location in which pioneering work was valued. In the book's opening pages, Cummings situates readers in the city's buildings, streets, and public squares, then encourages readers to imagine the music heard in those spaces during past centuries. Cummings not only explores both well- and lesser-known musical genres and works but also introduces the individuals who commissioned, performed, and listened to music. This book is a valuable resource for historians of all stripes, whether musicologists, art historians, or scholars of Italian literature. It can also serve as a useful guide for anyone who wants to dig deeper into the history of this much visited and beloved city. * Kelley Harness, University of Minnesota *

Author Information

Anthony M. Cummings is the Eugene Howard Clapp II ’36, LL.D. ’84, and Maud Millicent Greenwell Clapp Professor in the Humanities at Lafayette College, where he is also professor of music and coordinator of the Program in Italian Studies. He is the author of Nino Pirrotta: An Intellectual Biography and The Lion’s Ear: Pope Leo X, the Renaissance Papacy, and Music.

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