Music and Culture in Late Renaissance Italy

by Iain Fenlon

Overview

This collection of essays is unified by a number of concerns: one is the way in which musical activity of all kinds was instrumentalized by those in power, in Italy, during the Sixteenth Century. A second expressed through the chornological concentration on the second half of the century, is with a period which is still often regarded as one of decline and degeneracy after the achievements of the Quattrocento and the decades before the calamètà d'Italia. This book implicitly argues that Italian culture did not lose its vigor after 1530, but underwent a transformation, as both individuals and institutions reacted to new economic, political, and religious circumstances.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198164449
Publisher:	EDI8 - PLON
Publication date:	02/28/2003
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Iain Fenlon is Reader in Historical Musicology at the University of Cambridge and the editor of Early Music History. His publications include: Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua; The Early Sixteenth Century Madrigal (with James Haar); The Song of the Soul: Understanding 'Poppea' (with Peter Miller); Music, Print and Culture in Renaissance Italy; and Music, Ceremony and Identity in Counter-Reformation Venice (forthcoming, Yale University Press).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Plans
List of Abbreviations
1. Magnificence as Civic Image: Music and Ceremonial Space in Early Modern Venice
2. Strangers in Paradise: Dutchmen in Venice in 1525
3. Music and Reform: The Savonarolan Legacy
4. Music and Civic Piety in Counter-Reformation Milan
Appendix: The Tini Broadside Catalogue of c. 1596
5. Scipione Gonzaga: A 'Poor' Cardinal in Rome
6. Gioseffo Zarlino and the Accademia Venetiana della Fama
7. Lepanto: Music, Ceremony, and Celebration in Counter-Reformation Rome
8. Rites of Passage: Cosimo I de' Medici and the Theatre of Death
9. Giaches de Wert and the Palatine Basilica of Santa Barbara: Music, Liturgy, and Design
10. Preparations for a Princess: Florence, 1588-1589
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Fortunately, few reviewers, if any, would find Iain Fenlon's book hard to read since his arguments are expressed in a graceful prose that renders his subject matter entirely accessible to readers...Fenlon has established himself, over two decades, as one of the ablest practitioners in historical musicology and multidisciplinary studies...this produces rich, provocative results for readers...colleagues from other disciplines interested in the place of music in early modern Italian society could hardly do any better than consult Fenlon's stimulating and evocative essays...Fenlon's essays exemplify an unusually creative and imaginative engagement with musico-historical materials. As offerings not only to fellow musicologists but also to those in allied disciplines, they are among the finest examples of the discipline's art and craft; they are recommended with uncommon enthusiasm."— Notes

"The richness and diversity of his field of vision become that much more obvious and valuable...in a single volume."—Early Music

From the Publisher