The study focuses on several fundamental aspects of one of the most interesting chapels in the region of the Po Valley during a period (1580-1650) characterized by incessant experimentation. Within this framework, the financial dynamics stand out as important to the evolution of the personnel and the Lenten complines. From one standpoint, they assisted the growing commitment of the congregation of S. Antonio in maintaining the expenses of a chapel that between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries not only increased the number of musicians, but also expanded the space assigned to liturgical music. The investigation, in particular, draws connections between the evolution of the the annual budget of the ARCA and the economic investments required by the ever more burdensome demands of vocal-instrumental groups of considerable size. As for the increase in the number of permanent personnel, the study takes into account several peculiarities that concern the voices of the higher registers and the configuation of the instrumental sphere. In this sphere, as was the case in the most prestigious established chapels of Northern Italy, one of the most important innovations towards the end of the 1640s consisted of the substitution of trombones with viols. The experimentation with new configurations that were introduced in the concerti composed for the most important feasts of the year concerned, above all, the feast of S. Antonio and the Lenten complines. These last featured a distinctive scoring that was used in only a few churches in Northern Italy (Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo and the Steccata in Parma). The employment of temporary singers and instrumentalists active in Padua and, in some cases, coming from other cities (primarily Venice), allowed the chapel at S. Antonio to introduce a sumptuous polychoral sound and make use of especially interesting spatial arrangements. The magnificence with which the last canonical hour of the day was celebrated shows how even at S. Antonio, the discipline of the post-Tridentine era is circumvented by the Baroque conceptions that established a strong correlation between devotional ethos and spectacle, assigning to music the role of promoting piety in the faithful.
Padoan, M., La musica al Santo di Padova (1580-1650). Dinamichefinanziarie, organici e compiete quaresimali, in Padoan, M., Colzani, A., Luppi, A. (ed.), Barocco padano 8. Barocco padano e musici francescani.L'apporto dei Maestri Conventuali. Atti del 16. Convegno internazionale sul barocco padano (secoli 17.-18.), Padova, Basilica del Santo, 1-3 luglio 2013, Centro Studi Antoniani, Padova 2014: <<Contributi musicologici del Centro ricerche dell’A.M.I.S.>>, 17- 78 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/65684]
La musica al Santo di Padova (1580-1650). Dinamiche finanziarie, organici e compiete quaresimali
Padoan, Maurizio
2014
Abstract
The study focuses on several fundamental aspects of one of the most interesting chapels in the region of the Po Valley during a period (1580-1650) characterized by incessant experimentation. Within this framework, the financial dynamics stand out as important to the evolution of the personnel and the Lenten complines. From one standpoint, they assisted the growing commitment of the congregation of S. Antonio in maintaining the expenses of a chapel that between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries not only increased the number of musicians, but also expanded the space assigned to liturgical music. The investigation, in particular, draws connections between the evolution of the the annual budget of the ARCA and the economic investments required by the ever more burdensome demands of vocal-instrumental groups of considerable size. As for the increase in the number of permanent personnel, the study takes into account several peculiarities that concern the voices of the higher registers and the configuation of the instrumental sphere. In this sphere, as was the case in the most prestigious established chapels of Northern Italy, one of the most important innovations towards the end of the 1640s consisted of the substitution of trombones with viols. The experimentation with new configurations that were introduced in the concerti composed for the most important feasts of the year concerned, above all, the feast of S. Antonio and the Lenten complines. These last featured a distinctive scoring that was used in only a few churches in Northern Italy (Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo and the Steccata in Parma). The employment of temporary singers and instrumentalists active in Padua and, in some cases, coming from other cities (primarily Venice), allowed the chapel at S. Antonio to introduce a sumptuous polychoral sound and make use of especially interesting spatial arrangements. The magnificence with which the last canonical hour of the day was celebrated shows how even at S. Antonio, the discipline of the post-Tridentine era is circumvented by the Baroque conceptions that established a strong correlation between devotional ethos and spectacle, assigning to music the role of promoting piety in the faithful.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
