As with Many Convent Histories, Monson's Is Thankful for the Numerous Plates, Many of Which Circular
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As with many convent histories, Monson's is thankful for the numerous plates, many of which circular. In the last chapter, we return to the con- show paintings once in the convent; and all vent itself, now abandoned and in an alarming readers will benefit from the detailed index and state of disrepair, and to Vizzana, whose voice the pithy biographies of the dramatis personae. (appropriately enough, the last we hear in the Monson's book ensures that no historian can book) serves as a plea for the architectural restora- henceforth ignore the role monastic women tion of S Cristina and for the rediscovery of her played in the musical and cultural life of many music. early modern Italian cities, and it sets a high Disembodied Voices is impressive on every front. standard for all who choose to explore this long- Monson's arguments derive weight and strength neglected terrain. from his scrupulous and extensive documentation COLLEEN REARDON Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ml/article/77/3/458/1042008 by guest on 30 September 2021 of primary sources and from his wide knowledge of the secondary literature. His comparison of strategies employed by monastic women in deal- Giovanni Legrenzi e la cappella ducale di San Marco: ing with ecclesiastical authorities and those atti dei convegm internazwnali di studi, Venezio, adopted by twentieth-century saleswomen in 24-26 maggio 1990, Clusone, 74-16 settembre 1990. department stores (both flouted the dress code in Ed. by Francesco Passadore & Franco Rossi, order to create some measure of autonomy in pp. xi + 666. 'Quaderni della "Rivista italiana their environment) brings the nuns vividly to life. di musicologia"', xxix. (Olschki, Florence, Monson's prose is both lucid and elegant. The 1994, L.130,000. ISBN 88-222-4164-9.) reader is able to follow easily when he plunges into a discussion of the political manoeuvring that Giovanni Legrenzi is now regarded as the most characterized the campaign for the consecration important composer of sacred vocal music at St of 1699, notwithstanding a cast of protagonists Mark's, Venice, after Monteverdi. Giovanni who included Luigia Orsina Orsi (the convent Rovetta, Monteverdi's immediate successor as bursar), Giovanni Battista Sabbatini (the nuns' maestro, was greatly respected in his own time and representative), the Camaldolese procurator for several generations after. Cavalli may have general, Pope Innocent XII, Archbishop Bon- been a very capable maestro, but he wrote few compagni, various cardinals in the Congregation sacred works, and his reputation was (and is) of Sacred Rites, members of Bologna's most based largely on his operas. Legrenzi served for prominent families, and highly placed female only four years (1681-5) as vice-maestro and five as aristocrats from outside Bologna, among others. maestro; he died in 1690. Ill health clouded the last The complex blow-by-blow intrigue is few years of his life, although he continued to expounded with clarity and intensity. Monson's compose almost to the end. Some of his works ability to see events with both an insider's and an were collected posthumously. outsider's eyes is particularly valuable to our Legrenzi composed for many venues—the understanding of this material. For example, the ducal basilica, the Ospedale de' Mendicanti, and expensive consecration rite struck Mauro Rug- the theatres and oratories of several northern geri, the nuns' confessor and chronicler of the Italian cities. He also convened academies of convent's history, as so much wasted money. For singers and instrumentalists in Venice and helped the nuns, however, the ceremony was a vital tool to organize the Societa S Cecilia, through whose for re-establishing their good reputation and for auspices opera stars from abroad mingled with rebuilding strong links to the urban patriciate: a native music teachers in an annual concert of form of 'genteel bribery' that could encourage spectacular proportions. Given the range of his young girls to profess at the convent, and might involvements, it is no surprise that he composed pay off when the nuns needed outside assistance in all the principal forms of his time—Mass, in pressing a cause. motet, opera, oratorio, sonata and concerto. We Monson has thoughtfully provided for the will never know the exact extent of his oeuvre, since needs of the wide audience this book deserves. hundreds of his compositions for the Mendicanti Musicians will appreciate the music examples— are known to have been lost, and, even among his including both shorter excerpts and several com- printed works, items such as a posthumous pub- plete pieces from Vizzana's collection—that lication of trumpet concertos (1692) have vanished pepper the analytical chapters; non-musicians without trace. and those uninitiated in the complexities of con- The conferences convened in 1990 to honour vent hierarchy will be glad of the glossary of the 300th anniversary of Legrenzi's death cer- musical and religious terms; art historians will be tainly reflected the diversity of his interests. They 458 also treated, in a somewhat arbitrary way, the (Lorenz VVelker), Vinaccesi (Michael Talbot), work of other composers active in Venice before, Sebenico (Vjera Katalinic) and Colonna (Juliane during and after Legrenzi's time, as well as the Riepe). musical traditions of other locales with which In the group of articles concerned with instru- Legrenzi was associated. mental music—the four volumes of string sonatas Two striking contributions in the proceedings that make up the one part of Legrenzi's oeuvre that are Arnaldo Morelli's transcription of 53 letters is generally accessible to performers—the strong- from Legrenzi to various members of the Benti- est ones are the general one by Stephen Bonta, the voglio family in Ferrara and Gilberto Pressacco's most active editor and scholar of Legrenzi's exhaustive 52-page study of the friulana (con- instrumental music over the past generation, and cealed under the title 'Legrenzi, i Savorgnan e la Welker's comparative study of genre and form committenza friulana nelle Sonate a due e tre, Op. concerning Legrenzi and Rosenmiiller. Bonta Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ml/article/77/3/458/1042008 by guest on 30 September 2021 2'). Morelli's contribution is important because it plausibly suggests that the two works that are helps to define more precisely Legrenzi's service optionally offered for viol consorts in Op. 10 were to the Accademia dello Spirito Santo, founded in probably written for the Mendicanti. Welker's 1597 by the Bentivoglio family. The letters study traces the activities of J. P. Krieger in comment on Legrenzi's own background, on the Venice during the years 1673-5. Both articles are life of the Venetian theatres, on performers, on richly illustrated with newly edited music text sources and on various financial matters. examples. Other articles in this section may con- Pressacco's points of departure are an aria 'su sist only of a run-through of unusual notational ritmo di furlana' in the opera Totila (1677) and a features based on a passing glance at the facsimile declaration of love 'a modo di furlana veneziana' editions of Venetian instrumental music that have in // Giustino (1683). His philological apparatus been so diligently published over the past two extends back to a Cividale manuscript attributed decades. to Walter von der Vogelweide; he examines Although some articles are extremely well dozens of linguistic references and comments in documented, many are not. Arguments in the the scholarly literature of the past half century. latter are often based on writings that are almost a The larger point of his contribution is to show century old, and it is a general failing of many how this history is alluded to in Legrenzi's first articles that recent editions and writings are collection of instrumental music, the sonatas Op. simply not mentioned. (In one article Charles 2. Giovanni Carlo Savorgnan was mayor of Burney is the only commentator cited.) This obvi- Bergamo when this volume was dedicated to him. ously limits the book's reliability as a foundation Some of the documentation on the history of this for further work by those who are new to the sub- family stretches back into the fifteenth century ject. While in general the book is well edited and and concerns the relationship of the patriarchates indexed, there are some lapses here as well; for of Aquileia and Venice. But a host of other themes example, the occasional word in the middle of a billow up from Pressacco's far-reaching research: sentence is arbitrarily capitalized. allusions to Jewish music, civic competition Overall, then, the quality of the contributions between the Savorgnans and other families, what must be described as very uneven. The good Legrenzi's aspirations as a young man may have things are very good, but the book would have been, and how the academies of Bergamo may been improved (as well as produced more quickly have imposed values of their own on Legrenzi's and cheaply) if the articles that break no new musical development. ground had been omitted. This possibility raises a There are many contributions, most of them fundamental question about proceedings in quite short and sharply focused, on opera and general, however, since with them unevenness is sacred vocal music. The operatic topics include a the rule. review in rhyme of La divisione del mondo (Paolo Inappropriate omission is as much a part of this Fabbri), Legrenzi's operas in the 1660s (Norbert issue as inappropriate commission. As it happens, Dubowy), opera sinfonias (Gerhard Croll), Totila the most vigorous current work on both and operismo (Paolo Fabbri), and a comparison of Legrenzi's life and music may well be that of six librettos for Giustino (Piero Mioli).