UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Ritual, Myth, and Humanism in the Origins of the Venetian Style A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology By Peter Lawson 2015 © Copyright by Peter Lawson 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Ritual, Myth, and Humanism in the Origins of the Venetian Style by Peter Lawson Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Mitchell Morris, Chair ! The so-called Prima Prattica style of sixteenth-century polyphonic music was largely codified through the music of Adriano Willaert and the theoretical writings of his protege Gioseffo Zarlino, both musicians attached to the Chapel of San Marco, the central musical organization of the Republic of Venice. As the century progressed, however, the elements of Willaert’s style that were emphasized and emulated by subsequent generations of Venetian musicians took the ceremonial music of the Republic in an aesthetic direction that prioritized expression over balance, sonic effects over contrapuntal clarity, and, at times, bombast over contemplation. The stylistic chasm that developed between this specifically Venetian music and what could be heard elsewhere in Europe at the time has yet to be adequately acknowledged or explained, a problem for music history especially due to the profound international influence wielded by later Venetian or Venice-adjacent composers such as ii Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Schütz, and Vivaldi. ! In this dissertation I explore the ways in which the distinctive cultural, political, religious, and artistic background of the Venetian republic created particular demands which, in conjunction with the unique background and inclinations of Adriano Willaert, led to the creation of this Venetian musical style. In my first chapter, through a brief examination of the foundational preoccupations of the republic and Church of Venice, I establish broad, categorical differences between the cultural demands of it and neighboring states. Next, in chapter two, I more closely investigate the historical circumstances of Venice in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries in order to show how material factors influenced the creation of the Venetian style to occur when and how it did. My third chapter looks specifically at the role of literary humanism in the Venetian cultural florescence of the early sixteenth century and in the work of Willaert, through the composer’s own humanistic activities, particularly his Horatian secular motet Quid non Ebrietas Designat. Finally, in chapter four I examine Willaert’s music for the Church of Venice, specifically his dual-choir, coro spezzato psalm settings, as a response to the specifically Venetian aesthetic demands set up in the previous chapters. iii The dissertation of Peter Lawson is approved. Peter Stacey Elizabeth Upton Raymond L. Knapp Tamara Levitz Mitchell Morris, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2015 iv Dedicated to my grandparents, John and Joann Lawson and Dieter and Elizabeth Pohl, without whose inspiration and support this project would not have been possible. v Table of Contents Ritual, Myth, and Humanism in the Origins of the Venetian Style Abstract!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ii Committee!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! iv Dedication!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! v Contents!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! vi List of figures and musical examples!! ! ! ! ! ! vii Introduction!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! viii Vita!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! xix Chapter 1: !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 1 - Historical Ideology and Ritual Particularity in the Myth of Venice !! Chapter 2:!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 68 - The Crisis of Venetian Confidence Chapter 3:!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 126 - Andrea Gritti’s Venetian Renaissance and the Humanism of Adriano Willaert Chapter 4:!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 227 - Willaert, Coro Spezzato, and the Refashioning of Venetian Ritual: Composed Polyphony and Venetian Particularity Conclusion: !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 296 Bibliography:!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 299 vi List of Figures - Bird’s-eye view of Venice - Gabriel Bucelin - 1649-1650 !! ! 9 - Outline map of Venice showing locations of San Marco and !! ! 22 San Pietro di Castello - The Doge of Venice Departing for the Lido - drawing -!! ! ! 59 Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto) - 1763-1767 - Procession in St. Mark’s Square on Palm Sunday (2x detail) - woodcut -! 65 Matteo Pagan - 1556-9 - Procession of the True Cross in San Marco Square - painting -!! ! 66 Gentile Bellini - 1496 - Etching of Jacopo Bellini and Piero Lombardo’s Church !! ! 71 of S. Maria dei Miracoli - Luca Carlevaris - 1703 - Portrait of Andrea Gritti - oil painting - Titian - 1537-45!!!136 - Clock of San Marco (after 1997-2006 renovation) - built by !! ! 142 Gian Paolo and Gian Carlo Rainieri - 1496-99 - Chiesa di San Geminiano - Jacopo Sansovino - c. 1540 - !! ! 143 drawing by Paolo Steffan -Loggetta di Venezia - Jacopo Sansovino - 1537-46 - photo from William ! 144 Vaughn Tupper Scrapbook Collection - 1891-94 - Zecca di Venezia - Jacopo Sansovino - completed in 1547 - !! ! 145 anon. late nineteenth century photographer - Biblioteca Marciana - Jacopo Sansovino - begun in 1537 - !! ! 146 drawing by Dionisio Moretti - 1831 - Stylized map of the Piazza and Piazzetta san Marco from !! ! 148 Banister Fletcher, A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method. 6th ed. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921), 105. Provided courtesy of Allan Kohl. - The Assumption altarpiece - oil painting - Titian - 1516-18 !! ! 243 - Pesaro Madonna altarpiece - oil painting - Titian - 1519-26 !! ! 244 vii - Pala d’Oro altarpiece - Completed by unknown artisans from !! ! 292 previous Byzantine artwork between 1102 and 1105 - drawing by Dionisio Moretti - 1831 - Pala Feriale altarpiece - Paolo Veneziano and sons !! ! ! 293 Luca and Giovanni - 1345 List of Musical Examples - Adriano Willaert - Quid non Ebrietas Dissignat - example from !! 158 Giovanni Artusi, Artusi Overo Delle imperfettioni della moderna musica! (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti, 1600), 21 - Adriano Willaert - Quid non Ebrietas Dissignat - unmarked score !! 159 transcription - Adriano Willaert - Quid non Ebrietas Dissignat - marked score !! 167 transcription - Aristoxenus of Tarentum - Interval test - described in !! ! 205 Elements of Harmony! - Adriano Willaert - opening of Laudate Pueri Dominum (Tenor) - !! 254 (Venice: Antonio Gardano, 1550) RISM B/I: 15501. !! ! ! - Adriano Willaert - “Credidi, propter quod locutus sum: !! ! 273 Quarti Toni” - Choir II: Beginning of second verse - Adriano Willaert - “Lauda Jerusalem: Secundi Toni” - !! ! 274 Opening of Doxology - Adriano Willaert - “De Profundis: Quinti Toni” - Opening!! ! 275 - Adriano Willaert - “Credidi, propter quod locutus sum: !! ! 276 Quarti Toni” - excerpt - Adriano Willaert - “Lauda Jerusalem: Secundi Toni” - !! !277 Choir I: Verse 5 - Adriano Willaert - “Credidi, propter quod locutus sum: !! ! ! 281 Quarti Toni” - Choirs I and II: Verse seven - Adriano Willaert - “Lauda Jerusalem: Secundi Toni” - !! ! ! 286 Choirs I and II: Doxology excerpt viii - Adriano Willaert - “Credidi, propter quod locutus sum: !! ! 287 Quarti Toni” - Choirs I and II - Transition between verses 8 and 9 - Adriano Willaert - “Credidi, propter quod locutus sum: !! ! ! 288 Quarti Toni” - Choirs I and II: Transition between verses 3 and 4 - Adriano Willaert - “In Convertendo: Sexti Toni” - Choirs I and II -!! 290 Middle of verse 2 - Adriano Willaert - “Lauda Jerusalem: Secundi Toni” - !! ! ! 291 - Choirs I and II: Transition between verses 1 and 2 ix Introduction ! At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the State chapel of San Marco in the Republic of Venice was an institution with little to no connection to the most recent trends of polyphonic music-making. By the century’s end, it had evolved into one of the largest and most elaborate musical institutions in Europe, and the home of the era’s most distinctive and individualized local stylistic tradition. This so-called high Venetian style does not fit easily within the taxonomy of the prima and seconda pratiche, being too novel, too iconoclastically innovative, and too Italian for the former but lacking the stylistic priorities and secular orientation that Giulio Cesare Monteverdi ascribed to the latter.1 In part for this reason, musicologists have tended to shunt Venetian ceremonial music to the side in music histories and frequently to downplay its singularity within the arena of sixteenth-century polyphony. This neglect would be an issue if the Venetian style was simply an isolated moment in the history of European music-making, but it becomes a major problem due to the profound international influence wielded by the style through the work of composers including the founding figure of the style, Adriano Willaert, as well as Giovanni Gabrieli, Heinrich Schütz, Claudio Monteverdi, and especially Antonio Vivaldi. The degree and process of Venetian influence on the ultimate shape of what is commonly referred to as classical music is still not 1 The Monteverdi brothers only mention three musicians associated with San Marco in their list of prima and seconda pratica exemplars. Adriano Willaert, as a composer, and Gioseffo Zarlino, as a codifier of “most judicious rules,” are listed as the ultimate perfecters of the first practice, and Cipriano de Rore, who briefly held the post of maestro di cappella between Willaert and Zarlino, is mentioned two times as the founder of the second. How they would have categorized the Gabrielis, or other composers of the more mature Venetian style, is left open to question. W. Oliver Strunk