ROMAN VOCAL MUSIC IN ENGLAND , 1660–1710 Court, Connoisseurs, and the Culture of Collecting Ester Lavinia Lebedinski Submitted to Royal Holloway, University of London, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, December 2014 Abstract This thesis examines the dissemination and appropriation of Roman vocal music in England, 1660–1710. Associated with powerful courts and rarefied learning, Roman vocal music was a prestigious object of curiosity for rulers and dilettantes. The lack of musical sources and absence of musicians familiar with the repertoire suggests that Roman vocal music was not introduced into England until the 1660s when the court engaged Vincenzo Albrici (1631–90) as the leader of Charles II’s Italian ensemble. Although the ensemble was previously thought to have been an opera troupe, this thesis uses newly discovered letters to argue that Albrici was hired by Sir Henry Bennet and Sir Bernard Gascoigne on his merits as a church and chamber music composer. I argue that Charles II’s patronage of the Italian ensemble was a means of social distinction and legitimation of power, similar to the use of Roman vocal music by continental rulers including Cardinal Mazarin who introduced Charles to the concept of Roman vocal music during Charles’s exile in Paris. That Roman vocal music was a connoisseurs’ repertoire carrying significant social cachet is furthermore illustrated by Samuel Pepys’s engagement with it in the little-researched musical environment of the Royal Society of London. In the dilettante culture of collecting and observation, Roman vocal music was treated as a foreign curiosity and examined in concert as a way of better understanding the compositional secrets published in Athanasius Kircher’s Musurgia universalis (1650). Kircher’s influence on English attitudes towards Roman vocal music is further illustrated by the collecting and imitative practices of Henry Aldrich (1648– 1710), whose famous recompositions of motets by Roman composers were possibly a way of understanding the effects Kircher claimed that Carissimi and Palestrina’s music had on their listeners. Aldrich’s collecting arguably was part of a larger antiquarian enterprise to maintain and improve the English cathedral music tradition, which had repeatedly been thrown into question by the religio-political upheavals of the seventeenth century. This enterprise was later taken up by the early eighteenth- century ancient music movement, which adopted Roman vocal music after Aldrich’s death through collecting efforts and performances of motets and oratorios by Carissimi and Palestrina. ii Declaration of Authorship I, Ester Lebedinski, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ________________________________ Date:___________________________________ iii Acknowledgements This thesis owes its existence, and relatively painless completion, to a number of people; thanks firstly to my supervisor, Stephen Rose, who has habitually gone beyond the call of duty to offer help and support, from much-appreciated nitpicking English grammar to seventeenth-century injokes. Thanks also to Lars Berglund, who let me loose on the Düben Collection as an undergraduate, and who was the first to suggest that I do a PhD on Roman vocal music. Thanks to several colleagues for help in various forms: Nicolas Bell, Julie Brown, Mariana Brockmann, Katherine Butler, Helen Deeming, Katharine Ellis, Roger Freitas, Kia Hedell, Knud Arne Jürgensen, Mattias Lundberg, Bjarke Moe, Maria Schildt, Sandra Tuppen and Andrew Woolley. Stefano Fogelberg Rota and Clémence Destribois have checked Italian and French translations. The members of the research network ‘Musical-Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Europe, c.1550– 1750’ and the Early Music seminar at Royal Holloway have offered invaluable forums for trying out new ideas. Thanks also to the staff at the British Library, the Bodleian Library, Chrirst Church College library (Oxford), King’s College library (Cambridge), the Pepys library at Magdalene College (Cambridge), and York Minster Library for help with making sources available. My warmest and most heartfelt thanks are due to the fellow PhD students who have kept me sane through offering plenty of laughs and solid support in both life and PhD matters: Samantha Blickhan, Clare Brady, Sean Dunnahoe, Karin Eriksson, Annika Forkert, Matthew Laube, Christie Majoros, Per-Henning Olsson, Anne Reese-Willén, Maria Schildt, Peter van Tour, and Stephanie Vos. Clare, Sam, Sean, Annika, Matt and Stephanie all deserve special thanks for proofreading a bit of the thesis each, as does Ida Johansson for help with printing and binding. My aunt and uncle have put me up in Uppsala, and—as the family PhDs—asked about my submission plans just as much as one would like them to. Finally, I present this thesis to my family: to my mum, as thanks for Baroque music, Habermas, Elias, and Bourdieu; to my dad, for being a modern virtuoso, and a fabulous model for any aspiring humanist; to my brother and sister, for always being interested; and to Joacim, who has been involved since that first-year assignment on Binchois. iv Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................... ii Declaration of Authorship ....................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ..................................................................................................... v Lists of Tables, Figures and Music Examples ....................................................... vii Abbreviations .......................................................................................................... ix Editorial Note .......................................................................................................... xi 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 ‘Never the like must be againe expected, unless in heaven and in Rome’ .............. 1 English Relationships with Italy .......................................................................... 7 Musicological Approaches to Italian Music in England .................................... 25 Synopsis of Thesis ............................................................................................. 29 2. ‘Obtained by peculiar favour, & much difficulty of the singer’ ......... 33 Charles II’s Italian Ensemble and the Function of Roman Vocal Music at the English Restoration Court ...................................................................................... 33 Roman Vocal Music in European Court Culture ............................................... 36 Mobile Musicians: The Recruitment of the King’s ‘Italian Musick’ ................. 48 The Function of the Italian Ensemble at the English Court ............................... 64 The Albricis and Italian Opera in England? ....................................................... 81 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 90 3. ‘Members of the Society versed in music’ .............................................. 92 Samuel Pepys, the Royal Society and the Cultural Capital of Roman Vocal Music ................................................................................................................................ 92 Virtue and Virtuosity: Attitudes Towards Learning and Music in Seventeenth- Century England ................................................................................................ 93 Pepys and the Cultural Capital of Roman Vocal Music .................................. 113 The Publication of Roman Vocal Music in Restoration London: Girolamo Pignani’s Scelta di canzonette (1679) .............................................................. 124 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 142 4. ‘Let such teach others who themselves Excel’ ..................................... 144 The Oxford Antiquarian Interest in Roman Music .............................................. 144 Edward Lowe and the Oxford Music School ................................................... 146 Henry Aldrich’s Collection of Roman Vocal Music ....................................... 156 Music and Antiquarianism ............................................................................... 175 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 196 5. ‘The greatest masters in music, that Italy had ever Bred’ .................. 198 The Canonisation of Roman Vocal Music in the Eighteenth Century ................. 198 v Ancient Music versus the Public Market ......................................................... 199 Wanley and the Harley Collection ................................................................... 212 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 222 6. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 224 Bibliography ........................................................................................................