the role of the organ in the performance practices of italian sacred polyphony during the...

The Role of the Organ in Performance Practices of Italian Sacred Polyphony during theCinquecentoAuthor(s): Arnaldo MorelliReviewed work(s):Source: Musica Disciplina, Vol. 50 (1996), pp. 239-270Published by: American Institute of Musicology Verlag Corpusmusicae, GmbHStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20532408 .

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THE ROLE OF THE ORGAN IN PERFORMANCE PRACTICES

OF ITALIAN SACRED POLYPHONY DURING THE CINQUECENTO

ARNALDO MORELLI

The role of the organ in the performance of sacred polyphony during the six

teenth century is a classic problem in performance practice studies. Though long

discussed by both scholars and performers, a convincing solution has not as yet

been forthcoming. The relationship between the organ and vocal polyphony has

been addressed from clear-cut and contrasting points of view. If for the Roman

tics, the performance of polyphony a cappella, and thus without organ accompa

niment, represented their idealized conception of Renaissance music, in recent

times the opposite opinion, namely, that vocal performances were accompanied

by the organ or even by other instruments has been voiced by several experts in

the field. As Oscar Mischiatti put it, "Renaissance polyphony performed in the

manner called a cappella, that is, with voices alone, though proved only for the

Papal Chapel, was mistakenly given widespread credence during the Romantic

period."x Other musicologists go even further and state dogmatically that "the

long-standing assumption that the Papal Chapel's exclusively vocal performance

could be extended to every church in Christendom is now at least moribund, if

not dead." 2

On a closer examination of these positions ?

the Romantic and the contem

porary ? it becomes clear that both are based either on opposing ideological pre

judices or on a superficial reading of sources, often misunderstanding or forcing new meanings into the text, or, yet again, on a desire to justify new choices in per

1 Oscar Mischiati, "Marc'Antonio Ingegneri nei documenti della cattedrale di

Cremona," in Antonio Delfino and Maria Teresa Rosa Barezzani, eds., MarcAntonio

Ingegneri e la m?sica a Cremona nel secondo Cinquecento (Lucca: LIM, 1995), 51.

2 Gary Towne, "Music and Liturgy in Sixteenth-Century Italy: The Bergamo

Organ Book and its Liturgical Implications," Journal of Musicology 6 (1988): 471-509.



240 M?SICA DISCIPLINA

formance practice on the part of performers.3 To my mind, the solution to the pro

blem does not lie merely in the search for new documents, which in any case would

not be definitive, but rather in the reconsideration of documents, already known,

that are related to evident changes in musical performance within more general

transformations in the Catholic liturgy of the post-Tridentine period, especially in

Italy. In other words, the problem of the relationship of the organ and vocal poly

phony should be considered within the widest historical perspective possible.

Looking ahead to the Seicento ?

the age of basso continuo and m?sica con

certata ? the continuation of compositional methods and performance practices

inherited from the preceding age becomes still more evident. Documents that

mention church music "cum orghano et canto figurato" or that demonstrate the

simultaneous payment of organists and singers are not in themselves sufficient to

show that organists and singers performed together. Nor do documents showing

that organ pitch was adapted to figurai music4 and that organs were given "split"

keys for transposing irrefutably prove that the organ accompanied singers in the

performance of polyphony.5 If this were so, we would have to give convincing

3 That such performances were appreciated by audiences of the late 20th century and musicologists alike has no bearing on the present discussion.

4 Mischiati, "Marc'Antonio Ingegneri," 50-51. This evidence is from a later period

and refers to the incipient practice of the concerti, of which more will be said later. It should be remembered that the pitch was also altered for plainsong, which, of course, was

performed without accompaniment. For example, in 1516 the new organ in the cathedral of Perugia had to be "a coro cio? canto fermo" [(pitched) that is, to plainsong] ; see Adamo Rossi "Documenti inediti per chi scriver? dei maestri d'organo vissuti nel XV e nel XVI

sec?lo," Giomale di erudizione art?stica 3 (1874): 113. In 1547 the new organ in Santo

Spirito in Rome had to be "commodo con li cantori cos? al canto fermo come al figurato" [convenient for the singers of both plainsong and figurai music] ; see Patrizia Melella, "Vita

musicale e arte organaria a Santo Spirito in Sassia nel Cinquecento: note e documenti," in Bianca Maria Antolini, Arnaldo Morelli and Vera Vita Spagnuolo, eds. La m?sica a Roma attraverso lefonti d'archivio (Lucca: Librer?a Musicale Italiana, 1994), 515. And in 1550 in the cathedral of Milan, the organ had to have a "corista magior si per contrafermo [recte: canto fermo] come ancora per il canto figurato" [pitch both for plainsong and figurai

music] ; see Renato Fait, "Organi e organisti del duomo dalle origini al 1562," in Graziella De Florentiis and Gian Nicola Vessia, eds., Sei secoli di m?sica nel duomo di Milano

(Milan: NED, 1986), 194.

5 Oscar Mischiari, "Profilo storico della cappella musicale in Italia nei secoli

XV-XVuT," in Daniele Ficola, ed., M?sica sacra in Sicilia tra Rinascimento e Barocco

(Palermo: S.F. Flaccovio, 1988), 23-45. Transposing was certainly necessary even in alternatim practice, as Girolamo Diruta says in // Transilvano, the pertinent passage from

which is quoted below and cited in note 30.



THE ROLE OF THE ORGAN IN PERFORMANCE PRACTICES 241

replies to a least three basic questions, which have not, as far as I know, been ade

quately answered: 1) Why is there no trace of parts (scores, short scores, basso

continu?) for the organ in musical polyphony before, more or less, the last decade

of the Cinquecento?6 2) Why is it that among the duties of the organist stipulated in regulations of various musical chapels and in employment contracts, no men

tion is ever made of accompanying polyphony?7 3) Why does no theoretical or

practical text make explicit mention of the organ accompanying voices in sacred

polyphony?8 In the following pages I hope to demonstrate that in Italy, at least, the

organ's main function during the Renaissance was to alternate with vocal poly

phony in some passages ?

especially those containing alternating verses, as in

hymns, psalms, the Magnificat and other canticles; to substitute for the singing of

a polyphonic piece during the Mass, at the Gradual, the Offertory, the Elevation,

or at Vespers, when the antiphons to the psalms were repeated; and to fill in at

a "dead" moment during the liturgy, such as processions, censing, the display

of relics, vesting for the Mass, etc.; but not to accompany polyphony. It is prob

able that only from the late Cinquecento onwards was the organ associated with

voices and instruments in the performance of the so-called concerti, which had,

however, quite a different repertoire than that of polyphony "alia Palestrina."

From this it follows that a a cappella practice cannot be considered as a product of

Romantic idealization, but rather as the normal practice of Italian choirs during the Renaissance and well on into the Seicento.9

6 Imogene Horsley, "Full and Short Scores in the Accompaniment of Italian

Church Music in the Early Baroque," Journal of the American Musicological Society 30

(1977): 466-499. The first manuscript part for organ is dated 1587; the first printed part is from 1594.

7 In fact, they are never mentioned in the choir regulations and were often paid from different funds than the singers.

8 For example, the Libellus rudimentis musices (Verona: Stefano Nicolini, 1529) by Biagio Rossetti, which also gives interesting information about organ performance practice.

9 It must be kept in mind, however, that though organ accompaniment was not part of an a cappella practice, at least from the late Cinquecento onwards, instruments often took part. They could substitute for voices or give support to the lower parts.




Forty years ago, Otto Gombosi, concentrating on Germanic countries,

advanced the hypothesis of an alternatim practice ?

organ/polyhony or organ/

polyphony/plainchant ?

which he saw to be an expression of the richness and

freedom of performance in Renaissance church music.10 Carrying on from Gom

bosi's hypothesis, two more recent papers, one by James Moore on the role of the

organ in St. Mark's, Venice,11 and the other by Christopher Reynolds dealing more generally with the function of the organ,12 have called attention once again

to this aspect of the performance of musical liturgy. Besides the well-known role

of the organ in alternation with Gregorian chant, other documents, known but

misinterpreted, if not altogether ignored, testify to the organ's alternating with

verses in polyphonic compositions. Reynolds, nevertheless, seems to consider

this practice as an alternative between two other performance possibilities: that of

alternating verses both in plainchant and vocal polyphony, or that of accompany

ing either plainchant or polyphony on the organ. He further maintains that "the

possible combinations apparendy varied from church to church and from feast to

feast, and it is entirely feasible that the different combinations were used for differ

ent chants within a single service."13 The few pieces of evidence that Reynolds cites to sustain the practice of alternation of organ/polyphony forces him to be

cautions and to consider the phenomenon as an expression of local rather than

widespread significance. After reconsidering various documents and studying Italian church archi

tecture and the positions of the organs and galleries for the singers in various

churches, I am led to believe that the organ alternating with a cappella polyphony was the most widespread practice in Italy during the Cinquecento, but that

10 Otto Gombosi, "About Organ Playing in the Divine Service circa 1500" in Essays in Honor of Archibald T. Davison (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Department of

Music, 1957), 51-68.

1 x James H. Moore, "The Liturgical Use of the Organ in Seventeenth-Century Italy:

New Documents, Hypotheses," in Alexander Silbiger, ed., Frescobaldi Studies (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1987), 351-383.

12 Christopher Reynolds, "Sacred Polyphony," in Howard M. Brown and Stanley

Sadie, eds., Performance Practice: Music before 1600 (London: McMillan, 1989), 185-200, especially 191-93.

13 Reynolds, "Sacred polyphony," 192.




towards the end of the century it began to give way to the basso continuo and con

certai repertoire. My thoughts in this matter are based largely on a document

regarding Palestrina written by Annibale Cappello, the Mantuan agent in Rome

on 18 October 1578 to his sovereign, Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga, which reads in

part:

M. Giovanni da Palestrina ... ha cominciato a porre sul liuto lo Chirie e la

Gloria d?lia prima messa et me le ha fatte sentir? pieni veramente di gran sua

vit? et leggiadria. et quando con buona gratia di lei potesse farlo hora che

N.S. in San Pietro ha comandato che si canti con due cori di xij per choro

come ha trovato che ordin? Giulio ij quando lasci? per tal effetto entrade

bastanti a quel capitolo et ha per questo fatto mandar via tutti i cantori coniu

gati salvo lui per privilegio spetiale. Vorrebbe anche le seconde parti et ser

virsene nelle detta chiesa in luogo delVorgano perch? afferma che nel vero

V.A. ha purgati quei canti fermi di tutti i barbarismi e di tutte l'imperfettione che vi erano. II che spero non far? senza sua licenza; ma quando prima dalla

debolezza gji sar? permesso spiegar? ci? ch'ha fatto col liuto con tutto il suo

studio.14

[M. Giovanni da Palestrina... has begun to set the Kyrie and the Gloria of

the first Mass on the lute, and when he let me hear them, I found them in

truth full of great sweetness and elegance. And now that His Holiness has

commanded that there are to be two choirs at St. Peter's, each of twelve

singers ? for he has discovered that Julius II so ordered when he provided

the chapel with revenues sufficient for this purpose ?

and has because of this

also caused the dismissal of all the married singers save him [Palestrina] by

special privilege, he would also like to have the second parts and to use them

in place of the organ in the said church, for he affirms that Your Highness has

in truth purged those plainsongs of all the barbarisms and imperfections that

they contained. I trust that he will not do this without your permission. And

as soon as his infirmity permits, he will work out what he has done on the

lute with all possible care.]

14 Antonino Bertolotti, Musici alia corte dei Gonzaga in Mantova dal sec?lo XV al XVIII (Milan: Ricordi, 1890; reprint, Bologna: Forni Editore, 1969), 52. The italics are

mine.




Reynolds interprets this letter to mean that Palestrina wished to use the "purged" cantus firmi, chants which the duke had recendy revised and emended for use in

the liturgy at Santa Barbara in Mantua, "instead of the organ."15 But I find it diffi

cult to believe that Palestrina's intent was to introduce those chants into services at

St. Peter's. Indeed, Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga had to use all of his political

strength and diplomatic ability to obtain permission to use them in the Santa Bar

bara ritual, and it was only in 1583, at the height of the Counter-Reformation,

that he received papal authorization to do so.16 It seems to me, rather, that Palestri

na wanted the "second part" of the cantus firmi so that he could compose the

remaining verses in polyphony, in addition to those he had already set.17 Be that as

it may, the letter provides eloquent and authoritative testimony of the practice of

alternation of organ and polyphony in those pieces where alternate verses

have been set to music. Other documents exist, however, which suggest that the

practice of playing the "second parts" of chants on the organ was not peculiar to a

particular place, such as, in this case, Rome.

The evidence that I have been able to gather begins in 1494. The diary18 of

the papal Master of Ceremonies, Jacob Burckhardt, tells of a liturgical function

(most probably Vespers) held that year in the Aragonese court chapel at Naples:

Organi qui tr?plices sunt in ipsa capella, omnes pulsati, non tarnen simul, sed

modo unum, modo alium salmorum etiam versus vicissim sonabant; unum

versum cantabant cantantes; alium pulsabat organista, adeo quod vespere

huiusmodi ad duas horas duraverunt.

15 Reynolds, "Sacred polyphony," 192.

16 Iain Fenlon, Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 102. For a thorough synthesis of the historical events

regarding the use of plainchant in Santa Barbara, see Paola Besutti, "Catalogo tem?tico d?lie monodie liturgiche della Basilica Palatina di S. Barbara in Mantova: I canti dell'Ordi

nario," in Le fonti musicali in Italia 2 (1988): 53-57.

17 This hypothesis is confirmed by a later letter of Palestrina dated 5 November

1578, in which the composer speaks of having made use of the chants, and even of trans

posing them to compose Masses. See Bertolotti, Musici alia corte, 52 and also Fenlon, Music and Patronage, 91.

18 For Burckhardt's Liber notatorum see Adalbert Roth "Die Chorb?cher 14 und 51 des Fondo Cappella Sistina der Biblioteca Apost?lica Vaticana," in Studien zur fr?hen Repertoire der p?pstlichen Kapelle unter dem Pontifikat Sixtus IV (1471-1484) (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apost?lica Vaticana, 1991), 343.




[The organs, of which there are three in this chapel, are all played, but not all

at once: first one, then another would play a verse of the psalms; the singers

would sing a verse; the organist would play another, and because of this,

Vespers would go on until two o'clock.]

In other words, the performance of the psalms was shared by the "cantantes,"

that is, the singers of figurai music, and the three organists who, one by one,

would alternate with the verses sung in polyphony. It is surprising that this prac

tice, defined, significantly, as "all'uso antico," should have survived well into the

early Seicento at St. Mark's in Venice. As late as 1624, in fact, the procurators of

the church ordered that

tutti due [li] organisti ... debbano, conforme all'uso antico di chiesa di San

Marco, ritrovarsi tutte le domeniche et le feste com?ndate tutti doi sopra li

organi di chiesa et sonar aile messe et vespri rispondendosi un verso per uno

a tutti li salmi.19

[both organists... should, as has long been the custom in St. Mark's church,

be present at their organs on all Sundays and prescribed feast days and

should play at the Mass and at Vespers, each in turn responding to the verses

of all the psalms.]

Other evidence comes from the duomo of Treviso, where, in 1535, the recently

elected first organist, Francesco di Sant'Angelo, showed himself unequal to his

task because "non respondet aut sit sufficiens capellae cantorum" [he was not up

to responding to the choir]. Like his predecessor Thomeus da Rovigo, he was

"imperitus non respondet aut concordat cum cantoribus capelle dicte ecclesie"

[incapable, neither of responding nor keeping together with the singers in the

choir].20

19 Moore, "The Liturgical Use of the Organ," 372.

20 Giovanni D'Alessi, Organi e organisti della cattedrale di Treviso (1361-1642)

(Vedelago: Ars et Religio, 1929), 75-76. It should be noted that the "capella cantorum" mentioned here refers to a choir of figurai music, given that the same documents speak of "chorus" when plainchant is meant. In documents relating to these same problems we read

that the organist Thomeus da Rovigo "non est sufficiens ad sonandum ipsum organum atque quotidie ipse facit discordare chorum, non intelligendo tonos aut cantum firmum et quod nullum habet mensuram sive modum in sonando, ideo volentes providere




Evidence of considerable importance comes from the celebrated rule of the

Prova s?lita per esperimentar li organisti chepretendono concorrere a Vorgano nella

chiesa di San Marco in Venezia, [The usual test taken by organists who wish to

compete for the organist's post in St. Mark's in Venice] which probably dates from

Zarlino's time.21 Though the audition did not require the organist to prove his abil

ity in accompanying polyphony, even if it took place in the presence of the singers,

it is important to note the contents of the third and last point of this regulation:

Si fa cantare la capella de' cantori qualche versetto di compositione non

troppo usitata, la qual deve imitare et rispondergli, si in tuono come fuori di

tuon; et queste cose fatte d'improvviso dan chiaro indicio del valor de l'orga

nista facendole bene.

[The chapel singers will sing a few verses from a not-often performed com

position, which he (the organist) must imitate and respond to, both in

the (same) mode and in others; and these things, done on the spur of the

moment, give a clear indication of the organist's talent.]

Such a test requires the organist to "imitate and respond" to some "verses from a

not-often performed composition" sung by the chapel, probably a few poly

phonic verses of psalms, hymns or canticles or perhaps even one or another part

of the Mass. With regard to St. Mark's, the idea of the organist functioning as an

instrument of response to the polyphony sung by the chapel is supported by

de uno id?neo organista pro ecclesia decore et ornamentum et satisfaction dominorum

presbiterorum canenrium in choro, cassaverunt ipsum Thomeum." [is not good enough at

playing the organ and every day he causes the choir to sing out of tune because he does not understand modes and plainsong. So since he possesses no ability, and wishing therefore to hire a suitable organist for the dignity of the church and the satisfaction of the priests

who sing in the choir, they fired this Thomeus.]

21 This famous document, kept in the Archivio di Stato in Venice (Procurator! de

supra, busta 91, processo 207, Carica di organisti, 1, Obblighi ed emolumenti 1316-1767,

c.l), was made known by Francesco Caffi, Storia della m?sica sacra nella gi? capella ducale di S. Marco in Venezia dal 1318-1797,2 vols. (Venice: Giovanni Antonelli, 1854; reprint, Bologna: Forni Editore, 1972): 1, 28. For a discussion of evidence regarding the

appointment of the organists of Treviso, Padua and Venice, see my "Concorsi organisrici a S. Marco e in area v?neta nel Cinquecento," in Francesco Passadore and Franco Rossi,

eds., La cappella musicale di San Marco in et? moderna (Venice: Fondazione Levi, 1998), 259-278.




numerous documents presented a decade or so ago by James Moore.22 The vari

ous 16th-and 17th-century ceremonials from that church that Moore examined

yield a good deal of evidence in this respect and may be summarized as follows:

I) the organ playing in place of the antiphon at the end of every psalm;

E) the organ alternating with the verses of the Te Deum;

DI) the organ replacing the choir at various places in the proper;

TV) the organ alternating with the choir in the Kyrie-Christe-Kyrie of the

Mass.23

The idea of the organ as an instrument of response or as a replacement of the

choir helps us to clarify the meaning of many documents otherwise difficult to

interpret. Continuing for the moment with Venice, I cite as an example a pas

sage taken from Bartolomeo Bonifacio's well-known Rituum ecclesiasticorum

ceremoniale of 1564, which deals with the ceremonies to be held in the "chiesetta"

of San Nicol?, the Doge's private chapel in the Ducal Palace:

Sic cantatur missa post adventum domini ducis cum collegio in sacello, sine

organis, cum sonatoribus domini qui supplentur pro ?rgano quando opus

fuerit et cantores cantant in sacello praedicto, sonatores ante januam extra

sacellum.24

[After the Doge and the officials have arrived in the chapel, the Mass is sung without the organ. The Doge's instrumentalists substitute for the organ

when necessary, and the singers sing in the above-mentioned chapel, with

the players (placed) before the door outside the chapel.]

22 Moore, "The Liturgical Use of the Organ," 356-362.1 shall return later to this

important piece of evidence.

23 The texts of the documents containing the evidence, which I have synthesized here, are published by Moore in "The Liturgical Use of the Organ," 369-377.

24 James H. Moore, "Bartolomeo Bonifacio's Rituum ecclesiasticorum ceremoniale,

Continuity of Tradition in the Ceremonial of St. Mark's, Venice," in Marc Honegger, Christian Meyer and Paul Pr?vost, eds., La musique et le rite sacr? et profane, Actes du XIIIe

Congr?s de la Soci?t? Internationale de Musicologie (Strasbourg, 29 aout-3 septembre 1982), 2 vols. (Strasbourg: Association des publications pr?s les Universit?s de Strasbourg, 1982), 2:365-408, especially 373,401. The performance of separate groups is confirmed

by a note added to the order by the master of ceremonies Duramano in 1694: "ci? non si

prattica perch? li cantori cantano un mottetto proprio a S. Nicol? nel tempo che quelli dovrebbeno suonare." [this cannot be done because the singers sing a motet in San Nicol?

just when the others should be playing.] (Moore, "Bartolomeo Bonifacio," 401).




The sense of this document, which indicates a separate arrangement of singers

and players, can only be understood if we imagine a separate and not simultane

ous performance of the two groups. Since the instrumentalists are used as a sub

stitute for the organ, and since the occasion is a Mass, among the various possibil

ities is that of playing at moments other than the ordinary, such as, for instance

"at the Epistle and at the Elevation" as prescribed by Bonifacio's ceremonial

(1564) for the anniversary of the Doge's election.25 Evidence similar to that

provided by these Venetian rubrics can be found in other contexts. In Rome, in

1585, at Sant'Apollinare, the church of the famous German-Hungarian College,

the Diarium ecclesiae refers to the singing of a "Nunc dimittis 8 vocum in dialogo

correspondente ?rgano" [Nunc dimittis in eight parts in dialogue with the organ

responding] performed at Compline.26 Here, I believe it is possible to glean from

the wording an example of alternatim practice between organ and vocal poly

phony. In the same church on Christmas Eve of 1587, contrary to ancient usage

that provided for the alternation of organ and plainchant, it was now specified

that "pulsatum organum ad hymnum Christe Redemptor omnium et m?sica res

pondebat, item sub Te Deum" [the organ played the hymn Christe Redemptor omnium and the m?sica, (that is, the singers of figurai music), responded, and so

too for the Te Deum].27 Again in 1625 we find evidence of this practice in the

cathedral of Fermo, where a solemn Te Deum sung during a pastoral visit was

25 David Bryant, "La m?sica nelle istituzioni religiose e profane di Venezia," in Giro lamo Arnaldi and Manlio Pastore Stocchi, eds., Storia della cultura v?neta 4/1 (Il Seicento) (Vicenza: Neri Pozza, 1982), 436. On the anniversary of the election of the Doge "se li canta la soprascritta messa ... con instrumenti, con li cantori et in ?rgano alla ep?stola et elevatione." [the above-mentioned Mass is sung... with instruments, with the singers and

with the organ at the Episde and the Elevation.]

26 Thomas Cu?ey, Jesuits and Music, I: A Study of the Musicians Connected with the German College in Rome during the 17th Century and of their Activities in Northern

Europe (Rome, St. Louis: Jesuit Historical Institute, 1970), 301.

27 Ibid., 302: "praeter morem antiquum pulsatum ?rgano ad hymnum Christe

redemptor omnium et m?sica respondebat, item sub Te Deum laudamus et chorus grego rianus nihil respondit

? Non placuit tarnen, melius est... ut chorus gregorianus respon

deat." [contrary to the ancient practice, the organ played the hymn Christe redemptor omnium and the singers responded ? However, it was not satisfactory, and it would be better to have the responsories sung by the choir in Gregorian chant.]




performed "musicis modulis ... alternantibus organis decantantibus" [in figurai

music ... alternating with the playing of the organ].28

It should be kept in mind that the practice of the organ playing verses not set

to vocal polyphony was still in use even after the basso continuo period was well

established. For example, in Giovanni Rovetta's setting of Ave Maris Stella

(Motetti concertati... libro primo, Venezia: Vincenzi, 1635) the even verses are

substituted by interludes on the organ, as Rovetta makes clear at the end of his

composition, "qui si suona un poco con l'organo, et serve per l'aversetto [il ver

setto] che segue poi si ripiglia da capo, principiando dalla proportione, et cos?

l'altre volte" [here the organ plays a bit, and this stands in place of the verse that

follows; then one repeats from the top, beginning at the proportion (sign), and

does the same for the other verses].29

The fundamental importance of "responding to figurai singing" is, more

over, also confirmed in the major Italian organ treatises of the late Renaissance. To

cite a few passages from Girolamo Diruta's 77 Transilvano :30

L'organista ? obligato rispondere al choro et imitare quello che canta o sia

canto figurato over canto fermo.

[The organist is obliged to respond to the choir and imitate what is sung whether in figurai music or in plainchant]

28 Lavinio Virgili, "La cappella musicale della chiesa metropolitana di Fermo dalle

origini al 1670," Note d'archivio per la storia musicale 7 (1931): 1-86, particularly 55.

29 Rovetta did not write out the entire organ part. It is probable that the organist realized the bass of the verse set to music, wholly or in abbreviated form. The score of the

Missa Ave Maris Stella by Francesco Cavalli (Musiche sacr?) follows precisely this scheme: "the written-out ritornelli are based on a telescoped version of the bass for the stanzas of the text, adopting the phrases for the first, second, third and sixth lines of each stanza and

dovetailing them to create a single span of music"; as reported by James H. Moore, Vespers at St. Mark's. Music of Alessandro Grandi, Giovanni Rovetta and Francesco Cavalli, 2 vols. (Ann Arbor: UMI, 1981), 2: 179, 362.

30 G. Diruta, // Transilvano, Vol. 2 (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti, 1609): libro I, 21; libro lu, 4; libro IV, 1,7. An English translation and edition is in Murray C. Bradshaw and

Edward J. Soehnlen, eds., Girolamo Diruta: The Transylvanian (II Transilvano) (Henry ville, PA: The Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1984.)




Vi ? necessario intendere un'altra sorte di trasportationi per poter rispon

dere al choro in voce commoda, tanto nel canto figurato quanto nel canto

fermo.

[It is necessary to understand another kind of transposing in order to re

spond to the choir in a pitch that is convenient for them, whether in figurai

music or in plainchant.]

[L'organista] ha da imitar li canti del choro, o siano canti fermi o figurati.

[(The organist) must imitate what the choir sings, whether figurai music or

plainchant.]

Li Magnificat sopra li otto toni, con la propria fuga delle loro intonationi, li

quali vi serviranno per rispondere al canto fermo e al figurato con le loro

trasportationi per commodit? del choro.

[The Magnificats on the eight tones, with their own fugal themes based on

their intonations, well help you respond to plainsong or to figurai music

with their respective transpositions, for the convenience of the choir.]

Similar expressions recur also in Costanzo Antegnati's Arte org?nica:*

e perci? [l'organista] deve usar diligenza, come s'? detto, di rispondere in

proposito, imitando il canto fermo o figurato.

[and thus (the organist) must use diligence, as has already been said, in order

to properly respond, imitating both the plainchant and figurai music]

pero laudo il mutar registro da una volta all'altra et anco nel suonar, cambiar

stile suonando h?r grave con l?gataire, h?r presto con diminutioni, imitando

sempre che si pu? la m?sica o canto fermo, rispondendo sempre in tuono,

che questo ? l'obligo principale dell'organista.

[however, I commend changing register from time to time as well as chang

ing style, playing now restrained, with held notes, now fast, with diminu

tions, always imitating figurai music or plainchant as much as possible,

responding always in the same tone, for this is the organist's main duty.]

31 The quotations are taken, respectively, from fol. [5v] and fol. [7v] of the edition of L'Arte org?nica printed at Brescia in 1608 by Francesco Tebaldino.




The theory that this was the most common and widespread practice, and not

simply an alternative among several possibilities, seems supported by the separa

tion of and distance between the choir and the organ gallery (palco, or pergamo,

or pulpito, or poggiolo, but, let it be noted, not yet the cantoria) throughout the

Cinquecento. The documents and iconographical evidence in our possession seem to agree that when they performed, singers of figurai music were in the

choir area, in a few cases on a special palco or pergamo. Explicit evidence from

early in the 16th century comes from the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in

Florence, where a chapel of singers was reinstituted early in the 16th century. Not

long afterwards, on 4 December 1501, the church's overseer, noting that when

the musicians sang

in pergamo existenti in coro dicte ecclesie, non est dicta cathedra vel perga

mum capax... deliberaverunt... dictum pergamum addi et maiorem fieri,

adeo quod possint omnes cantores stare et canere... et eo modo et forma et

prout Simone del Pollaiolo caput magistro dicte Opere videbitur etc.32

[in the pergamo existing in the said church, said platform or pergamo is not

wide (enough) ...

they decided ... to have the said pergramo enlarged so

that there is room for all of the singers, in whatever way and form seems

appropriate to Simone del Pollaiolo, the Opera's architect.]

From Giorgio Vasari we learn of later modifications in Santa Maria del Fiore

when Giuliano di Baccio d'Agnolo

con Pintervento del Bandinello diede principio a detto coro e ... fece pari mente due altri archi simili che vengono con Pentrata e Paitare a far croce; e

questi per due pergami come aveva anco il vecchio, per la m?sica et altri

bisogni del coro e dell'altare33

32 See Frank A. D'Accone, "The Musical Chapels at the Florentine Cathedral and

Baptistry During the First Half of the 16th Century," Journal of the American Musicolo

gical Society 24 (1971): 1-50, especially 2.

33 Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de'pi? eccellenti pittori, scultori e architetti (Florence:

Giunta, 1568), mod. ed. by Maurizio Marini (Rome: Newton, 1991), 829 (Vita di Baccio

d'Agnolo architettore fiorentino).




[with the help of Bandinelli, started working on this choir and... made like

wise two other similar arches which formed a cross with the entrance and

altar. These were for thepergami, as in the former (choir), to be used for the

music and other needs of the choir and altar.]

A description of the duomo of Pisa, before the fire of 1595, informs us that "dalla mano destra del choro era un pergamo grande, capace di molte persone, cos? fatto

per la cappella de musici" [on the right hand side of the choir, there was a large

pergamo, capable of holding many people, made in this way for the chapel of

singers]. It faced the organ which was situated "in alto sotto la cupola" [high up,

under the cupola] .34 So too in the cathedral of Milan, towards the end of the Cin

quecento, the two "lettorini per la m?sica" [small lecterns for the music], where

the choir sang, were situated beneath the organs.35 In Santa Barbara in Mantua

(constructed under Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga in the years 1562 -1564), the organ

built in 1565 was placed halfway down the nave along the right wall, while the sin

gers of polyphony performed from a cantoria above the main entrance.36 There

are numerous examples of a double set of cantorie ? one for the organ, the other

for the singers ? set symmetrically at the threshold of the presbytery or at the

ends of the transepts.

The first documented example is that of Pisa in the church of the Cavalieri

di Santo Stefano. Here in 1569, Vasari designed two symmetrical marble poggioli on either side of the presbytery arch, "quello dell'organo

... e quello della

m?sica" to quote from one of his letters.37 Shortly after 1594, a description of

34 I. B. Supino, "Il pergamo di Giovanni Pisano nel duomo di Pisa," Archivio storico delVarte 5 (1892): 74.

35 So it appears from a description of the cathedral dated ca. 1593 -1600. See Aurora

Scotti, "Architettura e riforma cattolica nella Milano di Carlo Borromeo," L 'arte 5 (1972): 83, notes 18-20.

36 Pierre Tagmann, "La cappella dei maestri cantori della basilica palatina di Santa Barbara a Mantova (1565-1630): nuovo materiale scoperto negli archivi mantovani," Civilt? mantovana 4 (1970): 376; Besutti, "Catalogo," 54-55.

37 Cited by Josephine von Henneberg, "The Church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri in Pisa: New Drawings," Antichit? viva 30 (1991): 40, n. 14. Concerning the position of the organ in churches, see my "Organi e sistemazioni architettoniche nelle chiese toscane nel Rinascimento," I Tatti Studies. Essays on the Renaissance 7 (1997): 279-303.




the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere states explicidy that the chorus cantorum

was situated in the left transept facing the organ in the right transept, and therefore

with about twenty meters between them, as is still the case today.38

In 1595, at the cathedral of Padua the proposal of building two "pergami da

esser posti in luoco conveniente... l'uno per la m?sica, l'altro per l'organo" [per

gami to be conveniendy situated... one for the singers of figurai music, the other

for the organ] was discussed.39 At the cathedral of Ferrara in 1596 a "coro dei

musici contra l'organo" [place for the singers of figurai music opposite the organ] was built, that is, in the last intercolumniation on the right of the nave, facing the

organ.40 A similar solution was adopted in 1609 in the cathedral of Reggio Emilia

where it was decided to "far reporre l'organo nel luogo medesimo dove era

prima" [replace the organ where it had previously been], that is, in the first inter

columniation preceding the presbytery, "et di fare un altro palco all'incontro"

[and to make another palco opposite it] called in the documents pontilio per

cantare. Finally, in 1601 at Santa Maria d?lia Scala a cappella dei musici was

erected, that is, a cantoria for the choir facing the early sixteenth-century organ, to

the front of the presbytery area, which still exists today.41 In addition to all of this evidence, a recent investigation of architecture and

ceremonial at St. Mark's in Venice has shown that the distance between the pulpi tum cantorum (or pergolo dei musici) and the cantorie of the organ made a joint

38 Descriptio basilicae S. Mariae in Transtiberim, Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, MS

1713, 14-15: "De choro cantorum. Meridium versus ad dexteram absidis partem in

pariete est apensus chorus e regioni organi ad ejus proporrionem [deductus?] propter comoditatem cantorum." (To the right of the apse means to the right as one goes from apse to nave). From the late Cinquecento in Rome, we have further evidence of pairs of sym

metrical cantorie set opposite each other, one for the organ, the other presumably for the

singers, notably, in San Lorenzo in D?maso in 1592 and in the Chiesa Nuova in 1595.

39 Claudio Bellinati et al., Il duomo diPadova e ilsuo battistero (Sarmenta, 1977), 40; Raffaele Casimiri, "M?sica e musicisti nella cattedrale di Padova nei sec. XIV, XV, XVI: contributi per una storia," Note d'archivio per la storia musicale 19 (1942): 84.

40 Arturo Giglioli, "Il duomo di Ferrara nella storia e nelParte," in La cattedrale di Ferrara (Verona: Mondadori, 1937), 222; Adriano Cavicchi, "L'organo della cattedrale nella tradizione musicale e organaria ferrarese: una proposta di ricostruzione ideale," in

Jadranka Bentini, ed., San Giorgio e la principessa di Cosme Tura (Bologna: Nuova Alfa, 1985), 112; Enrico Peverada, "cDe organis et canribus': normativa e prassi musicale nella chiesa ferrarese del Seicento," Analecta pomposiana 17-18 (1992-93): 110-11?.

41 Daniela Gallavotti Cavallero, Lo spedale di Santa Maria della Scala in Siena (Pisa: Pacini, 1985), 299-301.




performance of organs and singers impossible, thus abolishing the traditional

myth in music history of the "split" choirs or hattenti, each supported by an

organ.42

The gradual change that takes the singers from the choir to the poggiolo of

the organ seems to pass through the ever more frequent practice of the so-called

concerti nelli organi. These at first were only instrumental but later they became

both vocal and instrumental. After the mid-Cinquecento in Florence, we find

documents that speak of m?sica in ?rgano. In 1553 the friars of the Carmine in

Florence appointed Vincenzo Menichetti da Lucca as organist, and obliged him to

"far venire per la sacra e l'Ascensione la m?sica in su l'organo" [have (singers of)

figurai music present (to perform) with the organ for the (feast of) the consecra

tion and the Ascension].43 And on the same feast day in 1564, the organist Anto

nio del Fortino was obliged to "condurre cappella di m?sica et per l'organo et per

il coro" [appoint a chapel of figurai music both with the organ and in the choir]."

In the cases just mentioned, the "m?sica per l'organo" might well have been

performed on other instruments; a few years earlier in 1549, Lorenzo di Frosino,

the church organist, on "il giorno della sacra e d?lia Ascensione o messa novella

[First Mass]" was obliged to "menarci a sonare la cornetta e trombone torto o

altro strumento" [bring a player of cornett and slide trombone or another instru

ment].45 So too at Pistoia in 1575, in the church of the Santissima Annunziata, a

report refers to "una bellissima m?sica, massime sull'organo con cornetti et tram

boni" [a most beautiful music, especially on the organ with the cornetts and trom

bones]. Four years later there is mention of "bellissima m?sica sull'organo et in

choro, massime al vespro."46 Even in this case, the "m?sica sull'organo" was

probably instrumental only ("cornetti et tromboni") while that "in choro" must

42 David Bryant, "The 'cori spezzati' in St. Mark's: myth and reality," Early Music

History 1 (1981): 165-186.

43 Andrea Sabarini, "Memorie degli organi del Carmine di Firenze," L'organo 10

(1972): 191.

44 Ibid., 192.

45 Ibid., 189-190.

46 Davide M. Montagna, Feste liturgiche ed "altre allegrezze " all'Annunziata di Pi

stoiafra il '500 e il 700 (Kstoia: Societ? Pistoiese di Storia Patria, 1987), 12-29.




have been vocal. In fact, other research has made it clear that in the 15th and 16th

centuries, instrumental groups participating in ceremonies would usually per

form polyphonic pieces from their own repertories quite distinct from those

performed by the singers.47 Furthermore, in 1548 at the Frari church in Venice, an

unusual combination of one singer and a group of wind players, "piffari," due to

the sudden need to substitute a missing instrumental part, led to a harsh trial.48

Thus from the 15605s onwards we find the first mention of the practice defined in contemporary documents as concerti negli organi referring to groups

of instruments, (usually trombones and cornetts that had been accompanying

processions already for some time) performing from the poggiolo of the organ.

The first evidence of the concerti negli organi dates from 1568, when the procura

tors of St. Mark's appointed Girolamo da Udine to "far a tutte sue spese con istru

menti di f iato et con doi suoi fratelli et altri musici li concerti nelli organi (perform concerti nelli organi on wind instruments with two of his brothers and other

musicians] on Christmas, Easter and other feasts throughout the year.49

One should recall that in this case the written contract with the musicians

formalizes a working situation which had been irregular until that time. It is diffi

cult, however, to imagine that from the start the concerti nelli organi embraced

simultaneous performances of voices, organ and instruments. The Sacrae cantio

nes ... turn viva voce, turn omnis generis instrumentis cantatu commodissirnae

(1565) by Andrea Gabrieli, as well as the contemporaneous Sacrae cantiones

47 Giulio M. Ongaro, "Gli inizi della m?sica strumentale a San Marco" in F. Passa dore and F. Rossi, eds., La cappella ducale di San Marco e la m?sica di Giovanni Legrenzi (Firenze: Olschki, 1994), 215-226; Rodolfo Baroncini, "Contributo alla storia del violino

nel sedicesimo sec?lo: i 'sonadori' di violini della Scuola Grande di San Rocco a Venezia," Recercare 6 (1994): 61-136; Marco Di Pasquale, "Aspetti della pratica strumentale nelle chiese italiane fra tardo medioevo e prima et? moderna," Rivista Internazionale di M?sica Sacra 16 (1995): 239-268, and his "The Instrumental Contribution to Church Music in

Northern Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries: An overview," in Traditionen der euro

p?ischen Mehrstimmigkeit und die Musik Mitteleuropas im 15.-18. Jahrhundert (Interna tionalen Symposium, Bratislava, 5.-6. Dezember 1996) (== Slovenskd Hudba: Revue pre hudobn? kulturu 22 (1996): 338-44.

48 Ongaro, "Gli inizi," 218-219.

49 Eleanor Selfridge-Field, La m?sica strumentale a Venezia da Gabrieli a Vivaldi

(Turin: ERI, 1980), 23; Ongaro, "Gli inizi," 220.




of Orlando di Lasso, sometimes cited as evidence for this,50 though printed in

Venice in the 1560's and 1570's, actually refer to the practice of the Munich chapel

choir. Only from the end of the 1570's can we discern traces in documents which

suggest a collaboration of voices, organ and instruments.

In 1577, the instrumental players ("da mano e da fiato") active in the cathe

dral of Udine, made a request stating that "pi? volte oltre il cantare e suonare ordi

nario, s'hanno nel nostro duomo suonate et cantate in diversi concerti in ?rgano et

in altri luoghi pubblici, assai et diversi nostre compositioni" [besides the normal

singing and playing, we have many times sung and played in various concerti in

?rgano in our church and in other public places, often using our own composi

tions].51 In fact, Bernardino Bucci, one of the instrumental players, offered "di

sonare gli organi del duomo ogni volta che occorrer? fare alcun concerto in essa

chiesa" [to play the organ in the duomo whenever a concerto should be needed

there].52

In 1579 at St. Mark's in Venice, during a Mass in honor of a visiting Austrian

archduke, after the Gospel reading, "si udirono li doi organi et sonatori et li can

tori" [both organs and the players and singers were heard] performing a motet.53

From 1582 in Sant' Antonio in Padua, a group of wind instruments (three trom

bones and a cornett) permanently joined the choir. Four years later, a violin was

added to "far concerti nell'organo" for the most solemn ceremonies and for

Compline during Lent and Holy Week.54 We cannot know with certainly if these

concerti nell organi were originally performed with instruments only, or if there

were singers as well. In 1590, however, the description of these concerti nelVor

gano at Sant' Antonio in Father Valerio Polidoro's Religiose memorie, gives us a

vivid picture of a performance involving voices, organ and instruments: "a questi

50 Stephen Bonta, "The Use of Instruments in Sacred Music in Italy, 1560-1700,"

Early Music 18 (1990): 519-535.

51 Giuseppe Vale, "La cappella musicale del duomo di Udine," Note d'archivioper la

storia musicale 7 (1930): 121.

52 Ibid., 124.

53 Bryant, "La m?sica nelle istituzioni," 438.

54 Jessie Ann Owens, "II Cinquecento," in Sergio Durante and Pierluigi Petrobelli,

eds., Storia della m?sica al Santo diPadova (Vicenza: N. Pozza, 1990), 50-51,67,78-79.




[cantori] s'accoppiano i sonatori in alcune feste principali, con i loro organi porta

tili, oltre i due grandi, tromboni, cornetti e violini" [on several principal feast days

these (singers) are joined by instrumentalists, with their portable organs ? in addi

tion to the (church's) two large ones ? trombones, cornetts and violins].55

Beginning in the 1580's, and not by chance, we find news of changes made

in organ pitch so as to conform to the wind instruments. The first well docu

mented case comes from the duomo of Cremona. Here in 1582, the maestro di

cappella Marc'Antonio Ingegneri and the organist Giovan Battista Morsolino,

who had worked in Munich with Lasso, ask that "il tuono [dell'organo]

corrisponda al coro della m?sica et concerti che in essa [chiesa] si fanno e [si]

faranno con tutte le sorti di strumenti musicali che in detta m?sica et concerto

concorrono" [the pitch (of the organ) agree with the choir and concerti that

perform in the (church) both now and in future, with all the kinds of musical

instruments that play in the choir and in concerto]*

From the last decades of the 16th century onwards, the concerti represent a

new practice determined in part by changing liturgical needs and Counter

Reformation ceremonial ?

which tend to involve the emotions and senses of the

congregation-spectators to a greater extent ? and in part by the new and gran

diose symbolism of power characteristic of state ceremonies in Venice and in the

Florence of the new Medici grand duchy of Tuscany. The singers, who until then

sang grouped around a lectern in the choir, now went up into the cantone,

together with the instrumentalists, not only to be heard but also to be seen by the

congregation.57 Not by chance do late 16th-century reports of the musical aspects

of solemn religous ceremonies, which in the past would refer at the very most to

aural sensations, now include discussion of the visual effect produced by the arrangement of singers and instrumentalists on the cantorie and raised

55 Ibid., 72-73.

56 These important documents, published for the first time by Gaetano Cesari and Guido Pannain in La m?sica in Cremona nella seconda meta del sec?lo XVI e iprimordi dell'arte monteverdiana, ed. Gaetano Cesari (Milan: Ricordi, 1939), xvi, have recendy been analysed by Bruce Haynes, "Pitch in Northern Italy in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth

Centuries," Recercare 6 (1994): 44 - 47, and Mischiati, "Marc'Antonio Ingegneri," 50- 51.

57 Regarding problems arising from placing singers in the cantorie, see Di Pasquale,

"Aspetri della prattica strumentale," 259.




palchi.58 The concerti, however, did not substitute, but rather coexisted side by

side with the normal practice of the organ alternating with the choir in poly

phony; or they would substitute for the choir in certain parts of the Mass and Ves

pers, or at other functions. These concerti were performed only on the most

important religious feast days, or on special events59 such as royal birthdays and

state anniversaries and on official visits of royalty or foreign ambassadors.60 The

concerti often took place just outside the liturgy proper (that is, before and after

the Mass or function), using texts derived from parts of other services or some

times even non-liturgical and free poetic texts.61

58 It is interesting to compare descriptions of two solemn cermonies in Santa Maria del Fiore a century and half apart in time. The first, excerpted from Giannozzo Manetti's celebrated description of the 1432 inauguration of the cupola, reports that: "tantis tamque variis canoris vocibus quandoque concinebatur, tantis etiam symphoniis ad celum usque elatis interdum cantabatur ... tantis armoniarum symphoniis, tantis insuper diversorum

instrumentorum consonationibus omnia basilice loca resonabant" [every part of the church resounded with the many voices of the singers, varied whenever they sung, and a

great variety of instruments played as well]. See F. X. Haberl "Die r?mische 'Schola Can torum' und die p?pstlichen Kapells?nger bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts," Bausteine f?r

Musikgeschichte 3 (Leipzig, 1888): 34. The second account is from more than a century and a half later. In 1589, the diarist Agostino Lapini, describing a solemn service in Santa

Maria del Fiore, recounts that "canti e suoni de' quali erano pieni e' pergami et organi, uscendo della pir?mide, che era sopra il crocif isso di coro una nugola dove erano sette can

tori, che tutti insieme cantorno e sonorno, cos? quelli delli organi come quelli delli pergami facendo un soavissimo concerto" [the pergami and organ (lofts) were full of players and

singers, like a cloud emanating from the pyramid above the crucifix in the choir, where there were seven singers. They all sang and played together, so that those in the organ lofts like those in the pergami made a very sweet concerto.] See Agostino Lapini, Diario

florentino dal 252 al 1596, ed. Giuseppe Odoardo Corazzini (Florence, 1900), 286.

59 See the quotation from Lapini's Diario in the previous note.

60 See Bryant, "La m?sica nelle istituzioni," 438, for an example.

61 The Descrizione de lafelicissima entrata delser.mo d. Ferdinando de 'Medid, cardi

nale granduca di Toscana (Florence, 1588) reports that in the church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri in Pisa, "il concerto di questa m?sica fu a venti voci et, a usanza di due mezze

lune, quattro tromboni, un ?rgano, due viole da gamba et quattro leuti. Le parole furono

compositione di due begli spiriti" [the musical ensemble, standing in two semicircles, consisted of twenty voices, four trombones, an organ, two gambas and four lutes. The

words were composed by two skillful writers], while at the Mass on Palm Sunday "si fece una bellissima m?sica con voci e con ?rgano et altri strumenti, et era m?sica scompartita in

tre pulpiti, dove si canto un mottetto, sopra '1 quale il signor Bientina fece la m?sica, le cui

parole saranno di sotto" [very beautiful music ? a motet composed by Signor Bientina to words given here below, was done with voices, organ and other instruments, divided

among three pulpits.] See Franco Baggiani, "Musicisti in Pisa; i maestri della chiesa conventuale dei Cavalieri di S. Stefano," Bollettino storico pisano 52 (1983): 125.




In St. Mark's, for example, two quite different practices of polyphonic

music coexisted, notably, that of the psalms and that of the concerti. The psalms

present a wholly liturgical text, which, verse by verse, derives from those of Ves

pers, Compline and Terce. Invariably there are two choirs and a cantus firmus is

used; the psalms are performed only during the most solemn ceremonies. The

concerti (sacrae cantiones) vary in their combinations of voices. Though generally

united within a single choir, they do not use cantus firmus, and their texts, often

abbreviated from other offices (Matins and Lauds), are performed out of the

usual liturgical position in the Mass and on special liturgical events.62

The distinct difference between normal polyphonic music and the concerti

shows up clearly in numerous documents from Santa Maria Maggiore in Ber

gamo, where the two practices coexisted in the early years of the Seicento. At Ves

pers, for example, the psalms and hymns were sung in the cantoria by voices

alone, though sometimes supported with a trombone or violone to reinforce or

substitute for the bass. The concerti, on the other hand, were performed after the

psalm replacing the repetition of the antiphon "di sopra negli organi" [above, in

the organ loft] with voices and instruments.63

It seems to me that two points in particular clearly demonstrate that the

innovations in late Cinquecento performance, that is, the use of instruments and

voices together and organ accompaniment, first made their appearance with the

concerti. First, the earliest spartidure for the organ, initially appearing in printed

church music from 1594, at least for the first decade of their existence, almost all

belong to collections of motets, concerti ecclesiastici and sacrae cantiones."

Secondly, in church music printed during the second half of the Cinquecento in

Italy that explicitly demands the ad libitum use of instruments, an indisputable

majority contains motets (46 collections), few psalms for Vespers (7), only one

Mass and no hymns, litanies or items for Compline.65

62 Bryant, "The 'cori spezzati' in St. Mark's," 178-179.

63 Maurizio Padoan, "La m?sica in Santa Maria Maggiore a Bergamo nel periodo di Giovanni Cavaccio," in Maurizio Padoan, Oscar Tajetti and Alberto Colzani, eds., Studi sul primo Seicento (Como: AMIS, 1983), 51-53.

64 Horsley, "Full and Short Scores," 468-471.

65 Bonta, "The Use of Instruments," 522.




At this time, the term concerti could also signify pieces for a few voices (from one to three) and organ, or for one instrument and organ. Some very important

evidence of this type of concerti has come down to us from Rome in the 1580's.

This evidence, however, has sometimes been misused to support indiscriminately

the theory of the use of the organ in most church music during Palestrina's time.66

In 1582, Father Lauretano, head of the German College, wrote in his diary of

"mottetti malincolici et il pi? d?lie lamentationi di Hyeremia che a ogni hora, et

pi? spesso, si cantavano sopra l'organo con doi o tre voci sole, davano gran divo

tione a tutti" [melancholy motets and most of the Lamentations of Jeremiah at

each office, and even more often, would be sung by two or three solo voices alone

to organ accompaniment, evoking great devotion in everyone]. In the same year

"in loco del Deo gratias, doppo il Benedicamus Domino, si canto nel ?rgano un

motetto breve a due voci" [instead of the Deo Gratias and after the Benedicamus

Domino, a short two-voice motet was sung with organ accompaniment].67

A passage from the biography of Father Mich?le Lauretano, head of the

College from 1573-78, written by Mathias Schrick who was a student there be

tween 1583 and 1589, refers precisely to this practice:

nequ?quam adversabatur, si interdum aut una sola aut plures liquidiores

voces, peculiarem aliquem versum, aut e psalmis aut e sacris hymnis,

simul cum ?rgano exciperent, aut congruam tempori cantionem aliquam

artifici?se elaboratam (vulgo moteta vocant) ex integro intercinerent.

[Father Lauretano did not object that sometimes they would choose a verse

from the psalms, hymns, or a chant relevant to the liturgy of the moment,

and would elaborate skilfully in one or more clear voices together with the

organ (commonly called a motet) and would sing it in its entirety.]68

66 Graham Dixon, "The Performance of Palestrina: Some Questions, but Fewer

Answers," Early Music 22 (1994): 669-671.

67 Culley, Jesuits and Music, 297,299. Sources of the diary mentioned here speak at

times of "choro nell'organo," which, however, seems to refer to the place where this

group of singers sang (probably Gregorian chant), in contrast to the other, usual place "al loco s?lito," probably in the choir. (Ibid., 297).

68 Ibid., 78-77, 277.




This passage seems to emphasize, as indeed does the whole document, that the

practice of having a few voices performing with the organ was still uncommon at

the time.69 No less interesting is the practice ?

in a certain sense analogous to the

preceding example ?

of a single instrument playing with the organ. In 1586-87,

in the church of San Rocco in Rome, the violinist Desiderio Orsini was paid for

"aver sonato sopra l'organo" and "nell'organo" at Masses and Vespers during

Lent, and at Easter and Christmas.70 In 1591, at Sant'Apollinare, the Diario states

that "all'offertorio si canto un mottetto con ?rgano e cornetta [sic], et alla comu

nione di voci" [at the Offertory a motet was performed with the organ and the

cornett, and at the Communion with voices].71 Similar evidence comes from the

duomo of Modena, where, in 1596, at a solemn Mass "su l'organo vi suon? il

Cavalier del Cornetto [Luigi Zenobi] alle secrete" [the Cavalier del Cornetto

played on the organ before the Preface].72

69 In the introduction to his Cento concerti ecclesiastici a una, a due, atre& quattro voci con il basso continuo per sonar con l'organo (Venice: Giacomo Vincenzi, 1602), composed not by chance in Rome, Ludovico Viadana provides good evidence of this

practice. He writes that these concerti were meant to supply a convenient repertoire for those singers who "volendo alle volte cantare in un ?rgano a tre voci o con due o con una

sola, erano astretti per mancamento di compositioni a

proposito loro di appigliarsi ad una

due, tre parti di mottetti a

cinque a sei, sette et anche a otto." [wishing sometimes to

sing with the organ with three voices, with two, or with one alone, were obliged, because of a lack of suitable compositions, to use one, two or three parts of motets (composed) for

five, six, seven, and even eight voices.] Before Viadana, Gabriele Fattorini had published a collection of Sacri concerti a due vocifacili & commodi da cantare & sonare con l'organo (Venice: Riccardo Amadino, 1600).

70 Noel O'Regan, "Music at the Roman Archconfraternity of San Rocco in the Late

Sixteenth Century," in Bianca Maria Antolini, Arnaldo Morelli and Vera Vita Spagnuolo, eds., La m?sica a Roma attraverso lefonti d'archivio, Atti del convegno di studi (Roma, 4-7 giugno 1992) (Lucca: Librer?a Musicale italiana, 1994) 521-52, especially 544-45.

71 Culley, Jesuits and Music, 303.

72 Giovanni Battista Spaccini, Cronaca di Moderna, anni 1588-1602, eds., Albano

Biondi, Rolando Bussi and Carlo Giovannini (Modena: Panini, 1992), 30-31. It should be remembered that one of Viadana's Cento concerti ecclesiastici, Frates ego enim accepi, (second part) Ac?pite et mand?cate, is prescribed for "canto solo over cornetto."




Even in reports from the late Cinquecento one should be cautious about

interpreting expressions such as concerti ne 11 '?rgano and m?sica in su l'?rgano. In

some cases, in fact, such expressions might refer simply to the place where these

performances took place, and not necessarily to the use of the organ as an instru

ment of accompaniment or as a support for the voices. For example, in 1565 in

Sant'Antonio in Padua, the maestro di cappella was obliged to conduct "li cantori

a cantare in organi in tempi e festivit? annotate et anco quando si canta senz'or

gano" [the singers to sing in the organ lofts at the prescribed times and feasts, even

when they sing without the organ] P This seems to be confirmed by the fact that a

few years later, in 1576, the organist who played at the Vespers on Sunday and on

other feast days, was required only to "sonar l'organo alle antiphone de tutto '1

vespro" [play the organ at all of the antiphons thoughout Vespers].74 A similar

situation emerges even more clearly from the regulations governing the ducal

musicians in Genoa in 1590. Rule 7 states that the eight instrumental players

(trombones and cornetts)

saranno obbligati tutte le volte che il serenissimo doge uscir? di palazzo per

andar alle chiese, ritrovarsi in dette chiese, sonando o su l'organo o in altra

parte non essendogli l'organo, cos? all'entrata come all'uscita, et anco alla

messa se gli interverr? detto serenissimo senato.75

73 Antonio Garbelotto, "La cappella musicale di S. Antonio di Padova: profilo documentario dagli inizi a tutto il '500," 77 Santo 5 (1965): 363.

74 Ibid., 257.

75 Remo Giazotto, La m?sica a Genova nella vita pubblica e privata dal XIII al XVIIIsec?lo (Genova: Sigla Effe, 1951), 274, note 65. Also at the duomo of Udine in 1577, when the instrumental players spoke of "aver suonate et cantate in diversi concern in

?rgano et in altri luoghi pubblici, assai et diverse nostre compositioni" [having played and

sung in various concerti in ?rgano and in many other public places, several of our own

compositions], the term seems to be a reference to a place of performance, as Di Pasquale ("Aspetti della prattica strumentale," 251) maintains. As I have already mentioned, in this case we should note that a member of the instrumental group offered "di sonare gli organi del duomo ogni volta che occorrer? fare alcun concerto in essa chiesa" [to play the organs of the duomo every time a concerto was needed], (see note 52), even though this does not

necessarily mean he was to "suonare insieme agli strumenti" [play together with the instrumental players].




[are obliged to be in the church every time the most serene doge leaves the

palace to go to church, playing in the organ loft or in another place if there is

no organ, both when he enters and when he leaves, and during Mass as well

if the most serene senate is present.]

In other cases the expression could refer to the Renaissance practice of cantare

sulVorgano (or nelVorgano), that is, of a solo voice singing to organ accompani ment. The voice would probably have been in a high range because such a part was usually given to a puer cantus or other young singer. The practice was first

documented in Florence in 1488. There is other evidence of the cantare sulVor

gano practice from the end of the 15th century to the early years of the 17th in

other Italian cities such as Rome, Venice, Milan and Siena.76 It is variously descri

bed as consisting of singing "in sugli organi una laudetta,"77 as singing "in su l'or

gano un leggiadro mottetto,"78 and as "con le risposte dell'organo et una divina

76 For the evidence from Florence, which is by far the most abundant from the late

Quattrocento through the entire Cinquecento, see Frank A. D'Accone "The Florentine Fra Mauros: A Dynasty of Musical Friars," M?sica Disciplina 33 (1979): 78-137, particu larly 101,122-130; and his "Repertory and Performance Practice in Santa Maria Novella at the Turn of the 17th century," in Michael D. Grace, ed., A Festschrift for Albert Seay (Colorado Springs: Colorado College, 1982), 74-79, 119, 125-130. For Rome, see

Haberl, "Die r?mische 'schola cantorum'," 51; Arnaldo Morelli, "M?sica e musicisti in

S. Agostino a Roma dal Quattrocento al Settecento," in Renato Lefevre and Arnaldo

Morelli, eds., M?sica e musicisti nel Lazio (Rome: Palombi, 1985), 329; Christopher Reynolds, Papal Patronage and the Music of St. Peter's, 1380-1513 (Berkeley, Los Ange les: University of California Press, 1995), 134 -135; Luca Della Libera, "L'attivit? musicale nella basilica di S. Lorenzo in D?maso nel Cinquecento," Rivista Italiana di Musicolog?a 31 (1997): 34. For Verdee, see Giulio Maria Ongaro, "The chapal of St. Mark's at the Time of Adrian Willaert, 1527-1562: A Documentary Study," Ph. D. dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1986, 314-315, 327. For Milan, see note 79 below.

77 Pietro Aretino, "Ragionamento della Nanna e della Antonia" in Carlo Cordi?, ed., Folengo, Aretino, Doni, 2 (La letteratura italiana: storia e testi, 26/11; Milan, Naples:

Ricciardi. 1976), 55.

78 An account of a ceremony honoring Emperor Charles V in Siena Cathedral on

24 April 1536 notes that "un fanciullo canto molto soavemente in su l'organo un leggiadro mottetto" [up in the organ loft a young boy sang a lovely motet]. See Frank A. D'Accone, The Civic Muse: Music and Musicians in Siena during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

(Chicago: The Chicago University Press, 1997), 669.




voce che dentro cantava."79 The decree regarding the customary pastoral visit to

the duomo of Fermo in 1573 probably refers to this practice when it notes that "in

organis lascivum quid vel impurum minime canatur nee pulsando misceatur"

[nothing wanton or impure should be played or sung on the organ]. At that time,

the cathedral of Fermo had no choir, but it did have a few singers who performed

plainchant at services.80

A careful reexamination of the documents known to us shows that the

problem considered here cannot be reduced simply to a general statement regard

ing the participation of the organ in the performances of church choirs. The

reality is more complex, depending on the period, the solemnity of the cere

mony, the type of church music, though not on local practice. The simultaneous

presence of an organist and a polyphonic choir, even in the late Cinquecento, is

no guarantee that the organ accompanied vocal polyphony for, as we have learn

ed, there were other possibilities. A unique bit of evidence furnished by Giovan

Battista Spaccini's Cronaca modenese confirms this and is worth citing here. The

background is this: in 1596 Fabio Ricchetti, a pupil of Luzzasco Luzzaschi and

organist at Sant'Agostino in Modena, came into conflict with Orazio Vecchi,

maestro di cappella of the local cathedral, who had come to direct a musical

function in that church. The Modenese chronicler reports that:

Quando furono all'epistola, l'organista gli lasci? il suo luogo ove ordinaria

mente cantano il mottetto, ma lui [Vecchi] non volse cantare. Gionto all'offer

torio, l'organista si mise a suonare, poich? quello era il suo luogo. Tra tanto,

vedendo il Vecchio che [il Ricchetti] non restava, cominci? ancor lui a cantare,

tanto che l'uno et l'altro si interrompevano, e bene il Vecchio ingiuri? l'altro in

casa sua e fu disordine grande.81

79 A report of a ceremony in the duomo of Milan in 1548, speaks of a Te Deum at Matins "with the responses of the organ and a divine voice that sang together." See Renato

Lunelli, "Contributi trentini alle relazioni musicali fra Pltalia e la Germania nel Rinasci

mento," Acta Musicologica 21 (1949): 64.

80 Virgili, "La cappella musicale," 18-19. It should be noted that as late as 1645,

when the canons and chapter of the cathedral of Fermo confirmed Giovanni Moresi's

appointment as maestro di cappella, they stipulated that he was to "cantar sempre le messe canonicali nel ?rgano et anco i vespri" [sing canonical Masses at the organ, and also Ves

pers]. (Ibid., 60.)

81 Cited in Gino Roncaglia, La cappella musicale del duomo di Modena (Florence: Olschki, 1957), 50.




[When it was time for the Episde, the organist stopped playing as that

was the usual time for the motet to be sung. But Vecchi did not want to

sing. Then at the Offertory, the organist began to play, as it was his turn.

When Vecchi saw that Ricchetti did not stop, he too began to sing so that

they were continually interrupting each other. Then Vecchi began to insult

the other (musician) and his relatives, and there was a good deal of

disorder.]

In the following year, so to avoid a repetition of this unattractive episode:

essendo mensale il r.m. Oratio Bianchi, can?nico e dottore, mando a dire a

m. Fabio Ricchetti, organista dignissimo che suonava in detta chiesa, se si

contentava che il m.r. Oratio Vecchi, mansionario e maestro della m?sica in

cattedrale, cantasse nell'offertorio certi mottetti nuovi che haveva fatto, che

anco menariano organista che sonasse e non facendo questo non volevano

venire; il Richetto risp?se che quanto a lui non stava a dire il venire e non

venire ma era in petto del padre priore, ma che essendo organista voleva

suonare alli suoi luoghi et quell'altro cantasse ancor lui le sue volte.82

[As the canon and doctor Reverendo Messer Orazio Bianchi was then re

sponsible for religious functions, he sent word to Fabio Ricchetti, worthy

organist of the church, to ask if he would mind whether during the Offer

tory Maestro Reverendo Orazio Vecchi, mansionario and maestro della

m?sica at the cathedral, were to sing some new motets that he had com

posed and (also) bring (his own) organist, for otherwise they did not want to

come. Ricchetti replied that it was not up to him to say who should or

should not come and that this depended rather on the Prior. However, since

he was the organist, he wanted to play when it was his turn, and the other

could sing when his turn.]

From this colorful episode, it is clear that the singers and organist did not perform

together, but each "alli suoi luoghi" [when his turn came], that is, at different

moments in the Mass.

82 Ibid., 51.




In sum, the evidence presented here should allow us to interpret and under

stand the historical facts in a less rigid manner, enabling us to reach the following conclusions:

1. The organist's most frequent role during the Cinquecento (and up until

the early Seicento) was to alternate with vocal polyphony in some pieces, espe

cially in those where alternating verses were set to music, such as, for example,

hymns, psalms and Magnificats. Another of his usual roles was to substitute

an instrumental passage for a polyphonic vocal one of the proper of the Mass

(Gradual, Offertory, Elevation, Communion) and at Vespers (the repetitions of

the antiphons after the psalms).

2. It was only in the late Cinquecento that the organ began to be associated

with voices and instruments in the performance of the so-called concerti, that is,

motets performed on particularly solemn and festive occasions. There is proof,

moreover, that up until the early Seicento, the newly developing practice of the

concerti did not completely replace the traditional a cappella polyphony, which

continued to be used in normal functions, especially for Masses, hymns, psalms

and Magnificats. A good example of this latter is the practice of the Chiesa Nuova in Rome,

which can be reconstructed both through documents and by means of the music

actually in use from the end of the Cinquecento to the early Seicento. We know

that in 1603 the Oratorians at the Chiesa Nuova decided to scale down the music

that had been performed with three or four choirs on the preceding anniversaries

of the death of Filippo Neri, who had died in 1595. Thus, so as not to irritate the

pope and Congregazione dei Santi by having excessive music at the service, espe

cially because the process of canonizing Filippo Neri had just begun, the Orato

rians decided that there should not be "altri chori di m?sica che nell'ordinario et

nell'organo."83 This important statement clearly shows us that, at this time, along

side the practice of polychoral music reserved for the most solemn occasions, two

practices existed side by side at the Chiesa Nuova for Sundays and regular feast

days. Material once belonging to the musical archives, which for the most part

83 See my 7/ templo arm?nico: m?sica nell'oratorio deiFilippini in Roma, 1575-1705

(Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 1991), 115, doc. 59.




have come down to us, corroborates this.84 "Ordinary" or standard music, prob

ably sung a cappella, corresponds to the codices in folio. These were copied just

during this period, namely, between the end of the Cinquecento and the first

decades of the Seicento, in choirbook format, without the organ part. They con

tain Masses, hymns, psalms, Magnificats and responsories, as do many books

acquired or already in the Oratorians' possession at that time.85 On the other

hand, the music "nell'organo," presumably the new practice of using basso conti

nuo, is reflected in volumes of motets for few voices (from one to four), such as

the Cento concerti ecclesiastici of Lodovico Viadana, and the books containing motets for two and three voices by Gabriele Fattorini, Giovanni Battista Cesena

and Agostino Agazzari.86 Other examples can be found in the second or third

books of motets for four to eight voices cum basso ad organum by Agazzari.87 It

should be stressed here that the simultaneous purchase of music, concertate

nell ?rgano (such as the above-mentioned works by Viadana and Agazzari) and a

cappella (as "un libro di messe a foglio di Christoforo Morales" or the "Respon

sori del Matelate") show the coexistence of the two practices, "nell'ordinario et

nell'organo," of which the documents speak.88

These two practices find an amazing analogy, even in terminology, in the

preface to the Choricipsalmi et motecta (Rome: Niccol? Muti, 1599) by Asprilio Pacelli. Here the composer distinguishes between the m?sica ordinaria di cappella

and the concerti con l'organo, terms by then in common use in Rome and present

in the collection in the version for four voices but which can also be performed ?

as Pacelli himself suggests ?

with two sopranos and bass with the organ.89 These

84 Antonio Addamiano and Arnaldo Morelli, "L'archivio della cappella musicale di Santa Maria in Vallicella (Chiesa Nuova) a Roma nella prima meta del Seicento: una

ricostruzione," Le fond musicali italiane 2 (1997): 37-67.

85 Ibid. In particular, see tables II and HI, and the Inventory of 1608 in the

Appendix.

86 Ibid. In particular, the Inventory of 1608 in the Appendix; see also my // tempio arm?nico,' 93.

87 Ibid., 93.

88 Ibid., 93.

89 Noel O'Regan, "The Performance of Palestrina: Some Further Observations,"

Early Music 24 (1996): 150-151.




two practices are also recognizable in opinions expressed concerning the capabili

ties of singers. In 1594 in Florence, for example, Emilio de'Cavalieri passes judge ment on a "castratino del Franciosino ... per cappella et ?rgano bonissimo"

[Franciosino's young castrato... (who sings) very well both in choir and with the

organ].90 Again, in 1614 at St. Mark's in Venice, one of the singers was lauded for

"sua bona servit? nel cantar in cappella come nelli concerti in ?rgano" [his good

service both singing in the chapel and performing with the organ].91

During the Seicento "m?sica a cappella senza ?rgano" was also practiced in

places outside the Roman sphere of influence, without ideological implications or

local influences, such as, for example, the practice of the Papal Chapel. In Venice

in 1614 Monteverdi requested the purchase of six books printed in Rome "da

cantar la messa a cappella ... nelli giorni feriali dell'anno, com'? l'ordinario per

brevit?" [for singing the Mass a cappella... on weekdays throughout the year, as

in usual for the sake of brevity]. These Masses, for four, five, six and eight voices,

were by Palestrina, Francesco Soriano, Lasso, Pietro Paolo Paciotti and Girolamo

Lambardi.92 At the Florentine cathedral in the mid-Seicento not only were Masses

and hymns by Palestrina still being used ("praticate in cappella con gusto dell'uni

versale"), but also works by Tom?s Luis Victoria, Pietro Paolo Paciotti and by local composers such as Luca Bati, Marco and Giovan Battista da Gagliano, all a

cappella and without organ.93 In Bologna in 1658 the regulations concerning the

choir in San Petronio prescribed that the singers perform with the organ, "cantare

sugl'organi," only a dozen times during the year on major feast days, while on

Sundays and minor feast days "si fa cappella," that is, they were to sing a cappella

90 Warren Kirkendale, The Court Musicians in Florence during the Principate of the Medici (Florence: Olschki. 1993), 110.

91 Paolo Fabbri, Monteverdi (Turin: EDT, 1985), 186.

92 Ibid., 186.

93 Gabriele Giacomelli, "Palestrina nel repertorio musicale della cattedrale di

Firenze, 1638-1677," in Rodobaldo Tibaldi, ed., La ricezione di Palestrina in Europa fino all'Ottocento (Lucca: Librer?a Italiana Musicale, forthcoming.) I thank the author for

having let me read his article before publication. A situation in many ways similar existed in the cathedral of Ravenna, where in the early Settecento collections of a cappella composi tions by Morales, Costanzo Porta, Giovanni Animuccia and Gian Giacomo Gastoldi were still in use. See Paolo Fabbri, Tre secoli di m?sica a Ravenna dalla Controriforma alia caduta dell'Antico Regime (Ravenna: Longo, 1983), 54-61, 180, note 1.




grouped around a lectern.94 This explains why polyphonic choirbooks were still

being used at this time, and why even compositions by Maurizio Cazzati, San

Petronio's maestro di cappella, were copied into them.95 In Sant' Antonio in

Padua, the Capitolario ovvero tariff a degVoblighi de'musici, z. set of regulations

concerning the choir from 1679, state that the "m?sica a cappella senz'organo"

represents the first level of a series of possibilities which include, in ascending order, music "a cappella con ?rgano senz'obligo d'instromenti" and finally "m?sica nelli organi con istromenti."96 This late evidence demonstrates the

persistence of performance practices inherited from the Renaissance alongside the new musiche concert?te of the Baroque era. Furthermore, it shows how

musical practices conformed to the level of the liturgical solemnity of feast days

within individual churches, independent of ideological influences.97

In conclusion, the results emerging from a reconsideration of these docu

ments suggest a less dogmatic approach to performance practices of sacred music

in Cinquecento Italy than in the past. In my opinion they offer a more convincing

reply to the three questions listed at the beginning of this paper. The question of

organ accompaniment should not be reduced simply to a problem of perfor mance practice, nor can it be explained within a simple evolution of composi

tional styles. The question, rather, should be interpreted within a wide historical

94 94. Oscar Mischiati, "La cappella musicale e il suo archivio," in La basilica di S. Petronio (Bologna: Cassa di Risparmio, 1984), 326. The Ordiniper la m?sica dell'in

signe collegiata di S. Petronio (1658) have been reprinted in facsimile in Osvaldo Gambassi, La cappella musicale di San Petronio (Florence: Olschki, 1987), 357-89.

95 Mischiati, "La cappella," 326. Mischiati notes that "degli strumenti soltanto i cor

netti, i tromboni e i violoni erano obbligati a partecipare alle esecuzioni, mentre i violini le violette e le tiorbe erano impegnati 'quando si cantera negli organi'" [as for instruments,

only the cornetts, trombones and violones were obliged to take part in the performance, while the violins, violettas and theorbos were used Vhen singing negli organi.']

96 Antonio Sartori, Documenti per la storia della m?sica al Santo di Padova, ed. Elisa Grossato (Vicenza: Neri Pozza, 1977), 214-216; Arnaldo Morelli," Il Seicento" in Storia della m?sica al Santo di Padova, 97-98.

97 It could be, therefore, that the distinctions between the styles referred to by some

Seicento theorists, from Sacchi to Kircher, from Berardi to Pitoni, are not mere scholastic

classifications, but refer to a diversified repertoire in use in that century, a century that historians correcdy consider characterized by these extreme "contradictions."




perspective and within a context of widespread changes, not only musical but

also social, political, religious and liturgical. Finally, we must distinguish between

continuation and innovation, or, in Nino Pirrotta's words, between "novit? e tra

dizione."



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