Music in Venice

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Music from Venice played an outstanding role in the cultural history of Europe from the 16th century until the end of the Republic .

From the 16th century onwards, the Venetian polychoir gave a decisive impetus for innovations in vocal and instrumental music . The Venetian School is closely linked to the names Willaert , Claudio Monteverdi or Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli , all organists at St. Mark's Basilica .

The centers of inner-city musical life from the end of the 16th century until the fall of the republic were the four large music schools , the Ospedali Grandi . Their girls' choirs and orchestras were famous across Europe for their quality and virtuosity. Renowned domestic and foreign musicians were engaged there as choir directors, singing teachers and composers. In addition to sacred music as part of the church liturgy, oratorios on biblical themes were performed. The Venetian psalm settings , which were part of the Sunday Vespers , formed a musical genre of their own .

The heyday of opera began in Venice from the middle of the 17th century. A stupendous number of operas were premiered at the city's twenty or so opera houses, including many works by Vivaldi , Galuppi , Cimarosa and Hasse . Up until the 19th century, Venice was, alongside Milan and Naples, one of the three most important locations for the premieres of the operas by Verdi , Donizetti and Bellini .

Music and festival culture

Pifferi during a doge procession in St. Mark's Square

Music was an essential element of the Venetian festival culture, which both served to maintain the identity of the Venetians with the city and republic, and on the other hand was used as an effective means of state propaganda. In addition to the political, state festivals always had a sacred-religious aspect, so the annual marriage of the Doge to the sea began with a pilgrimage to the Church of San Niccolò on the Lido. Doge processions usually took place with the participation of musicians from the cathedral singing school and from the Ospedali , as did the festivals of the many official patron saints. Were celebrated by the state because in addition to the festivals of the State cartridge Apostle Mark and Mary another four for the Doge, eight for the city itself - including the Pestheilige Rochus of Montpellier , the festivals of six urban parishes, each of the more than 200 came - Scuole had also a patron saint, for whose patronage celebrations at the latest since the 18th century singers and instrumentalists of the Ospedali were engaged, if the financial situation of the school in question allowed it. With Willaert's appointment as cathedral music director in 1527, spiritual afternoon concerts were held every Sunday and public holiday in St. Mark's Basilica, a custom that was later also taken up in the Ospedali churches with their Sunday Vespers, psalm concerts and oratorios. Since the 17th century there has been a public concert on St. Mark's Square every Sunday with the participation of the Cathedral Singing School.

Music at St. Mark's Basilica

Maestri di cappella at St. Mark's Basilica

Venice's rise to a glamorous and famous city of music began with the establishment of a singing school at St. Mark's Basilica. As early as the end of the 14th century, the organ and singer were recorded for the Mass liturgy, and in 1318 a maestro zucchetto was named as choirmaster. Until 1389 the only organist was also a choirmaster. In 1403, at the request of the procurators of San Marco, the first singing school was founded at the cathedral. The Scuola di cantofermo e figurato e contrapuntto teoretico e pratice was approved by the Senate and financed by the procurators. The state covered all costs for the maintenance and teaching of the students. Foreign musicians were initially hired as teachers. Dutch musicians also came via the tried and tested European trade routes that connected Dutch and Italian economic centers and through which the innovations in Dutch oil painting found their momentous entrance in Italy and brought the new music of Josquin Desprez , Johannes Ockeghem or Guillaume Du Fay to the city .

In 1527 Adrian Willaert succeeded Pietro di Fossis († 1527) in the post of Kapellmeister - Magister capellae cantus ecclesiastice Sancti Marci - at St. Mark's Basilica, which he held until his death in 1562. Under Willaert, Venice became a center of European musical culture. Through his importance as a teacher, he gained influence over an entire era. He enlarged the choirs and was able to increase the church music at St. Mark's Basilica to a previously unattained level, so that the fame of his Sunday and holiday concerts quickly spread. With the approval of the procurators, he set up a copy workshop to expand the in-house banknote inventory

Two opposite singer galleries in St. Mark's Basilica, 1846

Willaert used the space given in Markus with the balconies opposite, with the two organs installed there, in which he divided the choir into two sections that could be used both antiphonically and simultaneously. His musical innovations, the synthesis of Flemish, French and Italian style elements tested at St. Mark polychorality are closely related to the concept of the Venetian school linked. At the same time the principle of multiple choirs was transferred to instrumental music. Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) saw Willaert's music as the completion of the “ prima pratica ” in 1607 .

Music teachers at St. Mark's Basilica often taught the students of the Ospedali music schools , whose choirs were among the attractions for tourists to Venice until the mid-18th century.

The opera

Opera began to flourish in Venice in the middle of the 17th century. In 1637 the first public and commercially run opera house ever opened in the Rialto district , the Teatro San Cassiano. The opera houses SS. Giovanni e Paolo (1639), San Moisé (1640) and the short-lived Teatro Novissimo (1641) were added in quick succession. At times there were up to 20 opera houses in the city, and the Venetian opera became a major attraction for singers, composers, librettists and a growing stream of Venice tourists. Up until then, operas were part of the entertainment program of court society, which did not exist in Venice's republican state with its oligarchic upper class, which was time and financially involved to a large extent in the service of the republic as military, diplomats, members of government and officials. Music theater - shepherd games and allegorical plays with musical interludes - only occasionally took place in the non-public area.

The opera houses were box theaters with standing room in the stalls. The opera season was from autumn to Advent , from St. Stephen's Day to the end of Carnival and the feast of Ascension Day .

Former opera houses and theaters

  • Teatro San Cassiano 1637-1812, owned by the Tron family, was the first public and commercial opera house in Venice. It was demolished in 1812.
  • Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo on Calle della Testa, 1638-1715. The theater belonged to the Grimani family , who had to close it in 1715 for financial reasons.
  • Teatro San Moisè , 1640-1818, located near the Ca 'Giustinian and the Church of San Moisè .
  • Novissimo Theater . The theater with 400 to 500 seats only existed from 1641 to 1645. The architect and theater engineer was Giacomo Torelli , who equipped the house with the most modern baroque theater machinery at the time, which drove up the performance costs enormously. For financial reasons, the house may have ceased operations after only six seasons with six premieres.
  • Teatro SS. Apostoli , 1648.
  • Teatro ai Saloni di San Gregorio in Dorsoduro was from 1650 theater for the Accademia per Drami recitativi (= Academy of spoken theater)
  • Teatro Sant 'Apollinare , opened in 1651 under the direction of the impresario Giovanni Faustini . Faustini died during the performance of Cavalli's opera La Calisto , for which he had written the libretto. It was closed in 1661 and then used as a residential building.
  • Teatro San Samuele , built in 1656 by order of the Grimani family, burned down in 1747, completely rebuilt the following year. From 1737-1741 the house was managed by Carlo Goldoni . In 1770 the Grimani had to close the house for financial reasons, in 1819 it was reopened as a spoken theater under the name Teatro Camploy , and in 1889 it became the property of the city of Venice, which had the house demolished in 1894 and built a school on the site.
  • Teatro Sant'Angelo , 1677-1803. From 1750 onwards, most of Vivaldi's 100 operas were performed at this theater . After its closure in 1803, it was demolished as a warehouse after a short time. The Marin Hotel is located on the site today.
  • Teatro San Benedetto , also owned by the Grimani. It was opened in 1755, burned down in 1774 and was rebuilt according to a design by Pietro Checchia and from 1787 continued as Teatro Gallo , or renamed Teatro Rossini , after its owner and impresario Gallo . From 1937 it served as a cinema, was given a new facade by Carlo Scarpa and closed in 2007 - pending restoration.
  • Teatro a Cannaregio , opened in 1679 near the Church of San Giobbe . It was built by the patrician Marco Morosini for the performance of his opera Ermelinda .
  • Teatro alle Zattere , 1679, a private theater on the Ognissanti promenade.
  • Teatro Calle dell'Oca in Cannaregio . The theater opened in 1707 and closed again after seven operas had been performed there.
  • Teatro Altieri , a private theater in the garden of the Princes Altieri , in which, besides the 1690 opera Gl'amori fortunati negli equivoci by Alessandro Scarlatti, only one other opera performance has survived.

Theaters and opera houses (17th century until today)

Teatro La Fenice, 1837
  • Teatro La Fenice , built between 1790 and 1792 after the Teatro San Benedetto , at that time the largest opera house in the city, burned down in 1774 and the disputes between owners and operators had been settled. The theater was named "La Fenice" (the phoenix ) because, like the mythical bird, it burned in the fire and rose from the ashes. The house was opened with Giovanni Paisiello's opera I giuochi d'Agrigento . In competition with the Scala and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Fenice became one of the leading premieres of Bellini , Rossini and Donizetti . Four operas by Verdi alone were premiered here, including Rigoletto and La traviata . A fire broke out in 1836 and badly damaged the house, and it reopened the following year. Closed during the First World War, it resumed production after the war. The great opera stars made guest appearances there, and operas were premiered again. Operas were also premiered after the Second World War, including works by Sergei Prokofiev , Igor Stravinsky , Benjamin Britten , Maurizio Kagel , Luigi Nono , Bruno Maderna , Gian Francesco Malipiero and Claudio Ambrosini . In 1937 the house became the property of the city of Venice, burned down again in 1996 and reopened in December 2003 with a concert under the conductor Riccardo Muti .
    The house does not have its own ensemble; concerts and external opera productions are played.
  • Teatro Goldoni , a box theater with 800 seats. It was founded in 1622 as the Teatro Vendramin di San Salvador , as a private theater of the Vendramin family. It was rebuilt in 1720 after a fire under the name Teatro San Luca . The theater was a spoken theater in which plays were performed in the Venetian dialect. In 1752 Carlo Goldoni became theater director. It changed name to Teatro Apollo . In 1875 the house was renamed Teatro Goldoni on the initiative of a Vendramin heiress. Until 1957 the house was owned by heirs of the family. Closed after the Second World War because of dilapidation, it was reopened in 1979. In addition to spoken theater, operas, ballets, concerts and plays for children are performed there today.
  • Teatro Malibran , opened on Carnival in 1678 as Teatro di San Giovanni Crisostomo, was the third theater owned by the Grimani family after San Giovanni e Paolo and San Samuele. In 1830 it was renamed the Teatro Malibran after a charity performance and with financial support from Diva Maria Malibran . Auctioned in 1886, closed in 1913 due to dilapidation, reopened in 1919 after restoration and renovations by Mario Felice Donghi, it was used for a time by the Biennale in the 1980s, closed again in 1986 and only reopened in 2001 after superficial renovations.

Today the venue belongs to the Teatro La Fenice.

Contemporary music

As part of the Biennale di Venezia , the Festival Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea has been held annually since 1930 and since 1937 . Ivan Fedele has been director of the festival since 2012 , taking over from Luca Francesconi . In addition to the Fenice, the venue is the Teatro alle Tese in the Arsenal, which opened in 2000 . On the occasion of the 56th Festival in 2012, Pierre Boulez was awarded the Golden Lion for his complete work. The 57th Biennale for Contemporary Music 2013 honored Sofia Gubaidulina with the Golden Lion for her life's work.

Instrument making

Lutes and Rebec , ( Bellini : Pala di San Giobbe, 1487)

In the course of the 15th century, the making of musical instruments in Venice was constantly being perfected. Lutes and other string instruments such as the lira da braccio , the viola and the viola da gamba were among the luxury goods that were in demand in northern Europe. At the same time, the new technology developed in Venice was exported. From the late 17th to the 18th century, Venice was one of the centers, alongside Cremona , Brescia, Florence and Naples, primarily for the construction of lutes and string instruments and, to a lesser extent, of keyboard instruments such as organs and portatives . The increased demand from ecclesiastical and secular institutions pushed production and innovations forward, instruments from this period fetch high prices at auctions today. Worth mentioning here are Ventura Linarolo (* 1541), active in Venice until 1581/1591, Matteo Goffriller (1659–1742), Carlo Annibale Tononi (1675–1735), Domenico Montagnana (1686–1750) with his workshop, Santo Serafin ( 1699–1758), as well as Alessandro and Vito di Trasuntino, and Giorgio Serafin (1726–1775), who worked in the city for over 25 years. Pietro Guarneri (Pietro da Venezia) (1695–1761), a member of the famous violin-making dynasty, stayed in Venice and fused Venetian techniques with those of the Cremonese school in his violins and cellos. The important Tyrolean violin maker Jacob Stainer (1618–1683) probably stayed in Venice for a short time. The Silesian organ builder Eugenio Casparini had been in Venice since 1642, where he worked for the Serenissima as an organ builder and organist for 30 years.

The workshops, some of which had maintenance contracts with the St. Mark's Singing School and the Ospedali , produced, sold, repaired and lent instruments.

Museums and collections

The Piccolo Museo della Pietà Antonio Vivaldi in the Castello district stores musical instruments, documents and musical scores from the former Ospedale della pietà . The museum shows violins by Andrea Guarneri , Pietro Guarneri , Mathias Hornsteiner and Jacob Stainer , two cellos by Matteo Goffriller and a double bass by Pietro Caspan (1665). Four of the Corni are by Andrea Coin (1770).

The Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore preserves in its collections a. a. Vivaldi's original sheet music.

In the Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi , the Venetian casino, is the Museo Wagner , which emerged from a Josef Lienhart foundation. The collection of documents and music, records, letters, paintings and books is considered to be the most extensive Wagner collection outside of Bayreuth. The museum is operated by the Centro Europeo di Studi e Ricerche Richard Wagner - CESRRW , which also organizes concerts, exhibitions and conferences there and publishes specialist literature on Wagner. In autumn every year the Giornate Wagneriane a Venezia take place there, which is organized by the Richard Wagner Association.

The Museo della Musica in the Church of San Maurizio on the Campo of the same name in the Sestiere San Marco shows over 150 musical instruments from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

Marco Contarini's extensive musical collection of 906 manuscripts and around 4,000 books was donated to the Biblioteca Marciana in 1843 . Contarini's collection of instruments was scattered and is now in Paris and Brussels and in the Museo Correr in Venice.

Catalogs

  • Taddeo Wiel: I codici musicali contariniani del secolo XVII nella R. Biblioteca di San Marco in Venezia . Ongania, Venezia 1888. Reprint: Forni, Bologna 1969.
  • Catalogo delle opere musicali teoriche e pratiche di autori vissuti sino ai primi decenni del secolo XIX, esistenti nelle biblioteche e negli archivi pubblici e privati ​​d'Italia . Parma 1914-1942 (Pubblicazione dell'Associazione dei Musicologi italiani) Reprint: Forni, Bologna 1983, pp. 169-382.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Psalm settings in Venice on the 17th and 18th centuries 18th century
  2. ↑ Glixon 1995
  3. ↑ Baldauf-Berdes 1996. pp. 21-42.
  4. ^ Cappella Marciana, maestro di cappella
  5. ↑ German = school for Cantus firmus and Cantus Figuratus - (an early form of polyphonic singing) - and theoretical and practical counterpoint
  6. ↑ Baldauf-Berdes 1993. p. 37.
  7. ↑ James Haar: European Music, 1520-1640 . Woddbridge 2006. p. 61.
  8. ^ Opera in Univ. of California Press
  9. ^ Ellen Rosand Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: The Creation of a Genre, p. 181
  10. ^ John Murray Handbook for Travelers in Northern Italy: Comprising Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Venetia 1860
  11. ^ Eleanor Selfridge-Field: A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 1660-1760. P. 133.
  12. ^ Maria Girardi Musica e musicisti a Venezia dalle origini ad Amendola
  13. ↑ veneziamuseo.it
  14. ^ Teatro a Venezia nel Seicento , accessed on May 10, 2019
  15. ↑ 1793 in Darierung more Veneto
  16. ^ Teatro la Fenice
  17. ^ Teatro stable del Veneto Carlo Goldoni ;
  18. ^ Teatro Goldoni a Venezia , accessed May 10, 2019
  19. ↑ Il Malibran nel seicento , accessed on May 5, 2019
  20. ↑ Biennale 2012 ( Memento of October 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (Italian, accessed November 15, 2012)
  21. ↑ Biennale 2013. ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) accessed on November 15, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.labiennale.org
  22. ↑ Venice Music Biennale ( Memento of the original from March 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.klassikinfo.de
  23. ↑ Instrument making in Venice
  24. ^ Museo della Musica di Venezia
  25. ^ A Richard Wagner Museum for Venice
  26. ↑ Casino di Venezia, museo Wagner , accessed on May 5, 2019
  27. ↑ RWVI , accessed on May 5, 2019