Venetian ospedali

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Venetian ospedali were social institutions in Venice which, in addition to charitable purposes, served the musical education of their female pupils. They are considered the forerunners of the conservatories of the 19th century.

The four great Venetian Ospedali (= Ospedali Grandi ), the Ospedale della Pietà , the Ospedale degl'Incurabili , the Ospedale di Santa Maria dei Derelitti and the Ospedale di San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti , were, like the Scuole and the Hospices, part of a charitable network, that provided diverse welfare services for the needy in the city.

Guardi: Gala concert by a girls' orchestra and choir in honor of the Russian couple heir to the throne in the Sala dei filarmonici in the old procuraties, 1782

From the 16th century until the end of the republic, the four ospedali, along with the choir of St. Mark's Basilica, were centers of musical life in Venice and a Europe-wide attraction for musicians and travelers. The Cori , which consist exclusively of musicians, contributed significantly to the self-presentation and propaganda of the Serenissima as a unique and unrivaled center of culture and luxury through their presence at the daily liturgy of the Ospedali churches, through their Sunday and holiday concerts and their participation in state acts such as the numerous doge processions in Europe.

Historical background

In addition to the numerous hospices ( ospizio ), hospitals and quarantine stations were also part of the poor and health care facilities in Venice . Marin Sanudo lists 34 hospitals in the 16th century, 115 hospices are counted for 1797, including 12 hospitals ( Ospedali ). Since 1485 the Proveditori alla sanità were responsible for the hospice system, from 1556 there was a separate authority, the Magistrato alla sanità . From 1565 three overseers were appointed for the hospices ( Provveditori agli ospedali e luogi pii ). Three of the Ospedali Grandi emerged from hospices that were initially run by the knightly orders and later by religious orders. The Ospedale della Pietà was founded in 1346 as an orphanage and home for foundlings (= esposti ).

An intensive cultivation of sacred music is documented in Venice from the beginning of the 14th century. A Mistro Zuchetto is documented as the first organist at St. Mark's Basilica in 1316, who already had several organs available to accompany the liturgy. At the same time as Venice's expansion policy to the mainland at the beginning of the 15th century, the city's musical life experienced a unique boom. Music accompanied the festivities of the church year and the associated state appearances by Doge and Signoria . In 1527 the Flemish Adrian Willaert came to Venice, where he held the post of Kapellmeister at St. Mark's Basilica until his death in 1562. Composers from all over Europe came to Venice to learn from Willaert, who was instrumental in the development of the Venetian School and its musical innovations such as the double choir .

With the invention of sheet music printing with movable letters by Ottaviano dei Petrucci at the end of the 15th century , a rich production of music began in Venice, the center of book printing at the time , and made possible the rapid and widespread dissemination of the new music created in Venice.

Music was ubiquitous in Venice from the 15th century until the end of the Republic. In addition to the solemn festivals and the many patronage festivals, the festivals of the patron saints of the city of Venice were solemnly celebrated and accompanied by music ; In addition to the Evangelist Mark, this also includes the Virgin Mary and St. Theodore. According to Baldauf-Berdes, more than 200 days in the year of a saint had to be remembered. During the time when the four ospedali emerged as musical centers, in addition to 26 church festivals, 84 state events had to be observed in Venice. For the festive events such as the coronation of a Doge or the annual wedding of the Doge with the sea, the “Maestri” composed motets and psalm settings at St. Mark's Basilica .

Willaert had introduced Sunday concerts at St. Mark's Basilica, which was soon also imitated by the so-called "Cori" (orchestra and choir), the Ospedali , and became an attraction for Venice tourists.

In the course of the 17th century, the Ospedali developed into musical conservatories in which virtuoso singers and instrumentalists were trained. Some of these “Figlie di coro” spent their entire lives there as professional musicians, thus guaranteeing an unbroken tradition of high Venetian musical culture. Her teaching activity was supported and perfected by the numerous well-known guest musicians, be it from Venice or from the other European centers of music, who promoted the training of women musicians at the highest level.

Ospedale di San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti

Guardi: Canal, Ospedale and Church of San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti, around 1780

San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti is the oldest of the four Venetian ospedali. It goes back to a hospice for lepers near San Trovaso . In 1224 the hospice moved to the island of the same name, San Lazzaro . It was consecrated to St. Lazarus , the patron saint of lepers, the extension of the name dei Medicanti can be traced back to the Dominicans , an order whose brothers ran the house.

When the Dominicans returned to Venice at the beginning of the 17th century, they built a hospital on the spacious area behind the Scuola Grande di San Marco , which the Grand Council had acquired in 1565. From 1601, people also began to take care of orphaned children, to bring them up and to train them, until the house finally became an orphanage. In 1604, twelve girls were accepted for the first time and trained as singers. In a short time the Mendicanti developed into one of the four great Venetian ospedali. In 1704 the "Coro" of female singers and instrumentalists had 60 members, in 1761 the number had risen to 70.

At the end of the republic the house was closed, used as a military hospital in 1806 and operated as a general hospital from 1819. Today the building is part of the Ospedale Civile SS. Giovanni e Paolo di Venezia complex .

The monastery church of San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti was built between 1601 and 1631 based on a design by Vincenzo Scamozzi . The facade, designed by Giuseppe Sardi , is based on a sketch attributed to Scamozzi.

Teacher

Ospedale degl'Incurabili

Ospedale degl'Incurabili, Zattere

The city's first syphilis cases occurred around 1496, and Girolamo Fracastoro's poem on syphilis was published in Venice in 1530 at a time when the extent of the infection could no longer be overlooked. Maria Grimani , Maria Malipiero and other women from the Venetian upper class, who were close to the Oratorio of Divine Love and Gaetano da Thiene , bought a plot of land on the Zattere in order to set up accommodation for the "terminally ill", the Incurabili . After the Theatinians withdrew from Venice, the Jesuits took on the house, including Francisco de Xavier . Accommodation and medical care for the sick was financed by a fund . The first visitation was made in 1522 by Doge Antonio Grimani , a sign of the control of the Ospedale by the state.

In the same year the Incurabili received papal permission to celebrate Mass , in 1525 Clement VII appointed the Ospedale di Messer Gesù delli Incurabili to an Arcispedale , the same rank as the papal Santo Spirito in Sassia in Rome. At the initiative of the Pope, two Clarissi were installed as prioresses . The Pope's appreciation of the Ospedale encouraged the flow of donations for the Incurabili. From 1531, former prostitutes and 16 girls from the nobility and bourgeoisie whose parents could not finance a proper upbringing were also accepted.

After 1565 Jacopo Sansovino built a new church for the Incurabili, which was demolished in the 19th century. Sansovino built a church room which, with its flat wooden ceiling and three balconies on top of one another, was especially suitable for the requirements of multi-choir singing and was famous for its good acoustics.

Teacher

Pio Ospedale della Pietà

The Franciscan Fra 'Petruccio d'Assisi is said to have looked after the boulders in Venice and collected donations for their maintenance since 1335. In 1336 the first legacy in favor of the Pietà is on record. The facility was looked after from the start by a group of women who called themselves Sorelle de Santa Maria della Pietà and who met at the Cistercian nuns in the Celesta Monastery . In 1340 there was another foundation by the merchant Domenico Trevisan. From 1343 a lay association, which was close to the monastery of San Francesco della Vigna , took care of the male orphans. With a Senate resolution of 1346, a separate orphanage was founded for these children. The two orphanages were therefore located on the outskirts of the city and far apart.

In 1353 the Great Council appointed a prioress. A foundation by Lucrezia Dolfin made it possible to move the orphanage to its final location on the Riva degli Schiavoni in the immediate vicinity of the political and cultural center of the city. From 1485 the Pietà, like the other ospedali, was under the supervision of the Magistrato della sanità . In 1540 the Great Council appointed three nobles as advisors to the house, which had previously been run by women.

"Baby flap", donation box and board from 1548

Without exception, all infants who were placed in the scalfetta , the "baby hatch ", were admitted . The infants were initially placed with wet nurses and returned to the orphanage when they were two years old.

In the 15th century, an oratory was added, which in the 18th century was in such a dilapidated state that a new building was decided in 1730. a. Andrea Tirali and Giorgio Massari provided designs and which was financed through a lottery. It was built according to the plan of Massari, whose architecture is based on Palladios Santa Maria della Presentazione (Le Zitelle) on the opposite island of Giudecca . In 1754 Giovanni Battista Tiepolo painted the vaulted ceiling with an "Admission of Mary into Heaven". The facade remained unfinished for lack of money, it was not completed until 1902, based on an old watercolor by A. Seguso.

Teacher

Ospedale Santa Maria dei Derelitti - Ospedaletto

Josse de Corte : St. Mark's pilgrim as Atlant on the facade

As a result of the turmoil of war in Northern Italy , the pillaging of the rural population by marauding imperial troops and the subsequent famine, the number of destitute people pouring into Venice increased dramatically. At the suggestion of the Senate, the Ospedale Santa Maria dei Derelitti ( derelitti : it. = The forsaken), called Ospedaletto because of its comparatively modest dimensions , was founded in the Castello district in order to take care of these needy people. Arsenal workers initially built temporary accommodation on the site near Santi Giovanni e Paolo. The Patriarch of Venice , Gerolamo Querini , sponsored the project by allowing the construction of an oratorio and the Ospedaletto the right to give indulgences, which helped secure funding. The Ospedaletto was initially geared towards accepting 50 boys and 125 girls who were either orphans or whose fathers had signed up for the Venetian fleet. The sick were also cared for there and pilgrims were accepted for a maximum of three days. In 1570 the number of inmates had risen to 600, which led to an expansion of the hospice grounds from 1571 to 1582.

Construction of the church began in 1574 and a girls' choir has been recorded there since 1575. The single-nave church with a flat wooden ceiling is characterized by a strikingly large balcony with an organ above the altar with plenty of space for the choir and orchestra. Baldassare Longhena built the magnificent baroque facade in 1670–74, lavishly decorated with sculptures, pilasters, masks and garlands. The facade was financed by the merchant Bartolomeo Cargnoni, whose bust is placed in a shell niche above the portal. It is flanked by four atlases , which, with their gauntlets, pilgrim coats and scallops, point to the function of the Ospedale as a pilgrims' hostel.

Between 1662 and 1667 the so-called "Four Seasons Courtyard" was added, which was reserved for orphan girls . In 1776 a small concert hall was added with a Rococo ceiling fresco depicting the triumph of music. A fresco by Jacopo Guarana and Agostino Mengozzi Colonna opposite the entrance depicts Apollo conducting a girls' orchestra with a violin bow that embodies the nine muses. The opera "Antigone" is played by Pasquale Anfossi , who supervises the performance with the rolled up score in the background. Anfossi was from 1772 to 1782 “Maestro di cappella”.

Today the Ospedaletto is partly used as a nursing home or hospital.

Teacher

From the 16th century to the end of the republic

music

Music has always played an important role in the liturgy of churches and monasteries. Fixed parts of the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours were sung, and until modern times boys and men were performing. Liturgical chanting by women was only customary within the nunneries. In Venice, where a practice different from that of Rome was evidently tolerated or promoted, the participation in the liturgy of singers who did not belong to any convent at the Derelitti is proven as early as 1540. The choir and orchestra were located on the galleries of the Ospedali churches, the artistically forged bars of which hid the musicians from the view of the audience.

The fixed parts of the Ordinarium - Kyrie , Gloria , Credo , Sanctus , Agnus Dei , Sanctus and Benedictus - were set for several voices or choirs and contained virtuoso solo parts . The movements for the choirs are notated in the four voices soprano, alto, tenor and bass. How the tenor and bass voices were handled in practice has not yet been conclusively clarified by research. The repertoire also included singing the Lauretan Litany .

Since the end of the 17th century, the solemn Vespers on Sundays and public holidays have had an excellent place in the musical life of Venice . Vespers are part of the daily prayer of the hours in the monasteries; in Venice they continuously developed into ever more demanding and splendid compositions. A Vespers liturgy usually consists of five psalms with the corresponding antiphons , the Introductio Deus in adjutorium meum (from Psalm 69 ), the hymn , the Magnificat or Salve Regina and the final pater noster . At the funeral services were penitential psalms as De Profundis and Miserere sung. These great so-called psalm concerts of the 18th century are splendid compositions for two three- to four-part choirs, soloists and one or two orchestras, in which concertos and motets were also integrated.

Oratorios have been performed in the Ospedali churches since the beginning of the 18th century , for the first time in 1723 Antonio Biffi's “Manna in deserto”. “Juditha triumphans” is the only corresponding oratorio by Vivaldi that has been preserved. Composers were the employed maestri, such as B. Antonio Caldara , of whom 43 oratorios have survived. These composers composed operas in parallel for the city's many opera houses, and the increasingly virtuoso solo parts in the oratorios took on more and more operatic features. In the late period of the republic, oratorios for high-ranking state guests outside of the Ospedali, e.g. B. to be performed in the music hall of the Alte Prokuratien , as documented in a picture by Guardi from 1782.

Economy and finance

The cost of running the Ospedali was considerable. For example, the budget of the Derelitti in 1700 was 24,000 ducats and that of the Pietà in the same year was 80,000. At the same time, financial support from the state - except for the Pietà - was modest, but occasionally a single project such as the construction of a well was financed.

A large part of the budget flowed to the houses through bequests , regular or sporadic trade fair grants and through various donations from individual patrons. The patrons could finance individual construction measures, the purchase of furniture or the purchase of musical instruments, pay the fee for external teachers or cover the costs of training individual pupils. Some families remained connected to an ospedale for several generations, their names appear again and again as sponsors , as in the case of the Grimani .

Part of the budget was generated by the orphans themselves. The earliest form of collecting money was the regular begging walks of the orphans through the city, accompanied by the carers. Half of the money collected went to the house, the other half was given to the children, who were able to save a dowry for a marriage or entry into a monastery. Girls who were not members of a coro were trained in various skills such as the art of lace making and silk washing; they were also allowed to keep part of the proceeds. Two ospedali had employment contracts with the arsenal for sewing sails. The pupils were able to invest their earned money in the in-house banks, which the Ospedali maintained in the manner of the Roman Santo Spirito in Sassia , for 3% interest. Figlie di coro taught daughters of wealthy Venetians for a fee. As the institutions grew in reputation, both Venetians and wealthy foreigners placed their daughters in the Ospedali. For this so-called figlie di spese pension and school fees were to be paid.

As the music at the Ospedali flourished, new sources of funding were added. Income was generated from the music events or benefit concerts. Armchairs were rented out at church concerts, collecting baskets were part of the inventory of every event, and generous donations were expected from the clients of the private concerts. Students and teachers from other members external students music lessons, the free distribution in the oratorio librettos were available for purchase after the concert. If the groom married a musician, the groom had to deposit money in the in-house bank, which fell to the house as soon as his wife appeared as a singer or soloist inside or outside Venice. With the help of state-approved lotteries, larger projects could be financed; the first lottery was held in 1606 for the benefit of the Mendicanti.

With the economic decline of the city, the Ospedali also got into financial difficulties. The interest of the patriciate and merchants seems to have continuously decreased, the donations from patrons dried up. At the end of the 1770s, the Incurabili had to declare bankruptcy.

literature

  • Jane Baldauf-Berdes: Women Musicians of Venice. Musical Foundations, 1525-1855 . Oxford 1993, rev. ed. 1996 (contains a list of the musicians working at the Ospedali and an extensive bibliography).
  • Diana Buchmann: Notes on music at the Venetian ospedali in the 17th and 18th centuries. In: Acta Musicologica . 74. (2002), pp. 77-99.
  • Alison Curcio: Venice's Ospedali Grandi : Music and Culture in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. In: Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology 3/1 (2010), pp. 3-14.
  • Alan Dergal Rautenberg, Birgit Wertenson: The Psalm-Settings of the Venetian Ospedali: Considerations about an extraordinary Repertoire. In: Studi musicali 2012/03, pp. 73–127. PDF .
  • Helen Geyer, Wolfgang Osthoff (ed.): Music at the Venetian Ospedali / Conservatories from the 17th to the early 19th century / La Musica negli Ospedali / Conservatori veneziani fra Seicento e inizio. Symposium from April 4th to 7th 2001. German Study Center in Venice. Rome / Venice 2004.
  • Helen Geyer, Birgit Johanna Wertenson (ed.): Psalms. Church music between tradition, drama and experiment. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2014.
  • Helen Geyer: Aspetti dell'oratorio veneziano nel tardo Settecento. Quaderni, Centro tedesco di studi veneziani , 33rd Venice 1985.
  • Helen Geyer: The Venetian women's conservatories and their actiones sacrae. - A mirror of your own self-image in the post-metastasian field of tension. In: Emancipated and yet not equal? (Series of publications of the university.) Regensburg, Vol. 18. Regensburg 1991, pp. 239-254.
  • Helen Geyer: The Venetian Oratorio 1750-1820. Unique phenomenon & musical dramatic experiment. 2004. (Analecta musicologica). ISBN 3-89007-513-4 .
  • Helen Geyer: The Venetian Conservatories in the 18th Century: Observations on the Dissolution of a System. In: Musical Education in Europe 1770-1914. Edited by Michael Fend and Michel Noiray, Berlin 2005, Vol. 1 pp. 31–48.
  • Pier Giuseppe Gillio: L'Attività musicale negli Ospedali di Venezia nel Settecento . Florence 2006.
  • Laura Moretti: Dagli Incurabili alla Pietà: Le Chiese degli Ospedali Grandi di Venezia tra Architettura e Musica. Florence 2008.
  • Berthold Over: Per la Gloria di Dio. Solo church music at the Venetian ospedali in the 18th century. Bonn 1998.
  • Franca Semi: Gli Ospizi di Venezia . 1983
  • Ugo Stefanutti: Gli ospedali di Venezia nella storia e nell'arte. In: Atti del Primo Congresso Italiana Storia Ospitaliera 1957.
  • Vanessa Tonelli: Women and Music in the Venetian Ospedali. Thesis. Michigan State University 2013.
  • Joan Whittemore, Jane Baldauf-Berdes: A Guide to Ospedali Research. Hillsdale 2011. ISBN 978-1576471746 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marin Sanudo: De origine, situ et magistratibus urbis Venetae , Milan 1980, pp. 170f.
  2. ↑ Kurt Heller: Venice , Cologne 1999, p. 591.
  3. ^ Repubblica serenissima: provveditori alla sanità pubblica
  4. ↑ Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung 34 (1832), p. 280.
  5. ↑ Jane Baldauf-Berdes: Women Musicians of Venice , Oxford 1996, pp. 223f.
  6. ↑ Gli ospedali ( Memento from December 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti
  8. ^ Painting by Canaletto, 1780/90
  9. ↑ Giovanni Lenzei (composer)
  10. ^ Julie Anne Sadie: Companion to Baroque Music , Berkeley 1998, p. 35.
  11. ^ Giacomo Giuseppe Saratelli
  12. ↑ George Grove (Ed.): A Dictionary of Music and Musicians , Vol. 4, London 1900, p. 809.
  13. ^ Norbert Huse, Wolfgang Wolters: Venice , Munich ²1996, p. 106.
  14. ^ Sadie: Companion to Baroque Music , p. 35.
  15. ↑ Jane Baldauf-Berdes: Women Musicians of Venice , Oxford 1996, pp. 46–51.
  16. ^ Music / Baroque and Classical Music
  17. ^ Helen Geyer: The Venetianische Oratorium 1750-1820 , Laaber 2005, p. 319.
  18. ^ Karl Heller: Antonio Vivaldi , Portland 1997, p. 78.
  19. ^ Sadie: Companion to Baroque Music , p. 39.
  20. ↑ Gaetano Latilla
  21. ^ G. Ellero: L'Ospedale dei derelitti ai Santi Giovanni e Paolo, in: Arte e Musica (1978), pp. 9-22.
  22. ↑ Figure
  23. ^ Psalm database, Ospedale Santa Maria dei Derelitti
  24. ↑ Giovanni Lenzei (composer)
  25. ^ Vinaccesi Ensemble
  26. ^ Antonio Gaetano Pampani
  27. ↑ Nick Rossi / Talmage Fautleroy: Domenico Cimarosa , Westport 1999, p. 84.
  28. ↑ Baldauf-Berdes 1996. p. 108.
  29. ^ Psalm database
  30. ↑ Verena Großkreuz: A Music of Dignity and Seriousness on the Sacred Vocal Music by Antonio Vivaldi ( PDF )
  31. ↑ Psalm compositions
  32. ↑ JR Hale: Renaissance Venice , London 1973, p. 131.
  33. ↑ Jane Baldauf-Berdes: Women Musicians of Venice , Oxford 1996, p. 161.
  34. ↑ Jane Baldauf-Berdes: Women Musicians of Venice , Oxford 1996, pp. 85-99.
  35. ^ Roland Dieter Schmidt-Hensel: La musica del Signor Hasse detto il Sassone , Göttingen 2009, p. 105.