8/13/2019 Barberini in Rome ( book review).pdf http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/barberini-in-rome-book-reviewpdf 1/3 Review: Papal Patronage under Urban VIII Author(s): Iain Fenlon Reviewed work(s): Music and Spectacle in Baroque Rome: Barberini Patronage under Urban VIII by Frederick Hammond Source: Early Music, Vol. 24, No. 3, Early Music from Around the World (Aug., 1996), pp. 497 498 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3128264 Accessed: 07/10/2008 22:09 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oup . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Early Music.
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in 17th-centuryRome astheyhad been at the court of Leo
X. At the centre of the architectural cheme, magisterialevenby Romanstandardsof the time (it involved,atvari-
ous stages,Maderno,Borromini and Bernini),stands the
centralpalacebuilding.Thisin turnhouses,at its physicalcentre, the magnificentsalone whose ceiling frescoes,byPietro da Cortona, place a relentless emphasis on the
powerand achievementsof the Barberini, ndparticularlyof Urbanhimself,guidedby DivineProvidence the dom-
inating presence of the centralpanel). Symbolicallyand
strategically lacedabove the major public receptionarea
of the palace, Cortona s complicatedand visually over-
powering allegoryprovidesa neat synthesisof a dynastic
vocabulary hat Urban s artisticadviserswere to call on
elsewhere n buildingand decorative chemesboth privateandpublic.
It was while Cortona sceiling frescoeswere still being
completedthat planswere laid to produceLandi ssacred
opera II Sant Alessio n Cardinal FrancescoBarberini s
anteroomadjoiningthe salone.The firstperformance, n
1632, was to set the pattern for subsequent Barberini
operas, not least through the employment of Giulio
Rospigliosi as librettist. Only two were published, II
Sant Alessiotselfand Erminia ulGiordano, textinspired
by Tasso s Gerusalemme iberataand set to music by
MichelangeloRossi.As Hammond astutelyremarks, the
presentationof a chivalricepic ratherthan a saint s life
reflected he secularside of the Barberiniprogram-their
pretensionsto the style of the Renaissanceprinces,their
military ambitions, and their ascension to the Roman
baronialnobility .In termsof propaganda,however, t was
IISant Alessio,xpandedwith a new prologuethat places
greatemphasison the themeof submission o thepowerof
Rome and on the old commonplaceof the triumphof the
in 17th-centuryRome astheyhad been at the court of Leo
X. At the centre of the architectural cheme, magisterialevenby Romanstandardsof the time (it involved,atvari-
ous stages,Maderno,Borromini and Bernini),stands the
centralpalacebuilding.Thisin turnhouses,at its physicalcentre, the magnificentsalone whose ceiling frescoes,byPietro da Cortona, place a relentless emphasis on the
powerand achievementsof the Barberini, ndparticularlyof Urbanhimself,guidedby DivineProvidence the dom-
inating presence of the centralpanel). Symbolicallyand
strategically lacedabove the major public receptionarea
of the palace, Cortona s complicatedand visually over-
powering allegoryprovidesa neat synthesisof a dynastic
vocabulary hat Urban s artisticadviserswere to call on
elsewhere n buildingand decorative chemesboth privateandpublic.
It was while Cortona sceiling frescoeswere still being
completedthat planswere laid to produceLandi ssacred
opera II Sant Alessio n Cardinal FrancescoBarberini s
anteroomadjoiningthe salone.The firstperformance, n
1632, was to set the pattern for subsequent Barberini
operas, not least through the employment of Giulio
Rospigliosi as librettist. Only two were published, II
Sant Alessiotselfand Erminia ulGiordano, textinspired
by Tasso s Gerusalemme iberataand set to music by
MichelangeloRossi.As Hammond astutelyremarks, the
presentationof a chivalricepic ratherthan a saint s life
reflected he secularside of the Barberiniprogram-their
pretensionsto the style of the Renaissanceprinces,their
military ambitions, and their ascension to the Roman
baronialnobility .In termsof propaganda,however, t was
IISant Alessio,xpandedwith a new prologuethat places
greatemphasison the themeof submission o thepowerof
Rome and on the old commonplaceof the triumphof the
(for the not inconsiderablesum of loo scudi, as one of
Hammond s many new archivalreferencesreveals).As a
piece of book production,the Sant Alessiocore is in the
traditionof Monteverdi sL Orfeo r, to cite an example
closer to home, the Roman La catena d Adoneof 1626.
These volumes were not primarily ntended to facilitate
performanceof what was, after all, a unique and elitist
entertainment. On the contrary,their primary purposewas to providetestimonyto the opulence and splendourof the event itself and to virtues of the patronresponsiblefor
bringing
it into
being.
In this sense, the score of II
Sant Alessio erives at least some of its power end effec-
tiveness from its participationn a languageof self-glorifi-cation.In the end it was via opera (andthe engravingsof
feste given duringthe Roman carnival eason)rather han
throughsacred music that the Barberini ent out its mes-
sagesof dynastic superiority o the wider world. It is this
sense of the place of music within a wider context that
providesthe operatingframework or Hammond s book.
Basedon an impressivecommand not only of the Bar-
berini archivesbut also of recentscholarship n a number
of contingentfields,Music and spectaclen BaroqueRome
will need to be studied carefullyby anyone interested in
the culturalconsequencesof 17th-centuryRomanpolitics.
lain Fenlon
Trent-its place in musical historyMusicae societf nellastoriatrentina,
ed. RossanaDalmonte
(Trento:EdizioniUCT,1994),L130,000
For most readersof Earlymusic the name of Trent is
invariably ollowed by the word codices , a conjunctionthatquicklybrings o mind the largestand most important
collection of 15th-centurypolyphonicmusic to have sur-
vived. These seven manuscripts,of various origins and
yearsof the century,werefirst identified(or at least six of
them were) by Haberl,who discussedthem in his classic
study of Dufaypublishedin 1885.Subsequentlyremoved
to Vienna,where they were studied by Adlerand others,
they werejoined shortlyaftertheir returnto Italyat the
end of the FirstWorldWarby a seventh manuscriptbe-
longingto the same set. Althougha greatdealof work has
been done on the Trentmanuscripts n the centuryor sosincethesepioneeringenquiries,muchremains o be clar-
ified;of the more than 1,800 compositions in the collec-
tion, of whichoverhalfaresettingsof the Ordinaryof the
Mass (Gloria settings predominate), many anonymous
worksremainto be identified,and manyvexed questions
of datingand functionpersist.
These volumes were not primarily ntended to facilitate
performanceof what was, after all, a unique and elitist
entertainment. On the contrary,their primary purposewas to providetestimonyto the opulence and splendourof the event itself and to virtues of the patronresponsiblefor
bringing
it into
being.
In this sense, the score of II
Sant Alessio erives at least some of its power end effec-
tiveness from its participationn a languageof self-glorifi-cation.In the end it was via opera (andthe engravingsof
feste given duringthe Roman carnival eason)rather han
throughsacred music that the Barberini ent out its mes-
sagesof dynastic superiority o the wider world. It is this
sense of the place of music within a wider context that
providesthe operatingframework or Hammond s book.
Basedon an impressivecommand not only of the Bar-
berini archivesbut also of recentscholarship n a number
of contingentfields,Music and spectaclen BaroqueRome
will need to be studied carefullyby anyone interested in
the culturalconsequencesof 17th-centuryRomanpolitics.
lain Fenlon
Trent-its place in musical historyMusicae societf nellastoriatrentina,
ed. RossanaDalmonte
(Trento:EdizioniUCT,1994),L130,000
For most readersof Earlymusic the name of Trent is
invariably ollowed by the word codices , a conjunctionthatquicklybrings o mind the largestand most important
collection of 15th-centurypolyphonicmusic to have sur-
vived. These seven manuscripts,of various origins and