5 - “Un modo di cantare molto diverso”: Ferrara and the New Singing of the 1570s

Summary

This chapter considers the aftermath of the earthquake and its effects on the musical life of the Ferrarese court, particularly on the singing women, whose performances shift from the context of a courtly, and voluntary, display of nobility to performance on demand. The chapter also brings together music at court and convent, and considers the compositions of musicians associated with religious institutions (the priest Lodovico Agostini and the maestro of the cathedral, Paolo Isnardi) for courtly women. Central to the chapter, and to the book, is the story of Leonora Sanvitale, who together with Giulio Cesare Brancaccio, brought a new style of courtly singing to Ferrara, developed by exiled Neapolitans in Rome. In the light of these investigations, the chapter reconsiders two key texts, one by the Florentine Count Bardi written in the 1570s, the other by the Roman Giustiniani written in the late 1620s, both of which are often used in discussions of the Ferrarese concerto delle dame.