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Music Publishing in Italy, c.1580–c.1625: Some Preliminary Observations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Tim Carter
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Extract

Many scholars have attempted to come to terms with the stylistic diversification and experimentation that characterises Italian sacred and secular music at the turn of the sixteenth century. Changes in aesthetic attitudes and musical styles are both seen as typical of the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque periods. However, an important source for documenting this transition-the activities of the major music publishing houses in Italy centred largely in Venice, Rome, Milan and Naples-has been unduly neglected. To what extent did these activities reflect, or even influence, the course of musical development during this period, and how can an account of them aid the scholar in solving the complex historical problems of this transitional age?

Type
Articles
Information
Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle , Volume 20 , 1987 , pp. 19 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1987

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References

Notes

1 The following catalogues have been used in preparing this study: Claudio Sartori, Bibliografia della musica strumentale italiana stampata in Italia fino at 1700 (Florence, 1952; supplement: 1968); RISM B/I/l: Recueils imprimis, XVIe-XVIF siècles, ed. François Lesure (Munich, 1960); Nigel Fortune, ‘A Handlist of Printed Italian Secular Monody Books, 1602–1635, Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle, 3 (1963), 27–50 (Supplement: 4 (1964), 98) (henceforth 'Handlist'); Howard Mayer Brown, Instrumental Music Printed Before 1600: a Bibliography (Cambridge, Mass., 1965) (henceforth ‘Brown 1965'); Emil Vogel, Alfred Einstein, François Lesure and Claudio Sartori, Bibliografia della musica italiana vocale profana pubblicata dal 1500 al 1700 (Pomezia, 1977) (henceforth ‘New Vogel'); RISM Series A/I: Einzeldrucke vor 1800, ed. Karlheinz Schlager et al. (Kassel, 1971–81); John Whenham, Duet and Dialogue in the Age of Monteverdi (Ann Arbor, 1982), vol.2, 25–164 ('An Analytical Catalogue of Italian Secular Duets and Dialogues c.1600 to c.1643') (henceforth 'Catalogue'). I am most grateful to Dr Nigel Fortune, Dr Jerome Roche, Elizabeth Roche and Dr Graham Dixon for their helpful comments and suggestions. This study has also benefitted from the responses of participants at the Durham (U.K.) Conference on Baroque Music, 13–16 July 1984, at which a first version was presented.Google Scholar

2 Anne-Marie Bautier-Regnier, ‘L'édition musicale italienne et les musiciens d'outremonts au XVIe siècle (1501–1563)', Entretiens d'Arras, 17–20 juin 1954: La renaissance dans les provinces du nord, ed. François Lesure (Paris, 1956), 27–49; Angelo Pompilio, ‘Editoria musicale a Napoli e in Italia nel cinque-seicento', Musica e cultura a Napoli dal XV al XIX secolo, ed. Lorenzo Bianconi and Renato Bossa (Florence, 1983), 79–102.Google Scholar

3 Some general points on the statistics presented here should be made:Google Scholar

  1. (i)

    (i) I have relied only on publications which have survived either in whole or in part, or whose existence can otherwise be confirmed by recent catalogues. Publications mentioned only in late sixteenth- or early seventeenth-century catalogues have not been included. When a publication spans two years, the later year has been counted as the year of publication. I have not attempted to modify old-style dates, with the exception of Jacopo Peri, Le musiche sopra L'Euridice (Florence, 1600), which has been included under 1601. Giulio Caccini, Le nuove musiche (Florence, 1601), has been included under 1602 due to the delay in its appearance.

  2. (ii)

    (ii) The classification into sacred and secular categories has been done largely according to text (Latin and Italian/French respectively) rather than function. Publications of madrigali spirituali are classified as ‘secular'; publications of laudi are classified as ‘sacred'. Mixed volumes (for example, of motets and madrigals, madrigals and instrumental music, etc.) have been classified according to the majority of their contents.

  3. (iii)

    (iii) Publications containing text and guitar letters only (e.g. RISM 161817) have not been included in these statistics.

  4. (iv)

    (iv) I use the term ‘re-edition’ to indicate reprints, second and subsequent editions (whether from the same or a different publisher) and compilations where a significant corpus of the volume is taken from one or two previously published sources. Anthologies, however, are not counted as re-editions except where they are themselves reprints.

  5. (v)

    (v) Classification according to genre, scoring and the presence or absence of a basso continuo part is sometimes difficult, and in a small number of cases I have had to make some rather arbitrary decisions. For this and other reasons, my figures cannot be guaranteed to be wholly accurate. However, the margin of likely error is not such that it would fundamentally alter the picture presented here.

4 Donald W. Krummel, ‘Printing and Publishing of Music: II', The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1980), vol. 15, 265: ‘In summary, the history of music publishing before 1700 is one of early brilliance and extended decline. The peak was reached before 1580, in Venice, Nuremberg, Paris and Antwerp. The decline was apparent by 1600 and is reflected in a diminished output, in printing that is less spacious, less craftsmanlike and less original…'.Google Scholar

5 Iain Fenlon, ‘II foglio volante editoriale dei Tini, circa il 1596', Rivista italiana di musicologia, 12 (1977), 238.Google Scholar

6 Table I is compiled from RISM A/I and RISM B/I/l (cross-checked with Brown 1965, New Vogel).Google Scholar

7 See also the graph in Pompilio, op.cit., 96.Google Scholar

8 Fig. 1 is compiled from RISM A/I and RISM B/I/l (cross-checked with New Vogel).Google Scholar

9 Lewis Lockwood, The Counter-Reformation and the Masses of Vincenzo Ruffo (Florence, 1970), 145–6; see also Bautier-Regnier, op.cit.Google Scholar

10 See also Pompilio, op.cit., 98.Google Scholar

11 Table 2 is compiled from RISM A/I and RISM B/I/l (cross-checked with Brown 1965, New Vogel).Google Scholar

12 James H. Moore, Vespers at St Mark's: Music of Alessandro Grandi, Giovanni Rovetta and Francesco Cavalli (Ann Arbor, 1981), vol.1, 86.Google Scholar

13 See Roche, Jerome, ‘North Italian Liturgical Music in the Early 17th Century’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1968).Google Scholar

14 Jerome Roche, ‘Music at S. Maria Maggiore, Bergamo, 1614–1643', Music & Letters, 47 (1966), 296–312.Google Scholar

15 Pompilio, op.cit., 84–5, 98.Google Scholar

16 Oscar Mischiati, Indici, cataloghi e avvisi degli editori e librai musicali italiani dal 1591 al 1798 (Florence, 1984), 83–98.Google Scholar

17 Mischiati, op.cit., 110–34.Google Scholar

18 Mischiati, op.cit., 135–53. There has been some confusion over the date of this catalogue (earlier sources have assumed 1619), but Mischiati's arguments (op.cit., 19–20) in favour of 1621 are convincing.Google Scholar

19 Mischiati, op.cit., 163–86. An apparent exception to these relative weightings of sacred and secular publications is provided by the Tini catalogue of c. 1596 (transcribed by Fenlon, op.cit.). Here sacred prints outnumber secular prints in the proportion roughly 2:1. This may be explained by the fact that the Tini firm was based in Milan, an important centre for the ecclesiastical reforms of the last quarter of the sixteenth century.Google Scholar

20 Fig.2 is compiled from New Vogel (with additions from RISM A/I, Fortune, Handlist, supplement) and RISM B/I/l.Google Scholar

21 Brian Pullan, Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice: the Social Institutions of a Catholic State, to 1620 (Oxford, 1971), 14–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 Richard Tilden Rapp, Industry and Economic Decline in Seventeenth-Century Venice (Cambridge, Mass., 1976).Google Scholar

23 Table 3 is compiled from New Vogel (with additions from RISM A/I, Fortune, Handlist, supplement) and RISM B/I/l.Google Scholar

24 Fig.3 is compiled from New Vogel (with additions from RISM A/I, Fortune, Handlist, supplement) and RISM B/I/l. Publications are classified according to the presence or absence of a basso continuo part, a written-out accompaniment for lute, chitarrone or keyboard, or the mention of a basso continuo on the title-page. Publications in which the basso continuo is described as being optional have been included in the ‘with basso continuo’ graph.Google Scholar

25 Table 4 is compiled from RISM A/I, RISM B/I/l and New Vogel. The classification is according to the principles adopted for Fig.3. The data for sacred publications is not always reliable. Therefore, here and in Table 5, the figures for sacred publications should be regarded as minima.Google Scholar

26 Fig.4 is compiled from New Vogel (with additions from RISM A/I, Fortune Handlist, supplement), RISM B/I/l, Fortune, Handlist and Whenham, Catalogue. The graph of five-part publications without basso continuo includes those in which the basso continuo is described on the title-page as being optional, or where it is not necessary for all the pieces therein.Google Scholar

27 Nigel Fortune, ‘Madrigal: III', The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1980), vol.11, 477.Google Scholar

28 Tim Carter, ‘Jacopo Peri (1561–1633): Aspects of his Life and Works', Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 105 (1978–9), 58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 Table 5 is compiled from RISM A/I, RISM B/I/l, New Vogel, Fortune, Handlist and Whenham, Catalogue. In the case of sacred publications, I have had to rely on the description of the contents on the title-page as transcribed in RISM.Google Scholar

30 Pompilio, op.cit., 85–9, 99–102.Google Scholar