The Role of The Organ in The Performance Practices of Italian Sacred Polyphony During The Cinquecento

The Role of the Organ in Performance Practices of Italian Sacred Polyphony during the Cinquecento Author(s): Arnaldo Morelli
Reviewed work(s): Source: Musica Disciplina, Vol. 50 (1996), pp. 239-270 Published by: American Institute of Musicology Verlag Corpusmusicae, GmbH Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20532408 . Accessed: 18/03/2013 19:23
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THE ROLE OF THE ORGAN IN PERFORMANCE PRACTICES OF ITALIAN SACRED POLYPHONY DURING THE CINQUECENTO
ARNALDO MORELLI
The
of sacred polyphony role of the organ in the performance during the six teenth century is a classic problem in performance practice studies. Though long a not as yet discussed by both scholars and performers, solution has convincing
been forthcoming. The relationship between the organ and vocal polyphony has been addressed from clear-cut and contrasting points of view. If for the Roman a of polyphony tics, the performance cappella, and thus without organ accompa in recent niment, represented their idealized conception of Renaissance music, times the opposite opinion, namely, that vocal performances were accompanied or even by other instruments has been voiced by several experts in by the organ in the the field. As Oscar Mischiatti put it, "Renaissance polyphony performed manner called a cappella, that is,with voices alone, though proved only for the was credence during the Romantic mistakenly given widespread Papal Chapel, that "the go even further and state dogmatically period."x Other musicologists that the Papal Chapel's exclusively vocal performance assumption long-standing to is now at least moribund, if could be extended every church in Christendom 2 not dead." ? On a closer examination of these positions the Romantic and the contem ? it becomes clear that both are based either on opposing porary ideological pre or on a or judices forcing superficial reading of sources, often misunderstanding on a new new to in per into desire the choices text, or, yet again, justify meanings
1 Oscar Mischiati, "Marc'Antonio Ingegneri nei documenti della cattedrale di Cremona," inAntonio Delfino and Maria Teresa Rosa Barezzani, eds., MarcAntonio Ingegneri e la m?sica a Cremona nel secondo Cinquecento (Lucca: LIM, 1995), 51. 2 Gary Towne, "Music and Liturgy in Sixteenth-Century Italy: The Bergamo Organ Book and its Liturgical Implications," Journal ofMusicology 6 (1988): 471-509.
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M?SICA
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formance practice on the part of performers.3 To my mind, the solution to the pro new documents, which in any case would blem does not lie merely in the search for not be definitive, already known, more within performance changes general in the Catholic of the transformations post-Tridentine period, especially in liturgy Italy. In other words, the problem of the relationship of the organ and vocal poly that are related to evident inmusical should be considered within ? the widest historical perspective ahead to the Seicento possible. and m?sica con but rather in the reconsideration of documents,
phony
Looking ? certata the continuation inherited mention from
the age of basso continuo methods
of compositional the preceding age becomes
and performance practices still more evident. Documents that
church music payment
simultaneous
"cum orghano et canto figurato" or that demonstrate the of organists and singers are not in themselves sufficient to
show that organists and singers performed showing together. Nor do documents that organ pitch was adapted to figurai music4 and that organs were given "split" singers in the keys for transposing irrefutably prove that the organ accompanied If this were so, we would have to give convincing of polyphony.5 performance
3 That such performances were appreciated by audiences of the late 20th century alike has no bearing on the present discussion. and musicologists 4 Mischiati, "Marc'Antonio Ingegneri," 50-51. This evidence is from a later period and refers to the incipient practice of the concerti, of which more will be said later. It should be remembered that the pitch was also altered for plainsong, which, of course, was performed without accompaniment. For example, in 1516 the new organ in the cathedral of Perugia had to be "a coro cio? canto fermo" [(pitched) that is, to plainsong] ;seeAdamo Rossi "Documenti inediti per chi scriver? dei maestri d'organo vissuti nel XV e nel XVI sec?lo," Giomale di erudizione art?stica 3 (1874): 113. In 1547 the new organ in Santo Spirito inRome had to be "commodo con li cantori cos? al canto fermo come al figurato" [convenient for the singers of both plainsong and figuraimusic] ; see PatriziaMelella, "Vita musicale e arte organaria a Santo Spirito in Sassia nel Cinquecento: note e documenti," in Bianca Maria Antolini, Arnaldo Morelli and Vera Vita Spagnuolo, eds. La m?sica a Roma attraverso lefonti d'archivio (Lucca: Librer?aMusicale Italiana, 1994), 515. And in 1550 in the cathedral of Milan, the organ had to have a "coristamagior si per contrafermo [recte: canto fermo] come ancora per il canto figurato" [pitch both for plainsong and figurai music] ; see Renato Fait, "Organi e organisti del duomo dalle origini al 1562," inGraziella De Florentiis and Gian Nicola Vessia, eds., Sei secoli di m?sica nel duomo di Milano 1986), 194. (Milan: NED, 5 Oscar Mischiari, "Profilo storico della cappella musicale in Italia nei secoli in Daniele Ficola, ed., M?sica sacra in Sicilia tra Rinascimento e Barocco XV-XVuT," (Palermo: S.F. Flaccovio, 1988), 23-45. Transposing was certainly necessary even in alternatim practice, asGirolamo Diruta says in // Transilvano, the pertinent passage from which is quoted below and cited in note 30.
THE ROLE OF THE ORGAN
IN PERFORMANCE
PRACTICES
241
as far as I know, been ade to a least three basic questions, which have not, is there no trace of parts (scores, short scores, basso 1) Why quately answered: before, more or less, the last decade continu?) for the organ inmusical polyphony replies
of theCinquecento?6 2) Why is it that among theduties of theorganist stipulated

in regulations of various musical chapels and in employment contracts, no men
tion is evermade of accompanying polyphony?7 3) Why does no theoreticalor

practical text make explicit mention of the organ accompanying voices in sacred
polyphony?8
In the following organ's main function phony I hope to demonstrate that in Italy, at least, the was to alternate with vocal during the Renaissance poly ? as in in some passages those verses, especially containing alternating pages
and other canticles; to substitute for the singing of hymns, psalms, theMagnificat a at the Gradual, the Offertory, the Elevation, piece during theMass, polyphonic or at were to to fill in at when the the and Vespers, antiphons psalms repeated; the liturgy, such as processions, censing, the display It is prob of relics, vesting for theMass, etc.; but not to accompany polyphony. able that only from the late Cinquecento onwards was the organ associated with of the so-called concerti, which had, voices and instruments in the performance during "alia Palestrina." repertoire than that of polyphony a a cannot From this it follows that be considered as a product of cappella practice Romantic idealization, but rather as the normal practice of Italian choirs during the Renaissance and well on into the Seicento.9 however, quite a different a "dead" moment
6 "Full and Short Scores in the Accompaniment of Italian Imogene Horsley, Church Music in the Early Baroque," Journal of the American Musicological Society 30 (1977): 466-499. The firstmanuscript part for organ isdated 1587; the first printed part is from 1594. In fact, they are never mentioned different funds than the singers. 8 7 in the choir regulations andwere often paid from
For example, the Libellus rudimentis musices (Verona: Stefano Nicolini, 1529) by Biagio Rossetti, which also gives interesting information about organ performance
practice.
9 must It be kept in mind, however, that though organ accompaniment was not part of an a cappella practice, at least from the lateCinquecento onwards, instruments often took part. They could substitute for voices or give support to the lower parts.
242
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on Germanic countries, Forty years ago, Otto Gombosi, concentrating ? advanced the hypothesis or of an alternatim practice organ/polyhony organ/ ? saw to be an which he of the and richness polyphony/plainchant expression inRenaissance freedom of performance church music.10 Carrying on from Gom two more recent bosi's hypothesis, papers, one by James Moore on the role of the
organ in St.Mark's, Venice,11and the other by Christopher Reynolds dealing

more generally with the function of the organ,12 have called attention once again to this aspect of the of musical role performance liturgy. Besides the well-known of the organ in alternation with Gregorian known but chant, other documents,
if not altogether ignored, testify to the organ's misinterpreted, alternating with verses in seems to consider nevertheless, compositions. polyphonic Reynolds, this practice as an alternative between two other performance that of possibilities: verses both in or and vocal of that alternating plainchant accompany polyphony, or on either He the further maintains that "the organ. ing plainchant polyphony possible combinations apparendy varied from church to church and from feast to feast, and it is entirely feasible that the different combinations were used for differ single service."13 The few pieces of evidence that Reynolds cites to sustain the practice of alternation of forces him to be organ/polyphony as an cautions and to consider the phenomenon of local rather than expression widespread After tecture significance. and studying Italian church archi of the organs and galleries for the singers in various I am led to believe that the organ a alternating with cappella polyphony widespread practice in Italy during the Cinquecento, but that various documents ent chants within a
reconsidering and the positions
churches, was the most
10 Otto Gombosi, "About Organ Playing in theDivine Service circa 1500" in Essays in Honor of Archibald T. Davison (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Department of Music, 1957), 51-68. 1x James H. Moore, "The Liturgical Use of theOrgan in Seventeenth-Century Italy: New Documents, Hypotheses," inAlexander Silbiger, ed., Frescobaldi Studies (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1987), 351-383. 12 Christopher Reynolds, "Sacred Polyphony," inHoward M. Brown and Stanley Sadie, eds., Performance Practice: Music before 1600 (London: McMillan, 1989), 185-200, especially 191-93. 13 Reynolds, "Sacred polyphony," 192.
THE ROLEOF THE ORGAN IN PERFORMANCE PRACTICES

towards certai the end of the century repertoire. My
243
it began to give way to the basso continuo and con on a document matter are based thoughts in this largely
Mantuan agent inRome written by Annibale Cappello, the regardingPalestrina on 18 October 1578 to his sovereign, Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga, which reads in
part: ... ha cominciato a porre e la
M. Giovanni Gloria
da Palestrina
sul liuto lo Chirie
d?lia prima messa etme le ha fatte sentir? pieni veramente di gran sua vit? et leggiadria. et quando con buona gratia di lei potesse farlo hora che in San Pietro ha comandato che si canti con due cori di xij per choro N.S.
come ha trovato che ordin? Giulio ijquando lasci?per tal effetto entrade
bastanti a quel capitolo et ha per questo fatto mandar via tutti i cantori coniu ser gati salvo lui per privilegio spetiale. Vorrebbe anche le seconde parti et virsene nelle detta chiesa in luogo delVorgano perch? afferma che nel vero
V.A. ha purgati quei canti fermidi tutti ibarbarismie di tutte l'imperfettione

che vi erano. II che spero non far? senza sua licenza; ma quando prima dalla con tutto il suo debolezza gji sar? permesso spiegar? ci? ch'ha fatto col liuto studio.14 [M. Giovanni da Palestrina... has begun to set the Kyrie and the Gloria of
me hear them, I found them in Mass on the lute, andwhen he let the first
has truth full of great sweetness and elegance. And now that His Holiness that there are to be two choirs at St. Peter's, each of twelve commanded
? singers for he has discovered thatJulius II so orderedwhen he provided

the chapel with revenues also caused the dismissal sufficient for this purpose ? and has because of this of all the married singers save him [Palestrina] by also like to have the second parts and to use them
special privilege, he would inplace of the organ in the said church, for he affirms that Your Highness has in truth purged those plainsongs of all the barbarisms and imperfections that not do this without your permission. And they contained. I trust that he will as soon as his infirmity permits, he will work out what he has done on the
lutewith all possible care.]
14 Antonino XVIII
mine.
Mantova dal sec?loXV al Bertolotti, Musici alia corte dei Gonzaga in (Milan: Ricordi, 1890; reprint, Bologna: Forni Editore, 1969), 52. The italics are
244
M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
to use the tomean that Palestrina wished interprets this letter "purged" Reynolds cantus firmi, chants which the duke had recendy revised and emended for use in "instead of the organ."15 But I find it diffi the liturgy at Santa Barbara in Mantua, was to introduce those chants into services at to cult believe that Palestrina's intent St. Peter's. Indeed, Duke had to use all of his political Gonzaga Guglielmo to use them in the Santa Bar ability to obtain permission
strength and diplomatic bara ritual, and itwas only in 1583, at the height of the Counter-Reformation, to do so.16 It seems tome, rather, that Palestri that he received papal authorization na wanted
the the "second part" of the cantus firmi so that he could compose as to those he had verses in in Be addition set.17 that remaining polyphony, already it may, the letter provides eloquent and authoritative testimony of the practice of in those pieces where alternation of organ and polyphony alternate verses have been set to music. Other documents exist, however, which suggest that the the "second parts" of chants on the organ was not peculiar such as, in this case, Rome. to a
practice of playing particular place,
of The evidence that I have been able to gather begins in 1494.The diary18
the papal Master of Ceremonies, (most probably Vespers) tells of a liturgical function Jacob Burckhardt, court chapel atNaples: held that year in the Aragonese
non tarnen simul, sed omnes sunt in ipsa pulsati, Organi qui tr?plices capella, versus vicissim sonabant; unum modo unum, modo alium salmorum etiam versum cantabant alium pulsabat ad duas horas duraverunt. cantantes; organista, adeo quod vespere
huiusmodi
15 Reynolds,
"Sacred polyphony,"
192.
16 Iain Fenlon, Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 102. For a thorough synthesis of the historical events use of plainchant in Santa Barbara, see Paola Besutti, regarding the "Catalogo tem?tico Mantova: I canti dell'Ordi d?lie monodie liturgiche della Basilica Palatina di S. Barbara in nario," in Le fonti musicali in Italia 2 (1988): 53-57. 17 This hypothesis is confirmed by a later letter of Palestrina dated 5 November 1578, inwhich the composer speaks of having made use of the chants, and even of trans posing them to compose Masses. See Bertolotti, Musici alia corte, 52 and also Fenlon, Music and Patronage, 91. 18 For Burckhardt's Liber notatorum seeAdalbert Roth "Die Chorb?cher 14 und 51 des Fondo Cappella Sistina der Biblioteca Apost?lica Vaticana," in Studien zur fr?hen Repertoire der p?pstlichen Kapelle unter dem Pontifikat Sixtus IV (1471-1484) (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apost?lica Vaticana, 1991), 343.
IN PERFORMANCE
PRACTICES
245
are three in this are all not all [The organs, of which there chapel, played, but a at once: first one, then another would verse of the play psalms; the singers a would verse; the organist would play another, and because of this, sing Vespers would In other words, go on until two o'clock.]
the performance of the psalms was shared by the "cantantes," and the three organists who, one by one, that is, the singers of figurai music, verses It is surprising that this prac would alternate with the sung in polyphony. tice, defined, significantly, at St. Mark's Seicento early the church ordered that as "all'uso antico," inVenice. As should have survived well into the of late as 1624, in fact, the procurators
... debbano, conforme all'uso antico di chiesa di San [li] organisti et le feste com?ndate tutti doi sopra li Marco, ritrovarsi tutte le domeniche et sonar messe un verso per uno et aile vespri rispondendosi organi di chiesa a tutti li salmi.19 tutti due should, [both organists... be present at their organs should play at theMass custom in St.Mark's church, long been the on all feast days and Sundays and prescribed and atVespers, each in turn responding to the verses as has
of all the psalms.]

Other elected evidence comes from the duomo of Treviso, where, in 1535, the recently himself unequal to his
showed first organist, Francesco di Sant'Angelo, task because "non respondet aut sit sufficiens capellae cantorum" [he was not up to to the choir]. Like his predecessor Thomeus da Rovigo, he was responding non aut concordat cum cantoribus capelle dicte ecclesie" "imperitus respondet [incapable, neither of responding nor keeping together with the singers
in the
choir].20
19 Moore,
"The Liturgical Use of the Organ,"
372.
20 Giovanni D'Alessi, Organi e organisti della cattedrale di Treviso (1361-1642) (Vedelago: Ars et Religio, 1929), 75-76. It should be noted that the "capella cantorum" mentioned here refers to a choir of figurai music, given that the same documents speak of meant. In documents relating to these same problems we read "chorus" when plainchant is that the organist Thomeus da Rovigo "non est sufficiens ad sonandum ipsum organum atque quotidie ipse facit discordare chorum, non intelligendo tonos aut cantum firmum et quod nullum habet mensuram in sonando, ideo volentes providere sive modum
246
M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
Evidence Prova
of considerable
importance
comes
from the celebrated concorrere a
rule of the
chiesa di San Marco
s?lita per esperimentar li organisti chepretendono Vorgano nella test to taken in Venezia, usual [The by organists who wish the audition did not require the organist to prove his abil even if it took polyphony, place in the presence of the singers, the contents of the third and last point of this regulation:
Mark's in compete for theorganist'spost inSt. Venice] which probably datesfrom

Zarlino's time.21Though ity in accompanying it is important to note Si fa cantare
non la capella de' cantori qualche versetto di compositione si in tuono come fuori di troppo usitata, la qual deve imitare et rispondergli, dan chiaro indicio del valor de l'orga tuon; et queste cose fatte d'improvviso bene. sing a few verses from a not-often performed com [The chapel singers will
nista facendole
position, which he (the organist)must imitate and respond to, both in

the (same) mode moment, and these things, done on the spur of the a clear indication of the organist's talent.] give and in others;
Such a test requires the organist to "imitate and respond" to some "verses from a a few not-often sung by the chapel, probably composition" performed poly or or even one or verses of canticles another part psalms, hymns perhaps phonic of theMass. With instrument regard of response the idea of the organist functioning as an to the sung by the chapel is supported by polyphony to St. Mark's,
de uno id?neo organista pro ecclesia decore et ornamentum et satisfaction dominorum presbiterorum canenrium in choro, cassaverunt ipsum Thomeum." [isnot good enough at playing the organ and every day he causes the choir to sing out of tune because he does not understand modes and plainsong. So since he possesses no ability, and wishing therefore to hire a suitable organist for the dignity of the church and the satisfaction of the priests who sing in the choir, they fired this Thomeus.] 21 This famous document, kept in the Archivio di Stato inVenice (Procurator! de busta 91, processo 207, Carica di organisti, 1,Obblighi ed emolumenti 1316-1767, supra, c.l), was made known by Francesco Caffi, Storia della m?sica sacra nella gi? capella ducale di S.Marco in Venezia dal 1318-1797,2 vols. (Venice: Giovanni Antonelli, 1854; reprint, Bologna: Forni Editore, 1972): 1, 28. For a discussion of evidence regarding the appointment of the organists of Treviso, Padua and Venice, seemy "Concorsi organisrici a
S. Marco e in area v?neta nel Cinquecento," in Francesco Passadore and Franco Rossi,
eds., La cappella musicale di SanMarco 259-278.
in et? moderna
(Venice: Fondazione Levi, 1998),
IN PERFORMANCE
PRACTICES
247
numerous ous
documents
16th-and
a decade or so ago presented by James Moore.22 from that church that Moore ceremonials 17th-century
The vari examined
yield a good deal of evidence in this respect andmay be summarized as follows: the organ playing inplace of the antiphon at the end of every psalm; I) with the verses of the Te Deum; the organ alternating E)
DI) the organ replacing the choir at various places in the proper;
with the choir in theKyrie-Christe-Kyrie of the TV) the organ alternating

Mass.23
The
idea of the organ as an instrument of response or as a replacement of the of many documents choir helps us to clarify the meaning otherwise difficult to for the moment with Venice, I cite as an example a pas interpret. Continuing Rituum Bonifacio's well-known ecclesiasticorum sage taken from Bartolomeo ceremoniale of 1564, which the Doge's deals with private the ceremonies to be held in the "chiesetta" Palace:
of San Nicol?,
chapel
in the Ducal
Sic cantatur missa
post adventum domini
domini
ducis cum collegio
in sacello, sine
cum sonatoribus organis, cantores cantant et fuerit

sacellum.24
qui supplentur pro ?rgano quando opus sonatores ante januam extra in sacello praedicto,
Mass is sung [After the Doge and the officialshave arrived in the chapel, the
without when instrumentalists substitute the organ. The Doge's necessary, and the singers sing in the above-mentioned for the organ chapel, with
the players (placed)before the door outside the chapel.]
22 Moore, "The Liturgical Use of theOrgan," important piece of evidence.
356-362.1
shall return later to this
23 The texts of the documents containing the evidence, which I have synthesized here, are published by Moore in "The Liturgical Use of the Organ," 369-377. 24 James H. Moore, "Bartolomeo Bonifacio's Rituum ecclesiasticorum ceremoniale, Continuity of Tradition in the Ceremonial of St. Mark's, Venice," inMarc Honegger, Christian Meyer and Paul Pr?vost, eds., La musique et lerite sacr? etprofane, Actes du XIIIe (Strasbourg, 29 aout-3 septembre Congr?s de la Soci?t? Internationale de Musicologie 2 des Association vols. 1982), publications pr?s lesUniversit?s de Strasbourg, (Strasbourg: The 2:365-408, 373,401. 1982), performance of separate groups is confirmed especially master of ceremonies Duramano in 1694: "ci? non si by a note added to the order by the un mottetto proprio a S. Nicol? nel tempo che quelli prattica perch? li cantori cantano dovrebbeno suonare." [this cannot be done because the singers sing amotet in SanNicol? justwhen the others should be playing.] (Moore, "Bartolomeo Bonifacio," 401).
248
M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
The
sense of this document,
which
and players, can only be understood ous of the two groups. performance stitute for the organ, and since the occasion at moments
indicates a separate arrangement of singers ifwe imagine a separate and not simultane Since the instrumentalists are used as a sub is aMass, among the various possibil such as, for instance
other than the ordinary, ities is that of playing as ceremonial "at the Epistle and at the Elevation" prescribed by Bonifacio's election.25 Evidence similar to that (1564) for the anniversary of the Doge's can be found in other contexts. In Rome, in provided by these Venetian rubrics the church of the famous German-Hungarian 1585, at Sant'Apollinare, the Diarium ecclesiae refers to the singing of a "Nunc dimittis 8 vocum correspondente ?rgano" College, in dialogo the organ
[Nunc dimittis in eight parts in dialogue with at Compline.26 Here, I believe it is to possible glean from responding] performed an the wording example of alternatim practice between organ and vocal poly same church on Christmas Eve of 1587, contrary to ancient usage phony. In the itwas now specified that provided for the alternation of organ and plainchant, omnium etm?sica res that "pulsatum organum ad hymnum Christe Redemptor
pondebat, item subTe Deum" [the organ played the hymn Christe Redemptor
omnium and the m?sica, (that is, the singers of figurai music), a solemn responded, a and so
too for the TeDeum].27Again in 1625we find evidence of this practice in the
cathedral of Fermo, where Te Deum sung during pastoral visit was
25 David Bryant, "La m?sica nelle istituzioni religiose e profane di Venezia," in Giro lamoArnaldi andManlio Pastore Stocchi, eds., Storia della cultura v?neta 4/1 (Il Seicento) (Vicenza: Neri Pozza, 1982), 436. On the anniversary of the election of the Doge "se li canta la soprascritta messa ... con instrumenti, con li cantori et in ?rgano alla ep?stola et elevatione." [the above-mentioned Mass is sung... with instruments, with the singers and with the organ at the Episde and the Elevation.] 26 Thomas Cu?ey, Jesuits andMusic, I:A Study of the Musicians Connected with the German College in Rome during the 17th Century and of their Activities inNorthern Europe (Rome, St. Louis: Jesuit Historical Institute, 1970), 301. 27 Ibid., 302: "praeter morem
omnium respondit et m?sica ? Non placuit
antiquum pulsatum ?rgano ad hymnum Christe

item sub Te Deum est... laudamus et chorus grego respon tarnen, melius ut chorus gregorianus
redemptor rianus nihil
respondebat,
deat." [contrary to the ancient practice, the organ played the hymn Christe redemptor was not satisfactory, and it omnium and the singers responded? would be However, it better to have the responsories sung by the choir inGregorian chant.]
IN PERFORMANCE
PRACTICES
249
... alternantibus "musicis modulis [in figurai organis decantantibus" performed ... with of the music the playing organ].28 alternating It should be kept inmind that the practice of the organ playing verses not set was still in use even after the basso continuo was well to vocal period polyphony established. in Giovanni Rovetta's setting of Ave Maris Stella example, libro primo, Venezia: Vincenzi, 1635) the even verses are (Motetti concertati... substituted by interludes on the organ, as Rovetta makes clear at the end of his suona un poco con et serve per l'aversetto ver [il composition, "qui si l'organo, et cos? dalla proportione, setto] che segue poi si ripiglia da capo, principiando For l'altre volte"
a bit, and this stands in verse that [here the organ plays place of the follows; then one repeats from the top, beginning at the proportion (sign), and does the same for the other verses].29 The fundamental to more importance of "responding figurai singing" is, in themajor Italian organ treatises of the lateRenaissance. To Diruta's 77 Transilvano :30
over, also confirmed cite a few passages
from Girolamo
? obligato rispondere al choro L'organista over canto fermo. canto figurato
et imitare quello
che canta o sia
what is sung [The organist is obliged to respond to the choir and imitate whether in figuraimusic or in plainchant]
28 Lavinio Virgili, "La cappella musicale della chiesa metropolitana di Fermo dalle al 1670," Note d'archivio per la storia musicale 7 (1931): 1-86, particularly 55. origini 29 Rovetta did not write out the entire organ part. It is probable that the organist realized the bass of the verse set tomusic, wholly or in abbreviated form. The score of the Missa Ave Maris Stella by Francesco Cavalli (Musiche sacr?) follows precisely this scheme: "thewritten-out ritornelli are based on a telescoped version of the bass for the stanzas of the text, adopting the phrases for the first, second, third and sixth lines of each stanza and as reported by JamesH. Moore, Vespers dovetailing them to create a single span of music"; at St. Mark's. Music of Alessandro Grandi, Giovanni Rovetta and Francesco Cavalli, 2 vols. (Ann Arbor: UMI, 1981), 2: 179, 362. 30 G. Diruta, // Transilvano, Vol. 2 (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti, 1609): libro I, 21; libro lu, 4; libro IV, 1,7. An English translation and edition is in Murray C. Bradshaw and Edward J. Soehnlen, eds., Girolamo Diruta: The Transylvanian (IITransilvano) (Henry ville, PA: The Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1984.)
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M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
Vi
? necessario
intendere un'altra in voce commoda,
dere al choro
fermo.
sorte di trasportationi per poter rispon tanto nel canto canto figurato quanto nel
to understand in order to re another kind of transposing [It is necessary to the choir in a in figurai pitch that is convenient for them, whether spond music or in plainchant.]
[L'organista]ha da imitar li canti del choro, o siano canti fermi o figurati.

[(The organist) must plainchant.] imitate what the choir sings, whether figurai music or
LiMagnificat sopra liotto toni, con lapropria fugadelle loro intonationi, li

quali vi serviranno al canto fermo e al figurato con le loro per rispondere del choro. trasportationi per commodit? on the own on [The Magnificats eight tones, with their fugal themes based or to to their intonations, well help you respond plainsong figurai music their respective transpositions, for the convenience of the choir.]
with
Similar
expressions
recur also in Costanzo
Antegnati's
Arte
org?nica:*
come s'? detto, di usar in [l'organista] deve diligenza, rispondere o canto fermo imitando il proposito, figurato. as has must use thus (the organist) [and already been said, in order diligence, to properly respond, imitating both the plainchant and figurai music] e perci? mutar pero laudo il una volta all'altra et anco nel suonar, cambiar registro da imitando stile suonando h?r grave con l?gataire, h?r presto con diminutioni, sempre che si pu? lam?sica o canto fermo, rispondendo sempre in tuono, che questo ? l'obligo principale dell'organista. [however, I commend now changing to time aswell as register from time chang restrained, with held notes, now fast, with diminu
ing style, playing tions, always
responding
or as much as imitating figurai music plainchant possible, same tone, for this is the in the main organist's always duty.]
31 The quotations are taken, respectively, from fol. [5v] and fol. [7v] of the edition of L'Arte org?nica printed at Brescia in 1608 by Francesco Tebaldino.
THE ROLEOF THE ORGAN IN PERFORMANCE PRACTICES

The
251
was the most common and widespread practice, and not theory that this seems an alternative among several possibilities, supported by the separa simply tion of and distance between the choir and the organ gallery (palco, or pergamo, or pulpito, or
not yet the cantoria) the throughout poggiolo, but, let it be noted, our in and evidence The documents Cinquecento. iconographical possession were in the seem to agree that when music of singers they performed, figurai choir area, in a few cases on a special palco or pergamo. Explicit evidence from
Maria del Fiore in early in the 16th century comes from the cathedralof Santa
Florence, where a long afterwards, the musicians sang was reinstituted early in the 16th century. Not chapel of singers on 4 December 1501, the church's overseer, noting that when
in pergamo mum
existenti
capax... et eo modo et forma et adeo quod possint omnes cantores stare et canere... dicte Opere videbitur etc.32 prout Simone del Pollaiolo caput magistro or pergamo is not [in the pergamo existing in the said church, said platform ... to have the said ... wide (enough) pergramo enlarged so they decided that there is room appropriate for all of the singers, in whatever way and form to Simone del Pollaiolo, the Opera's architect.] seems
in coro dicte ecclesie, non est dicta cathedra vel perga dictum pergamum addi et maiorem deliberaverunt... fieri,
From Giorgio Vasariwe learn of later modifications in SantaMaria del Fiore when Giuliano di Baccio d'Agnolo
con Pintervento mente diede principio a detto coro e ... fece pari due altri archi simili che vengono con Pentrata e Paitare a far croce; e del Bandinello il vecchio, per lam?sica et altri
come aveva anco questi per due pergami coro e dell'altare33 bisogni del
See Frank A. D'Accone, "TheMusical Chapels at the Florentine Cathedral and of the 16th Century," Journal of theAmerican Musicolo First the Half Baptistry During gical Society 24 (1971): 1-50, especially 2. 33 Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de'pi? eccellenti pittori, scultori e architetti (Florence: Giunta, 1568), mod. ed. by Maurizio Marini (Rome: Newton, 1991), 829 (Vita di Baccio d'Agnolo architettore fiorentino).
32
252
M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
on this choir and... made like [with the help of Bandinelli, started working wise two other similar arches which formed a cross with the entrance and altar. These were music for thepergami, as in the former and other needs of the choir and altar.] (choir), to be used for the
A description of theduomo of Pisa, before the fireof 1595, informsus that "dalla
mano grande, capace di molte persone, cos? fatto was a musici" the per la cappella de [on right hand side of the choir, there large in made this for the of way pergamo, capable holding many people, chapel of singers]. under It faced the organ which situated "in alto sotto la cupola" [high up, .34 So too in the cathedral of Milan, towards the end of the Cin [small lecterns for the music], where organs.35 In Santa Barbara inMantua was destra del choro era un pergamo
the cupola] the two "lettorini per lam?sica" quecento, the choir sang, were situated beneath the
in the years 1562 -1564), the organ (constructed under Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga built in 1565 was placed halfway down the nave along the right wall, while the sin from a cantoria above the main entrance.36 There gers of polyphony performed ? a are numerous one for the organ, the other set of cantorie examples of double ? or at the at the threshold of the set for the singers presbytery symmetrically ends of the transepts.
The firstdocumented example is thatof Pisa in the church of theCavalieri di Santo Stefano. Here in 1569,Vasari designed two symmetrical marble poggioli
on either side of to quote m?sica" ... e the presbytery arch, "quello dell'organo quello della from one of his letters.37 Shortly after 1594, a description of
I.B. Supino, "Ilpergamo di Giovanni Pisano nel duomo di Pisa," Archivio delVarte 5 (1892): 74. 35
34
storico
So it appears from a description of the cathedral dated ca. 1593 -1600. See Aurora Scotti, "Architettura e riforma cattolica nellaMilano di Carlo Borromeo," L 'arte5 (1972):
83, notes 18-20.
36 Pierre Tagmann, "La cappella dei maestri cantori della basilica palatina di Santa Barbara aMantova (1565-1630): nuovo materiale scoperto negli archivi mantovani," Civilt? mantovana 4 (1970): 376; Besutti, "Catalogo," 54-55. 37 Cited by Josephine von Henneberg, "The Church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri in Pisa: New Drawings," Antichit? viva 30 (1991): 40, n. 14. Concerning the position of the organ in churches, seemy "Organi e sistemazioni architettoniche nelle chiese toscane nel Rinascimento," I Tatti Studies. Essays on the Renaissance 7 (1997): 279-303.
IN PERFORMANCE
PRACTICES
253
states explicidy that the chorus cantorum was situated in the left transept facing the organ in the right transept, and therefore with about twenty meters between them, as is still the case today.38 the church of Santa Maria inTrastevere
In 1595, at the cathedralof Padua theproposal of building two "pergami da

posti in luoco conveniente... to be situated... gami conveniendy was for the organ] discussed.39 At musici was contra esser l'uno per lam?sica, l'altro per l'organo" [per one for the singers of figurai music, the other the cathedral of Ferrara in 1596 a "coro dei
l'organo" [place for the singers of figurai music opposite the organ] on the built, that is, in the last intercolumniation right of the nave, facing the it was to "far reporre dove era luogo medesimo been], that is, in the first inter
A similarsolutionwas adopted in 1609 in the cathedralof Reggio Emilia organ.40

where decided l'organo nel prima" [replace the organ where it had previously "et di fare un altro palco all'incontro" the presbytery, columniation preceding to make another it] called in the documents [and palco opposite pontilio per cantare. Finally, in 1601 at Santa Maria d?lia Scala a cappella dei musici was erected, that is, a cantoria for the choir facing the early sixteenth-century organ, to the front of the presbytery still exists today.41 area, which a to recent In addition all of this evidence, investigation of architecture and inVenice has shown that the distance between the pulpi ceremonial at St.Mark's tum cantorum (or pergolo dei musici) and the cantorie of the organ made a joint
38 Descriptio basilicae S. Mariae in Transtiberim, Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, MS 14-15: "De choro cantorum. Meridium versus ad dexteram absidis partem in 1713, pariete est apensus chorus e regioni organi ad ejus proporrionem [deductus?] propter comoditatem cantorum." (To the right of the apsemeans to the right as one goes from apse to nave). From the lateCinquecento inRome, we have further evidence of pairs of sym metrical cantorie set opposite each other, one for the organ, the other presumably for the singers, notably, in San Lorenzo inD?maso in 1592 and in the Chiesa Nuova in 1595. 39 Claudio Bellinati et al., Il duomo diPadova e ilsuo battistero (Sarmenta, 1977), 40; Raffaele Casimiri, "M?sica emusicisti nella cattedrale di Padova nei sec. XIV, XV, XVI: contributi per una storia," Note d'archivio per la storia musicale 19 (1942): 84. 40 Arturo Giglioli, "Il duomo di Ferrara nella storia e nelParte," in La cattedrale di Ferrara (Verona:Mondadori, 1937), 222; Adriano Cavicchi, "L'organo della cattedrale nella tradizione musicale e organaria ferrarese: una proposta di ricostruzione ideale," in Jadranka Bentini, ed., San Giorgio e laprincipessa di Cosme Tura (Bologna: Nuova Alfa, 1985), 112; Enrico Peverada, "cDe organis et canribus': normativa e prassi musicale nella chiesa ferrarese del Seicento," Analecta pomposiana 17-18 (1992-93): 110-11?. 41 Daniela Gallavotti Cavallero, Lo spedale di Santa Maria della Scala in Siena (Pisa: Pacini, 1985), 299-301.
254
M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
thus abolishing the traditional of organs and singers impossible, performance inmusic history of the "split" choirs or hattenti, each supported by an myth
organ.42
to the gradual change that takes the singers from the choir poggiolo of the organ seems to pass through the ever more frequent practice of the so-called concerti nelli organi. These at first were only instrumental but later they became in Florence, we find both vocal and instrumental. After the mid-Cinquecento The documents Florence in that speak of m?sica in ?rgano. In 1553 the friars of the Carmine da Lucca as organist, and obliged him to appointed Vincenzo Menichetti la m?sica
in su l'organo" [have (singers of) consecra figurai music present (to perform) with the organ for the (feast of) the tion and the Ascension].43 And on the same feast day in 1564, the organist Anto nio del Fortino was obliged to "condurre cappella di m?sica et per l'organo et per il coro" [appoint a chapel of figurai music both with the organ and in the choir]." "far venire per la sacra e l'Ascensione In the cases justmentioned, the "m?sica per l'organo" might well have been on other instruments; a few years earlier in 1549, Lorenzo di Frosino, performed o messa novella the church organist, on "il giorno della sacra e d?lia Ascensione was to "menarci a sonare la cornetta e trombone torto o [First Mass]" obliged altro strumento" [bring a player of cornett and slide trombone or another instru a ment].45 So too at Pistoia in 1575, in the church of the Santissima Annunziata, con cornetti et tram report refers to "una bellissima m?sica, massime sull'organo most beautiful music, especially on the organ with the cornetts and trom boni" [a of "bellissima m?sica bones]. Four years later there ismention sull'organo et in choro, massime probably al vespro."46 Even in this case, the "m?sica sull'organo" was instrumental only ("cornetti et tromboni") while that "in choro" must
42 David Bryant, "The 'cori spezzati' in St.Mark's: myth History 1 (1981): 165-186. 43 Andrea
and reality," Early Music
(1972): 191.
44 45
Sabarini, "Memorie degli organi del Carmine di Firenze," L'organo
10
Ibid., 192. Ibid., 189-190.
" 46 Davide M. Montagna, Feste liturgiche ed "altre allegrezze all'Annunziata di Pi stoiafra il '500 e il 700 (Kstoia: Societ? Pistoiese di Storia Patria, 1987), 12-29.
IN PERFORMANCE
PRACTICES
255
have been vocal. centuries,
In fact, other research has made groups participating their own
it clear that in the 15th and 16th would
usually per from form polyphonic distinct from those pieces repertories quite at in 1548 the Frari church inVenice, an performed by the singers.47 Furthermore, unusual combination of one singer and a group of wind players, "piffari," due to instrumental part, led to a harsh trial.48 the sudden need to substitute amissing
instrumental
in ceremonies
Thus from the 15605sonwards we find the firstmention of the practice

defined of in contemporary documents (usually trombones some time) from the poggiolo of the organ. processions already for performing The first evidence of the concerti negli organi dates from 1568, when the procura instruments, tors of St.Mark's appointed Girolamo da Udine to "far a tutte sue spese con istru as concerti to groups negli organi referring and cornetts that had been accompanying
musici liconcertinelli organi (perform menti di f iatoet con doi suoi fratelliet altri
instruments with two of his brothers and other concerti nelli organi on wind on Christmas, Easter and other feasts throughout the year.49 musicians] case contract One should recall that in this the written with the musicians
until thattime. It isdiffi which had been irregular formalizes aworking situation
cult, however, simultaneous nes to imagine performances ... turn viva voce, turn omnis generis instrumentis cantatu commodissirnae as well as the contemporaneous Sacrae cantiones (1565) by Andrea Gabrieli, that from the start the concerti nelli organi embraced of voices, organ and instruments. The Sacrae cantio
47 Giulio M. Ongaro, "Gli inizi della m?sica strumentale a SanMarco" inF. Passa dore and F. Rossi, eds., La cappella ducale di SanMarco e lam?sica di Giovanni Legrenzi (Firenze: Olschki, 1994), 215-226; Rodolfo Baroncini, "Contributo alla storia del violino nel sedicesimo sec?lo: i 'sonadori' di violini della Scuola Grande di San Rocco aVenezia," Recercare 6 (1994): 61-136; Marco Di Pasquale, "Aspetti della pratica strumentale nelle chiese italiane fra tardomedioevo e prima et?moderna," Rivista Internazionale diM?sica Sacra 16 (1995): 239-268, and his "The Instrumental Contribution to Church Music in Northern Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries: An overview," in Traditionen der euro p?ischen Mehrstimmigkeit und die Musik Mitteleuropas im 15.-18. Jahrhundert (Interna tionalen Symposium, Bratislava, 5.-6. Dezember 1996) (== Slovenskd Hudba: Revue pre hudobn? kulturu 22 (1996): 338-44. 48 Ongaro, "Gli inizi," 218-219.
49 Eleanor Selfridge-Field, La m?sica strumentale a Venezia da Gabrieli a Vivaldi (Turin: ERI, 1980), 23; Ongaro, "Gli inizi," 220.
256
M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
for this,50 though printed in Venice in the 1560's and 1570's, actually refer to the practice of theMunich chapel choir. Only from the end of the 1570's can we discern traces in documents which of Orlando di Lasso, suggest a collaboration of voices, organ and instruments. mano e da fiato") active in the cathe players ("da dral of Udine, made a request stating that "pi? volte oltre il cantare e suonare ordi nario, s'hanno nel nostro duomo suonate et cantate in diversi concerti in ?rgano et In 1577, the instrumental in altri luoghi pubblici, assai et diversi nostre compositioni" [besides the normal we have many times sung and played in various concerti in singing and playing, our in in other public places, often using our own composi and church ?rgano one of the instrumental tions].51 In fact, Bernardino Bucci, players, offered "di essa gli organi del duomo ogni volta che occorrer? fare alcun concerto in a concerto should be needed chiesa" [to play the organ in the duomo whenever there].52 In 1579 at St.Mark's archduke, inVenice, a a during Mass in honor of visiting Austrian "si udirono li doi organi et sonatori et li can sonare
sometimes
cited as evidence
after the Gospel reading, amotet.53 tori" [both organs and the players and singers were heard] performing From 1582 in Sant' Antonio in Padua, a group of wind instruments (three trom a bones and a cornett) permanently joined the choir. Four years later, violin was for the most added to "far concerti nell'organo" solemn ceremonies and for cannot know with certainly if these Compline during Lent and Holy Week.54 We concerti nell organi were originally performed with instruments only, or if there were as well. In 1590, however, the description of these concerti nelVor singers us a in Father Valerio Polidoro's Religiose memorie, gano at Sant' Antonio gives a vivid picture of performance involving voices, organ and instruments: "a questi
Stephen Bonta, "The Use of Instruments in SacredMusic 18 (1990): 519-535. Music Early
50
in Italy, 1560-1700,"
51 Giuseppe Vale, "La cappella musicale del duomo diUdine," Note d'archivioper storia musicale 7 (1930): 121. 52 Ibid., 124. nelle istituzioni," 438.
la
53 Bryant, "Lam?sica
54 Jessie Ann Owens, "IICinquecento," in Sergio Durante and Pierluigi Petrobelli, eds., Storia della m?sica al Santo diPadova (Vicenza: N. Pozza, 1990), 50-51,67,78-79.
IN PERFORMANCE
PRACTICES
257
i sonatori in alcune feste principali, con i loro organi porta [cantori] s'accoppiano tili, oltre idue grandi, tromboni, cornetti e violini" [on several principal feast days ? in addi these (singers) are joined by instrumentalists, with their portable organs ? cornetts and violins].55 tion to the (church's) two large ones trombones, in the 1580's, and not by chance, we find news of changes made Beginning in organ pitch so as to conform to the wind instruments. The first well docu mented case comes from the duomo Ingegneri of Cremona. Here in 1582, the maestro Battista Morsolino, di cappella Marc'Antonio and the organist Giovan
who had worked
inMunich with Lasso, ask that "il tuono [dell'organo]
et concerti che in essa [chiesa] si fanno e [si] al coro della m?sica corrisponda et concerto che in detta m?sica faranno con tutte le sorti di strumenti musicali concorrono" [the pitch (of the organ) agree with the choir and concerti that
perform in the (church)both now and in future,with all the kinds of musical
instruments From new that play in the choir and in concerto]* the last decades of the 16th century onwards, the concerti represent a
in part by changing liturgical needs and Counter practice determined ? which tend to involve the emotions and senses of the Reformation ceremonial ? to a greater extent and in part by the new and gran congregation-spectators inVenice and in the diose symbolism of power characteristic of state ceremonies new Medici grand duchy of Tuscany. The singers, who until then Florence of the to be heard but also to be seen by the congregation.57 Not by chance do late 16th-century reports of the musical aspects in the past would refer at the very most to of solemn religous ceremonies, which now aural sensations, include discussion of the visual effect produced by the arrangement of singers and instrumentalists on the cantorie and raised sang grouped around a lectern together with the instrumentalists, in the choir, now went not only up into the cantone,
55
Ibid., 72-73.
56 These important documents, published for the first time by Gaetano Cesari and Guido Pannain in La m?sica in Cremona nella seconda meta del sec?loXVI e iprimordi dell'arte monteverdiana, ed. Gaetano Cesari (Milan: Ricordi, 1939), xvi, have recendy been analysed by Bruce Haynes, "Pitch in Northern Italy in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," Recercare 6 (1994): 44 47, andMischiati, "Marc'Antonio Ingegneri," 50- 51. 57 Regarding problems arising from placing singers in the cantorie, seeDi Pasquale, "Aspetri della prattica strumentale," 259.
258
M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
not substitute, but rather coexisted side by palchi.58 The concerti, however, did side with the normal practice of the organ alternating with the choir in poly or they would substitute for the choir in certain parts of theMass and Ves phony; pers, or at other on the most performed only or on special events59 such as royal birthdays and important religious feast days, state anniversaries and on official visits of royalty or foreign ambassadors.60 The functions. These concerti were
concerti often the Mass
took place just outside the liturgy proper (that is, before and after or function), texts derived from parts of other services or some using times even non-liturgical and free poetic texts.61
It is interesting to compare descriptions of two solemn cermonies in SantaMaria del Fiore a century and half apart in time. The first, excerpted from Giannozzo Manetti's celebrated description of the 1432 inauguration of the cupola, reports that: "tantis tamque variis canoris vocibus quandoque concinebatur, tantis etiam symphoniis ad celum usque
elatis interdum cantabatur ... tantis armoniarum symphoniis, tantis insuper diversorum
58
instrumentorum consonationibus omnia basilice loca resonabant" [every part of the church resounded with themany voices of the singers, varied whenever they sung, and a great variety of instruments played aswell]. See F. X. Haberl "Die r?mische 'Schola Can torum' und die p?pstlichen Kapells?nger bis zurMitte des 16. Jahrhunderts," Bausteine f?r Musikgeschichte 3 (Leipzig, 1888): 34. The second account is from more than a century and a half later. In 1589, the diarist Agostino Lapini, describing a solemn service in Santa Maria del Fiore, recounts that "canti e suoni de' quali erano pieni e' pergami et organi, uscendo della pir?mide, che era sopra il crocif isso di coro una nugola dove erano sette can tori, che tutti insieme cantorno e sonorno, cos? quelli delli organi come quelli delli pergami facendo un soavissimo concerto" [the pergami and organ (lofts) were full of players and singers, like a cloud emanating from the pyramid above the crucifix in the choir, where therewere seven singers. They all sang and played together, so that those in the organ lofts like those in the pergami made a very sweet concerto.] See Agostino Lapini, Diario florentino dal 252 al 1596, ed. Giuseppe Odoardo Corazzini (Florence, 1900), 286. 59 60 See the quotation from Lapini's Diario See Bryant, "Lam?sica in the previous note.
nelle istituzioni," 438, for an example.
61 The Descrizione de lafelicissima entrata delser.mo d. Ferdinando de 'Medid, cardi nale granduca di Toscana (Florence, 1588) reports that in the church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri in Pisa, "il concerto di questa m?sica fu a venti voci et, a usanza di due mezze lune, quattro tromboni, un ?rgano, due viole da gamba et quattro leuti. Le parole furono compositione di due begli spiriti" [the musical ensemble, standing in two semicircles, consisted of twenty voices, four trombones, an organ, two gambas and four lutes. The words were composed by two skillfulwriters], while at theMass on Palm Sunday "si fece
una bellissima m?sica con voci e con ?rgano et altri strumenti, et era m?sica
tre pulpiti, dove si canto un mottetto, sopra '1 il signor Bientina fece la m?sica, le cui quale ? amotet parole saranno di sotto" [very beautiful music composed by Signor Bientina to words given here below, was done with voices, organ and other instruments, divided among three pulpits.] See Franco Baggiani, "Musicisti in Pisa; imaestri della chiesa conventuale dei Cavalieri di S. Stefano," Bollettino storico pisano 52 (1983): 125.
scompartita
in
IN PERFORMANCE
PRACTICES
259
two for example, quite different practices of polyphonic music coexisted, notably, that of the psalms and that of the concerti. The psalms verse present awholly liturgical text, which, by verse, derives from those of Ves and Terce. Invariably there are two choirs and a cantus firmus is pers, Compline used; the psalms are performed only during the most solemn ceremonies. The In St. Mark's, concerti (sacrae cantiones) vary in their combinations of voices. Though generally united within a single choir, they do not use cantus firmus, and their texts, often out of the abbreviated from other offices (Matins and Lauds), are performed usual liturgical position in the Mass between and on special normal liturgical events.62
The distinct difference
shows up clearly documents two in the early years of the Seicento. At Ves where the coexisted gamo, practices pers, for example, the psalms and hymns were sung in the cantoria by voices a trombone or violone to reinforce or alone, though sometimes supported with substitute for the bass. The concerti, on the other hand, were performed after the [above, in psalm replacing the repetition of the antiphon "di sopra negli organi" the organ loft] with voices and instruments.63 It seems innovations voices to me that two points in late Cinquecento together and organ accompaniment,
in numerous
polyphonic music and the concerti in Ber from Santa Maria Maggiore
in particular clearly demonstrate that the that is, the use of instruments and performance, first made their appearance with the in printed almost all
concerti. First, church music belong
the earliest spartidure for the organ, initially appearing from 1594, at least for the first decade of their existence, of motets, concerti ecclesiastici and
to collections
sacrae cantiones."
Secondly, in churchmusic printed during the second half of theCinquecento in

use of instruments, an Italy that explicitly demands the ad libitum indisputable motets few contains for (46 (7), collections), Vespers majority only one psalms or Mass and no hymns, items for Compline.65 litanies
62 Bryant, "The 'cori spezzati' in St. Mark's,"
178-179.
63 Maurizio Padoan, "Lam?sica in SantaMaria Maggiore a Bergamo nel periodo di Maurizio Padoan, Oscar Tajetti and Alberto Colzani, eds., Studi Giovanni Cavaccio," in sul primo Seicento (Como: AMIS, 1983), 51-53. 64 Horsley,
65 Bonta,
"Full and Short Scores," 468-471.

"The Use of Instruments," 522.
260
M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
At this time, the term concerti could also signify pieces for a few voices (from or for one instrument and organ. Some very one to three) and organ, important evidence of this type of concerti has come down however, to us from Rome in the 1580's. to support has sometimes been misused indiscriminately use most in music the theory of the of the organ church during Palestrina's time.66 In 1582, Father Lauretano, head of the German College, wrote in his diary of
This evidence,
"mottetti malincolici et ilpi? d?lie lamentationidiHyeremia che a ogni hora, et

con doi o tre voci sole, davano gran divo cantavano sopra l'organo pi? spesso, si at and most of the Lamentations tione a tutti" [melancholy motets of Jeremiah each office, and even more often, would be sung by two or three solo voices alone to organ accompaniment, In the same year in everyone]. evoking great devotion "in loco del Deo motetto Domino, si canto nel ?rgano un gratias, doppo ilBenedicamus Domino, breve a due voci" [instead of the Deo Gratias and after the Benedicamus a short two-voice motet was sung with organ accompaniment].67 a student
A passage from the biography of FatherMich?le Lauretano, head of the

Schrick who was College from 1573-78, written by Mathias tween 1583 and 1589, refers to this precisely practice: si interdum versum, aut una there be
nequ?quam voces,
adversabatur, aliquem
peculiarem simul cum ?rgano
sola aut plures liquidiores aut e psalmis aut e sacris hymnis, tempori cantionem aliquam ex integro intercinerent. a verse they would choose
exciperent,
aut congruam
artifici?se elaboratam vocant) (vulgo moteta not Lauretano sometimes did that object [Father from the psalms, hymns, or a chant relevant and would elaborate skilfully in one or more organ (commonly called a motet) and would
to the liturgy of the moment, clear voices together with the sing it in its entirety.]68
66 Graham Dixon, "The Performance Answers," Early Music 22 (1994): 669-671. 67 Culley, Jesuits and Music, 297,299.
times of "choro nell'organo," which,
of Palestrina: Some Questions,
but Fewer
Sources of the diary mentioned

seems to refer to the place
here speak at
where this
however,
group of singers sang (probably Gregorian chant), in contrast to the other, usual place "al loco s?lito," probably in the choir. (Ibid., 297). 68 Ibid., 78-77, 277.
IN PERFORMANCE
PRACTICES
261
This passage
as indeed does the whole document, seems to that the emphasize, a few voices was still uncommon at practice of having performing with the organ ? in a certain sense analogous to the the time.69No less interesting is the practice ? of a single instrument playing with the organ. In 1586-87, preceding example
in the church of SanRocco inRome, the violinistDesiderio Orsini was paid for
at Masses and Vespers during l'organo" and "nell'organo" the Diario states Lent, and at Easter and Christmas.70 In 1591, at Sant'Apollinare, con ?rgano e cornetta that "all'offertorio si canto un mottetto [sic], et alla comu sopra nione di voci" cornett, duomo [at the Offertory and at the Communion where, amotet with performed with the organ and the voices].71 Similar evidence comes from the "su l'organo vi suon? il was "aver sonato
of Modena,
in 1596, at a solemn Mass
Cavalier del Cornetto [LuigiZenobi] alle secrete" [theCavalier del Cornetto

played on the organ before the Preface].72
In the introduction to his Cento concerti ecclesiastici a una, a due, atre& quattro voci con il basso continuo per sonar con l'organo (Venice: Giacomo Vincenzi, 1602), composed not by chance in Rome, Ludovico Viadana provides good evidence of this practice. He writes that these concerti were meant to supply a convenient repertoire for those singers who "volendo alle volte cantare in un ?rgano a tre voci o con due o con una
sola, due, erano tre astretti parti per mancamento a di mottetti cinque a sei, di compositioni sette et anche a proposito a otto." [wishing loro di appigliarsi sometimes ad una to sing
69
with the organ with three voices, with two, or with one alone, were obliged, because of a lack of suitable compositions, to use one, two or three parts of motets (composed) for five, six, seven, and even eight voices.] Before Viadana, Gabriele Fattorini had published a collection of Sacri concerti a due vocifacili & commodi da cantare & sonare con l'organo (Venice: Riccardo Amadino, 1600). 70 Noel O'Regan, "Music at the Roman Archconfraternity of San Rocco in the Late Sixteenth Century," inBianca Maria Antolini, Arnaldo Morelli and Vera Vita Spagnuolo, eds., La m?sica a Roma attraverso lefonti d'archivio, Atti del convegno di studi (Roma, 4-7 giugno 1992) (Lucca: Librer?aMusicale italiana, 1994) 521-52, especially 544-45. 71 Culley, Jesuits and Music, 303. 72 Giovanni Battista Spaccini, Cronaca di Moderna, anni 1588-1602, eds., Albano Bussi and Carlo Giovannini (Modena: Panini, 1992), 30-31. It should be Rolando Biondi, remembered that one of Viadana's Cento concerti ecclesiastici, Frates ego enim accepi, (second part) Ac?pite et mand?cate, is prescribed for "canto solo over cornetto."
262
M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
Even
in reports
from
interpreting expressions to the some cases, in fact, such expressions place where these might refer simply took place, and not necessarily to the use of the organ as an instru performances or as a support for the voices. For ment of accompaniment example, in 1565 in the maestro di cappella was obliged to conduct "li cantori e festivit? annotate et anco in in organi quando si canta senz'or tempi even at the to sing in the organ lofts prescribed times and feasts, gano" [the singers the organ] P This seems to be confirmed by the fact that a when they sing without few years later, in 1576, the organist who played at the Vespers on Sunday and on other feast days, was required only to "sonar l'organo alle antiphone de tutto '1 Sant'Antonio a cantare in Padua, at all of the antiphons thoughout Vespers].74 A similar [play the organ even more the ducal situation emerges clearly from the regulations governing in 1590. Rule 7 states that the eight instrumental players in Genoa musicians vespro" (trombones saranno and cornetts)
one should be cautious about the late Cinquecento such as concerti ne 11'?rgano and m?sica in su l'?rgano. In
tutte le volte che il serenissimo obbligati doge uscir? di palazzo per andar alle chiese, ritrovarsi in dette chiese, sonando o su l'organo o in altra come all'uscita, et anco alla parte non essendogli l'organo, cos? all'entrata messa se gli interverr? detto serenissimo senato.75
73 Antonio Garbelotto, "La cappella musicale di S. Antonio documentario dagli inizi a tutto il '500," 77Santo 5 (1965): 363. 74 Ibid., 257.
di Padova: profilo
75 Remo Giazotto, La m?sica a Genova nella vita pubblica e privata dal XIII al XVIIIsec?lo (Genova: Sigla Effe, 1951), 274, note 65. Also at the duomo of Udine in 1577, when the instrumental players spoke of "aver suonate et cantate in diversi concern in ?rgano et in altri luoghi pubblici, assai et diverse nostre compositioni" [having played and sung in various concerti in ?rgano and inmany other public places, several of our own compositions], the term seems to be a reference to a place of performance, asDi Pasquale ("Aspetti della prattica strumentale," 251) maintains. As I have already mentioned, in this case we should note that amember of the instrumental group offered "di sonare gli organi del duomo ogni volta che occorrer? fare alcun concerto in essa chiesa" [to play the organs of the duomo every time a concerto was needed], (see note 52), even though this does not necessarily mean he was to "suonare insieme agli strumenti" [play together with the instrumental players].
IN PERFORMANCE
PRACTICES
263
[are obliged to be in the church every time the most serene doge leaves the or in another to go to church, palace playing in the organ loft place if there is no organ, both when he enters and when he leaves, and aswell during Mass if the most serene senate is present.] refer to the Renaissance
In other
cases the expression
could
practice
of cantare
a solo voice to organ sulVorgano (or nelVorgano), that is, of singing accompani a ment. The voice would a part probably have been in high range because such was to a puer cantus or other young usually given singer. The practice was first documented in Florence in 1488. There is other evidence of the cantare sulVor gano practice from the end of the 15th century to the early years of the 17th in other Italian cities such as Rome, Venice, Milan and Siena.76 It is variously descri bed as consisting of singing "in sugli organi una laudetta,"77 as singing "in su l'or gano un leggiadro mottetto,"78 and as "con le risposte dell'organo et una divina
76 For the evidence from Florence, which is by far themost abundant from the late "The Florentine Quattrocento through the entire Cinquecento, see Frank A. D'Accone FraMauros: A Dynasty of Musical Friars,"M?sica Disciplina 33 (1979): 78-137, particu larly 101,122-130; and his "Repertory and Performance Practice in SantaMaria Novella at the Turn of the 17th century," inMichael D. Grace, ed., A Festschrift for Albert Seay (Colorado Springs: Colorado College, 1982), 74-79, 119, 125-130. For Rome, see
Haberl, "Die r?mische 'schola cantorum'," 51; Arnaldo Morelli, "M?sica e musicisti in
a Roma dal Quattrocento al Settecento," in Renato Lefevre and Arnaldo Morelli, eds., M?sica e musicisti nel Lazio (Rome: Palombi, 1985), 329; Christopher Reynolds, Papal Patronage and theMusic of St. Peter's, 1380-1513 (Berkeley, Los Ange les:University of California Press, 1995), 134 -135; Luca Della Libera, "L'attivit?musicale nella basilica di S. Lorenzo inD?maso nel Cinquecento," Rivista Italiana di Musicolog?a 31 (1997): 34. For Verdee, seeGiulio Maria Ongaro, "The chapal of St.Mark's at the Time of Adrian Willaert, 1527-1562: A Documentary Study," Ph. D. dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1986, 314-315, 327. For Milan, see note 79 below. S. Agostino 77 Pietro Aretino, "Ragionamento della Nanna e della Antonia" inCarlo Cordi?, ed., Folengo, Aretino, Doni, 2 (La letteratura italiana: storia e testi, 26/11;Milan, Naples: Ricciardi. 1976), 55. 78 An account of a ceremony honoring Emperor Charles V in Siena Cathedral on 24 April 1536 notes that "un fanciullo canto molto soavemente in su l'organo un leggiadro mottetto" [up in the organ loft a young boy sang a lovely motet]. See Frank A. D'Accone, Middle Ages and theRenaissance The Civic Muse: Music andMusicians in Siena during the 669. The Press, 1997), Chicago University (Chicago:
264
M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
voce che dentro the duomo organis
cantava."79 The decree
of Fermo
canatur nee pulsando misceatur" or on the organ]. At that time, sung impure should be played [nothing the cathedral of Fermo had no choir, but it did have a few singers who performed at services.80 plainchant lascivum wanton or A careful reexamination of the documents known to us shows that the cannot be reduced to a statement problem considered here simply general regard in the of the the of church The choirs. organ ing performances participation on more cere the period, the solemnity of the reality is complex, depending on local not the of church music, though mony, type practice. The simultaneous presence of an organist and a polyphonic no guarantee that the organ accompanied is choir, even in the late Cinquecento, vocal polyphony for, as we have learn
in 1573 probably quid vel impurum minime
to regarding the customary pastoral visit refers to this practice when it notes that "in
ed, therewere other possibilities.A unique bit of evidence furnishedby Giovan

Battista Spaccini's Cronaca modenese at confirms this and isworth citing here. The
background is this: in 1596Fabio Ricchetti, a pupil of Luzzasco Luzzaschi and

organist maestro function came into conflict with Orazio Vecchi, inModena, Sant'Agostino di cappella of the local cathedral, who had come to direct a musical in that church. The Modenese chronicler reports that:
furono all'epistola, l'organista gli lasci? il suo luogo ove ordinaria Quando mente cantano il mottetto, ma lui [Vecchi] non volse cantare. Gionto all'offer torio, l'organista simise a suonare, poich? quello era il suo luogo. Tra tanto, vedendo il Vecchio che [ilRicchetti] non restava, cominci? ancor lui a cantare, tanto che l'uno et l'altro si interrompevano, casa sua e fu disordine grande.81 e bene il Vecchio ingiuri? l'altro in
79 A report of a ceremony in the duomo of Milan in 1548, speaks of aTe Deum at Matins "with the responses of the organ and a divine voice that sang together." See Renato Lunelli, "Contributi trentini alle relazioni musicali fra Pltalia e laGermania nel Rinasci mento," Acta Musicologica 21 (1949): 64. 80 Virgili, "La cappella musicale," 18-19. It should be noted that as late as 1645, when the canons and chapter of the cathedral of Fermo confirmed Giovanni Moresi's messe appointment asmaestro di cappella, they stipulated that he was to "cantar sempre le canonicali nel ?rgano et anco i vespri" [sing canonical Masses at the organ, and also Ves pers]. (Ibid., 60.) 81 Cited Olschki, inGino Roncaglia, La cappella musicale del duomo di Modena 1957), 50. (Florence:
IN PERFORMANCE
PRACTICES
265
time for the Episde, the organist stopped playing as that to be sung. But Vecchi did not want to time for the motet at the Offertory, the organist began to play, as itwas his turn. sing. Then When Vecchi saw that Ricchetti did not stop, he too began to sing so that was [When it was the usual were they the other disorder.] so to avoid a repetition il r.m. Oratio organista continually (musician) interrupting each other. Then Vecchi began to insult and his relatives, and there was a good deal of
In the following
year,
of
this unattractive
episode: a dire a se si in
essendo mensale m. Fabio Ricchetti, contentava cattedrale,
Bianchi, dignissimo
can?nico
e dottore, mando
che suonava
in detta chiesa, della m?sica
m.r. Oratio che il
Vecchi, mansionario certi mottetti
emaestro nuovi
cantasse nell'offertorio organista
che haveva
fatto, che
anco menariano venire; ilRichetto
risp?se ma che essendo era in petto del padre priore, organista voleva cantasse ancor lui le sue volte.82 suonare alli suoi luoghi et quell'altro canon Messer Orazio Bianchi was then re and doctor Reverendo the [As sent word to Fabio Ricchetti, worthy sponsible for religious functions, he to ask if he would mind whether the the of Offer church, during organist venire ma Orazio Vecchi, mansionario tory Maestro Reverendo m?sica at the cathedral, were to sing some new motets come. Ricchetti and maestro della that he had com
che sonasse e non facendo questo non volevano che quanto a lui non stava a dire il venire e non
posed and (also)bring (hisown) organist, for otherwise they did notwant to
was not up to him to say who should or replied that it since should not come and that this depended rather on the Prior. However, was was to when it and wanted the his other he he the organist, turn, play could sing when his turn.]
this colorful episode, it is clear that the singers and organist did not perform turn came], that is, at different together, but each "alli suoi luoghi" [when his moments in the Mass. From
82
Ibid., 51.
266
M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
In sum, the evidence presented
here should allow us to interpret and under
stand the historical facts in a lessrigidmanner, enablingus to reach the following

conclusions: 1. The organist's most frequent role during the Cinquecento (and up until in some pieces, espe the early Seicento) was to alternate with vocal polyphony verses were set to such as, for example, music, cially in those where alternating was to substitute his and Another of usual roles Magnificats. hymns, psalms an instrumental passage for a polyphonic Communion) vocal one of the proper and at Vespers of the Mass of
(Gradual, Offertory, the antiphons 2. Itwas with motets voices
Elevation,
(the repetitions
after the psalms). only in the late Cinquecento on
and instruments
that the organ began in the performance of the so-called
to be associated concerti, that is,
solemn and festive occasions. There is proof, performed particularly until the that up moreover, early Seicento, the newly developing practice of the a which concerti did not completely replace the traditional cappella polyphony, continued to be used in normal functions, especially for Masses, hymns, psalms and Magnificats. A good example of this latter is the practice of the Chiesa Nuova inRome, means can of the music be reconstructed both through documents and by which use from the end of the actually in Cinquecento at the Chiesa Nuova that in 1603 the Oratorians to the early Seicento. We know decided to scale down the music
that had been performed with three or four choirs on the preceding anniversaries of the death of Filippo Neri, who had died in 1595. Thus, so as not to irritate the and Congregazione dei Santi by having excessive music at the service, espe cially because the process of canonizing Filippo Neri had just begun, the Orato et rians decided that there should not be "altri chori di m?sica che nell'ordinario pope statement clearly shows us that, at this time, along nell'organo."83 This important two side the practice of polychoral music reserved for themost solemn occasions, practices existed for Sundays and regular feast side by side at the Chiesa Nuova once to the musical archives, which for the most part belonging
days. Material
Seemy 7/ templo arm?nico: m?sica nell'oratorio deiFilippini (Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 1991), 115, doc. 59.
83
inRoma,
1575-1705
PRACTICES THE ROLEOF THE ORGAN IN PERFORMANCE

have come down to us, corroborates
267
a cappella, corresponds ably sung this period, namely, between during decades of the Seicento, tain Masses, hymns, in choirbook
this.84 "Ordinary" or standard music, prob to the codices in folio. These were copied just the end of format, without the Cinquecento and the first the organ part. They con
as do many books and responsories, psalms, Magnificats or at that time.85 On the other possession already in the Oratorians' acquired the new practice of using basso conti hand, the music "nell'organo," presumably for few voices (from one to four), such as nuo, is reflected in volumes of motets the Cento motets concerti ecclesiastici of Lodovico Viadana, and the books for two and three voices by Gabriele containing Battista Cesena
Fattorini, Giovanni
can be found in the second or third and Agostino Agazzari.86 Other examples books of motets for four to eight voices cum basso ad organum by Agazzari.87 It concertate should be stressed here that the simultaneous purchase of music, works by Viadana and Agazzari) nell ?rgano (such as the above-mentioned and a messe a or the foglio di Christoforo Morales" "Respon cappella (as "un libro di sori del Matelate") show the coexistence of the two practices, "nell'ordinario et of which the documents speak.88 nell'organo," These two practices find an amazing analogy,
even in terminology,
in the
Niccol? Muti, 1599) by Asprilio preface to theChoricipsalmi etmotecta (Rome:

Pacelli. Here the composer distinguishes between the m?sica ordinaria di cappella and the concerti con l'organo, terms by then in common use inRome and present ? in the collection in the version for four voices but which can also be performed ? as Pacelli himself suggests with two sopranos and bass with the organ.89 These
84 Antonio Addamiano and Arnaldo Morelli, "L'archivio della cappella musicale di SantaMaria inVallicella (Chiesa Nuova) a Roma nella prima meta del Seicento: una ricostruzione," Le fond musicali italiane 2 (1997): 37-67. Ibid. In particular, Appendix. 86
arm?nico,'
85
see tables II and HI, and the Inventory of
1608 in the
Ibid. In particular, the Inventory of 1608 in the Appendix;

93.
see also my // tempio
87 88
Ibid., 93. Ibid., 93.
89 Noel O'Regan, "The Performance of Palestrina: Some Further Observations," 24 (1996): 150-151. Music Early
268
M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
two practices are also recognizable ties of singers. In 1594 in Florence, ment on a "castratino young castrato...
expressed concerning the capabili for example, Emilio de'Cavalieri passes judge ... del Franciosino per cappella et ?rgano bonissimo"
in opinions
(who sings) very well both in choir and with the at inVenice, one of the singers was lauded for St.Mark's organ].90 Again, in 1614 "sua bona servit? nel cantar in cappella come nelli concerti in ?rgano" [his good [Franciosino's singing in the chapel and performing with the organ].91 the Seicento "m?sica a cappella senza ?rgano" was also practiced in During or ideological implications places outside the Roman sphere of influence, without local influences, such as, for example, the practice of the Papal Chapel. In Venice service both "da requested the purchase of six books printed in Rome ... nelli com'? l'ordinario per giorni feriali dell'anno, cappella on as brevit?" [for singing theMass a cappella... weekdays throughout the year, in usual for the sake of brevity]. These Masses, for four, five, six and eight voices, cantar lamessa a were by Palestrina, Francesco Lambardi.92 At the Florentine and hymns by Palestrina Soriano, Lasso, Pietro Paolo Paciotti cathedral in the mid-Seicento not and Girolamo were Masses only con gusto dell'uni ("praticate in cappella and Giovan Battista da Gagliano, all a in 1614 Monteverdi
still being used
versale"), but alsoworks by Tom?s Luis Victoria, Pietro Paolo Paciotti and by
local composers such as Luca Bati, Marco in 1658 the regulations concerning the organ.93 In Bologna prescribed that the singers perform with the organ, "cantare on major feast days, while on a dozen times during the year sugl'organi," only minor "si fa that and feast is, they were to sing a cappella Sundays days cappella," cappella and without choir in San Petronio
90 Warren Kirkendale, The Court Musicians Medici (Florence: Olschki. 1993), 110. 91 Paolo Fabbri, Monteverdi 92 Ibid., 186. (Turin: EDT,
in Florence during the Principate of the
1985), 186.
93 "Palestrina nel repertorio musicale della cattedrale di Gabriele Giacomelli, in Rodobaldo Tibaldi, ed., La ricezione di Palestrina in Europa fino Firenze, 1638-1677," all'Ottocento (Lucca: Librer?a ItalianaMusicale, forthcoming.) I thank the author for me read his article before publication. A situation in many ways similar existed in having let the cathedral of Ravenna, where in the early Settecento collections of a cappella composi tions byMorales, Costanzo Porta, Giovanni Animuccia and Gian Giacomo Gastoldi were still in use. See Paolo Fabbri, Tre secoli di m?sica a Ravenna dalla Controriforma alia caduta dell'Antico Regime (Ravenna: Longo, 1983), 54-61, 180, note 1.
IN PERFORMANCE
PRACTICES
269
a lectern.94 This choirbooks were grouped around explains why polyphonic even at this time, and by Maurizio Cazzati, why compositions being used Petronio's maestro di cappella, were copied into them.95 In Sant' Antonio Padua,
still San in
a z. set of ovvero the Capitolario tariff degVoblighi de'musici, regulations a state the choir from 1679, that the "m?sica concerning cappella senz'organo"
represents the first level of a series of possibilitieswhich include, in ascending

order, music "m?sica nelli "a cappella con organi con ?rgano d'instromenti" and finally senz'obligo istromenti."96 This late evidence demonstrates the
persistence of performance practices inherited from the Renaissance alongside era. Furthermore, concert?te of the Baroque the new musiche it shows how to the level of the musical practices conformed liturgical solemnity of feast days within individual In conclusion, ments churches, independent the results emerging ideological influences.97 from a reconsideration of these docu of
suggest a less dogmatic approach to performance practices of sacred music amore inCinquecento Italy than in the past. Inmy opinion they offer convincing to the three at the listed of this The paper. questions reply beginning question of a not to should be reduced simply organ accompaniment problem of perfor mance a nor can it be within evolution of composi practice, explained simple tional styles. The question, rather, should be interpreted within awide historical
94 94. Oscar Mischiati, "La cappella musicale e il suo archivio," in La basilica di S. Petronio (Bologna: Cassa di Risparmio, 1984), 326. The Ordiniper lam?sica dell'in Osvaldo Gambassi, signe collegiata di S. Petronio (1658) have been reprinted in facsimile in La cappella musicale di San Petronio (Florence: Olschki, 1987), 357-89. 95 Mischiati, "La cappella," 326. Mischiati notes that "degli strumenti soltanto i cor netti, i tromboni e ivioloni erano obbligati a partecipare alle esecuzioni, mentre iviolini le violette e le tiorbe erano impegnati 'quando si cantera negli organi'" [as for instruments, only the cornetts, trombones and violones were obliged to take part in the performance, while the violins, violettas and theorbos were used Vhen singing negli organi.'] 96 Antonio Sartori, Documenti per la storia della m?sica al Santo di Padova, ed. Elisa Grossato (Vicenza: Neri Pozza, 1977), 214-216; Arnaldo Morelli," Il Seicento" in Storia della m?sica al Santo di Padova, 97-98. It could be, therefore, that the distinctions between the styles referred to by some Seicento theorists, from Sacchi to Kircher, from Berardi to Pitoni, are not mere scholastic classifications, but refer to a diversified repertoire in use in that century, a century that
historians correcdy consider characterized by these extreme "contradictions."
97
270
M?SICA
DISCIPLINA
perspective
and within
a context
of widespread
also social, political, continuation dizione."
religious
and innovation,
and liturgical. Finally, or, inNino Pirrotta's words,
changes, we must
not
only musical
but
distinguish between between "novit? e tra

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The Role of the Organ in Performance Practices of Italian Sacred Polyphony during the Cinquecento Author(s): Arnaldo Morelli

Looking ? certata the continuation inherited mention from

the age of basso continuo methods

of compositional the preceding age becomes

and performance practices still more evident. Documents that

church music payment

THE ROLE OF THE ORGAN

of theCinquecento?6 2) Why is it that among theduties of theorganist stipulated

tion is evermade of accompanying polyphony?7 3) Why does no theoreticalor

organ in St.Mark's, Venice,11and the other by Christopher Reynolds dealing

reconsidering and the positions

churches, was the most

THE ROLEOF THE ORGAN IN PERFORMANCE PRACTICES

sul liuto lo Chirie

V.A. ha purgati quei canti fermidi tutti ibarbarismie di tutte l'imperfettione

? singers for he has discovered thatJulius II so orderedwhen he provided

lutewith all possible care.]

practice of playing particular place,

THE ROLE OF THE ORGAN

of all the psalms.]

"The Liturgical Use of the Organ,"

from the celebrated concorrere a

chiesa di San Marco

Mark's in compete for theorganist'spost inSt. Venice] which probably datesfrom

position, which he (the organist)must imitate and respond to, both in

eds., La cappella musicale di SanMarco 259-278.

(Venice: Fondazione Levi, 1998),

THE ROLE OF THE ORGAN

The vari examined

with the choir in theKyrie-Christe-Kyrie of the TV) the organ alternating

Sic cantatur missa

post adventum domini

ducis cum collegio

cum sonatoribus organis, cantores cantant et fuerit

the players (placed)before the door outside the chapel.]

22 Moore, "The Liturgical Use of theOrgan," important piece of evidence.

shall return later to this

sense of this document,

antiquum pulsatum ?rgano ad hymnum Christe

redemptor rianus nihil

THE ROLE OF THE ORGAN

over, also confirmed cite a few passages

? obligato rispondere al choro L'organista over canto fermo. canto figurato

che canta o sia

intendere un'altra in voce commoda,

[L'organista]ha da imitar li canti del choro, o siano canti fermi o figurati.

LiMagnificat sopra liotto toni, con lapropria fugadelle loro intonationi, li

recur also in Costanzo

ing style, playing tions, always

THE ROLEOF THE ORGAN IN PERFORMANCE PRACTICES

THE ROLE OF THE ORGAN

In 1595, at the cathedralof Padua theproposal of building two "pergami da

A similarsolutionwas adopted in 1609 in the cathedralof Reggio Emilia organ.40

and reality," Early Music

Sabarini, "Memorie degli organi del Carmine di Firenze," L'organo

Ibid., 192. Ibid., 189-190.

THE ROLE OF THE ORGAN

have been vocal. centuries,

In fact, other research has made groups participating their own

it clear that in the 15th and 16th would

Thus from the 15605sonwards we find the firstmention of the practice

THE ROLE OF THE ORGAN

who had worked