1.
Cornet
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The cornet /ˈkɔːrnɪt/ is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is an instrument in B♭, though there is also a soprano cornet in E♭. Both are unrelated to the renaissance and early baroque cornett, the cornet was initially derived from the post horn around 1820 in France. Among the first manufacturers of modern cornets was Parisian Jean Asté in 1828, cornets first appeared as separate instrumental parts in 19th century French compositions. This instrument could not have developed without the improvement of piston valves by Silesian oboe player Friedrich Blühmel. These two instrument makers almost simultaneously invented valves, though it is likely that Blühmel was the inventor and they jointly applied for a patent and were granted this for a period of ten years. Later, and most importantly, François Périnet received a patent in 1838 for a valve which is the basis of all modern brass instrument piston valves. Up until the early 20th century, the trumpet and cornet coexisted in musical ensembles, symphonic repertoire often involves separate parts for trumpet and cornet. As several instrument builders made improvements to instruments, they started to look and sound more alike. The modern day cornet is used in bands, concert bands. The name cornet derives from corne, meaning horn, itself from Latin cornu, while not musically related, instruments of the Zink family are named cornetto or cornett in modern English to distinguish them from the valved cornet described here. The 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica referred to serpents as old wooden cornets, the Roman/Etruscan cornu is the lingual ancestor of these. It is a predecessor of the post horn from which the evolved and was used like a bugle to signal orders on the battlefield. The instrument was once referred to as a cornopean, referencing the earliest cornets with the Stölzel valve system. The cornet was invented by adding valves to the post horn in 1814, the valves allowed for melodic playing throughout the register of the cornet. Trumpets were slower to adopt the new technology, so for the next 100 years or more. The trumpet would play fanfare-like passages, while the cornet played more melodic passages, the modern trumpet has valves that allow it to play the same notes and fingerings as the cornet. Cornets and trumpets made in a key play at the same pitch
2.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
3.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
4.
Baroque
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The style began around 1600 in Rome and Italy, and spread to most of Europe. The aristocracy viewed the dramatic style of Baroque art and architecture as a means of impressing visitors by projecting triumph, power, Baroque palaces are built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence. However, baroque has a resonance and application that extend beyond a reduction to either a style or period. It is also yields the Italian barocco and modern Spanish barroco, German Barock, Dutch Barok, others derive it from the mnemonic term Baroco, a supposedly laboured form of syllogism in logical Scholastica. The Latin root can be found in bis-roca, in informal usage, the word baroque can simply mean that something is elaborate, with many details, without reference to the Baroque styles of the 17th and 18th centuries. The word Baroque, like most periodic or stylistic designations, was invented by later critics rather than practitioners of the arts in the 17th, the term Baroque was initially used in a derogatory sense, to underline the excesses of its emphasis. In particular, the term was used to describe its eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of details, although it was long thought that the word as a critical term was first applied to architecture, in fact it appears earlier in reference to music. Another hypothesis says that the word comes from precursors of the style, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and he did not make the distinctions between Mannerism and Baroque that modern writers do, and he ignored the later phase, the academic Baroque that lasted into the 18th century. Long despised, Baroque art and architecture became fashionable between the two World Wars, and has remained in critical favour. In painting the gradual rise in popular esteem of Caravaggio has been the best barometer of modern taste, William Watson describes a late phase of Shang-dynasty Chinese ritual bronzes of the 11th century BC as baroque. The term Baroque may still be used, usually pejoratively, describing works of art, craft, the appeal of Baroque style turned consciously from the witty, intellectual qualities of 16th-century Mannerist art to a visceral appeal aimed at the senses. It employed an iconography that was direct, simple, obvious, germinal ideas of the Baroque can also be found in the work of Michelangelo. Even more generalised parallels perceived by some experts in philosophy, prose style, see the Neapolitan palace of Caserta, a Baroque palace whose construction began in 1752. In paintings Baroque gestures are broader than Mannerist gestures, less ambiguous, less arcane and mysterious, more like the stage gestures of opera, Baroque poses depend on contrapposto, the tension within the figures that move the planes of shoulders and hips in counterdirections. Baroque is a style of unity imposed upon rich, heavy detail, Baroque style featured exaggerated lighting, intense emotions, release from restraint, and even a kind of artistic sensationalism. There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque painting, from Caravaggio to Cortona, the most prominent Spanish painter of the Baroque was Diego Velázquez. The later Baroque style gradually gave way to a more decorative Rococo, while the Baroque nature of Rembrandts art is clear, the label is less often used for Vermeer and many other Dutch artists. Flemish Baroque painting shared a part in this trend, while continuing to produce the traditional categories
5.
Alta cappella
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These were not found anywhere outside of Europe. In Europe, these instruments were sometimes augmented by bagpipes and pipe, after about 1500 in Germany, the alta developed into the kind of band that came to be known as Stadtpfeifer. Many English cities in the 1500s had town waits, as did rich individuals, in 1571, London ordered its waits to play “upon their instruments upon the turret at the Royal Exchange every Sunday and holiday toward the evening. ”. These may have been London’s first regularly scheduled public concerts, there is one surviving composition from the late-fifteenth or early sixteenth century actually titled Alta. It is a piece for three voices by F de la Torre, in the Spanish manuscript Cancionero de Palacio, and is assumed to be a typical example of the improvisatory style of this ensemble. It sets the popular basse danse tenor La Spagna in long notes with a contratenor in more or less note-against-note motion, similar cantus-firmus settings from this period, mostly in three parts and in improvisatory style, may also be associated with these bands. Examples include pieces found in MS Trent 87,5 such as Auxce bon youre, Tandernaken, during the sixteenth century, cantus firmus settings gave way to other kind of dances, sometimes improvised and sometimes composed. Music in four parts had become a normal texture by the sixteenth century. Brown, Howard Mayer, and Keith Polk, Instrumental Music, c. 1300–c.1520, in Music as Concept and Practice in the Late Middle Ages, Players, Patrons and Performance Practice, edited by Reinhard Strohm and Bonnie J. Blackburn, 97–162. The New Oxford History of Music, vol, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press. The Renaissance Slide Trumpet, Fact or Fiction, journal of the American Musicological Society 19, no. Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press, Instrumental Music in the Urban Centres of Renaissance Germany. The Trombone, the Slide Trumpet and the Ensemble Tradition of the Early Renaissance, german Instrumental Music of the Late Middle Ages. Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press, in The Cambridge History of Musical Performance, edited by Colin Lawson and Robin Stowell, 335–52. Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press, das Alta-Ensemble und seine Instrumente von der Spätgotik bis zur Hochrenaissance. More about Renaissance Slide Trumpets, Fact or Fiction
6.
Sackbut
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A sackbut is a type of trombone from the Renaissance and Baroque eras, characterised by a telescopic slide that is used to vary the length of the tube to change pitch. Unlike the earlier slide trumpet from which it evolved, the sackbut possesses a double slide, records of the term trombone predates the term sackbut by two decades, and evidence for the German term Posaune is even older. Sackbut, originally a French term, was used in England until the instrument fell into disuse in the 1700s, when it returned, in modern English, an older trombone or its replica is called a sackbut. An older instrument generally differs from modern trombones by its smaller, more cylindrically-proportioned bore, the bell section was more resonant. These traits produce a covered, blended sound which was a particularly effective for working with voices. Zincks and crumhorns, as in an alta capella, the revived instrument had changed in specific ways. In the mid-1700s, the bell flare increased, crooks fell out of use, the new shape produced a stronger sound, suitable to open-air performance in the marching bands where trombones became popular again in the 1800s. Older trombones also generally dont have water keys, stockings, a leadpipe, or a slide lock, bore size remained variable, as it still is today. The first reference to an instrument was probably trompette des ménestrels, first found in Burgundy in the 1420s. The name distinguished the instrument from the trompettes de guerre, which were of fixed length, the next word to appear in the 15th century that implied a slide was the sackbut group of words. There are two theories for the sources, it is derived from the Middle French sacquer and bouter or from the Spanish sacar. The term survives in numerous English spelling variations including sacbut, sackbutte, sagbut, shagbolt, sacabushe, shakbusse, closely related to sackbut was the name used in France, sacqueboute and in Spain, where it was sacabuche. These terms were used in England and France until the 18th century, in Scotland in 1538 the slide instrument is referred to as draucht trumpet as opposed to a weir trumpet, which had a fixed length. In Germany, the word was Posaune, appearing about 1450 and is still used today. This derives from busine, which is Latinate and meant straight trumpet, in Italy it was trombone, which derived from trumpet in the Latin tromba or drompten, used in the Low Countries. The first records of it being used are around 1440, in 1487 a writer links the words trompone and sacqueboute and mentions the instrument as playing the contratenor part in a danceband. The trombone developed from the trumpet, up until 1375 trumpets were simply a long straight tube with a bell flare. From 1375 the iconography sees trumpets being made with bends, around 1400 we see the loop-shaped trumpet appear in paintings and at some point in the 15th century, a single slide was added
7.
Venice
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Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and these are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, the lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site. In 2014,264,579 people resided in Comune di Venezia, together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, with a total population of 2.6 million. PATREVE is a metropolitan area without any degree of autonomy. The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC, the city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the La Dominante, Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals. The City State of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center which gradually emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century and this made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period, Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi. Venice has been ranked the most beautiful city in the world as of 2016, the name Venetia, however, derives from the Roman name for the people known as the Veneti, and called by the Greeks Eneti. The meaning of the word is uncertain, although there are other Indo-European tribes with similar-sounding names, such as the Celtic Veneti, Baltic Veneti, and the Slavic Wends. Linguists suggest that the name is based on an Indo-European root *wen, so that *wenetoi would mean beloved, lovable, a connection with the Latin word venetus, meaning the color sea-blue, is also possible. The alternative obsolete form is Vinegia, some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen on the islands in the original marshy lagoons. They were referred to as incolae lacunae, the traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto — said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421. Beginning as early as AD166 to 168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the center in the area. The Roman defences were again overthrown in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores, the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the Lagoon, the traditional first doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, was actually Exarch Paul, and his successor, Marcello Tegalliano, was Pauls magister militum. In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the Exarchate rose in a rebellion over the controversy at the urging of Pope Gregory II
8.
St Mark's Basilica
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The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark, commonly known as Saint Marks Basilica, is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, northern Italy. It is the most famous of the churches and one of the best known examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture. It lies at the end of the Piazza San Marco, adjacent. For its opulent design, gold mosaics, and its status as a symbol of Venetian wealth and power. The church was burned in a rebellion in 976, when the populace locked Pietro IV Candiano inside to kill him, nothing certain is known of the form of these early churches. From perhaps 1063 the present basilica was constructed, the consecration is variously recorded as being in 1084-5,1093,1102 and 1117, probably reflecting a series of consecrations of different parts. In 1094 the supposed body of Saint Mark was rediscovered in a pillar by Vitale Faliero, the building also incorporates a low tower, believed by some to have been part of the original Doges Palace. The Pala dOro ordered from Constantinople was installed on the altar in 1105. The main features of the present structure were all in place by then, except for the narthex or porch, and the facade. — The basic structure of the building has not been much altered. Its decoration has changed greatly over time, though the impression of the interior with a dazzling display of gold ground mosaics on all ceilings. Gradually, the exterior brickwork became covered with marble cladding and carvings, some older than the building itself. The latest structural additions include the closing-off of the Baptistery and St Isidors Chapel, the carvings on the facade and the Sacristy. During the 13th century the emphasis of the churchs function seems to have changed from being the chapel of the Doge to that of a state church. The transfer of the see was ordered by Napoleon during his period of control of Venice, before this, Venices cathedral from 1451 was the much less grand San Pietro di Castello. The procurators, an important organ of the Republic of Venice, were in charge of administration, their seats were the Procuratie, all building and restoring works were directed by the protos, great architects such as Jacopo Sansovino and Baldassarre Longhena held the office. The doge himself appointed a group of clergy led by the primicerio. Procurators and protos still exist and perform the tasks for the Patriarchate. The exterior of the west facade of the basilica is divided in three registers, lower, upper, and domes, in the lower register of the façade, five round-arched portals, enveloped by polychrome marble columns, open into the narthex through bronze-fashioned doors
9.
Giovanni Gabrieli
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Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time and he was one of five children, and his father came from the region of Carnia and went to Venice shortly before Giovannis birth. While not much is known about Giovannis early life, he studied with his uncle, the composer Andrea Gabrieli. Giovanni may indeed have been brought up by his uncle, as is implied by the dedication to his 1587 book of concerti, in which he described himself as little less than a son to his uncle. Giovanni also went to Munich to study with the renowned Orlando de Lassus at the court of Duke Albert V, Lassus was to be one of the principal influences on the development of his musical style. Gabrielis career rose further when he took the additional post of organist at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, San Rocco was the most prestigious and wealthy of all the Venetian confraternities, and second only to San Marco itself in splendor of its musical establishment. Some of the most renowned singers and instrumentalists in Italy performed there, much of his music was written specifically for that location, although he probably composed even more for San Marco. San Marco had a tradition of musical excellence and Gabrielis work there made him one of the most noted composers in Europe. The vogue that began with his influential volume Sacrae symphoniae was such that composers from all over Europe, especially from Germany, the productions of the German Baroque, culminating in the music of J. S. Bach, were founded on this tradition, which had its roots in Venice. Gabrieli was increasingly ill after about 1606, at which church authorities began to appoint deputies to take over duties he could no longer perform. He died in 1612 in Venice, of complications from a kidney stone, though Gabrieli composed in many of the forms current at the time, he preferred sacred vocal and instrumental music. Like composers before and after him, he would use the layout of the San Marco church. The acoustics were and are such in the church that instruments, correctly positioned, thus instrumentation which looks strange on paper, for instance a single string player set against a large group of brass instruments, can be made to sound, in San Marco, in perfect balance. A fine example of these techniques can be seen in the scoring of In Ecclesiis, Gabrielis first motets were published alongside his uncle Andreas compositions in his 1587 volume of Concerti. These pieces show much influence of his uncles style in the use of dialogue, there are low and high choirs and the difference between their pitches is marked by the use of instrumental accompaniment. Some motets, such as Omnes Gentes developed the model almost to its limits, in these motets, instruments are an integral part of the performance, and only the choirs marked Capella are to be performed by singers for each part. There are sections purely for instruments – called Sinfonia – and small sections for soloists singing florid lines, alleluia refrains provide refrains within the structure, forming rondo patterns in the motets, with close dialogue between choirs and soloists
10.
Venetian polychoral style
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The Venetian polychoral style was a type of music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras which involved spatially separate choirs singing in alternation. A commonly encountered term for the choirs is cori spezzati—literally. The style arose from the peculiarities of the imposing Basilica San Marco di Venezia in Venice. Aware of the delay caused by the distance between opposing choir lofts, composers began to take advantage of that as a useful special effect. Since it was difficult to get widely separated choirs to sing the music simultaneously, composers such as Adrian Willaert. Marks but in large cathedrals in Italy. Gabrieli was the first to specify instruments specifically, including large choirs of brass, he began to specify dynamics. After 1603, a basso continuo was added to the considerable forces at San Marco—orchestra, soloists. Music at San Marco went through a period of decline, but the fame of the music had spread far, ISBN 1-56159-174-2 Carver, Anthony F, The development of sacred polychoral music to the time of Schütz. Cambridge, New York, Cambridge University Press,1988, ISBN0521303982 Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. ISBN 0-393-09530-4 Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, ISBN 0-393-09745-5 The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, ed. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press,1986, ISBN 0-674-61525-5 D-sites. net, Musical Space, an inquiry into three kinds of audible space
11.
Cornettino
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The cornettino was the descant instrument of the cornetto family. Cornettini usually featured a primary scale of C or D major, the regular cornett was the treble instrument of the family. Like the cornetto, the cornettino was made from two pieces of wood, carved out and glued together, the instrument was covered in leather or parchment to prevent leaks and improve the grip for the player. Some instruments were made from ivory and these instruments were, accordingly, the mouthpieces were made from animal horn, bone or ivory. Some instruments featured metal mountings at one or both ends of the instrument and these mountings helps prevent the fraying of the leather or parchment and were decorative. Silver and gold were used for these mountings, Cornettini were common in the high Renaissance and the Baroque musical periods. Cornettini were featured extensively in Northern European music and almost ignored entirely by Southern European composers, in the time of Michael Praetorius, the cornettino seems to have sometimes been used in sacred vocal music to play in unison with voices an octave higher. Later in the 17th century, Northern European composers frequently used cornettini in large scale Masses, cantatas, the cornettino was favoured by the Stadtpfeiffen and composers like Johann Caspar Horn and Matthias Spiegler wrote a significant quantity of consort music featuring the one to three cornettini. It appears that the continued to be used, primarily in church music and in Stadtpfeiffer bands. Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach used the cornettino in several church cantatas, the tessitura or compass/range of the cornettino is c to around g. A player with a strong embouchure may be able to coax higher notes from this instrument, almost all surviving specimens of this instrument are pitched circa a =466 Hz or higher. Like organs, cornetts and trombones, the cornettino was regarded as primarily an ecclesiastical instrument, the timbre of the cornettino is more pungent, brighter and a little more incisive than that of the regular cornetto. Cornettini were frequently used in large consorts and orchestras in the company of trumpets, the second and third octaves of the cornettino can be made to sound piercing. The primary/fundamental octave has an agreeable reedy quality, which is reminiscent of the later oboe, a small number of mute cornettini have survived and these instruments are straight, like their treble and alto counterparts, with an integral mouthpiece. No extant music for the mute cornettino has yet come to light, the surviving score of the large scale madrigal, Udite chiari e generosi figli à16 voci, by Giovanni Gabrieli, requires a cornetto muto on the cantus line of Choro I. A small selection of extant works featuring the cornettino, Antonio Bertali Sonata Sancti Leopoldi à14,2 Violini,2 Cornettini,2 Clarini,3 Violettae, Cornetto muto,4 Tromboni, Organo. Instrom,2 Violini,2 Cornettini, Viola da braccio, Fagotto, Violone, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer Sonata II a otto, due cori, Violino,3 Violae, Cornettino,3 Tromboni, Organo. Johann Heinrich Schmelzer Sonata XII a sette,2 Cornettini,2 Trombettae,3 Tromboni, Matthias Spiegler Canzon à2, Cornettino, Fagotto, Organo
12.
Cornett
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The cornett, cornetto, or zink is an early wind instrument that dates from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular from 1500 to 1650. It was used in what are now called alta capellas or wind ensembles and it is not to be confused with the trumpet-like cornet. The sound of the cornett is produced by lip vibrations against a cup mouthpiece, a cornett consists of a conical wooden pipe covered in leather, is about 24 inches long, and has finger holes and a small horn or ivory mouthpiece. The ordinary treble cornett is made by splitting a length of wood, the halves are then glued together, and the outside planed to an octagonal cross section, the whole being bound in thin black leather. Six front finger holes and a hole on the back are bored in the instrument. The socket for the mouthpiece at the end is reinforced with a brass collar. The separate cup mouthpiece is made of horn, ivory, or bone, with a thin rim. Because it lacks a little-finger hole at the bottom, its lowest note is the A below middle C, at least three existing specimens of bass cornett reside in the collection of the Musée de la Musique, Paris. Historically, two cornetts were frequently used in consort with three sackbuts, often to double a church choir and this was particularly popular in Venetian churches such as the Basilica San Marco, where extensive instrumental accompaniment was encouraged, particularly in use with antiphonal choirs. Giovanni Bassano was an early player of the cornett. Heinrich Schütz also used the instrument extensively, especially in his earlier work, the serpent largely supplanted the bass cornett in the 17th century. Other versions include the mute cornett, which is a straight instrument with integrated mouthpiece. The cornett was used as a virtuoso solo instrument. The use of the instrument had declined by 1700, although the instrument was common in Europe until the late 18th century. Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and their German contemporaries used both the cornett and cornettino in cantatas to play in unison with the voices of the choir. Occasionally, these composers allocated a part to the cornetto. Alessandro Scarlatti used the cornetto or pairs of cornetts in a number of his operas, johann Joseph Fux used a pair of mute cornetts in a Requiem. It was scored for by Gluck, in his opera Orfeo ed Euridice and features in the TV theme music Testament by Nigel Hess, at every stage of its development the cornett was an instrument of professional musicians
13.
Serpent (instrument)
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The serpent is the bass wind instrument, descended from the cornett, and a distant ancestor of the tuba, with a mouthpiece like a brass instrument but side holes like a woodwind. It is usually a long cone bent into a snakelike shape, the serpent is closely related to the cornett, although it is not part of the cornett family, due to the absence of a thumb hole. It is generally out of wood, with walnut being a particularly popular choice. The outside is covered with brown or black leather. The serpents range varies according to the instrument and the player, the serpent usually has six holes, which are ordered in two groups of three. On early models, the fingerholes were keyless, like those of a recorder, however, later models added keys as on a clarinet, although they were for additional holes, while the original holes remained unkeyed, and are covered or uncovered directly by the players fingers. The serpent player also has a unique right-hand finger position, in that the finger may be further down the tube towards the bell than the other fingers of that hand. Later, players began to hold the instrument horizontally, the instrument is claimed to have been invented by Canon Edmé Guillaume in 1590 in Auxerre, France, and was first used to strengthen the sound of choirs in plainchant. This date for the invention of the serpent did not appear until 1743, herbert Heyde asserts the serpent evolved from a type of bass cornetto and was invented in Italy in the 16th century. Around the middle of the 18th century, it began to appear in bands and orchestras. Richard Wagner used the serpent in place of the bassoon in his opera Rienzi. After that the serpent dropped off in popularity for a period of time, bernard Herrmann used a serpent in the scores of White Witch Doctor and Journey to the Center of the Earth, as did Jerry Goldsmith in his score for Alien. In the 1970s, instrument-maker Christopher Monk began playing, and later making Serpents, since then, the instrument has undergone a revival of sorts. In 1987, Simon Proctor wrote the first concerto for the instrument, the Serpent Concerto was first performed on October 21,1989 at the First International Serpent Festival with serpent soloist Alan Lumsden. In 2008, Douglas Yeo premiered another serpent concerto, Old Dances in New Shoes by Washington D. C. –based composer Gordon Bowie, with the Boston Classical Orchestra, conducted by Steven Lipsitt. On July 14,2012 in the Monopoli Conservatory of Music was performed the premiere of a Serpent Concerto with the title Diversita. The soundtrack by Austin Wintory of the PlayStation 3 videogame Journey uses a serpent as one of the five soloists, there are two main types of serpent, curved and straight/upright. Within the curved style, there are two variations, Church and Military, the Church serpent is the original type, popularized in France, and is distinguished by gentle, sweeping curves and little metal reinforcements
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Mute cornett
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The mute cornett was an important variant of the treble cornett and it was used in compositions by European composers in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. A significant number of mute cornetts have survived and are preserved in various European museums, modern makers of cornetts produce mute cornetts and the numbers of recordings of music featuring this instrument has increased in recent years. Unlike the regular curved cornett, cornettino and tenor cornett, the cornett is made from a single piece of wood that has been turned on a lathe, bored out. The non-detachable mouthpiece forms a cup shape at the top. The cross section of the shows that it is similar in structure to that of a French horn. It eliminates the slight brassiness of the cornett and imparts the characteristic timbre associated with the instrument. Unlike other forms of cornett, mute cornetts were not covered in leather, like all cornetts, the mute cornett was developed from the medieval cow horn with finger holes. The mute cornett seems to have come into prominence in the 16th century, lists of instrumentations in performances of music, particularly the Florentine Intermedii, sometimes mention the use of mute cornetts. Lassus conducted performances of instrumental and vocal music in Munich, a painting of Lassus directing his musicians and singers shows both a regular cornett and a mute cornett. Mute cornetts were produced by makers in Venice in the 16th century, the mute cornett was popular in Italy around 1600, although the instrument was rarely specifically named by composers in their works. In Northern Europe, composers were more precise, and the mute cornett was specified by 17th-century composers such as Heinrich Schütz, Michael Praetorius and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. In the early 18th century, the mute cornett seem to be becoming a rare instrument, however. Mute cornetts were generally built in A or G, the same as treble cornetts, most music for the mute cornett seems to have been written in the C1, C2, or C3 clefs and is generally of a slightly lower tessitura than that of the regular treble cornett. However, the cornett is a genuine soprano instrument and one of its primary functions appears to have been playing colla parte with the soprano voices of vocal choirs. Praetorius described the sound of the cornett as Still und lieblich. The sound of the cornett is more flute-like than the regular cornett. The mute cornetts piano is very soft indeed and it may be used in consorts of soft instruments like recorders, flutes, viols, two specimens of mute cornettini have survived, however, it seems that such instruments were very rare. The mute cornett is known as the cornetto muto or cornetto sordino in Italian, stiller Zink in German and cornet muet or cornet sourdine
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Johann Sebastian Bach
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Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. Bachs compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor and his music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth. He is now regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. Bach was born in Eisenach, in the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach and his father Johann Ambrosius Bach was the director of the town musicians, and all of his uncles were professional musicians. His father probably taught him to play the violin and harpsichord, apparently at his own initiative, Bach attended St. Michaels School in Lüneburg for two years. He received the title of Royal Court Composer from Augustus III in 1736, Bachs health and vision declined in 1749, and he died on 28 July 1750. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in present-day Germany and he was the son of Johann Ambrosius Bach, the director of the town musicians, and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt. He was the eighth and youngest child of Johann Ambrosius, who taught him violin. His uncles were all musicians, whose posts included church organists, court chamber musicians. One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach, introduced him to the organ, Bachs mother died in 1694, and his father died eight months later. The 10-year-old Bach moved in with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach, there he studied, performed, and copied music, including his own brothers, despite being forbidden to do so because scores were so valuable and private and blank ledger paper of that type was costly. He received valuable teaching from his brother, who instructed him on the clavichord, also during this time he was taught theology, Latin, Greek, French and Italian at the local gymnasium. By 3 April 1700 Bach and his schoolfriend Georg Erdmann–who was two years Bachs elder–were enrolled in the prestigious St. Michaels School in Lüneburg, some two weeks travel north of Ohrdruf and their journey was probably undertaken mostly on foot. His two years there were critical in exposing Bach to a range of European culture. In addition to singing in the choir, he played the Schools three-manual organ and he came into contact with sons of aristocrats from northern Germany, sent to the highly selective school to prepare for careers in other disciplines. While in Lüneburg, Bach had access to St. Johns Church and possibly used the famous organ from 1553. His role there is unclear, but it probably included menial, non-musical duties, despite strong family connections and a musically enthusiastic employer, tension built up between Bach and the authorities after several years in the post. Bach was dissatisfied with the standard of singers in the choir and he called one of them a Zippel Fagottist
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Georg Philipp Telemann
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Georg Philipp Telemann was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his familys wishes, after studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesheim, Telemann entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but eventually settled on a career in music. He held important positions in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach, and Frankfurt before settling in Hamburg in 1721, Telemanns music incorporates several national styles and is even at times influenced by Polish popular music. He remained at the forefront of all new musical tendencies and his music is an important link between the late Baroque and early Classical styles, Telemann was born in Magdeburg, then the capital of the Duchy of Magdeburg, Brandenburg-Prussia. His father Heinrich, deacon at the Church of the Holy Spirit, the future composer received his first music lessons at 10, from a local organist, and became immensely interested in music in general, and composition in particular. Despite opposition from his mother and relatives, who forbade any musical activities, Telemann found it possible to study and compose in secret, even creating an opera at age 12. Telemann was becoming equally adept both at composing and performing, teaching himself flute, oboe, violin, recorder, double bass, in 1701 he graduated from the Gymnasium and went to Leipzig to become a student at the Leipzig University, where he intended to study law. He ended up becoming a musician, regularly composing works for Nikolaikirche. In 1702 he became director of the opera house Opernhaus auf dem Brühl. Prodigiously productive, Telemann supplied a wealth of new music for Leipzig, including operas, one of which was his first major opera. However, he engaged in a conflict with the cantor of Thomaskirche. The conflict intensified when Telemann started employing numerous students for his projects, including those that were Kuhnaus, Telemann left Leipzig in 1705 at the age of 24 after receiving an invitation to become Kapellmeister for the court of Count Erdmann II of Promnitz at Sorau. He became Konzertmeister on 24 December 1708 and Secretary and Kapellmeister in August 1709, during his tenure at Eisenach Telemann created a very large amount of music, at least four annual cycles of church cantatas, dozens of sonatas and concertos, and other works. In 1709 he married Amalie Louise Juliane Eberlin, lady-in-waiting to the Countess of Promnitz and their daughter was born in January 1711. The mother died soon afterwards, leaving Telemann depressed and distraught, after less than a year he sought another position, and moved to Frankfurt on 18 March 1712 at the age of 31 to become city music director and Kapellmeister at the Barfüsserkirche. In Frankfurt, he gained his mature personal style. Here, as in Leipzig, he was a force in the citys musical life. By 1720 he had adopted the use of the da capo aria, operas such as Narciso, which was brought to Frankfurt in 1719, written in the Italian idiom of composition, made a mark on Telemanns output
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Alessandro Scarlatti
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Alessandro Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer, especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera and he was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti. Scarlatti was born in Palermo, then part of the Kingdom of Sicily, the production at Rome of his opera Gli Equivoci nell sembiante gained him the support of Queen Christina of Sweden, and he became her Maestro di Cappella. Here he produced a series of operas, remarkable chiefly for their fluency and expressiveness. In 1702 Scarlatti left Naples and did not return until the Spanish domination had been superseded by that of the Austrians, after visiting Venice and Urbino in 1707, Scarlatti took up his duties in Naples again in 1708, and remained there until 1717. His last work on a large scale appears to have been the unfinished serenata for the marriage of the prince of Stigliano in 1723 and he died in Naples in 1725. By 1686 he had established the Italian overture form, and had abandoned the ground bass. His best operas of this period are La Rosaura, and Pirro e Demetrio, in which occur the arias Le Violette, in his opera Teodora he originated the use of the orchestral ritornello. Besides the operas, oratorios and serenatas, which all exhibit a similar style and his instrumental music, though not without interest, is curiously antiquated as compared with his vocal works. Diana Moore, Suzana Ograjensek, Nicholas Phan, Clint van der Linde, Douglas Williams, Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs. Dorothea Röschmann, Lawrence Zazzo, Veronica Cangemi, Bernarda Fink, Silvia Tro Santafe, ligia digital, 0202176-07 Le parlement de musique. Ambronay editions, AMY004 Ensemble Europa Galante, virgin Classics,5456662 Academia Bizantina. Harmonia Mundi, HMI987045.46 Seattle Baroque, agora, AG249.1 Akademie für alten Musik Berlin, René Jacobs. Dorothea Röschmann, Graciela Oddone, Richard Croft, René Jacobs, Bernarda Fink, opus 111, OPS 30–129 Ensemble Europa Galante. Opus 111, OPS 30–96 Allesandro Stradella Consort, cantata natalizia Abramo, il tuo sembiante. Philips Classics Productions,434 160-2 I Musici, william Bennett, Lenore Smith, Bernard Soustrot, Hans Elhorst. 12 Sinfonie di Concerto Grosso Philips Box 6769066 Emma Kirkby, soprano and Daniel Taylor, countertenor, ATMA Classique, ACD22237 Francis Colpron, recorder, with Les Boréades. ATMA Classique, ACD22521 Nederlands Kamerkoor, with Harry van der Kamp, vespro della Beata Vergine for 5 voices and continuo
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Johann Joseph Fux
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Johann Joseph Fux was an Austrian composer, music theorist and pedagogue of the late Baroque era. He is most famous as the author of Gradus ad Parnassum, a treatise on counterpoint, almost all modern courses on Renaissance counterpoint, a mainstay of college music curricula, are indebted in some degree to this work by Fux. Fux was born to a peasant family in Hirtenfeld, Styria, Austria, relatively little is known about his early life, but likely he went to nearby Graz for music lessons. In 1680 he was accepted at the Jesuit university there, where his talent became apparent. From 1685 until 1688 he served as organist at St. Moritz in Ingolstadt, sometime during this period he must have made a trip to Italy, as evidenced by the strong influence of Corelli and Bolognese composers on his work of the time. In 1698, Leopold hired him as court composer, Fux traveled again to Italy, studying in Rome in 1700, it may have been here that he acquired the veneration for Palestrina which was so consequential for music pedagogy. Fux served Leopold I until his death, and two more Habsburg emperors after that, Joseph I, and Charles VI, both of whom continued to him in high positions in the court. Fux was famous as a composer throughout this period, his fame being eclipsed only later in the 18th century as the Baroque style died out, although his music until recently never regained favor, his mastery of counterpoint influenced countless composers through his treatise Gradus ad Parnassum. Haydn largely taught himself counterpoint by reading it and recommended it to the young Beethoven, mozart had a copy of it that he annotated. The Gradus ad Parnassum is a theoretical and pedagogical work written by Fux in Latin in 1725, Fux dedicated it to Emperor Charles VI. The work is divided into two major parts, in the first part, Fux presents a summary of the theory on Musica Speculativa, or the analysis of intervals as proportions between numbers. The works of Mersenne, Cicero and Aristotle are among the references quoted by Fux in this section and this part is in the form of a dialog, between a master and a student, Josephus, who represents Fux himself, a self-admitted admirer of Palestrina. He also states that theory without practice is useless, thus, his book stresses practice over theory. While Gradus ad Parnassum is famous as the origin of the term species counterpoint, Fuxs work repeated some of Dirutas, possibly coincidentally, since he is not known to have had a copy. In any event, Fux presented the idea with a clarity, in species counterpoint, as given in Fux, the student is to master writing counterpoint in each species before moving on to the next. The species are, in order, note against note, two notes against one, four notes against one, ligature or suspensions, and florid counterpoint, in which the other species are combined freely. Once all the species are mastered in two voices, the species are gone through again in three voices, and then in four voices. Fux expressed the intention of adding sections on how to write counterpoint for more than four parts, however, citing his poor health as a result of gout and age, he chose to conclude the book as it stood
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Christoph Willibald Gluck
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Christoph Willibald Gluck was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. With a series of new works in the 1760s, among them Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste. The strong influence of French opera in these works encouraged Gluck to move to Paris, fusing the traditions of Italian opera and the French national genre into a new synthesis, Gluck wrote eight operas for the Parisian stages. One of the last of these, Iphigénie en Tauride, was a success and is generally acknowledged to be his finest work. Gluck was born on 2 July 1714 in Erasbach near Neumarkt and his father Alexander was a forester in Erasbach, and after 1717 head forester in Reichstadt, Kreibitz and Eisenberg, all in northern Bohemia. According to some biographers, it was here, in the middle of Lusatian Mountains, in 1727 the family moved to Eisenberg, where his father was admitted to the service of Prince Philip Hyazinth von Lobkowitz. The Alsatian painter Johann Christian von Mannlich says it was as a Bohemian schoolboy that Gluck received his first musical training. Mannlich relates in his memoirs, written in French and published in 1810 and he quotes Gluck as saying, My father was forestmaster at M. in Bohemia and he planned that eventually I should succeed him. In my homeland everyone is musical, music is taught in the schools, as I was passionate about the art, I made rapid progress. I played several instruments and the schoolmaster, singling me out from the other pupils, I no longer thought and dreamt of anything but music, the art of forestry was neglected. Most now claim that the object of Glucks travels was not Vienna but Prague, at the time the University of Prague boasted a flourishing musical scene that included performances of both Italian opera and oratorio. Gluck eventually left Prague without taking a degree, and vanishes from the record until 1737. According to the music historian Daniel Heartz, there has been considerable controversy concerning Glucks native language, Glucks first biographer, Anton Schmid, accepted that Gluck spoke Czech, but thought Salieri incorrect, proposing instead that Gluck learned Czech in Prague. Heartz writes, More devious manoeuvres have been attempted by Glucks German biographers of this century, while the French ones have, without exception, hans Joachim Moser wanted a lyric work in Czech as proof. In fact, the music theorist Larent Garcin, writing in 1770 before Gluck arrived in Paris, in 1737 Gluck arrived in Milan, where he studied under G. B. Sammartini, who, according to Carpani, taught Gluck practical knowledge of all the instruments, apparently this relationship lasted for several years. Set to a libretto by Metastasio, the opera opened the Milanese Carnival of 1742, according to one anecdote, the public would not accept Glucks style until he inserted an aria in the lighter Milanese manner for contrast. Nearly all of his operas in this period were, like Artaserse, set to Metastasios texts, in 1745 Gluck accepted an invitation to become house composer at Londons Kings Theatre, probably travelling to England via Frankfurt and in the company of Georg Christian, Fürst von Lobkowitz
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Orfeo ed Euridice
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Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a subject with choruses. The piece was first performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 5 October 1762 in the presence of Empress Maria Theresa, the opera is the most popular of Glucks works, and one of the most influential on subsequent German opera. Variations on its plot – the underground rescue-mission in which the hero must control, or conceal, his emotions – include Mozarts The Magic Flute, Beethovens Fidelio and Wagners Das Rheingold. Though originally set to an Italian libretto, Orfeo ed Euridice owes much to the genre of French opera, particularly in its use of accompanied recitative and a general absence of vocal virtuosity. Indeed, twelve years after the 1762 premiere, Gluck re-adapted the opera to suit the tastes of a Parisian audience at the Académie Royale de Musique with a libretto by Pierre-Louis Moline. This reworking was given the title Orphée et Eurydice, and several alterations were made in vocal casting, francesco Algarottis Essay on the Opera was a major influence in the development of Glucks reformist ideology. Algarotti proposed a simplified model of opera seria, with the drama pre-eminent. The drama itself should delight the eyes and ears, to rouse up and to affect the hearts of an audience, Algarottis ideas influenced both Gluck and his librettist, Calzabigi. Calzabigi was himself a prominent advocate of reform, and he stated, If Mr Gluck was the creator of dramatic music, I provided him with the material or the chaos, if you like. We therefore share the honour of that creation, other influences included the composer Niccolò Jommelli and his maître de ballet at Stuttgart, Jean-Georges Noverre. Noverres Lettres sur la danse called for dramatic effect over acrobatic ostentation, Noverre was himself influenced by the operas of Rameau, the considerable quantity of ballet in Orfeo ed Euridice is thought to be due to his influence. Jommelli himself was noted for his blending of all aspects of the production, ballet, staging, the first lines of arias, choruses, etc. are given in Italian and French. A chorus of nymphs and shepherds join Orfeo around the tomb of his wife Euridice in a chorus of mourning. Orfeo sends the others away and sings of his grief in the aria Chiamo il mio ben/Objet de mon amour and this technique was extremely radical at the time and indeed proved overly so for those who came after Gluck, Mozart chose to retain the unity of the aria. Amore appears, telling Orfeo that he may go to the Underworld, as encouragement, Amore informs Orfeo that his present suffering shall be short-lived with the aria Gli sguardi trattieni/Soumis au silence. Orfeo resolves to take on the quest, in a rocky landscape, the Furies refuse to admit Orfeo to the Underworld, and sing of Cerberus, its canine guardian. When Orfeo, accompanied by his lyre, begs for pity in the aria Deh placatevi con me/Laissez-vous toucher, from the Furies, but they are eventually softened by the sweetness of his singing in the arias Mille pene/Ah
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