FLORENTINE CAMERATA: MUSIC FROM THE 14TH CENTURY

Arriving to the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini

Today, The Grandma and her friends have gone to Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Firenze to know more things about Florentine music. Since the Renaissance, Florence has been a referent in art, and music was one of the most important cultural symbols of this city during the age of the Republic of Florence.

Before going to the Conservatorio, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 13).

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While Florence, itself, needs no introduction as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, the music of Florence may, in fact, need such an introduction. The city was at the heart of much of the entire Western musical tradition. It was here that the Florentine Camerata convened in the mid-16th century and experimented with setting tales of Greek mythology to music and staging the result, in other words, the first operas, setting the wheels in motion not just for the further development of the operatic form, but for later developments of separate classical forms such as the symphony.

Inside the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini, Firenze

Pre-1450 Florence had a very important music history during the Italian Trecento and was one of the main centers of the Italian Ars nova.

In Florence, the most substantial patron of music until the fall of the Republic was the city itself; therefore, music was primarily used as a symbol of the city's cultural achievements. Civic musicians first appeared in civic record starting in the 13th century. These musicians were all wind players and worked in civic ensembles.

In 1383, Florence made clear subdivisions between its civic instrumental ensembles, singling out the pifferi, or shawm band, from the rest of the musicians. By 1390, three basic instrumental ensembles were all in clear formation: the pifferi (3 shawm players), trombetti (trumpets 5-6 players), and the trombadori (8-10 players), including six large trumpets, 1 drummer, and a cenamella player.

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The Pifferi provided music at important civic occasions, daily at the Palazzo (City Hall), and private functions for the aristocratic families, especially the Medici. This group is commonly noted as the most sophisticated of the three groups. Sometimes this ensemble also played for religious services on the Virgil of the feast of the Blessed Virgin, Easter, and at solemn Matins on the Sundays when the image of the Mother of God was exhibited.

In 1443 the Pifferi added a fourth member, so that the group included: 2 shawms, 1 bombard, and 1 trombone. As with the vocal performing groups, there was a strong preference for foreign musicians in these ensembles, especially for German trombonists.

Contemplating some instruments in the Conservatorio

When it was decided to hire a trombonist to join the pifferi forces, it was agreed to hire a German musician for this trombone position.

When he was hired, officials subsequently fired the three native, Florentine shawm players and replaced them all with German speaking musicians. At this time, city officials also passed a motion declaring that only foreigners should hold positions in the pifferi. These positions generally ran in families: father to son, brother to brother. The addition of a 4th musician to the pifferi, and the funds needed for this addition, reflect the continual development of the group's musical repertory, as well as the ensemble's important function within Florentine culture.

Toward the end of the 15th century, string music became widely popular in Italy and all of Europe. But this development is not reflected in Florence's civic financial records; instead, the three civic ensembles were all well maintained and only continued to grow. Around 1510 the pifferi expanded to 5 players (3 shawms, 2 trombones). Only 10 years later, it expanded again to 6 musicians (4 shawms, 2 trombones).

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Life for the members of these groups was very comfortable. The government provided their musicians with clothing, housing, meals, right to name their successor, and the opportunity to supplement their wages. They were also the highest paid of public servants, and were allowed to dine in the private dining room at the Palazzo. Needless to say, these positions were prestigious and highly desirable. After retiring, they received a pension. The trombetti and pifferi could travel to other nearby cities, always representing Florence. But only on the most special of occasions did the 3 civic ensembles all play together.

When the wave of humanism originated in Florence focused around Ficino and his circles, there was a preference amongst he humanists for music performed for the bas groups: improvised poetry accompanied by soft instruments. However, this growing interest is not reflected in civic records. No bas musicians were being paid by the city for their music. During this time, however, the three main civic groups flourished, especially the pifferi.

The Grandma & Claire listen to Chamber Music

In addition to these important civic occasions, the city of Florence celebrated carnival twice annually. These festivals took place before Lent and during Calendimaggio, which celebrated the return of spring beginning on May 1 and ending on the feast day of John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence. 

People from all classes of society gathered in the streets of Florence and participated in processions, parades, singing, dancing, and revelry. The evening festivities were particularly elaborate and involved collaboration between artists, poets, composers, and musicians. Their first task was to envision the concept and text for a carnival song, canti carnascialeschi, and then to present their creation on a float with costumes, singers, and musicians.

Because carnival songs were primarily an oral tradition, only 300 texts have survived, and of these, about 70 contain music. Much of the repertory from the Laurentian period is preserved through the Italian devotional laude. These include the instruction cantasi come (is sung to) followed by the title of a particular carnival song. One example of this is Lorenzo de' Medici's lauda, O maligno e duro core, which is sung to La canzona de' Valenziani, the song of the perfume makers. In the later part of Lorenzo's life, more serious and philosophical texts were written, including his most famous poem, the Song of Bacchus and Ariadne.

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As we have seen, the Italian laude often shared the same music with the secular carnival song. However, the music grew out of a different and more spiritual tradition, namely the lay confraternities in Florence during the 12th and 13th centuries. These were groups of lay individuals that formed under the Dominican, Franciscan, and mendicant orders who devoted themselves to God, promoted the common good for themselves and the city, and practiced charitable works.

Several different types of confraternities formed, but the one that concerns us musically was the laudesi company. These companies organized their own liturgical services and also met each evening to sing laude in veneration of the Virgin Mary. Because the laude were sung by members of the company, they were originally monophonic and often in the poetic form of the ballata.

Tina leaves the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini

But beginning in the 14th and early 15th centuries, singers were paid for their service, instrumentalists were hired, and the number of singers increased. By 1470 and continuing into the 16th century, companies had established choirs of around five to eleven singers who could perform three- or four-part polyphony.

Several kinds of musical patronage existed in Florence during the 15th and early 16th centuries, with respect to both sacred and secular music. There were four kinds of musical patronage in Florence: state, corporate, church, and private.

Given this environment of collaboration among institutions and classes of society, it is worth considering the relationship between music and humanism, one of the primary intellectual strands active in quattrocento Florence.

Humanism arose as a literary movement in Italy during the late 13th century and flowered in the 15th, particularly in the city of Florence. 

Humanists were initially identified as professors or students of the studia humanitatis, the curriculum of core subjects that formed the foundation of the humanists' education; these included Latin, grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy.

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Classicism was the basis for their studies: humanists drew on the discoveries and revival of ancient Greek and Latin authors and attempted to imitate them in content, style, and form.

By 1600, humanism had come to affect nearly every discipline-every discipline, that is, except music. The common view has been that music lagged behind other fields such as the plastic arts, and, indeed, the application of humanism to music has been the subject of considerable debate. Only a few fragments of ancient Greek music were known during the 15th century, and, as very few humanists comprehended the notation, the sounding music of the ancients could not be revived in the same way as their literature. Yet there are a number of ways in which music can be understood as humanist.

Finally, there is the issue of the type of music that the humanists themselves cultivated. Very little of the literature by the humanists mentions contemporary art music. It does, however, include descriptions of an improvisatory tradition, particularly the singing of poetry to the accompaniment of a lyre or other stringed instrument.

Such accounts typically take an effusive tone, calling on classical images of Orpheus or the Muses and emphasizing the rhetorical nature of the performance.

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The Renaissance of the fifteenth century was, 

in many things, great rather by what it designed 

then by what it achieved.

Walter Pater