| Music in the Castle: Troubadours, Books, and Orators in Italian Courts of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Centuries Contributor(s): Gallo, F. Alberto (Author), Herklotz, Anna (Translator) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0226279685 ISBN-13: 9780226279688 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $98.01 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: April 1996 Annotation: One of Italy's most distinguished musicologists, F. Alberto Gallo here offers a fresh portrait of music in the Italian courts of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and early fifteenth centuries, a little-known but significant chapter in the history of medieval and Renaissance Europe. Writing for general readers and specialists alike, Gallo illuminates the artistic, cultural, social, and political dimensions of secular music, vocal and instrumental. His account also sheds new light on the potent influence of French culture in Italian courtly life. The book consists of three chapters. The first deals with the Provencal troubadours who journeyed across the Alps to create and perform in the courts of Monferrato, of the Malaspina family of Tuscany, the Este of Ferrara and Treviso, and the Scala of Verona. Presenting a wide range of music and texts, Gallo develops a detailed picture of the place of music in the life of each court. Chapter two focuses on the now-dispersed library of the ruling Milanese family, the Visconti, at Pavia. Gallo uses the library as a frame within which to examine contacts between French and Italian artistic and intellectual traditions; the prominent role of music in the books and life of the era's aristocratic patrons is given the emphasis it richly deserves. Chapter three is a virtuoso appreciation of the improvisatory style of solo singing to instrumental accompaniment that flourished in fifteenth-century courts, particularly those of Ferrara and Naples. Tapping newly rediscovered literary sources, Gallo deepens our understanding of the larger vision of music in courtly culture and in the humanist canons of the time. Elegantly written, and enhanced with illustrations, music examples, and translations of Latin and Provencal texts, Music in the Castle is a major contribution to the history of medieval music and the study of its practices and repertories. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Music | Genres & Styles - International - History | Europe - Medieval |
| Dewey: 780.945 |
| LCCN: 95009257 |
| Physical Information: 0.65" H x 6.99" W x 9.71" (1.11 lbs) 154 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Written by one of Italy's most eminent scholars of music, this book explores music's place in the cultural, artistic, and literary life of medieval Italian courts, paying particular attention to the influence of French culture on Italian artistic and musical traditions. In the first of three elegant essays, Gallo examines the troubadours who traveled to northern Italian courts from Provence during the thirteenth century. He discusses their performance practices, the verbal and musical sophistication of their songs, and their role in the daily life of courtiers at Genoa, Ferrara, and Monferrato. The second essay concerns the now dispersed collection of the Visconti library at Pavia. Here, Gallo examines how this collection expressed the tastes of the fourteenth-century court of Giangaleazzo Visconti, how French arts were imported and imitated at Pavia, and the effects this had on music heard at the court. In the final essay, Gallo looks at the fifteenth-century tradition of improvised music, and especially the virtuoso lute player Pietrobono. Mythologized in literary circles of his day, Pietrobono becomes a point of departure for a discussion of the entire vision of music of Italian humanists, from Guarino Veronese to Aurelio Brandolini. |