The Civic Muse: Music and Musicians in Siena during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

by Frank A. D'Accone

• ISBN13: 9780226133669
• ISBN10: 0226133664
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2007-12-01
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Summary

Siena, blessed with neither the aristocratic nor the ecclesiastical patronage enjoyed by music in other northern Italian centers like Florence, nevertheless attracted first-rate composers and performers from all over Europe. As Frank A. D'Accone shows in this scrupulously documented study, policies developed by the town to favor the common good formed the basis of Siena's ambitious musical programs. Based on decades of research in the town's archives, D'Accone's The Civic Muse brilliantly illuminates both the sacred and the secular aspects of more than three centuries of music and music-making in Siena. After detailing the history of music and liturgy at Siena's famous cathedral and of civic music at the Palazzo Pubblico, D'Accone describes the crucial role that music played in the daily life of the town, from public festivities for foreign dignitaries to private musical instruction. Putting Siena squarely on the Renaissance musical map, D'Accone's monumental study will interest both musicologists and historians of the Italian Renaissance.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix	(2)
List of Tables	xi	(2)
List of Musical Examples	xiii	(2)
Preface	xv	(4)
Note on Sources, Citations, and Transcriptions	xix	(2)
Note on Sienese Dating and Money	xxi	(2)
Abbreviations	xxiii
Introduction	1	(14)
PART ONE: THE CATHEDRAL	15	(398)
1. The Cathedral and Its Administration, Personnel, and Liturgical Calendar	15	(48)
2. Chant and Improvised Polyphony in Later Medieval Times	63	(76)
3. Singers and Organists, 1380-1448	139	(45)
4. Building a Chapel, 1448-1480	184	(36)
5. Expansion and Retrenchment in the Chapel, 1480-1507	220	(55)
6. The Development of a Stable Chapel, 1507-1555	275	(71)
7. Decline and Transformation of the Chapel, 1555-1607	346	(67)
PART TWO: THE PALAZZO PUBBLICO	413	(212)
8. Origins and Establishment of the Trumpeters' Corps, 1230-1399	413	(25)
9. Pomp, Circumstance, and Security: The Trumpeters' Corps as an Ongoing Institution in the Fifteenth Century	438	(43)
10. Diminishing Importance and Nostalgia for Times Past: The Trumpeters' Corps in the Sixteenth Century	481	(31)
11. Establishment and Consolidation of the Pifferi in the Fifteenth Century	512	(53)
12. Triumph of the Wind Band in the Sixteenth Century	565	(60)
PART THREE: MUSIC IN THE LIFE OF THE TOWN	625	(102)
13. Beyond Cathedral and Place Walls: Professional Musicians and Dancing Masters, Amateurs, Builders, and Repairmen, 1300-1607	625	(41)
14. Music at Social Events, Public and Private	666	(61)
Register of Musicians	727	(72)
I. Cathedral Singers and Wind Players	727	(26)
II. Cathedral Organists and Organ Builders	753	(6)
III. Palace Trumpeters and Shawm Players, Town Criers, Drummers, and Singers	759	(17)
IV. Palace Pifferi	776	(23)
Bibliography	799	(20)
Index	819