the city of brescia | nicolabarbieri

Giovanni Paolo Maggini

Botticnio Sera (Brescia) 1580 – Brescia 1630/31 c.

“Venturi”, Civic Collection of Brescia

Between the years 1550 and 1700, the northern Italian city of Brescia was host to a sphere of outstanding intensity in musical activity. The period was characterized by a liveliness and brilliance in performance, composition, instrument building and technical-organological development in instrument construction; excellence recognized throughout the courts of Europe. Centers of musical eminence prospered--hubs of immense and varied compositional activity, places where musicians, luthiers and organ builders were simultaneously very active. Today Brescia is recognized as a nucleus of musical life at the time, but could also be taken as a reference for today’s revival of repertoire, compositional styles, performance practice, and the study of the evolution of instrument construction.

During this time, Brescia's modest size in relation to its population of artists, performers, theorists and luthiers allowed continual everyday encounters to occur within the artistic community, a singularity that generated a great flow of spontaneous philosophical exchange.

Among these persons were exceptionally innovative figures whose work bears significance in the greater arc of music history: musicians such as Biagio Marini, Luca Marenzio, Giovanni Battista Fontana, Florenzio Maschera, theorists as Giovanni Maria Lanfranco, luthiers like Gasparo da Salò, Gio: Paolo Maggini, Zanetto da Montechiaro (progenitor of the most ancient luthier dinasty), Giovanni Battista Rogeri; the musician and composer Giovanni Virchi, son of the maker and wood carver Girolamo Virchi (maker of the wonderful cittern currently kept at Vienna Kunsthistoriches Museum); the organ builders Graziadio and Costanzo Antegnati, and more. Each of these, natives or transplants to Brescia, was active in centers of intense impulsion within the Padan-Venetian triangle, holding prestigious positions in Venice (“San Marco” Cathedral), Bologna (“San Petronio” Cathedral), or Brescia (“Santa Maria delle Grazie” church, the ancient Cathedral, the “San Giovanni” church and others).

Leonardo Cozzando,

“Vago, e Curioso ristretto profano, e sagro dell'Historia Bresciana”

Gio. Maria Rizzardi, Brescia 1694

Cover of the opus

“Affetti Musicali” by Biagio Marini

Venezia, 1617

In this context, the powerful propellent push of Brescia is highly evident. As we have said, the city's influence acted specifically upon three elements of music-making: composition (or, rather, innovation regarding composition), interpretation (and with that, the in-depth elaboration of individual performing styles) and instrument-making (technological innovations aimed at enhancing expressive capability). We have evidence of how tightly these three components were woven, thanks, for example, to Galileo Galilei: in his rich epistolary, we read of a direct relationship between composers (especially Monteverdi) and contemporary violin-making. Here also, we gain insight into the close connection not only between compositions and performance (as today), but also with the furnishing of instruments and original playing style - that is, the growing attention by makers to sound quality and its effect on performance.

Indeed, from these sources, the fact emerges that Brescian luthiers placed their greatest emphasis on efficient design in pursuit of a tonal idea (for instance, a darker sound, closer to that of the viola). Over time, this process included experiments with dimensions (considerably longer/bigger) and archings (more emphasized close to the border of the instrument)--surely, such experimentation could not have taken place without the approval of players in and around Brescia during the years on either side of 1600.

The vicinity of the town of Cremona (about 50 kilometers) and its own great luthier tradition further stimulates research regarding this tone esthetic, as the careers of some important makers testify (Giovanni Battista Rogeri, for instance, apprenticed in a Cremonese workshop and later moved to Brescia to establish his own activity).

Marriage of Giovanni Battista Rogeri with Laura Testini in St. Giorgio Church, Brescia

It is clear from evidence in the Venetian archives of the Scuole Grandi that Brescian musicians and ensembles were beginning to attract attention for their superior facility with stringed instruments and exceptional musical abilities (see in R. Baroncini, “Origini del Violino e Prassi Strumentale in Padania: “Sonadori di violini” bresciani attivi a Venezia in Ambito Devozionale (1540-1600)”, Brescia, 1992).

As we have seen, Brescia enjoyed a flourishing musical life in those years, and this fact in itself drew even more skilled musicians to the region. In first half of the 16th Century, as we can deduce from the archives, the city registered over 100 citizens as 'Musician' (see G. Bignami, “Enciclopedia dei Musicisti Bresciani”, Brescia, 1985), within a larger population of 40,000 inhabitants. What is even more interesting for our goal is that Brescian musical taste appeared to be rather unusual: with their keen interest in various stringed instruments (plucked and bowed, lutes, etc.), keyboards, organs and through the extensive use of wind instruments, musicians became more versed in instrumental music than players elsewhere (see D. Kaemper, “Studien zur instrumentalen Ensemblemusik des 16. Jahrhunderts in Italien”, Cologne, 1970). Furthermore, instruments were more often employed in consort rather than solo settings and from this fact, another unique aspect of the area became the creation of ensembles with varied sonorities.

With these observations as a preface, how can we then bring attention beyond merely drawing-up historical research? How might we use these observations as a point of departure toward an in-depth analysis of the “performing art” of being musicians who are historically informed?

We may gain unexpected insights by inspecting and considering the main aspects of the changing craft of instrument-making. In which features can we find the concrete influence of these ever-more technologically advanced instruments have had on performance and composition, launching fresh interpretation practices (for instance, to Giovanni Battista Fontana’s Sonatas)? Similarly, how can we observe the ways in which new musical taste and innovative musical composition began dictating changing techniques and structural improvements. Above all, in which way can see the degree to which performance practice moved hand in hand with musical creativity?

Then we might ask: What are the common issues of these observed progressions?

Some other questions then might emerge: Which is the source of this creative flow and which direction does it take while branching off into its three elements?

Original Composition---->Innovative Performance Practice---->Instruments Modification

Instruments Modification---->Original Composition---->Innovative Performance Practice

Innovative Performance Practice---->Instruments Modification---->Original Composition

Can we confidently declare that one of these flows portrays the reality of this artistic period better than the others? Or is it instead something more diffuse, a continual permeation among the three elements?

In a geographically restricted area like the one we are considering, these components of the artistic process remained closely connected: therefore, what shape might other aspects have taken, such as the link between musician and instrument? How did that relationship differ from today's (for example, it was rather common at the time for musicians to make their own instruments themselves--see Gasparo da Salò, or Giovanni Paolo Maggini, etc.)? We might also examine the connection of Baroque composers to their region of activity, and the vicinity between composer and luthier, musician and commissioner. How did all of this condition artistic creation?

These and others are the themes that define the subjects and method of this research. In our investigations, one resource will be useful above all others: the “Fondo Marenzio” in the Queriniana Library in Brescia, an archive of absolute excellence brought together by the “Centro Studi Luca Marenzio”. This wonderful collection includes microfilms of all printed works written and composed by Brescian musicians (both those active in Brescia and those hailing from Brescia but active elsewhere) during the years in question (see O. Mischiati. “Bibliografia delle Opere dei Musicisti Bresciani Pubblicate a Stampa dal 1497 al 1740: opere di singoli autori”, Firenze, 1992).

Important fruit of this research will also be the competence for designing concert programmes that present works, both standard and lesser-known, with a coherent throughline.

nicola barbieri