City in northern Italy. There is evidence of a local liturgy dating from the 4th century in a letter from St Jerome to the deacon of Piacenza, Presidius (384). A bull issued by Pope Innocent IV (6 February 1248) confirming the city’s privilege of a studium generale (i.e. a university), with faculties of canon and civil law, philosophy, literature, the sciences and the liberal arts, recognizes the existence of schools of music attached to chapters and monasteries of the Benedictine, Cistercian, Dominican, Servite and Franciscan orders. This early liturgical and musical activity in Piacenza is also shown by the neumatic manuscripts in the two major archives. S Antonino, the first cathedral (begun in the 4th century), contains the famous Antiphoner Gradual (12th century) which still shows some traces of Ambrosian influence in Piacenza’s long tradition of plainchant. The present cathedral (1122) has 22 music manuscripts from before the 11th century to the 16th, a fine collection of printed music (particularly rich in single extant copies) and precious 16th-century manuscript anthologies. A 12th-century codex, the Liber Magistri (I-PCd 65), contains rich illuminations of instruments (tensibilia, inflatilia, percussionales), an antiphoner, a gradual, a psalter, a sequentiary, a tonary, a compendium of musical theory and a troper with one of the rare examples of Quem quaeritis. Raimbaut de Vaqeiras, Jacopo da Bologna and Giovanni da Cascia were all probably active in or near Piacenza. Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza, who was assassinated in 1476, intended but failed to establish cappelle in the principal cathedrals of the duchy, from Milan to Piacenza. Francesco Sforza employed the dancing-master Domenico da Piacenza (c1450), who taught another Piacentine, Antonio Cornazano. The links between the Sforza and Josquin Des Prez are reflected in the cathedral archive and in the marquetry-work in the choir of S Sisto, which represents music and musical instruments.
The cappelle of the major churches flourished during the 16th century: S Pietro, S Agostino, S Antonino, S Maria di Campagna (housing an imposing organ by Carlo Serassi, 1822), S Francesco, S Giovanni in Canale (1557–1732, the last maestro di cappella being Geminiano Giacomelli) and the cathedral. There music was encouraged by Bishop Claudio Rangoni (1596–1619); the most important maestri di cappella between about 1570 and about 1780 were the ‘Frenchman’ Luigi Roinci, G.C. Quintiani, Tiburtio Massaino, Michelangelo Serra, G.A. Grossi, Giuseppe Allevi, F.M. Bazzani, G.B. Benzoni and Giuseppe and Giacomo Carcani.
Academies flourished in the 16th century, including those of Guido della Porta, Alessandro Colombo and especially Annibale Malvicino. The latter was attended by Antonfrancesco Doni, also a member of the Accademia Ortolana. He dedicated to some influential men of Piacenza three parts of his Dialogo della musica (1544), in which appear such local musicians as P.J. Palazzo, Tommaso Bargonio, Claudio Veggio and Gerolamo Parabosco. The Farnese, dukes of Parma and Piacenza from 1545, provided patronage and employment. Under Ottavio Farnese (1556–86) and his wife Margaret of Austria, governor of the Low Countries, Flemish composers and singers flocked to the duchy. In spite of the harsh character of Ranuccio I (1586–1622) life at his court could be festive (Fabritio Caroso dedicated to him his Il ballarino, 1581). Odoardo (1625–46) was a patron of Monteverdi, whose ballet La vittoria d'amore was performed in the Cittadella (1641) for the birth of Ottavio, Odoardo's seventh son. Ranuccio II (1646–94) encouraged musical drama; his three marriages provided opportunities for musical festivities. Through Elisabetta Farnese, the consort of Philip V of Spain, the Farnese were succeeded by Bourbons; under them Piacenza lost importance relative to Parma. Notable musicians during the Farnese period included Giuseppe Villani and his sons Gasparo and Gabriele and, under the patronage of the Bourbons, Giuseppe and Giacomo Carcani. Other natives of Piacenza included Sebastiano Nasolini, Giuseppe Nicolini, Giuseppe Ferranti (1888–1937), highly regarded by Debussy and Toscanini, and Amilcare Zanella.
From 1644 to about 1720 operas were given sporadically in the Teatro di Palazzo Gotico (also called Teatro Nuovo), built by Cristoforo Rangoni (called Ficcarelli) with four rows of boxes; it was inaugurated with a performance of Francesco Sacrati’s La finta pazza given by the Febiarmonici. Other first performances there included Olivo’s Ratto d’Elena (1646) and Cavalli’s Coriolano (1669), probably in the absence of the composer. More active, especially in the 18th century, were the Teatro delle Saline (1593–1804) and the Regio Ducal Teatro della Cittadella (first half of the 17th century to 1797). The former specialized in opera buffa; the latter gave performances of both opera seria (A. Ziani, Chelleri, T. Albinoni, Carcani, Jommelli, Sacchini) and later opera buffa (Galuppi, Gazzaniga, V. Fioravanti, Tritto, G. Nicolini, Paisiello, Cimarosa). The Cittadella theatre won esteem in the late 17th century with a team consisting of the composer Bernardo Sabadini, the impresario Giuseppe Calvi and the designers Ferdinando and Francesco Galli-Bibiena. On 10 September 1804 the Teatro Comunitativo (now Teatro Municipale) opened with a performance of Zamori, ossia L’eroe dell’Indie by Simon Mayr. It is still one of the major provincial Italian opera houses (teatri di tradizione); it has five rows of boxes and seats about 1500. It was built by Lotario Tomba and important improvements were made between 1826 and 1830 by the designer Alessandro Sanquirico. Among the artists who performed there were Paganini (1812, 1818 in a contest with K.J. Lipiński, 1834) and Toscanini (1900, 1920). The 19th-century repertory in Piacenza was dominated by Rossini (15 operas performed between 1814 and 1838) and Verdi (almost all the major operas starting with Nabucco in 1843) and included works by Bellini, Donizetti, Puccini, Mascagni, Meyerbeer and Massenet. Wagner was introduced into the repertory with a performance of Lohengrin in 1889, and Mozart with Così fan tutte in 1961.
The Accademia dei Filarmonici, the Filarmonici di Trebbia and the Università di Filarmonici were founded in the mid-18th century. The Casino de' Virtuosi di Musica was associated with the Teatro della Cittadella, and the Società Filarmonica was active from the beginning of the 19th century. From 3 August 1822 the Accademia di Studio Musicale held regular weekly meetings throughout the 19th century to spread knowledge of both old and contemporary Italian vocal and instrumental music. The Scuola Musicale was founded in 1839 with the purpose of supplying members of the chorus and orchestra to the Teatro Municipale; it was named after Nicolini in 1914, recognized by the state in 1933 and became a conservatory in 1970. It has a fine concert hall; its library holds an interesting music collection. Directors of the Scuola Musicale have included Giuseppe Jona, Primo Bandini, Giovanni Spezzaferri, Marcello Abbado and Giuseppe Zanaboni. In 1953 Zanaboni founded the Gruppo Ciampi to promote Piacenza's musical heritage; Francesco Bussi's 1987 foundation of the Monumenti Musicali Piacentini e Farnesiani has a similar aim.
The province of Piacenza includes the monastery at Bobbio, founded by the Irish St Columba in 599, which is famous for its collection of manuscripts in the notation of St Gallen (it is likely that the Planctus de obitu Caroli was written at Bobbio); Monticelli d’Ongina, the residence of Franchinus Gaffurius between 1480 and 1483; and Castell’Arquato, where the archives of the Collegiata contain the only extant copy of Monteverdi’s Sacrae cantiunculae.
DEUMM (F. Bussi)
MGG2 (F. Bussi)
RicordiE (F. Bussi)
E. Nasalli Rocca: ‘Dalla Scuola vescovile allo Studio generale di Piacenza’, Bollettino storico piacentino, xxxix (1944), 19–28
A. Rapetti: ‘Il teatro ducale della Cittadella’; ‘Il teatro ducale di Palazzo gotico’, Bollettino storico piacentino, xlvi (1951), 1–10, 45–51
C. Censi: Il Liceo musicale ‘G. Nicolini’ di Piacenza (Florence, 1952)
F. Bussi: Alcuni maestri di cappella e organisti della cattedrale di Piacenza (sec. XVI–XIX) (Piacenza, 1956)
F. Bussi: L’Antifonario-Graduale della Basilica di S Antonino in Piacenza (sec. XII) (Piacenza, 1956/R)
M. Picker: ‘Josquiniana in some Manuscripts at Piacenza’, Josquin des Prez: New York 1971, 247–60
F. Bussi: Due importanti fondi musicali piacentini: la biblioteca-archivio capitolare del duomo e la biblioteca del Conservatorio ‘Giuseppe Nicolini’ (Piacenza, 1972)
F. van Benthem: ‘Einige Musikintarsien des frühen 16. Jahrhunderts in Piacenza und Josquins Proportionskanon “Agnus Dei”’, TVNM, xxiv (1974), 99–111
O. Mischiati: L'organo di Santa Maria di Campagna a Piacenza (Piacenza, 1980)
D. Rabitti: ‘Orchestre e istituzioni musicali piacentine’, Orchestre in Emilia-Romagna nell '800 e '900 (Parma, 1982), 37–59
M.G. Forlani: Il Teatro Municipale di Piacenza (1804–1984) (Piacenza, 1985)
F. Bussi: ‘Frivolezza mondana e fasto austero: dicotomìa della musica alla corte di Ranuccio I’, I Farnese nella storia d'Italia (Florence, 1988), 365–79
M. Genesi: ‘Il coro ligneo di S. Sisto a Piacenza: uno specimen di strumentario italiano rinascimentale’, Strenna piacentina, x (1988), 101–14
F. Bussi: ‘I teatri d'opera a Piacenza prima della costruzione del Teatro Municipale’, NRMI, xxiv (1990), 456–64
M.L. Bussi: Musica e musicisti presso i Ser.mi Duchi Farnese in Piacenza (1545–1731) (Piacenza, 1991)
F. Bussi: ‘La musica a Piacenza dai Visconti (1313) e gli Sforza fino all'avvento dei Farnese (1545)’, Storia di Piacenza, iii (Piacenza, 1997), 909–45
FRANCESCO BUSSI