(It. Trento; Ger. Trient).
City in northern Italy. The earliest documentation of liturgical singing in the city dates from the 6th century, in the form of a mosaic inscription which names a certain Laurentius as a cantor. This confirms a tradition of music consolidated in the construction of the early Christian basilica of S Vigilio in the 6th century. Sacramentaries dating from the 11th and 12th centuries with German neumatic notation, and the institution of a schola in the 12th century provide evidence of the daily practice of cantus planus, accompanied by the organ from the 15th century. Polyphony was increasingly cultivated from about 1400; over 1500 polyphonic compositions are collected in the seven 15th-century codices put together by the organist Johannes Lupi and the rector scolarum Johannes Wiser, and still preserved in the city. The collection represents the most important body of polyphonic music of its time.
Trent was chosen as the meeting-place of a council (1545–63) convened to deal with abuses that were felt to have crept into the liturgy. The presence of the council further stimulated the practice of polyphony and made famous the two-manual organ built by Kaspar Zimmermann between 1532 and 1536 in S Maria Maggiore, where many council meetings were held. The Verona organist Simone Martinelli (1633–60) was responsible for the regular introduction of strings into liturgical music in Trent Cathedral, complemented by wind instruments in the 18th century. F.A. Bonporti (1672–1749), the most important musician to be born in the city, played in the cathedral orchestra, though he never held an official position. In the 19th century the taste for opera was reflected in a further expansion of the instrumental forces. The cathedral orchestra, administrated by the Società Filarmonica from 1851 to 1890, was eventually suppressed under the influence of the Cecilian movement, which was active in the city from 1890. The diocesan school of sacred music, founded in 1927, also played a part in the spread of the movement.
In the field of secular music, the presence of piffari and trumpet players in Trent is recorded from the 14th century onwards. In the 16th century music flourished at the courts of the prince-bishops Bernardo Clesio (1514–39) and Cristoforo Madruzzo (1539–67), where musicians such as Antonio del Cornetto, Cerbonio Besozzi and Giovani Contino served. In the 18th century noble families made only sporadic contributions to musical life. The single exception was Count Pio Fedele Wolkenstein, who held a regular series of musical academies in his palace between 1771 and 1778. In contrast, the 19th century saw a growth in musical associations through the activities of the Società Filarmonica (founded in 1795), which provided an orchestra and organized academies, and of the Banda, founded 1801.
The first opera known to have been performed in the city was Martinelli's Alcina (before 1649). Subsequently opera was given mainly in the Jesuit college and, from 1766, at the Teatro Osele, until the opening of the Teatro Mazzurana (later Teatro Sociale) in 1819. The opera seasons at the Mazzurana, one in spring to coincide with the feast of the city's patron saint, Vigilio, and one in the autumn, both lasted a month, and consisted of three productions. The theatre was also used for plays, concerts and, in the 20th century, for films; it was closed for restoration in 1983.
Musical life in the city today consists of orchestral and chamber concert seasons (the regional Orchestra Sinfonica ‘Haydn’, Società Filarmonica) and festival performances. The Civico Liceo Musicale Pareggiato Vincenzo Gianferrari, the city conservatory, was brought under state control in 1980, and Trent hosts an international conductors' competition. In 1976, under the auspices of the Società Filarmonica, Clemente Lunelli initiated a ‘Collana per la storia della musica nel Trentino’, with 19 volumes published up to 1995. In the same year the library of Lorenzo Feininger, an important collection for sacred music studies, was housed at the Castello del Buonconsiglio. The Coro della Società Alpinisti Tridentini, founded in 1926, is especially well known for its performance of Dolomite folksongs.
B. Emmert: Rappresentazioni sacre e profane in Trento e dintorni 1632–1804 (Trent, 1912)
A. Toni: Musicisti trentini (Milan, 1912)
K. Weinmann: Das Konzil von Trient und die Kirchenmusik (Leipzig, 1919)
R. Lunelli: I ‘bellisimi organi’ della basilica di S. Maria Maggiore in Trento (Trent, 1953)
Civico liceo musicale di Trento ‘V. Gianferrari’: tre lustri di attività (Trent, 1962)
R. Lunelli: Organi trentini: notizie storiche, iconografia, ed. R. Maroni (Trent, 1964)
R. Lunelli: La musica nel Trentino dal XV al XVIII secolo (Trent, 1967)
R. Lunelli: Strumenti musicali nel Trentino (Trent, 1968)
M. Levri: La cappella musicale di Rovereto (Trent, 1972)
C. Lunelli: ‘Spettacoli pubblici a pagamento nel Seicento e Settecento a Trento’, Studi trentini di scienze storiche, lxiv (1985), 3–65
A. Carlini, D. Curti and C. Lunelli: Ottocento musicale nel Trentino (Trent, 1985)
A. Carlini: I filarmonici e la scuola musicale di Trento nella prima metà dell'Ottocento, RIM, xx (1985), 98–123
D. Curti and F. Leonardelli, eds.: La biblioteca musicale Laurence K.J. Feininger (Trent, 1985)
C. Lunelli: ‘Libretti d'opera e cantate del Settecento a Trento’, Studi trentini di scienze storiche, lxv (1986), 51–89
C. Lunelli: ‘Le accademie musicali del conte Pio Fedele Wolkenstein a Trento nel secondo Settecento’, Studi trentini di scienze storiche, lxviii (1989), 511–79
B. Sanguanini, ed.: Dilettando educa: attori, scene e pubblico nel mondo tridentino prima e dopo il Concilio di Trento (Trent, 1989)
A. Carlini and C. Lunelli: Dizionario dei musicisti nel Trentino (Trent, 1992)
R. Dalmonte, ed.: Musica e società nella storia trentina (Trent, 1994)
C. Lunelli: ‘Le celebrazioni religiose con musica nel Settecento a Trento’, Studi trentini di scienze storiche, lxxiii (1994), 125–53
C. Lunelli: Dizionario dei costruttori di strumenti musicali nel Trentino (Trent, 1994)
Duecento anni di concerti 1795–1995 (Trent, 1995) [pubn of the Società Filarmonica]
ANTONIO CARLINI