(It. Napoli).
City on the south-west coast of Italy. During the era of Spanish domination and the Bourbon Kingdom (16th to 18th centuries) it was considered one of the capitals of European music. This myth survives to the present day, along with the controversial definition of a ‘Neapolitan school’.
1. Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
2. The Aragonese monarchy (1443–1503).
3. The Spanish era (1503–1734).
4. The Kingdom of the two Sicilies (1734–1860).
RENATO DI BENEDETTO/DINKO FABRIS (text), GIULIA ANNA ROMANA VENEZIANO (bibliography)
Founded by Greek settlers from nearby Cuma about the 6th centurybce and under Roman rule from 326bce, Naples kept the original features of a Greek city well into the late imperial period. As a favourite resort of Roman patricians, it must have been the seat of an intense artistic and theatrical life, as is demonstrated by the numerous archaeological discoveries of vases bearing musical images. Statius noted the existence of two theatres, one in the open air, the other covered; Suetonius and Tacitus reported that Nero, on a journey to Greece, chose to stop in Naples, ‘quasi graeca urbs’, in order to sing there. The fall of the Roman Empire at first strengthened the city's links with Greek culture because when the troubled period of barbaric invasions was over, Naples came under Byzantine rule; from the end of the 6th century, however, the city enjoyed some degree of autonomy, and was an independent duchy in the 8th century. Defence of that independence induced the Neapolitan bishops and dukes to draw increasingly close to Rome, and this resulted in the adoption of Roman liturgy by the Neapolitan church: in the 7th century a number of Neapolitan clerics were sent to Rome to be trained at the Schola Cantorum. There was also a Schola Cantorum in the Neapolitan church at the beginning of the 6th century. The early Neapolitan rite also travelled to distant churches, such as those in Ireland, but there are no sources predating the 11th century. In the centuries following, some manuscripts were compiled (such as the Innario in I-Nn), which are valuable because they predate Archbishop Giovanni III Orsini's reform of the Neapolitan rite in 1330; this reform prevented Naples from retaining its own ancient rite in the 16th century, according to the decrees of the Council of Trent. There must in any case have been a scriptorium in Naples for the compilation of liturgical manuscripts such as those which produced the treasures of Beneventan music in Bari and Benevento. After the Norman unification of southern Italy and Sicily in the first half of the 12th century, Naples became part of that kingdom, but remained peripheral to Palermo, its principal political and cultural centre. Frederick II of Swabia was among the first to give significant stimulus to Neapolitan cultural life; in 1224 he issued a decree founding the university, the oldest in southern Italy.
The decisive turning-point, however, was when Charles of Anjou overpowered the Norman-Swabian dynasty (1266) and, having seized the kingdom, moved its capital from Palermo to Naples. In 1283 Adam de la Halle went to Naples and remained there between two and five years, and the Jeu de Robin et de Marion was performed at court. A period of intense artistic and cultural activity ensued, which came to full splendour during the reign of Roberto ‘Il Saggio’ (1309–43): the influence of French culture, already lively during the preceding dynasty, was consolidated, but close relations with towns of central and northern Italy were also established, favoured by the king's key position in the Italian political life of his day. Naples thus became a melting-pot for cultural influences that left their mark on literary life (as witness the visits of Boccaccio and Petrarch to the court of Anjou), and on both the figurative arts and architecture. Musical documentation from this period is fragmentary. The few surviving documents from this period (I-Na ‘Registro angioini’ 256) record the names of two pulsatores viole, two pulsatores organorum, one pulsator salteriorum, two nactarii and four tubatores active at court in 1324, while in 1343 there is mention of other singers, musicians and ‘canzonette’. Many of these musicians came from Germany, Tuscany and from various places in southern Italy. During the reign of Roberto the Neapolitan court rang to the sound of ‘various feasts, new games, beautiful dances, endless instruments of amorous songs … made, played and sung’ (as Boccaccio describes it in the Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta and in the Ninfale d'Ameto). Philippe de Vitry dedicated a motet to Roberto (Ivrea manuscript) and Marchetto da Padova (who was in Naples before 1319) dedicated his treatise Pomerium ‘ad superi regis laudem et gloriam’. In the King's funerary monument in the church of S Chiara there is sculpted a roll of square notation which is perfectly legible and which can be found in a contemporary manuscript held in Prato.
Between the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th the first group of native Neapolitan composers are known, including Anthonello and Philippus de Caserta (the latter also a theorist), Niccolo da Aversa and Niccolò da Capua. All their works reflect strong French influence.
The passing of the Kingdom of Naples from the Anjou to the Aragonese dynasty marked the beginning of a new cultural flowering, favoured also by the political stability enjoyed by the whole of the Italian peninsula in the second half of the 15th century. The policy of equilibrium followed by the more powerful Italian states was based on a complex network of diplomatic relations which, at a time when the most delicate state functions were entrusted to men of letters and humanists, promoted a fertile cultural exchange. The sumptuous patronage of the Aragon kings, pre-eminent among them Alfonso V (I of Naples) ‘el Magnánimo’ (1442–58) and his son Ferrante (1458–94), did the rest. The impulse given to a flourishing literary activity, which had its centre in the Accademia (founded 1458) and its most eminent exponents in Giovanni Pontano (1462–1503) and Sannazaro (1456–1530); the setting up of a large and valuable library; and the embellishment of the city with remarkable architectural monuments are the most celebrated cultural achievements of the Aragon kings.
Equally cherished was the activity of the chapel, whose performances were highly praised for their magnificence and variety. The organization of the royal chapel had already been noted down in the final years of the Anjou kingdom: in 1442 Gentile de Sancto Angelo de Fasanella was appointed magister capellae, with eight chaplains chosen ‘inter cantores et paraphonistas’. The first maestro di cappella in Naples in the Aragonese period was Dominicus de Exarch, a monk appointed in 1445 to the post of abbot of the monastery of Santes Creus, who also held the same post in the Aragon kingdom. Alfonso introduced more singers and performers from his court in Barcelona into the royal chapel, and entrusted the duties of Senior Chaplain to a high ecclesiastical dignitary. As early as 1451 the royal chapel was the largest in Italy, made up of at least 21 choristers, two organists, one organ builder, five boys and two maestri di cappella (Exarch and another monk from Santes Creus, Jaume Albarells). The number of choristers remained stable in the known lists of 1455 and 1480, while the number of organists went up to four, and in 1476 a ‘meste de fer lauts’ was also added. If we include the chaplains who were not musicians and the boys, there were as many as 44 members of the chapel by 1489. There were, in addition, numerous instrumentalists in the king's service, whether for secular entertainments or for state ceremonies. In 1494, for the coronation of Alfonso II, a Neapolitan chronicler counted 46 ‘schiate’ and ten ‘bifare’ trumpets, as well as 12 drums, and lutes, harps and trombones. The many court organists were particularly highly regarded, both in the ‘music rooms’ specifically created in Castel Capuano and in Castel Nuovo, as well as in the chapel of S Barbara.
The first Italian maestro di cappella, Giuliano de Caiacza, was appointed in 1488. While initially Alfonso had attempted to restrict entry to Spaniards, many members of the royal chapel were recruited from distant places, and some of them were known throughout Europe. Pietro Oriola, mentioned in Naples for the first time in November 1441, remained in the service of the court until at least 1470, and is the composer of two pieces in the Perugia manuscript (I-PEc 431) and two in the Montecassino manuscript (I-MC 871). The latter manuscript, the main source for the music at the Aragonese court in Naples, also contains eight compositions by Johannes Cornago, King Ferdinand's almoner in 1466. It seems that Cornago was active in Naples, with a very high salary, from 1455 to 1475, when he moved to Spain to the chapel of King Ferdinand V. The Fleming Vincenet was a chorister and copyist (the manuscript US-NH 91, known as the ‘Mellon Chansonnier’, is his work) at Ferrante's chapel from at least 1469 until his death, around 1479. Bernhard Ycart was active at court from around 1476 to 1480. For a brief period other important composers were in Naples, called to the city in an attempt to establish a permanent position at court: for example, the lutenist Pietrobono, who came with a delegation from Ferrara in 1473; the theorist Florentio de Faxolis and possibly Josquin came with Ascanio Sforza on his visit to the city in 1481–2; Alexander Agricola was detained in Naples in 1492, after the defeat of his protector Charles VIII, whom, however, he rejoined in France.
The Aragonese chapel, however, derived its greatest glory from Tinctoris and Gaffurius, two musicians who seem not to have had permanent positions in the royal chapel. The exact date of Tinctoris's arrival in Naples is not known, but it is thought that he was there by 1473; he was preceptor to Ferdinand's daughter, Beatrice, to whom he dedicated the treatises Terminorum musicae diffinitorium, Complexus effectuum musices and Tractatus de regulari valore notarum; other treatises (Proportionale musices and Liber de arte contrapuncti) were dedicated to Ferdinand. Tinctoris remained in Naples until 1487; in October of that year he was sent by the king to the courts of Charles VIII of France and of Emperor Friedrich III to recruit singers for the Neapolitan chapel, and he is known to have returned at the end of 1488, staying in or returning to Naples occasionally until the beginning of 1491. Gaffurius was in Naples between 1478 and 1480, and his first theoretical work, Theoricum opus musice discipline (1480) was published there, the first edition containing woodcuts. Besides the Montecassino and Perugia manuscripts already mentioned, other important sources for music at the Aragonese court survive: the sumptuous ‘Tinctoris codex’ (E-VAu 835) compiled for Ferrante; two manuscripts intended for the princess Beatrice; the ‘Mellon Chansonnier’, and the manuscript in I-Nn 8.E.40, which contains six anonymous tenor masses on ‘L'homme armé’, written in the most elaborate Franco-Flemish polyphonic style. In addition, seven other sources of polyphony and two surviving tablatures for plucked string instruments can be connected to the Neapolitan court of the period 1450–1500.
Unfortunately we have almost no knowledge of musical practice in Naples outside the court. Some fragmentary documents provide the names of builders of organs and other instruments (especially strings), while the surviving plainchant manuscripts in the various churches active at the time give information on liturgical music. One of the manuscripts formerly used in the Augustinian monastery of S Giovanni a Carbonara (whose chapel contains marvellous paintings of musical instruments that can be dated before 1441, including one which is thought to be the earliest depiction of a clavichord) contains the signature of a ‘fr. Paulus de Neapoli’ who was a musician and music teacher at the monastery between 1457 and 1489, as well as a member of the chapel of the Duke of Calabria from 1458.
Side by side with the ars perfecta of polyphony from beyond the Alps, however, the less assuming but cherished indigenous practice of solo singing with instrumental accompaniment also flourished at the Naples court, which was the natural meeting-point of the Italian and Spanish musical traditions. The most popular composer of strambotti, Serafino de' Ciminelli dall'Aquila, studied music in Naples under the guidance of Guillaume Garnier; another famous composer of strambotti, and an improviser, the Spaniard Benedetto Gareth (‘Il Chariteo’), spent a large part of his life at the Naples court. An outstanding figure is the poet and humanist Sannazaro; he wrote love-poems in imitation of Petrarch, which were among the favourite texts of 16th-century madrigalists, popular nonsense-rhymes in frottola style, and works for the theatre, the farse, in which music was important. The earliest barzelletta to have survived in print was sung in a Sannazaro farsa performed in Castel Capuano in 1492 to celebrate the capture of Granada by Ferdinand V.
Naples lost its independence in the early years of the 16th century and entered into a long period of foreign domination, first as a viceroyalty of Spain (1503–1707), then of Austria (1707–34), before becoming once again the capital of a kingdom. This period has traditionally been considered one of serious cultural decline, but recently the role of Naples in these years has been re-evaluated as one of the great centres of European culture. This can be seen in science, philosophy, literature and figurative art, but it is even more apparent in music. It was in this period that the legend of the ‘Neapolitan school’ came into being, and the city was able to enhance its reputation as, together with Venice, the principal musical centre of Italy.
The roots of this legend lay in the lost ‘golden age’ of the Aragonese era; and while the few surviving documents cannot prove a genuine musical interest on the part of the kings of Naples, it is certain that they wished to construct an image of power that involved music, and the display of the largest and most important royal chapel in Europe. In the early part of the 16th century Pontano, Sannazaro, Summonte and other intellectuals then revived the legend of the city's foundation by the siren Partenope, selecting it as the symbol of Naples' destiny to become the kingdom of music.
(i) Aristocratic and popular music.
(iii) The ‘most faithful city’ and the Treasury of S Gennaro.
(iv) The SS Annunziata, Congregazione dell'Oratorio and other churches.
(vii) Instruments and instrumental music.
(viii) Music publishing and theoretical treatises.
Naples, §3: The Spanish era (1503–1734)
This legend served to justify a distinct change in the education of young Neapolitan aristocrats, who were prevented by the new powers from following the traditional pursuits of combat and chivalry. For the first time learning to sing, play instruments and dance had an important place in the education of young noblemen. A number of Neapolitan nobles quickly became highly skilled in the art of music, publishing theoretical treatises (A.M. Acquaviva d'Aragona in 1524, Luigi Dentice in 1552, Scipione Cerreto at the beginning of the 17th century) and anthologies, particularly of polyphony and sacred music. Promising composers such as Ghiselin Danckerts, Lassus, Giaches de Wert and Philippe de Monte, and virtuosos on various instruments were called to the city for their education. It is no coincidence that during the 16th century no fewer than 25 Neapolitan composers belonged to various ranks of the nobility, among them Gesualdo, Dentice, Caracciolo and Nenna. The idealized image of a prince of music had already appeared in Jacopo de Jennaro's poem Le sei etade de la vita humana which placed the noble Vincenzo di Belprato ‘at the head of all musicians’, and it was first embodied in the Prince of Salerno, Ferrante Sanseverino, who dominated artistic life in Naples in the first half of the 16th century. He transformed his famous palace (now the church of the Gesù Nuovo) into an auditorium for concerts and staged performances, obtained the participation of leading musicians and introduced the first comedies with music to Naples. Although he was exiled for life by the Spanish viceroy Pedro de Toledo after the failed revolution of 1547, his example served to break down any remaining ideological barriers between patronage and participation in music: one of Prince Ferrante's musicians, the cavalier Fabrizio Dentice (son of Luigi), became one of the most celebrated virtuoso lutenists of the century, and his polyphonic compositions were long performed by the leading musical chapels. At the end of the 16th century, the Prince of Venosa, Carlo Gesualdo, brought the principal Neapolitan professional musicians together in a symbolic battle with the aristocratic amateurs of his circle. The influence of Gesualdo's taste for extreme experimentation lingered on in Naples even after his death in 1613 and prevented the latest northern Italian musical trends (Florentine accompanied monody and Monteverdi's Venetian stile concertato) from taking root until at least 1630.
Naples, §3: The Spanish era (1503–1734)
The musical establishment of the Aragonese kings included both the singers and ministriles (instrumentalists) of the royal chapel and the wind players at the Castel Nuovo, who were supplemented by other players from the other royal garrisons for the most formal ceremonies. These permanent positions did not suddenly disappear with the fall of the dynasty in 1503. The last king, Federico, had kept his chapel active to the end and probably took some of his favourite musicians with him during his brief exile in France. Some Neapolitan musicians preferred to seek new, more secure posts at other courts in Italy and Europe; but certainly there were still many left in Naples during the visit of King Ferdinand V in 1506, because he added new, Neapolitan members to his own chapel for his journey home. Even then the activities of the royal chapel and of the players at the Castello did not cease altogether: they were put in the service of the viceroy for ceremonies of state.
There is no documentation of the chapel singers in the first half of the 16th century, although we know that in 1507 the senior chaplain was Giovan Maria Pulderico, Archbishop of Nazareth. There are, however, receipts for payments made in 1510 and 1514 to four ministriles (the players at Castel Nuovo); the ordinary players were supplemented by ‘extraordinary’ ones: six in 1511, a drummer and, from 1530, a trombone. In 1540 the viceroy Pedro de Toledo moved the royal chapel to the new royal palace he had built next to the Castello. Documentation of the continuing activity of the royal chapel resumes only in May 1555, and for this reason it was believed to have been re-established that year by the viceroy, and was from then on known as ‘di Palazzo’, possibly to distinguish it from the former ‘del Castello’. The first maestro of the new administration was the Spaniard Diego Ortiz (1555–70), who had come with other Spanish musicians in the retinue of Pedro de Toledo. His successor Francisco Martinez de Loscos (1570–83) was also Spanish, while the subsequent maestri of the royal chapel were two Flemings: Bartolomeo Roy (1583–99) and Giovanni de Macque (1599–1614), with brief interludes when the assistant maestro, Bartolomeo Carfora, was in charge. The composer Stefano Lando is listed in the personnel under the description of ‘conservatore delle viole’ from 1565 to 1571.
The destruction of the treasury registers of the Archivio di Stato in Naples means that we have no information on composition in the chapel during that period, but Salvatore Di Giacomo compiled a list of at least 93 musicians for 1555 to 1603 (manuscript in I-Nn, to be combined with the surviving papers in the archive of Ulisse Prota-Giurleo entitled Catalogo generale del servizio musicale a Napoli, 1560–1800). All the maestri of the royal chapel kept the post until their deaths, a clear indication of the position's prestige. During the time when the viceroy was the Duke of Alba, in 1588, the royal chapel directed by Ortiz (the organist was the renowned Spanish theorist Francisco de Salinas) amounted to at least 15 members.
When Macque died in 1614, the first Italian maestro, G.M. Trabaci, was elected. The chapel was then made up of 26 choristers (seven sopranos, four altos, three countertenors, six tenors and six basses) and 12 instrumentalists (six violins, cornetto, trombone, lute, harp and two organists). Among the most important figures who belonged to the chapel were Pietro Cerone, G.S. Ranieri, G.D. Montella, Ascanio Maione, P.A. Guarino and Francesco Lambardi. Apart from one reform carried out by the viceroy Cardinal Zapata in 1621 with the intention of reducing costs, the make-up of the royal chapel (which had changed location again, joining the vice-regal court in the new palace constructed in 1602) remained practically unchanged up to the time of Alessandro Scarlatti, although the plague of 1656 killed 20 of its 35 members, including the maestro di cappella.
The duties of the royal chapel were naturally principally linked to court ceremonies and in consequence to the taste and habits of the viceroy. Pedro de Toledo, for example, took every opportunity to use the chapel: ‘He kept the portable royal chapel excessively well attired, and served by the finest prelates and priests, and excellent singers; and wherever he went, he took it with him’. There is a wealth of information on the chapel's contributions to the various feasts of the liturgical year or to state occasions in the court Etiquetas copied by Raneo in 1634, as well as in a number of supplementary sources. The prefaces of opera librettos often reveal the involvement of the royal chapel in opera performances not only in the royal palace, but also at the Teatro di S Bartolomeo and other locations in the city. Even more frequent was its participation in public ceremonies in the city's churches and squares. Throughout the 17th century choristers always outnumbered players (20 against 12 to 14), with one organ and harpsichord builder.
When Alessandro Scarlatti arrived in Naples in 1683 in the retinue of the new viceroy del Carpio, he initiated a double revolution in the age-old traditions of the chapel. The elderly Francesco Provenzale's failure to be elected as Ziani's successor, despite being considered the most deserving Neapolitan candidate for the post, led to a mutiny by six royal choristers and instrumentalists loyal to him. All six places were filled by Roman musicians who had come with Scarlatti, while he himself was appointed the new maestro di cappella (–1704). Scarlatti left the chapel several times to travel abroad, and for two short periods it was directed by leading Neapolitan musicians: Gaetano Veneziano (1704–7) and Francesco Mancini (1708). In 1702 Alessandro Scarlatti's son Domenico entered the royal chapel as organist, although he too did not stay long. In 1704 the establishment consisted of the maestro, vice-maestro, three organists, and 19 choristers of the first rank (including the famous castratos Matteo Sassani and Nicolini), as well as eight violins, two violas, two double basses and one harp. By this time duties of the royal chapel had changed, and it was employed much more in the opera performances in the palace and in the city theatres, and less in official liturgical ceremonies. The single innovation in the years of the Austrian viceroyalty was that of a new bureaucratic post, the Captain of the German Guard, who was the chief inspector of matters relating to the royal chapel, and who shared with the maestro di cappella the responsibility for decision-making which had formerly been the preserve of the senior chaplain.
On the death of Alessandro Scarlatti, Mancini was again appointed (1725–37), followed by Domenico Sarro (1737–44). Sarro was the first of the maestri of the Bourbon age, which represents the final phase of the royal chapel's existence. His successors were Leonardo Leo (1744), Giuseppe de Majo (1745–71, replaced for a short time by Giuseppe Vitagliano), Pasquale Cafaro (1771–87) and Vincenzo Orgitano (1787–1805). Distinguished names also appear among the organists and other members of the chapel, including Domenico Auletta (1779–89), Domenico Cimarosa (1779–99) and Niccolò Piccinni (1771–1776).
Naples, §3: The Spanish era (1503–1734)
Even when ruled by the viceroy, the city of Naples had an autonomous mechanism of self-government, with the election of representatives: these ‘Eletti’ represented the nobility's five piazzas and the single piazza of the people. The Eletti also had responsibility for organizing public celebrations, including processions and carnival entertainments. The music which accompanied such ceremonies, the most important of which were the three evenings of the September feast of St Januarius (Gennaro), one of the 22 patron saints of Naples in the 17th century, was entrusted to a maestro di cappella elected for the purpose. In 1665 the ‘maestro di cappella della Fidelissima Città’ was Francesco Provenzale, who retained the post until 1699, when he was replaced by Gaetano Greco. The Eletti of the ‘most faithful city’ also supervised the religious ceremonies within the cathedral, in the famous chapel of the Treasury of S Gennaro (inaugurated in 1646).
The first information on the musical chapel of the Treasury, which was assembled specifically for celebrations connected with the saint, dates from the 1660s, when the maestro di cappella was Filippo Coppola, and the forces consisted of between two and four choirs with two organists (the two organs had been constructed in 1649 by Pompeo di Franco), harp, archlute, four violins and violas. Provenzale attempted to assume the direction of the Treasury as well from 1665, but he had to wait for the deaths of both Coppola and his successor G.C. Netti before he became maestro di cappella of the Treasury in 1686. He retained the post until 1699, when he was replaced by Cristoforo Caresana, who died in 1709 and was in turn replaced by a pupil of Provenzale, Nicola Fago (1709–31). His son Lorenzo and grandson Pasquale took the post in succession, followed by Giacomo Insanguine in 1781, who on his death in 1795 was followed in turn by Raffaele Orgitano and Antonio Cipolla. One of the most significant maestri of the ‘most faithful city’ after Greco was Carlo Cotumacci. During the 18th century some of the finest singers, including Farinelli, and instrumentalists were involved in the music of the Treasury. Apart from the chapel of the Treasury, the cathedral also had its own musical chapel, employed by the Archbishop of Naples, which was in open rivalry with the royal chapel. The maestri di cappella at the cathedral were always prestigious musicians, from Stefano Felis at the end of the 16th century to Angelo Durante at the beginning of the 18th century.
Naples, §3: The Spanish era (1503–1734)
After the royal chapel and the cathedral and Treasury, the most important musical institutions in the city were the Casa dell' Annunziata and the Congregazione dell'Oratorio. The former was a charitable institution for orphans, which gradually came to specialize in providing the children with a musical education, and in performing music in the church. According to Giovanthomaso Cimello, the celebrated Tinctoris had been maestro di musica of the church of the SS Annunziata at the end of the 15th century. The name of the composer Di Maio appears in the registers in 1548, although the first maestro di cappella, documented in 1557, was G.A. Bolderino. In 1563 Giovanni Domenico da Nola was appointed maestro di cappella, and in 1580 the chapel, still under Nola, consisted of between 18 and 24 singers, with three organists, a trombonist, a cornett player and a viola da gamba player. On Nola's death in 1592 Camillo Lambardi became maestro di cappella, with even larger forces, including the best musicians in the city, particularly the organists Giovanni de Macque and Scipione Stella, subsequently replaced by G.M. Trabaci and Ascanio Maione (later followed by his son Giulio, a virtuoso harpist). At the same time there was an increase in the teaching at the orphanage, where music was now taught to the girls as well as the boys. However, the institution soon found itself in straitened circumstances, and was obliged to reduce the musical forces and use ‘sabbatari’ musicians, usually members of the royal chapel brought in only for the most significant musical events. In 1604 there were only nine choristers, with two organists and five ‘sabbatari’. Over the years, names associated with the Annunziata included the lutenist Crescentio Salzilli, the theorist Pietro Cerone, the composers Orazio Giaccio, Scipione Dentice and Gregorio Strozzi (from 1641) and also the first castratos. When Lambardi died in 1634, G.M. Sabino was elected maestro, succeeded on his death in 1649 by his brother Donato Antonio, organist at the Annunziata since 1635, who survived him by only a year. In 1650 the maestro di cappella was Filippo Coppola, who held the post until his death in 1680. But by now the crisis in the musical life of the Annunziata, caused by a drop in earnings and by competition from the conservatories, had reduced the forces to a small group of choristers and violinists, with regular guest musicians. There was even a reduction in the duties of the new maestro di cappella, Gennaro Ursino, who was limited to directing the music for the major feast days, and in 1700 the post of master of plainchant was abolished. However, the full post of maestro di cappella was restored to Ursino in 1705, and on his death in 1715 it passed to Lorenzo Rispoli. In the following decades, despite the Annunziata's apparent decline in importance, the church employed maestri of the level of Francesco Feo (1727–45), his nephew Gennaro Manna (1745–54) and Carlo Cotumacci (organist from 1749). After the destruction of the church by fire in 1757, the new building designed by Vanvitelli saw the return of Gennaro Manna (1774) who succeeded in having his grandson Gaetano appointed (1780), instead of the prestigious assistant maestri already serving the institution.
The Congregazione dell'Oratorio was established in Naples in 1586, at the behest of Filippo Neri, and from the very beginning it attached great importance to music, with the Roman composer Giovenale Ancina present until 1596: in his Tempio armonico (15996) he included laudi and other works by Neapolitan composers. In 1612, after years of disagreement, the Naples establishment separated from the Roman one, and assumed its present name of the Oratorio dei Girolamini. From 1632 onwards liturgical functions with music were governed by precise instructions, under the direction of a musicae praefectus. Soon the Girolamini's musical chapel rivalled the leading musical institutions in the city. Musicians associated with the institution include Scipione Dentice (who composed two books of Madrigali spirituali for the Girolamini), G.M. Trabaci (maestro from 1625 to 1630), G.M. Sabino (maestro from 1630 to 1637), Erasmo Bartoli, known as Padre Raimo (who introduced the use of four choirs in the middle of the 17th century, prefetto from 1645), Filippo Coppola (maestro about 1664), Donato Ricchezza (maestro until 1714), Giuseppe Conti (1717–31), his son Nicola Conti (1731–62), Nicola Sabatino (1763–88), Giuseppe de Magistris (1781–93) and finally Giuseppe Arena. There were also many musicians who worked with the Oratorio on an occasional basis, including Cristoforo Caresana who bequeathed his entire music collection to the Oratorio, which still holds the most valuable collection of Neapolitan sacred music in existence. The Oratorio also encouraged the publication and dissemination of numerous collections of laudi and frottolas, and put on performances of oratorios and sacred music dramas.
There were many other religious institutions in Naples which were musically active, especially from the end of the 16th century. These included the Spanish church, S Giacomo degli Spagnoli, the church of the Gesù Nuovo, the Collegio Gesuitico dei Nobili, S Domenico Soriano, S Maria del Carmine, S Gregorio Armeno (which still possesses a valuable collection of music), the convents of S Maria la Nova and of SS Severino e Sossio, S Chiara and Monteoliveto, as well as the confraternities. But, as many surviving organs indicate, music was cultivated in virtually every tiny chapel of the nearly 500 churches in Naples during the Spanish era.
Naples, §3: The Spanish era (1503–1734)
As in the other principal Italian cities, after the Council of Trent (1545–63) various confraternities were created in Naples for the mutual assistance of craftsmen. The first confraternity of musicians, ‘S Maria degli Angeli’ in the church of S Nicola alla Carità, was established in 1569; its statutes were confirmed at the beginning of the 17th century and its patron was the distinguished lutenist and theorist Scipione Cerreto. However, it was not until the middle of the century that other confraternities of musicians were founded. A confraternity named after ‘Gregorio Magno e Leone, et di S Cecilia V’ was formed in 1644 in the church of S Brigida, although it seems to have been discontinued after 1649. In this year Domenico Cenatiempo, a member of the order of the Padri Pii Operai, created a much larger confraternity of musicians in the church of S Giorgio Maggiore. This confraternity numbered approximately 150 musicians, over half of whom lost their lives in the terrible plague of 1656. In 1667 the confraternity of S Giorgio Maggiore was split between the ‘Master Players of Strings’ and ‘Players of Wind and Trombones’, who moved to the same chapel of the first confraternity in the church of S Nicola alla Carità. The statutes, and as a result this division between players, were confirmed in 1681 and again in 1721 (wind) and 1723 (strings).
The musicians of the royal chapel also had their own exclusive confraternity, named after S Cecilia, of which the earliest documentation dates from 1655. In the meantime a confraternity of makers of strings for lutes and other instruments had been formed. It seems that some Neapolitan musicians continued to use the S Giorgio Maggiore establishment at least until 1701, the year in which an oratorio by Nicola Sabini, a member of the confraternity, was performed on the musicians' principal annual feast day of St Casimir. From 1709, possibly as a result of the new Austrian government, the musicians' confraternity seems to have moved permanently to S Nicola alla Carità, like S Giorgio an establishment of the Padri Pii Operai, where it remained for 30 years, meeting at the altar of Our Lady of Sorrows. In 1716, however, at least five musicians joined together in the convent of S Maria la Nova in a ‘Royal Congregation and Assembly of Musicians’. The two confraternities did not merge until 1738, when they moved to a new home, the church of Ecce Homo. Apart from the professional confraternities, to which all the great Neapolitan musicians who were not aristocrats belonged, there were countless confraternities of craftsmen that sponsored performances of music in religious establishments or during public processions, in some cases maintaining their own chapel and maestri, but usually engaging professional musicians or students from the conservatories as the need arose.
Naples, §3: The Spanish era (1503–1734)
The Seminary of Naples, attached to the cathedral, had from its foundation in 1568 a singing master, with a ‘great hall for learning lessons in singing and music’; the seminary was suppressed in 1865. But here, as in many other Neapolitan religious institutions, the study of music was only a marginal element. From the middle of the 16th century some of the many charitable institutions known as conservatorii began to specialize in teaching music, in response to the increasing enthusiasm for music in the city. This quickly led to a change in nature of the conservatories, which began to take in boys from poorer families who were not orphaned, in order to prepare them for a career in music.
Apart from the Casa dell'Annunziata, mentioned above, there were four principal institutions specializing in music. The earliest was the Conservatorio di S Maria di Loreto, founded in 1537 by the Spaniard Giovanni di Tapia. Payments for musicians were recorded as early as 1545, although the first mention of a maestro di cappella dates only from 1633. Later maestri included the leading figure in 17th-century Neapolitan music, Francesco Provenzale (1664–75). The success of the Conservatorio di Loreto under Provenzale was such that in 1667 it was closed to new pupils, because the roll had exceeded 100. Giuseppe Cavallo, Provenzale's assistant, was maestro from 1675 until his death in 1684. He was succeeded by another of Provenzale's assistants, Gaetano Veneziano (1684–5 and – after the temporary service of Nicola Acerbo and Pietro Bartilotti – from 1695 to 1716), who was in turn succeeded by Giuliano Perugino. For a single month, in 1689, Alessandro Scarlatti accepted the post, and during the 18th century some eminent musicians appear in the lists: Francesco Mancini (1720–37), Giovanni Fischietti (1737–9), Nicola Porpora (1739–41 and 1758–60), Francesco Durante (1742–61), Gennaro Manna (1756–61), Pietro Antonio Gallo (1761–77) and Fedele Fenaroli (1777–1807).
The Conservatorio di S Onofrio in Capuana dates from the beginning of the 17th century, and took its name from the charitable foundation established in the church of S Onofrio in 1578. The young pupils wore the same white habit as the members of the order. There is no information on specific musical activity until 1653, when 11 paying pupils and a ‘mastricello’ are listed, together with the first singing master, Matteo Arajusta, and Carlo Sica (d 1655) who was already maestro di cappella. None of his early successors were eminent musicians, with the exception of Francesco Rossi (1669–72) who then moved to Venice where he composed operas; subsequently, however, S Onofrio rivalled the other conservatories, thanks to such maestri as P.A. Zani (1678–80), Cataldo Amodeo (1681–8), Cristoforo Caresana (1688–90), Angelo Durante (1690–99 and 1702–4), Nicola Sabini (1699–1702), Nicola Fago (1704–8) and Matteo Marchetti (1708–14). The most illustrious sequence of maestri occurred between the two tenures of Francesco Durante (1710–11 and 1745–55): Nicola Porpora (1715–22 and 1760–61), Ignazio Prota (1722–3 and 1740–48), Francesco Feo (1723–39), Leonardo Leo (1739–44) and Girolamo Abos (1742–60). They were followed by Carlo Cotumacci (1755–85), Giuseppe Dol (1755–74), Giacomo Insanguine (1774–95), Giovanni Furno (1785–97) and Salvatore Rispoli (1793–7). The maestro di cappella was assisted by a violin master (and, from 1785, by a cello master) and by a ‘cornetta’ master. During the 17th century S Onofrio's principal role had been to supply young pupils for the city processions, and to present oratorios (including Il ritorno di Onofrio in padria, 1671). In 1797 the few remaining pupils at the Conservatorio di S Maria di Loreto transferred to S Onofrio, and this affiliation lasted until 1807, when all three surviving conservatories (including the Pietà dei Turchini) merged into a single institution which was to become the Real Collegio di Musica and later the Conservatorio di Musica S Pietro a Majella.
The Conservatorio di S Maria della Pietà dei Turchini originated in 1583 from a confraternity which had met in the church of the Incoronatella from 1573. At the end of the 16th century the necessary premises were acquired next to the church to accommodate young students and from the early years of the new century there was an upsurge in music. The first maestro di musica was a humble priest, Lelio d'Urso (1615–22), who was succeeded by an official maestro di cappella, G.M. Sabino (1622–6), the first of a series of prestigious composers and teachers, including Francesco Lombardi (1626–30), Giacinto Anzalone (1630–57), Domenico Vetromile (1657–62), Giovanni Salvatore (1662–73), Francesco Provenzale (1673–1701), Gennaro Ursino (1701–5), Nicola Fago (1705–40), Leonardo Leo (1741–4), Lorenzo Fago (1744–93), Nicola Sala (1793–9) and Giacomo Tritto (1799–1800). As in the other institutions, the Turchini (named after the deep blue ‘turchino’ colour of the pupils' uniform) had only one teacher for string instruments (apart from an occasional lute master) and one for all wind instruments. The Pietà dei Turchini had been the most wealthy of the four old conservatories, and was the last to disappear when, in 1807 it was transformed together with what remained of the others into the Real Collegio di Musica.
Naples, §3: The Spanish era (1503–1734)
Naples, §3: The Spanish era (1503–1734)
Naples, §3: The Spanish era (1503–1734)
An accurate distinction must be drawn between the manifestations of authentic musical folklore and those of the Neapolitan song. Traces of the former are to be found in the cries of street vendors (now almost vanished) and in the rituals connected with some religious festivals, such as that of the Madonna dell'Arco, which, beneath a Christian veneer, conceal a fundamentally pagan nucleus (see Italy, fig.20); the latter, although cultivated and widespread among all social strata, belongs to a higher cultural sphere. Indeed, in Neapolitan song, popular tradition is blended with elements derived from 19th century melodrama and drawing-room song; and it is also significant that the main exponent of its golden era, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was a refined poet such as Salvatore Di Giacomo (even Gabriele d'Annunzio wrote the lyrics for a Neapolitan song), while its musicians were not (except in the case of Salvatore Gambardella) uncultivated if talented improvisers, but artists who had a perfect command of the technique of composition such as Paolo Tosti, Luigi Denza and Enrico de Leva. The characteristics of these drawing-room songs are apparent simplicity allied to an extremely fluid harmonic structure. The collaboration between Di Giacomo and Pasquale Mario Costa (composer of such works as Scugnizza and L'histoire d'un Pierrot) was particularly fruitful, and produced a vast number of successful songs, such as Catarì, Era di maggio and Lariulà. Expressed alternately in a sentimentality now languid, now passionate, and a light and pungent wit – and occasionally in a skilful blending of the two – Neapolitan song was able to maintain, at least until the 1940s, a reasonably high artistic level: an inferior one, no doubt, but indisputably full of vitality; for nearly a century the traditional song festival on 7 September, coinciding with the enormously popular feast of the Madonna di Piedigrotta, has been a major event in Neapolitan life. After Di Giacomo, the most outstanding poet was Ferdinando Russo. In addition, the poets Pasquale Cinquegrana, Ernesto Murolo, Libero Bovio and E.A. Mario (who also wrote the music for his own songs), and the musicians Evemero Nardella, Ernesto Tagliaferri, Ernesto de Curtis and Eduardo di Capua, must also be remembered. In the years after World War II the remarkable efforts of some poets and musicians (Antonio Vian, Domenico Modugno) to breathe new life into the genre have not sufficed to avert its inevitable decline. Neapolitan songs continue to be listened to in Naples and, intermittently, to have a place in the panorama of recent Italian light music (Murolo, Ranieri, Arbore, D'Angelo, Grignani).
A General. B Theatre and Opera. C To 1500. D 1500–1800. E After 1800.
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