Musical life and culture at Savoy, 1420--1450. (Volumes I and II).
Item
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Title
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Musical life and culture at Savoy, 1420--1450. (Volumes I and II).
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Identifier
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AAI9218225
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identifier
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9218225
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Creator
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Bradley, Robert John.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Andrew Tomasello
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Date
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1992
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Music
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Abstract
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Archival documents at the Archivio di Stato in Turin reveal a musical establishment at Savoy that included a court chapel, a corps of minstrels, and 2-3 ceremonial trumpeters. Immediately prior to the retirement of Duke Amadeus VIII in 1434, these music-making forces began a period of marked growth.;The ducal capella at Savoy remained very small from 1420 until 1433, never including more than two singers. In 1433, however, the court established a musical chapel that included choirboys and adults designated as cantore. This body grew rapidly, until by 1438 it compared favorably with other capelle of that time. Indeed the renowned composer Guillaume Dufay (ca. 1400-1474), was magister capelle from 1434 until 1439.;A second chapel was attached to the papal court of Felix V (the former Amadeus VIII of Savoy) after he was elected to the papacy by the Council of Basel. The documents reveal a small capella of only six persons, including at least one tenor.;One harpist was constantly present at the court at all times to entertain the nobles and to act as music teacher to their children. After ca. 1430, an ensemble of shawms and brass performed secular music (including dance music), while a steady stream of itinerant instrumentalists also received payment for entertaining the dukes and duchesses.;During the period under study, chapel singers and minstrels were held in high regard. All received handsome salaries, and were frequently the objects of noble largesse. The annual lists of etrennes (the gifts given to all persons at court on January 1), invariably included musical performers, and the benefits of their positions at court, such as sick pay and disaster relief, lent to their lives a stability enjoyed by few commoners.;Investigations in Art History establish that the nobles of the House of Savoy were enthusiastic connoisseurs, commissioning such works as the elegant Apocalypse of Amadeus VIII now at the Escorial Library. The extent to which the Savoyard nobility were patrons of music, however, has not been studied extensively, a lacuna that the present study helps to fill. This dissertation, the result of eleven months of research among the archival registers from the court of Savoy, traces the growth of musical institutions in the duchy during the second quarter of the Fifteenth Century, and establishes the position of the Dukes of Savoy among music patrons of the early Renaissance.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
