Honoring God and the City

Abstract

This book presents a history of musical activities at Venetian lay confraternities — institutions that were crucial to the cultural and ceremonial life of Venice. It traces musical practices from the origins of the earliest confraternities in the mid-13th century to their suppression under the French and Austrian governments in the early 19th century. It first discusses the scuole grandi, the largest and most important of the Venetian confraternities. The scuole grandi hosted some of the most elaborate musical events in the Venetian calendar, including lavish annual festivities for each scuola's patron saint and often enlisting such high-profile musicians as Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi. They also employed singers, instrumentalists, and organists on a salaried basis for processions and regular religious services. The book places detailed descriptions of these events in the context of the scuole grandi's long histories, as the roles of musicians evolved over the centuries. The book's second part is concerned with the scuole piccole, the numerous smaller confraternities born in churches throughout Venice. These local organizations usually did not employ salaried musicians, but hired singers and players as needed for their annual festivities and other occasions. Detailed appendixes include a calendar of musical events at all Venetian confraternities in the early 18th century and a complete listing of musicians for an important 17th century festival. The book demonstrates the vital role of confraternities in the musical and ceremonial life of Venice.

Civic Identity and Civic Glue: Venetian Processions and Ceremonies of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

“…The several hundred scuole piccole, which represented artisans' guilds, ethnic communities of the city, and a variety of religious and nonreligious interests, also organized processions on their annual patronal feast, or during Holy Week, or in veneration of religious symbols. 36 Processions of the scuole piccole were more likely to be confined to the narrow geographical areas of their parishes than those of the scuole grandi, and therefore not to attract as widespread attention. Nevertheless, they too involved singers, string and wind instruments (pifferi), trumpets, and drums as regular components.…”

Becoming Venetian: Conversion and Transformation in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean

“…Hiringpoorer members of acongregation to perform tasks previously performed by volunteers from among the membership was atypical development of late sixteenth-centuryV enetian confraternities. 113 Forthe Pia Casa, such arrangements allowed it to minimize expenses and use its funds as an extra carrot to induce converts' good behaviour.In1612 the convert Geronima became landlady to young neophyteOrsetta and to another convert'stwo newborn babies, who weretoremain in her custody for the next decade. The monthly stipend paid her in recompense for keeping these neophytes in her household supported both her and her convert husband, Francesco the builder.F rancescoh imself, likeo ther converts who had already established themselves as artisans, was assigned ay oung neophytea sa pprenticewith ac ontract, after the latter had quit an earlier assignment to av ocational school for dealers in secondhand clothes.…”