Istarske glazbene teme i portreti od 16. do 19. stoljeca

The book \u201cThemes and Portraits of Music in Istria from 16th to 19th Centuries\u201d is a revised collection of essays previously published in Italian, Croatian and Slovenian. It can offer a comprehensive survey on various aspects of music history of Istria between 16th and 19th century. In a wider sense, it considers the role of music in different contexts examining the patronage of churches, academies and noblemen within the frame of a multilingual area, in which Italian and Slavic cultures co-existed, Divided between Venice and Habsburg government, and now between Slovenia, Croatia and Italy (with the small town of Muggia), the peninsula, till today, represents an unsolved issue if the historians watch to Italian music as the unique \u201cnational\u201d model of music art. On the contrary, until 19th century Italian music was a supranational/cosmopolitan phenomenon that covered both the coastal towns, namely inhabited by Italians, and the inner cities, where Slovenians and Croats settled. The first chapter is devoted to Gabriello Puliti, a Tuscan friar appointed organist and chapel master in Trieste, Muggia, Koper, Piran, Labin, Pula. Puliti, the most representative composer who increased the 17th-century monody in Istria, worked as a prot\ue9g\ue9 of some local noblemen and the Habsburgs, as Ferdinand archduke of Graz. His three voices \u201cmascherate\u201d (\u201cGhirlanda odorifera\u201d, 1612), composed in honour of Tranquillo Negri, a nobleman and poet of Labin, are compared to the carnival masquerades described by the chorographer Giacomo Filippo Tomasini (cf. the 17th-century manuscript \u201cCommentari storici-geografici della provincia dell\u2019Istria\u201d). The primary poetic source of \u201cGhirlanda\u201d is Giulio Cesare Croce\u2019s \u201cLe ventisette mascherate piacevolissime\u201d (1603), and the theatrical suggestion in these \u201cGhirlande\u201d is frequently emphasised by the openings of the poems where the characters are represented by the motto \u201cNoi siamo\u201d. They represent an imaginary gallery of the Italian comedy based on parodies of several dialects and languages. Puliti\u2019s approach to this genre is linked in various ways to musical painting. Almost every piece is marked by some distinctive features, whose purpose is to depict the characters in a very refined manner. To this end Puliti resorts to three different degrees of mimesis: onomatopoeic sounds, the imitation of human voices, and the abstract imitation of words through mensuration and the intensive use of the \u201ccoloured\u201d notes (\u201cAugenmusik\u201d). Probably Puliti entered to the Palladia Academy of Capodistria (now Koper) with the nickname \u201cAccademico armonico detto l\u2019Allegro\u201d. This academy was an important circle of intellectuals that in seventy years of activity (from 1567 to 1637) promoted some pastoral plays with music (cf, \u201cFilliria\u201d 1585, \u201cSelve incoronate\u201d 1590 and other pastorals) and published an important treatise titled \u201cDieci de\u2019 cento dubbi amorosi\u201d (posthumous, 1621). To demonstrate the extraordinary effect of music in human behaviour, this platonic dialogue contains a series of references drawn from Plato, Horace, Macrobius, Boetius, Ficino and Jewish theologians collected in Francesco Zorzi\u2019s \u201cHarmonia mundi\u201d (1525). In choosing different sources from the classic and medieval philosophies, Giambattista Zarotti, one of the authors of the dialogue, exceeds the lavish quotations, which are used as a tool for a new proposal. He aimed at giving a modern commentary on the debate on music and feelings, evaluating the ancient theories on the basis of modern music. Another study focuses on the unknown book \u201cGhirlande conteste\u201d (1588), a set of intermedi staged in the island of Cres and published by Stefanello de Petris in honour of Sebastiano Quirini. These mythological spectacles, with chorus, consort and singers, exalt the benefits in behalf of the island, given generously by the cleaver count Quirini. The accuracy of description lets us acquire a detailed reconstruction of the sceneries and performances of musicians, even though, as it is custom in theatre, the score was not printed. The following chapters deal with Antonio Tarsia\u2019s monodies written for the Koper\u2019s cathedral, which are compared with the contemporaneous work of Giovanni Legrenzi, and two treatises written by Gianrinaldo Carli during his stay in Padua (1740/50), on the concepts of genius and \u201csentimental music\u201d applied to Giuseppe Tartini\u2019s instrumental works (\u201cDell\u2019indole del teatro tragico\u201d, \u201cOsservazioni sulla musica antica e moderna\u201d). Influenced by the English Enlightenment, on the example of Richardson\u2019s \u201cPamela\u201d, Carli developed a revolutionary idea of \u201csentimental theatre and music\u201d inspired by nature. He promoted both a simple music and a simple stage upon realistic performances, without any implication with the cultivated tragedies of the conservative Italian writers of his time. Finally, the author analyses the operas \u201cPittori fiamminghi\u201d (1893) and \u201cNozze istriane\u201d (1895) of Antonio Smareglia, in which the technique of the Wagnerian leitmotif appears. Smareglia, educated in Milan and Vienna, as an Italian-Croatian-German speaking rejected the national ideas of his time. Involved in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Central Europe, he did not accept the fall of the Habsburg Monarchy and, as a consequence, he developed a special feeling for a supranational drama based on the Italian librettos translated into German. Alike some artists and writers, after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Smareglia experienced and shared the unhappiness of the so-called \u201cAustrians without Austria\u201d