Journal of the Alamire Foundation

The composition of enigmatic canons reached a high point in the last three decades of the fifteenth century; many composers were moved to try their hand at them, but the outstanding exponents were Antoine Busnoys, Jacob Obrecht, and Josquin des Prez. Instead of the straightforward Latin instructions that accompanied canons of the earlier fifteenth century, enigmatic inscriptions became favoured, often taken from the Bible or classical literature. An examination of the large corpus revealed that canonic compositions fall into fourteen categories: addition, augmentation, diminution, extraction, interval canon, inversion, mensuration, omission, ostinato, rearrangement, retrograde, substitution, tacet, and transposition. The more enigmatic types are discussed, including some that resist understanding.

A fair number of Renaissance riddles are accompanied by an image. Instead of being an ornamental addition, these images are an integral part of the work, as they complement the contents of the music in a fundamental way. In order to explain the intimate connection between music, word, and image in such pieces, I discuss compositions in the form of a circle, a cross, with a coat of arms, and with gaming objects (chessboard and dice). I also sketch the reception of visual pictorialism in treatises on music from the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

This paper examines the musical chapters in the Hebdomades (1589), an encyclopedic commentary by the humanist Fabio Paolini on a single line of Vergil (Aeneid VI.646: ‘Obloquitur numeris septem discrimina vocum’). This book, originally given as a series of lectures before the Accademia degli Uranici in Venice, shows that Paolini, though not a professional musician, had read a variety of musical writers, such as Boethius, Vanneo, Vicentino, and his friend Zarlino, as well as the philosopher Marsilio Ficino, whose works also include discussions of musical matters. As a professional Hellenist, Paolini was better acquainted with the surviving Greek musical writings than most music theorists, and he gives valuable information about Greek manuscripts owned by Zarlino. However, the Hebdomades also show that Paolini’s practical understanding of music theory was a little shaky. Furthermore, his comments betray a distinct humanist disdain for the music of his own time. Paolini’s work thus gives a good indication of the enthusiasm for music (or at least the ideal of ancient music) amongst non-musicians in Italian academies in the bloom of late humanism, but also the limits of non-professional speculation. The essay also examines the reception of Paolini’s work (especially by Martin del Rio SJ), and includes an annotated edition of the relevant chapter of the Hebdomades.

For many years, the biography of the late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century Flemish composer Cornelis Verdonck has been built on a combination of documents from the Spanish court in Madrid and documents found in Antwerp. Some biographers suggested the existence of two Cornelis Verdoncks living around the same period, but their claims have never been further investigated. New archival work has produced documents that prove that there were indeed several Verdoncks in Antwerp at the end of the sixteenth century, and that some important details regarding Verdonck’s life have been misinterpreted and misunderstood. This article thoroughly re-examines the available information, both new and existing, about Verdonck’s life, and disentangles the different pieces of information. A new biography of two separate Verdoncks-both musicians-emerges, confirming one Verdonck living and working in Antwerp, and another working at the Madrid court.

The government of Archduchess Maria Elisabeth (1725-41) made a more vital contribution to musical life in Belgium than has been presumed. With greater vigour than any of her predecessors, Charles VI’s sister sought to erase the Bourbon heritage of the Southern Netherlands by transplanting Habsburg policies. A significant outcome of this ‘re-Habsburgization’ was the return, after decades of absence, of Italian opera to Belgium. Between April 1727 and February 1730, sixteen drammi per musica and five intermezzi comici musicali put a sudden, hitherto unexplained stop to the Lullian hegemony at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. With each work celebrating a Viennese court festivity, the operas were framed by Te Deums, balls, and cannonades, and their subjects were chosen so that local spectators were exposed to Austria’s cultural and ideological hallmarks. However, dark clouds gathered over Maria Elisabeth’s operatic campaign. Both impresarios coordinating the productions, Antonio Maria Peruzzi and Gioacchino Landi, went bankrupt and could only escape jail through the Archduchess’s personal intervention. Landi’s last offering, Attalo (1730), openly allegorised the injustice done to Italian poetry and music ‘under the Belgian climate.’ Deriving evidence from fresh sources, the present article aims to explain how Maria Elisabeth attempted to attune Brussels with Vienna and why her enterprise was destined to fail.

Although in the past many scholars have mentioned the fact that bicinia were designed to train basic solmization skills, nobody has examined in detail what can actually be learned from the process. Close examination of Lasso’s fantasies indicates that they offer a progressive education in solmization, with a gradual expansion of skills and increase in difficulty. Practising solmization with these contrapuntal gems not only trains our sight-singing skills, but also brings out the structure of the compositions, thus enabling us to cultivate our ability to hear and understand the imitation in the works. Solmization thus reveals itself as being not only a tool for learning sight-singing, but also as a reflection of how music was understood at the time.