| Contents |
Part one. The cathedral. The cathedral and its administration, personnel, and liturgical calendar -- Chant and improvised polyphony in later medieval times -- Singers and organists, 1380-1448 -- Building a chapel, 1448-1480 -- The expansion and retrenchment in the chapel, 1480-1507 -- The development of a stable chapel, 1507-1555 -- Decline and transformation of the chapel, 1555-1607 -- Part two. The palazzo public. Origins and establishment of the trumpeters' corps, 1230-1399 -- Pomp, circumstance, and security: the trumpeters' corps as an ongoing institution in the fifteenth century -- Diminishing importance and nostalgia for times past: the trumpeters' corps in the sixteenth century -- Establishment and consolidation of the Pifferi in the fifteenth century -- Triumph of the wind band in the sixteenth century -- Part three. Music in the life of the town. Beyond cathedral and palace walls: professional musicians and dancing masters, amateurs, builders, and repairmen, 1300-1607 -- Music at social events, public and private -- Register of musicians. Cathedral singers and wind players -- Cathedral organists and organ builders -- Palace trumpeters and shawm players, town criers, drummers, and singers -- Palace Pifferi. |
| Abstract |
Siena, blessed with neither the aristocratic nor the ecclesiastical patronage enjoyed by music in other northern Italian centers like Florence, nevertheless attracted first-rate composers and performers from all over Europe. As the author shows in this scrupulously documented study, policies developed by the town to favor the common good formed the basis of Siena's ambitious musical programs. Based on decades of research in the town's archives, this book brilliantly illuminates both the sacred and the secular aspects of more than three centuries of music and music-making in Siena. After detailing the history of music and liturgy at Siena's famous cathedral and of civic music at the Palazzo Pubblico, D'Accone describes the crucial role that music played in the daily life of the town, from public festivities for foreign dignitaries to private musical instruction. Putting Siena squarely on the Renaissance musical map, D'Accone's monumental study will interest both musicologists and historians of the Italian Renaissance. |
