MUSICIANS FROM THE CAPPELLA GIULIA AND OTHER ROMAN MUSICAL ENSAMBLES WORKING IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF POLAND AND LITHUANIA DURING THE REIGN OF THE VASAS

• Authors: Przybyszewska-Jarminska B.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

This article is a commentary to the opinion of Pope Clement VIII, quoted in a letter by Cardinal Cinzio Aldobrandini dated 14th October 1595, when Luca Marenzio together with a group of other musicians was leaving Rome for the court of King Sigismund III Vasa in Poland. According to the Pope, the Eternal City was being stripped of musicians at that time. The authoress has attempted to identify other musicians active in the Kingdom of Poland in the times of the Vasas (1587-1668). She sought this information in the archives of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana related to Cappella Sistina and Cappella Giulia, as well as in the published sources concerning other Roman musical ensembles at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The search conducted in the documents of Cappella Giulia established that apart from Asprilio Pacelli who, as has been known for a long time, was maestro di cappella of this ensemble, among the singers employed by the cappella there were others with later (or sometimes earlier) links to Poland. The following musicians, permanently employed by Cappella Giulia, were also known to be court musicians of the Polish Vasas: Hippolito Bonanni, Simone Amorosi, Fabrizio Tiranni, Alessandro Forresti, Gioseppo Amadei, Marcantonio Ferrucci, (Domenico) Antonio Buttafoco and Corrado de Priori, while Giovanni Battista Jacobelli had occasional engagements there. It is also possible that Tobia Busolus vel Huzel, the bass in Cappella Giulia until October 1602, also had a Polish episode in his biography. In total, on the basis of the sources known today, it is possible to name 26 musicians from the relevant period who, before leaving for Poland or immediately on their return to Italy, belonged to the Roman church and court ensembles. Among them, apart from the singers from Cappella Giulia already referred to, there are musicians whose links to the Eternal City have long been established, namely: maestros di cappella of King Sigismund III - Annibale Stabile, Luca Marenzio, Asprilio Pacelli and Giovanni Francesco Anerio; maestro di cappella of Krakow cathedral cappella - Annibale Orgas; future maestros di cappella of King Ladislaus IV - Marco Scacchi and of King of Denmark Frederic III - Kaspar Förster; also: Michelangelo Brunerio, Pietro Crati, Vincenzo Gigli (Lilius), Giovanni Battista Gisleni, Lodovico Fantoni, Baldassare Ferri, Pellegrino Muti, Jerzy Szymonowicz vel Georgius Simonides, Bernardino Terzago and Aldobrando Subissati. Hypothetically, musicians such as Michelangelo Simonelli, Joannes Vanarellus and Hieronimus Ninius might also have links with Rome. The archive materials used included, apart from the Italian sources, those of Polish provenance held at Riksarkivet in Stockholm and at Archiwum Glowne Akt Dawnych in Warsaw. These sources also provided some biographical information about particular musicians. The greatest change in our state of knowledge concerned the lives of Corrado de Priori and Marcantoni Ferrucci. It seems highly probable that further source research might bring revelations linking other musicians from the court of the Polish Vasas to the Eternal City, as well as providing additional data for their biographies. An example of the continuous change in the state of research in this area, as previously unknown sources come to light, is provided by the fact that the authoress negates the hypothesis she put forward in her earlier publications. According to that hypothesis, the person who, by order of King Sigismundus III, recruited in Rome in 1594/95 musicians for the Polish royal cappella (and who, in February 1595, took with him to Krakow the first group of musicians, among them Annibale Stabile), was Piotr Kochanowski, referred to in Italian sources as 'Cocanoschi' (without his Christian name). A newly found document from the office of Nuncio Germanico Malaspina shows that Sigismund III, soon after returning to Krakow from Sweden (in October 1594), sent to Italy his secretary, Krzysztof Kochanowski of Konary (d. 23 May 1616), a relative of Piotr and a nephew of the famous poet Jan. The Nuncio, in a letter of 24 October 1594, tried to ensure for him a good reception in Rome. At the same time, and bearing no relation to the history of music at the court of the Polish Vasas, information was found in the Vatican sources (in avviso 'di Roma 21 VIII 1596') that Ippolito Chamater di Negri, whose death at a previously unknown location was dated approximately to some time after 1592, in fact died in Rome in August 1596.

Keywords

EN

CAPPELLA GIULIA; L. MARENZIO; MUSICIANS. ); POLISH VASAS

Discipline

• ARTS_&_ARCHITECTURE: ARTS & ARCHITECTURE

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Sztuki PAN
• Journal: Muzyka
• Year: 2004
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 1(192)
• Pages: 33-52
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Przybyszewska-Jarminska B.

• B. Przybyszewska-Jarminska, Instytut Sztuki PAN, ul. Dluga 26/28, 00-238 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

04PLAAAA0007182