October 2010 saw the inauguration of a new research project financed by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, The Cantata as an Aristocratic Medium of Expression in Rome during Handel's Times (c1695–1715), which focuses on one of the most important musical genres in the ‘eternal city’.
By focusing on the cantata, the project deals with a genre central to the musical culture of the Roman aristocracy, which has not yet been studied thoroughly. Because of the enormous bulk of music sources, the research has hitherto limited itself mainly to bibliographic work or to the study of the works of particular exponents like George Frideric Handel. This project's aim, however, is to broaden the research field to include aspects of interdisciplinary research on Rome and Roman aristocracy, and to understand the Roman cantata's function as an aristocratic medium of expression. More concretely, the project poses the following questions: are cantatas expressions of aristocratic self-image? Do they reflect certain aristocratic codes of conduct? Do they serve as textual-musical mediums of reciprocal communication between nobles? Can we establish that there were clear repertories and musical preferences within particular courts?
Despite their huge number, cantatas seem not to have been regarded as expendable or trivial. In fact they were much copied and archived, and could serve as gifts to other nobles – gathered in valuable manuscripts, bound in leather, gilded with the arms of the owner/donator/presentee and decorated with miniatures. Their elaborate material existence suggests that the text and music of the cantatas were held in high esteem.
The project focuses on the repertory of four Roman music patrons who were linked to Handel and who commissioned works from him. In addition to Handel's most important patron, Marchese (later Principe) Francesco Maria Ruspoli (1672–1731), the project will study the repertories of the cardinals Benedetto Pamphilj (1653–1730), Pietro Ottoboni (1667–1740) and Carlo Colonna (1665–1739). Besides compositions of well-known composers such as Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti and Antonio Caldara, music by little-known figures such as Carlo Francesco Cesarini, Francesco Carlo Lanciani and Severo de Luca will be investigated, in some cases for the first time. Texts and music will be analysed in the light of cultural, social and political contexts. This promises to give us greater insight into the role and function of the cantata, and will ultimately lead to a better understanding of Handel's cantata oeuvre.
The project is a cooperative one between the music departments of the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz and the Universität Zürich, and is led by Klaus Pietschmann (Mainz) and Laurenz Lütteken (Zurich). I will carry out work on the repertories of Handel's four patrons, while Magdalena Boschung (Mainz) will study Antonio Caldara's cantatas for Prince Ruspoli. The results will be published in two monographs, and in the cantata database CLORI (<www.cantataitaliana.it>).
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