Cantare nel gravicembalo

Ensemble and Accompaniment Practice in Italian Musical Culture around 1600

Workshops, concerts & lectures

4.-8. November 2019

Festsaal & Church St. Ursula, Seilerstätte 26, 1010 Wien

This event focuses on a key aspect of developments in Italian music around 1600, one that relates equally to the history of composition, notation and performance practice: the integration and significant role of chordal instruments in musical production (in the broadest sense). The phenomenon of the ‘general bass’ or so-called ‘figured bass’ represents just one variant within a much broader spectrum, which not only exhibits diverse historical precursors but also, beyond purely practical performance considerations, influences composition and the (theoretical) conception of polyphonic writing, whilst pointing to specific musical-cultural prerequisites.

To facilitate a discussion of the topic that is as multi-layered as it is in-depth, a variety of event formats will run concurrently throughout the week: workshops including introductory lectures, concerts and lecture-recitals, two short symposia, and a concluding round-table discussion.

Programme

Monday, 4 November

5 pm, Festsaal Seilerstätte

Opening:

General introduction
Augusta Campagne/Markus Grassl

How new was the ‘New Music’? Rhetoric, style, performance
Keynote: Tim Carter (Chapel Hill)

Musical accompaniment
Performers: Lecturers and students from the mdw

7–9 pm, Festsaal Seilerstätte

Vocal workshop
Maria Cristina Kiehr (Basel)

Tuesday, 5 November

9 am–12 pm, Festsaal Seilerstätte

Symposium: Historical Preconditions and Cultural Context / Historical and Cultural Context

Realising Luzzaschi’s *Madrigali* (1601): Traces of embodied knowledge at the harpsichord
Rebecca Cypess (New Brunswick)

Nicola Vicentino’s *archicembali* and the keyboarding of the *ars perfecta*
Leon Chisholm (Berlin)

On the historical preconditions of the basso continuo
Reinhard Kapp (Vienna)

The performative potential of musical notation around 1600
Sarah Lutz (Innsbruck)

1–4 pm, Festsaal Seilerstätte

Continuo accompaniment in the seventeenth century: How significant are the contemporary treatises?
Thérèse de Goede (Amsterdam)

Workshop: Instrumental ensemble canzonas
Thérèse de Goede

4.30–6.30 pm, Collon-Saal, Seilerstätte

Vocal workshop
Maria Cristina Kiehr

7.30 pm, Festsaal Seilerstätte

Concert

‘Misericordiae Domini’ – works by F. Anerio, Carlo G., Cl. Monteverdi, O. Durante, E. de’ Cavalieri and others
Elam Rotem (Basel) / Jacob Lawrence (Basel)

Wednesday, 6 November

9–12 am, St Ursula’s Church

Lecture and workshop: The ‘Carlo G.’ manuscript
Elam Rotem (Basel)

1–4 pm, St Ursula’s Church

‘A thousand kinds of inventions’ – reflections on the continuo playing and improvisation described by Maugars (1639)
Giulia Nuti (Fiesole)

Workshop: Stile recitativo in sacred vocal music in Rome in the first half of the seventeenth century
Giulia Nuti

4.30–6.30 pm, St Ursula’s Church

Vocal workshop
Maria Cristina Kiehr

7.30 pm, St Michael’s Church, Kapitel Saal

Concert

‘A mio modo’: Tracing the personalities of 17th-century singers
Sven Schwannberger (Basel/Vienna)

Thursday, 7 November

9–12 am, Festsaal Seilerstätte

Symposium: Aspects of Performance Practice / Issues of Performance Practice

Counterpoint and basso continuo performance
Luciano Contini (Vienna)

Dissonances in early 17th-century Italian guitar music
Pierre Pitzl (Vienna)

NATURA & ARS: Challenges and Opportunities in Reconstructing 17th-Century Vocal Practice
Sven Schwannberger

‘Clavicymbel, a fourth lower than the choir pitch’ –
12- and 6-foot harpsichords in the first half of the 17th century
Eugène Michelangli (Vienna)

1–4 pm, Festsaal Seilerstätte

Lecture and workshop: ‘Stile recitativo’ in secular Roman vocal music of the early 17th century
Anne Marie Dragosits (Vienna/Linz)

7.30 pm, St Ursula’s Church

Concert by course participants

Friday, 8 November

10–12 am, Festsaal Seilerstätte

Roundtable: Cl. Monteverdi’s *Lamento d’Arianna*
Panel: Tim Carter, Anne Marie Dragosits, Thérèse de Goede, Maria Cristina Kiehr, Giulia Nuti, Elam Rotem