Birthplace of the Secular Drama
In the midst of more imposing chronicles bearing upon the growth of
Italy the student of her history is likely to lose sight of the little
Marquisate of Mantua. Yet its story is profoundly interesting and in its
relations to the development of the lyric drama filled with
significance. That it should have come to occupy such a high position
among the cultivated centers of the Renaissance seems singularly
appropriate since Virgil, the Italian literary deity of the period, was
born at Pietole, now a suburb of Mantua.
The marquisate owed its elevation to the character of the great lords of
the house of Gonzaga, who ruled it from 1328 to 1708. In the former year
the head of the house ousted from the government the Buonacolsis, who
had been masters since 1247. In 1432 the Gonzagas were invested with the
hereditary title of Marquis and in 1530 Charles V raised the head of the
house to the rank of Duke. When the last duke died without issue in 1708
Austria gained possession of the little realm.
Entangled in the ceaseless turmoil of wars between Milan and the forces
allied against her, Mantua under the rule of the Gonzagas maintained her
intellectual energy and played bravely her part in the revival of
classic learning. Her court became a center of scholarship from which
radiated a beneficent influence through much of northern Italy. The
lords of Gonzaga fought and plotted, ate and drank, and plunged into the
riotous dissipation and free play of passions which characterized the
Renaissance period, but like other distinguished Italians they steeped
themselves in learning and were the proud patrons of artists, authors,
teachers, composers.
The eminence of the house in scholarship doubtless dated from the reign
of the Marchese Gian Francesco Gonzaga. This nobleman cherished a
genuine love for ancient history and was not without an appreciation of
Roman verse. Believing, as he did in common with most Italians, that the
republican thought of Rome was the foundation of all exalted living, he
realized that his children ought to be committed to the care of a master
thoroughly schooled in ancient lore. He therefore invited to his court,
in 1425, the distinguished scholar Vittorino da Feltre and gave the
children entirely into his hands. A separate villa was allotted to the
master and his pupils. This house had been a pleasure resort where the
young Gonzagas and their friends had idled and feasted. Under Vittorino
it was gradually transformed into a great school, for the Marquis was
liberal enough to open its doors to students from various parts of
Italy. The influence of the institution became far reaching and vital.
The children of the Marquis, surrounded by earnest minds, by students
often so poor that they had to be provided by their patron with clothes
and food, but none the less respected in that little community of the
intellect for their sincerity and their industry, could not fail to
imbibe a deep reverence for learning and a keen and discriminating taste
in art.
It is, then, in the natural order of things that Ludovico Gonzaga, one
of the sons of Francesco and pupils of Vittorino, should have been proud
to receive at his court the sycophantic and avaricious poet Filelfo, and
to suffer under his systematic begging. He discharged his debt to the
world of art with greater insight when in 1456 he invited to his court
the great painter Mantegna. He offered the artist a substantial salary
and in 1460 the master went to reside at Mantua. He remained there under
three successive marquises till his death in 1506. He enriched the
little capital with splendid creations of his art, now unfortunately
mostly destroyed. Mantegna's "Madonna della Vittoria," in the Louvre,
was painted to celebrate the deeds of Francesco Gonzaga in the battle of
Fornovo.
When he was ejected from Rome for making obscene pictures, Giulio Romano
went to live at Mantua, and the city still bears the traces of his
residence as well as of Mantegna's. The ducal palace, begun in 1302,
contains five hundred rooms in many of which are paintings by Romano.
The Palazzo Te is regarded by most authorities as Giulio's noblest
monument, displaying, as it does, his skill as an architect, painter and
sculptor. The Cathedral of San Pietro was restored from his designs and
in the Church of San Andrea, in a tomb adorned by his pupils, sleeps the
great Mantegna.
The history of music at the court of Mantua begins at least as early as
the fourteenth century. Vander Straeten[6] found some record of a
musician of the Gallo-Belgic school called Jean le Chartreux, or by the
Italians Giovanni di Namur. He was the author of a "Libellus Musicus,"
preserved in the British Museum. He was born at Namur, learned singing,
and according to Vander Straeten, studied the works of Boethius under
Vittorino da Feltre in Italy. He cites Marchetto of Padua as the first
to write in the chromatic manner since Boethius. Bertolotti in his
searching examination[7] of the records of Mantua found numerous names
of musicians employed at the court or permitted to exercise their
calling within the boundaries of the marquisate. He notes the
predominance of Flemish masters and the supremacy of their ideas in the
music of Italy. He attributes to Vittorino da Feltre the introduction of
the systematic study of music and credits him with publicly teaching the
art and inspiring in some measure the treatise of Jean le Chartreux.
From Bertolotti we learn that Maestro Rodolfo de Alemannia, an organist,
and German, living in Mantua, obtained in 1435 certain privileges in the
construction of organs for six years.
[Footnote 6: "La Musique aux Pays-Bas avant le XIX Siècle," Edmond
Vander Straeten. Brussels, 1867-1888.]
[Footnote 7: "Musici alia Corte dei Gonzaga in Mantova dal Secolo
XV al XVIII," per A. Bertolotti. Milan.]
From this time forward we find music and musicians in high favor at the
court of Mantua. Neither Vander Straeten nor Bertolotti succeeded in
obtaining from the archives of the city more than fragmentary mention of
musicians of whom we would gladly know more. Nevertheless there is
sufficient to demonstrate the interest of the marquises in the art and
the frequency with which musical entertainment was provided.
Toward the end of 1458 Germans became more numerous among the musicians
at Mantua, though they do not appear at any time to have held a
commanding position. This is quite natural since at that period German
musicians had no school of their own, but with the rest of the world
were followers of the Flemings. In 1458 Barbara of Brandenburg,
Marchioness of Mantua, took from Ferrara Marco and Giovanni Peccenini,
who were of German birth. Two years later the Marquis, wishing to engage
a master of singing for his son, sent to one Nicolo, the German, at
Ferrara, and this musician recommended Giovanni Brith as highly
qualified to sing in the latest fashion the best songs of the Venetian
style.
Ludovico, who has already been mentioned and who was the marquis from
1444 to 1478, had for two years at his court the celebrated Franchino
Gaffori. This master, born near Lodi in 1451, was the son of one Betino,
a soldier. The boy went into the church in childhood and studied
ecclesiastical music under a Carmelite monk named Johannis Godendach.
Later, he went to Mantua, where his father was in the service of the
Marquis. "Here for two years he closely applied himself day and night to
study, during which time he composed many tracts on the theory and
practice of music."[8] The period of Gaffori's greatest achievements in
theoretical work, especially his noted "Practica Musicae," from which
Hawkins quotes copiously, was later than his residence at Mantua, but
his studies at that court at least betoken the existence of a congenial
atmosphere, and we may be assured that such an enlightened amateur as
Ludovico did not neglect opportunities to acquaint himself with the
workings of this studious mind.
[Footnote 8: "A General History of the Science and Practice of
Music," by Sir John Hawkins. London, 1776.]
Bertolotti reproduces sundry interesting letters which passed between
the courts of Ferrara and Mantua and dealt with musical matters. Perhaps
an epistle from the Duke of Milan in January, 1473, might cause a
passing smile of amusement, for in it the Duke confides to the Mantuan
Marquis a project for the revival of music in Italy. It seems that he
was weary of the long reign of the Flemings, and was sending to Rome for
the best musicians with the purpose of founding an orchestra so that
composers and singers would be attracted to his court. But as this fine
project had no direct bearing on the history of the lyric drama we may
permit it to pass without further examination.
However far we may follow the extracts from the archives of Mantua in
the fifteenth century, we get nothing definite in regard to the
production of the first Italian secular and lyric drama at that court.
We are driven into the hazardous realm of conjecture as to the relations
between its production and the prominent musicians who formed part of
the suite of the Marquis. This indeed is but natural, since it could not
be expected of the Marquis and his associates that they should know they
were making history.
We learn that in 1481 Gian Pietro della Viola, a Florentine by birth,
accompanied Clara Gonzaga when she became the Duchess of Montpensier and
that he returned to Mantua in 1484--the year after "Orfeo" was probably
produced. We learn that he composed the music for the ballerino, Lorenzo
Lavagnolo, who returned to Mantua in 1485 after having been since 1479
in the service of the Duchess Bona of Savoy. We are at least free to
conjecture that before 1479 Lavagnolo trained the chorus of Mantua in
dancing so that he may have contributed something to the ballata which
we shall at the proper place see as a number in Poliziano's "Orfeo."
Travel between the courts of Mantua and Ferrara was not unfamiliar to
musicians, and there is reason to believe that those of the former court
often sought instruction from those of the latter. For example, it is on
record that Gian Andrea di Alessandro, who became organist to the
Marquis of Mantua in 1485, was sent in 1490 to Ferrara that he might
"learn better song and playing the organ from Girolamo del Bruno." In
1492 he was sufficiently instructed to be sent by the Marquis to San
Benedetto to play for the ambassador from Venice to Milan.
The celebrated composer of frottole, Bartolomeo Tromboncino, was for
some time in the service of the Mantuan court. It was formerly believed
that he went to Mantua in 1494, but Signer Bertolotti unearthed a
document which showed that his father was engaged there in 1487. From
which the learned Italian investigator reached the conclusion that the
young Tromboncino was with his parent. It seems to be pretty well
established that the two went together to Venice in 1495.
But he returned to Mantua and for many years passed some of his time at
that court and some at Ferrara. For example, we learn that in 1497 the
Cardinal d'Este promised the Marchioness of Mantua that she should have
some new compositions by Tromboncino. Yet in 1499 he was sent with other
musicians of the suite of the Gonzagas to Vincenza to sing a vesper
service in some church. It appears that Tromboncino was not only a
composer, but an instrumental musician and a singer.
These fragmentary references to the activities of Tromboncino at the
court of Mantua are indeed unsatisfactory, but they are about all that
are within our reach. That he was born at Verona and that he was one of
the most popular composers of the latter end of the fifteenth and the
beginning of the sixteenth century and that his special field of art was
the frottola are almost the sum total of the story of his career. We
know that he wrote two sacred songs in the frottola style, nine
"Lamentations" and one "Benedictus" for three voices. Petrucci's nine
books of frottole (Venice, 1509) contain all of Tromboncino's.
Carlo Delaunasy, a singer in the service of Isabella, Marchioness of
Mantua in 1499, and Marco Carra, director of music to the Marquis in
1503, 1514 and 1525, are among the names unearthed from the archives of
Mantua by their keeper at the request of Mr. Vander Straeten. These
papers contained the names of a few other singers, players and
directors, but their inadequacy was demonstrated by the fact that they
contained no mention of Jacques de Wert, a composer of great activity
and talent, to whom Vander Straeten devotes some fifteen pages of his
exhaustive work.
De Wert was born in Flanders near the end of the first half of the
sixteenth century. While yet a child he was a choir boy in the service
of Maria de Cardona, Marchesa della Padulla. Subsequently he entered the
service of Count Alfonso of Novellara and in 1558 he published a book of
madrigals which attracted widespread attention. Ten years later we find
him at the court of Mantua, where his happiness was destroyed by the
conduct of his wife. He appealed for aid to the Duke of Ferrara and the
result appears to have been a dual service, for while he remained at
Mantua he wrote much for the other court. His distinguished "Concerto
Maggiore" for fifty-seven singers was written for some state festival.
His service at Ferrara, whither he often went, enticed him into a
relationship with Tarquinia Molza, a poet and court lady, which caused
her to go into retirement. De Wert continued to live in Mantua and his
last book of madrigals was published in Venice, September 10, 1591. He
must have died soon afterward. Between 1558 and 1591 he put forth ten
books of madrigals, generally for five voices, though toward the end he
sometimes composed for six or seven. He was the author also of some
motets, and Luca Marenzio, who brought the madrigal style to its most
beautiful development and whose influence molded the methods of the
English glee and madrigal writers, is believed to have been his pupil
for a short time. Marenzio unquestionably lived for some months in
Mantua, where according to Calvi[9] he completed his studies under the
guidance of the Duke.
[Footnote 9: "Scena Letteraria degli Scrittori Bergamaschi," per
Donato Calvi. Bergamo, 1664.]
Of Alessandro Striggio and his art work at the court of Mantua and
elsewhere special mention will be made in another part of this work.
Moreover it is not necessary that anything should be said here of the
epoch-making creations of Claudio Monteverde, who was long in the
Gonzaga service and who produced his "Orfeo" at Mantua. Sufficient has
been set forth in this chapter to give some estimate of the importance
and activity of Mantua as a literary and musical center. The culture of
the age was confined almost exclusively to churchmen, professors,
literary laborers and the nobility. The long line of musical and
dramatic development followed at Mantua had no relation to the general
art life of the Italian people. But its importance in its preparation
for the birth of the art form finally known as opera is not easily
overestimated, especially when we remember that this form did not become
a public entertainment till 1637. It was at Mantua that Angelo
Poliziano's "Orfeo," the first lyric drama with a secular subject, was
produced, and it must be our next business to examine this work and set
forth the conditions under which it was made known.