Bonfire Songs: Savonarola's Musical LegacyFra Girolamo Savonarola had a profound effect on the political and moral life of Florence in the 1490s, and his legacy lived on during the century after his execution in 1498, not just in Florence but in Ferrara and beyond the Alps, as far as Paris, Munich, and London. This study reconstructs contexts and musical settings for the popular tradition of sacred laude that were sung during the Savonarolan carnivals in 1496, 1497, and 1498. It further examines a broad network of patronage for the courtly tradition of Latin motets that provided elaborate musical settings for Savonarola's meditations on Psalms 30 and 50. The friar's success in Florence can be partially attributed to his adoption of sacred laude (and the tunes of bawdy carnival songs) that had been promoted by Lorenzo de' Medici. The texts of the old carnival songs were suppressed, but the music was adapted to laude with texts that proclaim the friar's prophecy of castigation and renewal. The citizens could thus internalize Savonarola's message by singing it. Savonarola himself wrote several lauda texts, and their musical settings are reconstructed here, as well as those for an underground tradition of laude written to venerate him after his execution. Part II turns to the courtly tradition and the Latin motet. Several Catholic patrons, scattered from Ferrara to France to England, were drawn to the friar's prison meditation on Psalms 30 and 50, and they commissioned elaborate musical settings of the opening words of both. A dozen motets on the friar's psalm meditations can be traced from composes such as Willaert, Rore, Le Jeune, Lassus, and Byrd. Savonarola's highly personal texts inspired some of the most moving musical setings of the sixteenth century, in spite of the Church's unfavourable attitude toward the friar's disruptive example, which had set a precedent for Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther. |
Contents
13 | 1 |
Savonarola as Prophet and Reformer II | 11 |
Florentine Music in Savonarolas Time | 32 |
Laude for Savonarolan Carnivals and Other Celebrations | 59 |
Ecce quam bonum not | 69 |
Si chio la vo seguire | 75 |
Io son Giesù che sopra | 81 |
Savonarola Against and For Music | 91 |
Cardinal Ippolito II dEste and Savonarolan Motets in Italy | 226 |
Motets on Savonarolas Psalm Meditations in the | 253 |
Savonarolas Psalm Meditations in England | 272 |
Epilogue | 303 |
Appendices | 309 |
Ser Firenze prete | 312 |
Savonarolan Laude in Biblioteca Nazionale Florence | 315 |
G Savonarolan Laude in Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana | 318 |
delle laudi spirituali Venice 1563 | 105 |
Laude by Piagnoni in Veneration of Savonarola | 118 |
The Reception of Savonarola in the Sixteenth Century | 153 |
Musical Echoes of Ecce quam bonum in France and Florence | 167 |
Musical Reminiscences | 184 |
Cardinal François de Tournon and Infelix ego by Simon Joly | 214 |
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| 339 | |
| 350 | |
| 356 | |
Common terms and phrases
altus amore Anon bassus Biblioteca BNF Magl Byrd Byrd's cantasi canti cantus Canzona Cardinal carnival songs Caterina Catholic CD track Church Claude Le Jeune coe lum composed d'Este dolce Dominican Duke Ecce quam bonum edition Ercole Ercole I d'Este fanciulli Feo Belcari Ferrara Firenze Florence Florentine François François de Tournon French friar Girolamo Benivieni Girolamo Savonarola gran Ibid Infelix ego Ippolito Ippolito II d'Este Italian Italy Jeune Josquin's Landucci Lassus lauda laude Libro primo Lorenzo manuscript Medici meditations on Pss melody Miserere mei deus motets musical settings ostinato partbooks Piagnoni Piazza pope psalm Razzi Razzi's anthology reform ri cor Ridolfi Rome Rore San Marco Savonarola's meditation secunda pars Serafino Razzi sermons setting of Infelix setting of Savonarola's Signore Signoria singing sixteenth century soggetto ostinato spirituali stanzas sung tenor Tristitia obsedit tune Venice Verdelot verse Vicentino Vita Viva Cristo voices Willaert William Mundy