KOLLOQUIUM MUSIKTHEORIE / MUSIC THEORY COLLOQUIA
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Prof. Dr. Bella Brover-Lubovsky (The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Israel):
"The Concept of Dissonance in Figured Bass in Francesco Antonio Calegari's Arrangements of Palestrina's 8 Magnificati à 4 (1591)"
Francesco Antonio Calegari (1656-1742), music director at the Basilica of Sant'Antonio in Padua and in Santa Maria Gloriosa de' Frari in Venice, is nowadays unjustly considered no more than a marginal figure: a minor composer with bizarre ideas, virtually neglected both during his lifetime and afterwards. Calegari repeatedly emphasizes that his theory leans on "the theoretical knowledge of the Erudite School practiced by famous Latin Harmonic Writers," warning that "whoever desires to write in the modern harmonic style with all the perfection of the art needs to be very experienced in the old style, choosing above all others the Famous Master [Palestrina]" (Ampla dimostrazione 1732: 125-26). In light of the situation when Calegari's harmonic and tonal theories, obscurely expressed in his written works, still remain virtually unexplored, the thorough analysis of his arrangements become a key source for comprehending his theories: these contain a representative selection of works by Palestrina, including a monumental score of Magnificati à 4 (1591), and Giovanni Matteo Asola in the archive of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin (Dsa-SA 193-216, 418). An analysis of his labelling of vertical sonorities in these scores will reveal his pattern of conceptualizing the harmonic structure of chords and their nomenclature. Besides, Calegari's proposed added dissonances to the consonant sonorities elucidate the modes of reception of Renaissance style by the early eighteenth-century musician.
Such inquiry into the hermeneutical and philological aspects of the concept of dissonance shows that the process of conceptualizing musical language in that period was far from being a teleological and straightforward development.
Bella Brover-Lubovsky is a professor and a vice-president at the Jerusalem Music Academy. Prior to this she held research and teaching positions at the Hebrew University, the Italian Academy (Columbia University), University of Illinois, Tel-Aviv, Bar-Ilan, and Open Universities. She is the author of Tonal Space in the Music of Antonio Vivaldi (Indiana University Press 2008 / Academic Studies Press 2024), the editor of dramatic and sacred compositions by Giuseppe Sarti (A-R Editions 2018, 2023), and articles on eighteenth-century Italian music and writings on music. Brover-Lubovsky is a recipient of the Thurnau Award (University of Bayreuth), research grants from the Einstein Foundation (Berlin), the Israel Science Foundation, the Vittore Branca Center for the Study of Italian Culture (Fondazione Cini) and the Newberry Library.
The evenings are moderated by Prof. Dr. Jan Philipp Sprick and Roberta Vidic, who both teach in the Music Theory Department at the Hamburg University of Music and Theater.
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Contact and Zoom sign-up: roberta.vidic@hfmt-hamburg.de
Overview:
19.5.: Dr. Alexander Jakobidze-Gitman
26.5.: Prof. Dr. Bella Brover-Lubovsky
23.6.: Ass.-Prof. Dr. Nathan J. Martin