ECU Libraries Catalog

The politicized muse : music for Medici festivals, 1512-1537 / Anthony M. Cummings.

Author/creator Cummings, Anthony M.
Format Book and Print
Publication InfoPrinceton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1992.
Descriptionxvi, 260 pages : illustrations, portraits, music ; 25 cm.
Subject(s)
Series Princeton essays on the arts
Princeton essays on the arts. ^A86040
Contents Part I. The first years of the Medici restoration: the union of Florence and Rome. The restoration -- The 1513 carnival -- The election of Leo X -- Giuliano de' Medici's Capitoline investiture -- Leo X's 1515 Florentine Entrata -- Part II. Toward the Principato: Lorenzo de Medici, 1513-1519. Archbishop Giulio's Possesso -- The 1514 feast of San Giovanni -- Lorenzo de' Medici, captain general of the Florentine militia and Duke of Urbino -- The wedding of Lorenzo and Madeleine -- Part III. Alessandro de' Medici and the establishment of the Principato. The first years of Clement's pontificate ; The coronation of Charles V ; Alessandro, Duke of the Florentine republic -- The wedding of Alessandro and Margaret -- Conclusion. Toward a typology of Florentine festival music of the early cinquecento.
Abstract During the years between the restoration of the Medici to Florence and the election of Cosimo I, the Medici family sponsored a series of splendid public festivals, reconstructed here by the author. Cummings has utilized unexpectedly rich sources of information about the musical life of the time in contemporary narrative accounts of these occasions - histories, diaries, and family memoirs. In this interdisciplinary work, he explains how the festivals combined music with art and literature to convey political meanings to Florentine observers. As analyzed by Cummings, the festivals document the political transformation of the city in the crucial era that witnessed the end of the Florentine republic and the beginnings of the Medici principate. This book will interest all students of the life and institutions of sixteenth-century Florence and of the Medici family. In addition, the author furnishes new evidence about the contexts for musical performances in early modern Europe. By describing such contexts, he ascertains much about how music was performed and how it sounded in this period of music history and shows that the modes of musical expression were more varied than is suggested by the relatively few surviving examples of actual pieces of music.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 173-250) and index.
LCCN 91035069
ISBN0691091420 :

Available Items

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Music Closed Stacks - Ask at Circulation Desk ML290.8.F6 C85 1992 ✔ Available Place Hold