Extraordinary Sonorities in the Musical Landscape of Trecento Florence

• In Event: Figuring Language, Space, and Sound in the Italian Renaissance

Abstract

Writings on music theory in the medieval and early modern period usually pay little attention to the physical/aural qualities of sound (for example, those related to the production and perception of what we would call timbre), and betray a general discomfort towards music that does not convey a meaningful verbal content, from instrumental music to non-human sounds. This paper discusses two intertwined documents from late Trecento Florence in which, by contrast, a fascination with the aural ambiguity of textless music emerges: a letter of Coluccio Salutati describing an impromptu vocal performance in which a virtuoso singer imitates all sorts of musical instruments in a “new manner of singing” characterised by aural vagueness and even confusion; and a detail from the well-known biographical material on the illustrious composer Francesco degli Organi, according to which Francesco invented a third species of music mingling ordinary singing with voices imitating instruments.

Author

• Renata Pieragostini, Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies