The Sounds of Milan: 1585-1650.

Robert L. Kendrick. The Sounds of Milan: 1585-1650.

Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. xxii + 528 pp. index. append. illus. bibl. $74. ISBN: 0-19-513537-7.

The Sounds of Milan provides an examination of music and its wider historical and cultural context in early modern Milan. Robert Kendrick's study follows his previous monograph, Celestial Sirens: Nuns and Their Music in Early Modern Milan, (1996). Together these two books make an invaluable contribution to our understanding of music and musical life in Milan in this period.

Our knowledge of music in Milan in the last quarter of the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century has been founded on the developments in string instruments, especially the violin, and on new genres of music written especially for these instruments--the earliest surviving examples of sonatas for violin and basso continuo were published in Concerti ecclesiastici in Milan in 1610. By focusing his study primarily on sacred vocal music in Milan in this period, Kendrick shows how these sung repertories were central to the musical life of the palaces and churches in Milan. The author rightly concentrates on vocal music, which for most music historians is less well-known than the instrumental repertories, examining the music of a number of composers who worked in Milan, including Serafino Cantone, Giovanni Paolo Cima, Ignazio Donati, Giovanni Ghizzolo, Michelangelo Grancini, Vicenzo Pellegrini, and Francesco Rognoni.

This study is broadly divided into three sections. The first deals with the cathedral, churches, monasteries, and palaces that served as the locations for the performance of music and provides the context for a rich interpretation of the Milanese urban cityscape. The examinations of the cathedral and S. Maria presso S. Celso in chapter 2 are strong, especially the discussion of the relationship between the decoration of the spaces in question and specific musical examples.

The second section focuses on the liturgical practices of the Milanese rite and their relationships to local musical practice. Although deeply influenced by the Counter Reformation, the Milanese or Ambrosian liturgy (which was used in Milan and its suburbs) remained independent from the Roman rite. In this respect, the Counter Reformation in Milan in the later sixteenth century was dominated by the ideas and teachings of Cardinal Carlo Borromeo (see Lewis Lockwood, The Counter-Reformation and the Masses of Vincenzo Ruffo [1970]). Kendrick's consideration of the letters of Girolamo Borsieri provides part of the foundation for a wider discussion of the theory and aesthetics related to contemporary local liturgy and musical style in the early seventeenth century and thus provides the context for the following more thorough examination of music and musical practice.

In the third section Kendrick moves to a discussion of the music, styles, and genres, providing a detailed description of how Milanese composers worked with the polychoral or cori spezzati style, most often connected with Venice and Rome, and also how certain composers cultivated the new sacred concerto style, in which voices were accompanied by instruments and basso continuo. There are many musical examples, some taking several pages, which provide modern transcriptions of much unpublished music. There is clearly a need for the repertories identified by Kendrick to be collected and published in modern editions so that this music can be heard by a wider audience.

Kendrick's study closes with transcriptions of documents and five useful appendices. Twenty-four documents are transcribed here. The selection provides an overview of some of the important issues for music and musicians in Milan during the period under consideration. Two demonstrate the role of music in processions in some detail (docs. 2 and 8), while the music for the funeral of Philip III in 1631 is also described (doc. 13). Appendix A lists the Milanese feste de precetto along with other important local feast days. Appendix B furnishes the structure of the Ambrosian Vespers, and items for the most important feste de precetto as indicated in the 1582 breviary and the 1619 Pontificalia; the significance and liturgical implications of the Pontificalia are carefully described earlier. Appendix C reconstructs the relationship of chant, polyphony, and falsobordone for certain Vespers feasts, while appendix D lists Ignazio Donati's polychoral music for the Duomo. Lastly, appendix E provides an inventory of score, keyboard and basso parts in Milanese prints from 1596 to 1617. Notes are cited as endnotes in this study. Many supporting documents are translated and interpreted in them, and they are crucial to appreciating much of the substance of Kendrick's work here.

As in Kendrick's previous book-length study, one is left with an overriding sense of how music sounded and how it was used, of what made the music essentially Milanese in this period. The Sounds of Milan is a model of integrating documentary and musical evidence, and should be read by all interested in the music and culture of early modern Milan.

DAVID KIDGER

Oakland University