doni's dialogo

So, I need to look at the music for this again. I'm not sure I actually have a copy of it--time to place an ILL.

I am reproducing the works list from Haar's article on Doni's Dialogo; Haar identifies concordances and poetry sources where possible.

1. Claudio Veggio, 'Donna per acquetar vostro desire' (Gottifredi).
   
   
   
   • Poem
     
   
   
2. Vincenzo Ruffo, 'Ma di chi debbo lamentarmi hai lasso' (Ariosto).
   
3. Pre Maria Riccio, 'Lassatemi morire'.
   
   
   
   • This sounds promising on the innuendo/metaphor front.
     
   
   
4. Arcadelt, 'S'amante fu giamai di sperar privo' (Luigi Cassola).
   
5. Arcadelt, 'Il bianco e dolce cigno' (Alfonso d'Avalos).
   
   
   
   • Laura Macy wrote about this text and Arcadelt's setting; might be interesting to see how Doni's compares. This online translation appears to be Macy's but is not acknowledged.
     
   
   
6. Doni, 'Noi v'abbian donne mille nuov' a dire' (Doni).
   
   
   
   • I'm sure Haar is right when he says the setting is terrible and he's not sure whether it's deliberately dreadful in a (failed?) attempt at satire or whether it's just unintentionally incompetent. The first line sounds like it might be a carnival song of sorts and so probably worth closer examination.
     
   
   
7. Doni, 'O conservi d'amor che cosi spesso' (Doni).
   
8. Girolamo Parabosco, 'Pur converra ch'i miei martiri amore'.
   
9. Parabosco, 'Giunto m'ha amor fra belle e crude braccia' (Petrarch).
   
10. Paolo Iacopo Palazzo, 'Maledetto sia amore e quel che disse'.
    
11. Tomaso Bargonio, 'Alma mia fiamma e donna' (Pietro Aretino).
    
    
    
    • The context for this is probably suggestive even if the text itself is not. Haar references Aretino's Capricciosi e Piacevoli Ragionamenti (Amsterdam: Elzevier, 1660), ii, 3, p.385.
      
    
    
12. Michele Novarese (Doni?), 'Di tre rare eccellenze' (Lodovico Domenichi).
    
13. C. Veggio, 'Madonna il mio dolor è tant' e tale' (Doni).
    
14. Noleth, 'S'io potessi mirar quell'occhi belli'.
    
15. Doni(?), 'Chiaro leggiadro lume che dal cielo' (Doni?).
    
16. Perissone Cambio, 'Deh perchè com'è il vostro al nome mio'.
    
17. Parabosco, 'Nessun visse giamai piu di me lieto' (Petrarch).
    
18. Giacchetto Berchem, Canzone [=sestina], 'Alla dolc'ombra' (Petrarch).
    
19. Anon., 'Ingenium ornavit Pallas, ornavit potentem'.
    
20. Parabosco, 'Cantai mentre ch'io arsi del mio foco'.
    
21. Perissone(?), 'Ave virgo gratiosa' and 'Rubicunda plusquam rosa' (verses from hymns for feast of Immaculate Conception).
    
22. Willaert, 'Beatus Bernardus quasi vas auri solidum' and 'Factus est quasi ignis'.
    
23. P. Cambio, 'Giunto m'ha amor fra belle a crude braccia' (Petrarch).
    
24. Cipriano de Rore, 'Quis tuos presul valeat ritenti pileo' and 'Quin tenes legum'....
    
25. C. Veggio, 'Madonna il mio dolor è tant' e tale' (Doni).
    
26. Arcadelt, 'Amorosette fiore'.
    
27. Jacques Buus, 'À tout jamais d'ung vouloir immuable'.
    
28. C. Veggio, 'Madonna hor che direte' (Doni).
    

Texts by Doni available online:

Some poems at http://rasta.unipv.it/index.php?page=view_autore&idautore=131.

Given Doni's possible setting of a text by Lodovico Domenichi, the poem by Giovanni Antonio Clario (who?!) beginning 'DOMENICHI, se l'opere del DONI' (16th century edition online) might be of interest. Humanist friendship referenced.

DOMENICHI, se l'opere del DONI
Habbin mai sempre in lor favor le stelle,
E fra l'antiche, et le moderne belle
Piu che di squille il lor grido risuoni:
E t à le vostre il ciel tal gratia doni,
Che non l'habbin contrarie apre, et rubelle;
Quelle con voi vivendo, et voi con quelle;
Ne l'altro l'un mai con l'alma abbandoni.
In abbandon co'l corpo non mettete
(Quatunque indegno) dopò sua partita
Me da la vostra dolce compagnia.
Che in che modo trovar potrei mai via
Di poter sostener mie membra in viva;
S'egli è l'alma di me, voi il corpo sete?

Poem by same Clario to Doni is in same collection.

eroticism and decorum

This is the beginnings of my eros and euterpe rough work--at the moment, it's more just notes and jottings than a consistent set of ideas or an argument. The draft is due to the editor at the end of August, but I'd like to finish it earlier so that I can send it to one or two friends for comments.

Introduction:
[Will not say the following, but will say something along the lines of what the thesis and the aims of the paper are.]
This paper explores the implications/significance for music-making of the erotic culture of Cinquecento aademies through examining two particular books: Antonfrancesco Doni's dialogo della musica (1545), and Filippo Azzaiolo's il primo libro de villotte alla padoana detto del fiore (1557). Doni's work is quite well-known to musicologists courtesy of articles by Einstein and Haar. My work differs from theirs in that I seek to understand the appeal of, significance of the bawdy and/or innuendo-laden humour that Haar claims is no longer funny (and he might be right there).

Section 1: Let's talk about sex (baby) - I might just use that as a subheading if I can!
This section will be about the previous academic discourse on sexually explicit or euphemistic texts (categories such as bawdy, pornographic, obscene, erotic), about how they are historically contingent--with a wee bit on the recent usage of pornography (the statement that the repeated showings of the collapsing twin towers was somehow porn; torture porn--would love to ref that bloody irritating ad for Tarantino's Hotel II running on the Guardian website just now). Then summary of Talvacchia on decency, onesta/disonesta. Della Casa on decency in language. Ref to Stras on decency in music.

Section 2: needs a title
Doni's dialogo is ostensibly an account of an amiable evening at the Accademia degli Ortolani (Gardeners) of Piacenza. Doni's academic nickname was 'La semenza' (the seed). Not surprisingly one of their icons was Priapus--god of gardens, fertility and famously blessed with a ginormous member. (Boy, I'm glad I'm not subscribing to blog-associated advertising.) The interlocutors/participants are all male at this first evening. Einstein doesn't mention the sexual humour; at least one reviewer also misses it (Denis Arnold); Haar glosses over it in the revised version of his article (i.e. he only mentions the existence of the double meanings)--his earlier published version lacks any acknowledgement of the double entendre. This results in some amazing misreadings, where Haar determinedly reads the literal meaning of passages that only make sense as double entendres. Important things to mention: playfulness, mockery of academic enterprise (even from beyond the grave).

I need to look at the music sung during the evening to see how that works in terms of double entendres or whatever.
Also need to take into account class, social status etc. What other info is there on the Ortolani?

Section 3: needs a title [Costanti, Rucellai and Azzaiolo I]
This will look at only three songs from the collection. Don't think the madrigals will be relevant.

Section 4: Performing decorum and erotics of performance
Conclusion

eros and euterpe proposal

I'm drafting a proposal for my contribution to Massimo Ossi's edited book of essays on eroticism in music. I'm thinking of combining a chapter from my PhD with my AMS paper. My starting point could be my AMS abstract, but it'd need heavy revision.

Power, Pornography and Entertainment in a Cinquecento Academy

Although controlled by Venice from 1404, mid-cinquecento Vicenza was a city of independent spirit. As in other republican cities in the Veneto, the structure of the academy replaced the court as the space for fostering both culture and identity. The Accademia dei Costanti—a group of Vicentine noblemen whose families harboured anti-Venetian feeling—attempted to regain an element of autonomy by pursuing courtly ideals in their work as in their play. In addition to philosophical discussions and literary pursuits, the academicians made music and played games in an intimate setting reminiscent of the modern gentlemen’s club.

The Costanti’s political sympathies are reflected in a volume of villotte alla padoana that bears their impresa. The collection includes references to treason and exile; however, throughout the political allusions are overshadowed by playful sexual metaphors. The villotte’s bawdy dialect verse challenges our preconceptions of “academic” activites, suggesting private rather than public performance, for entertainment rather than edification. Publication problematizes these works, for sentiments acceptable in private may become significant and unacceptable when placed in public space.

As Paula Findlen has demonstrated, the audience for what we now term “pornography” and “art” was one and the same: the literate, monied élite. The Costanti may have commissioned madrigals from prominent composers, but they were also involved in the anonymous production of obscene songs. Giorgio Vasari’s comments on the erotica of Marcantonio Raimondi, differentiating between onesto and disonesto, provide a framework for a culturally sensitive approach to these songs—which bind politics and pornography for entertainment.