Music Curiosa

 

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Instructions:

Print this page out and then cut off one curiosa item at a time to give to each team of apprentices when they come to you during the designated week for curiosa items. REMEMBER: Only hand out each curiosa item once.
 
 
 Soprano
 
The soprano part of a chorus was usually sung not by a female, but by a boy, or by a man singing in falsetto.
 
References:
Durant, Will (1953). The Renaissance: A History of Civilization in Italy from 1304-1576 A.D. Simon & Schuster. New York, New York.
 
 
Leonardo
 
When Leonardo went to Milan, it was as a musician. Leonardo was accompanied in going from Florence to Milan, by Atalante Migliorotti, a celebrated musician and maker of musical instruments.
 
References:
Durant, Will (1953). The Renaissance: A History of Civilization in Italy from 1304-1576 A.D. Simon & Schuster. New York, New York.
 
 
High Rewards
 
Pope Leo X (1513-1521) so loved music that he surrounded himself with many singers and muscicians. He paid these producers of music handsomely. Bernardo Accolti (poet and musician) was able with the fees that Leo paid him to buy the duchy of Nepi. A Jewish lute player earned a castle and the title of count. The singer Gabriele Merino was made an archbishop. It was indeed a "plum" job to have a musical appointment within Pope Leo's court!
 
References:
Durant, Will (1953). The Renaissance: A History of Civilization in Italy from 1304-1576 A.D. Simon & Schuster. New York, New York.
 
 
The Lute
 
The lute was the favorite instrument of the Italian Renaissance home. It was built of wood and ivory and shaped like a pear. Its front was pierced with sound holes in a graceful pattern and the finger board was divided by frets of silver or brass. The finger board ended in a pegbox turned at a right angle to the neck. A pretty woman plucking the strings of a lute held in her lap made a picture that went to the head of many a sensitive Italian.
 
References:
Durant, Will (1953). The Renaissance: A History of Civilization in Italy from 1304-1576 A.D. Simon & Schuster. New York, New York.
 
 
Puffing the Cheeks
 
Wind instruments were less poplular during the Renaissance because the people had an objection to making music by puffing out the cheeks. It was not seen as comely as plucking a stringed instrument or fingering a keyboard.
 
References:
Durant, Will (1953). The Renaissance: A History of Civilization in Italy from 1304-1576 A.D. Simon & Schuster. New York, New York.
 
 
Soloists
 
While performances by several instruments in concert were given in Renaissance Italy, they were usually for the aristocratic few. On the other hand, solo instrumental performances were almost fanatically popular. It was said that men went to church not to pray but to hear a great organist like Squarcialupi or Orcagna. When Pietro Buno played the lute at the court of Borso in Ferrara the sould of the listeners, we are told, flew out of this world into another.
 
References:
Durant, Will (1953). The Renaissance: A History of Civilization in Italy from 1304-1576 A.D. Simon & Schuster. New York, New York.