Nuove musiche e nuova storia

On the basis of new documentary and musical sources, the article intends to demonstrate how in Venice, during the first three decades years of seventeenth century, the new practices of concertato music for one, two and three voices and basso continuo spread much earlier and more rapidly than what is usually reported in the musicological literature. The main vehicle of the new practices was private patronage, which in Venice took the form of a widespread and transversal phenomenon. This was supported by individuals belonging not only to the patriciate, but also to the ceto cittadinesco (citizen class) and the broad and articulate class of the community. After a general overview of this phenomenon and social practice of the ridotto (a sort of musical salon of the time) connected to it, thanks to a conspicuous corpus of data, resulting from methodologically innovative research, the article focuses on a extraordinary patronage undertaking: the opening, by an enlightened family of the cittadinesco class, of a teatro built specifically for the chamber music performance. Starting from a reflection on the quality of the music performed here and on the characteristics of one of the earlier Venetian printed collections of music for solo voice — the Orfeo, published by Bartolomeo Magni in 1613 — the article discusses the different forms of vocal music (from strophic aria to the lettera amorosa in stile recitativo), through which the seed of the new concertato music spread in the lagoon in the following two decades.