The Solo Motet in Venice (1625-1775)

Author(s): Denis Arnold

Source: Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 106 (1979 - 1980), pp. 56-68
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Royal Musical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/765926
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 The Solo Motet in Venice (1625-1775)
DENIS ARNOLD

THEgenre of motet for a single voice of the baroque and pre-classical eras has
been little investigated. Bukofzer mentions only its origins in a brief paragraph;
Abraham admittedly has halfa page in his ConciseOxfordHistoryofMusic, putting
it quickly into context; but Fellerer's ample Geschichteder katholischenKirchen-
musik (Kassel, 1976) treats it only sketchily and even Finscher's article on the
motet in Die Musik in Geschichteund Gegenwartmentions it only in passing, the
more important discussion being devoted to the motet in the stile antico, perhaps
not surprisingly, since that was what the term really implied in Germany during
Bach's lifetime. But everyone knows at least one solo motet, Mozart's Exsultate
jubilate (K. 158a); most people will know a piece in a similar tradition, Bach's
Jauchzet Gott(BVW 51), significantly included among the cantatas; to which may
be added a work which some of us feel is finer than either, Handel's Silete venti.
In monographs on the various composers, these pieces usually get short shrift,
being considered either a-typical or at'least of minor importance. This paper
will attempt to provide a background to these works.
The genre has a long history. It really begins with the motetti a voce sola in
Viadana's Cento concerti (1602) and continues until the early years of the
nineteenth century. It was popular in Rome and Naples, while it seems
probable that there was a similar tradition in the Emilian cities, Bologna,
Modena and Ferrara. If I have chosen Venice as a centre, it is because the tradi-
tion of the solo motet was more continuous there, not because its products were
necessarily any finer. The 150 years from 1625 to 1775 form a coherent entity,
the first of them the year when, the teething troubles of the genre being over, a
comprehensive anthology, Simonetti's Ghirlanda sacra was published; while
1775 marks virtually the end of the road for music at the Venice conservatoires,
where the genre was most practised by that time - though I shall take in a few
works composed shortly after that. The fact that there has been no substantial
study of either genre or composers means that inevitably there will be gaps; but
perhaps an outline paper may help to provide a framework for the future in-
vestigation which must surely take place, for there is clearly excellent music yet
to be discovered.
The earliest manifestations of the solo motet have been studied in the works
of Viadana and a number of his followers. From these it is clear that they had a
strong residue left from sixteenth-century vocal ensemble music; and indeed it
would not be very difficult to turn certain motets by Palestrina written for choir
into solo works with organ or lute accompaniment as was undoubtedly done by
virtuoso singers. By 1625 this phase was over. Simonetti's Ghirlanda sacra
collects together solo motets by no less than twenty-six composers. Some of
them were by composers who indeed were followers of Viadana - one being
Giulio Cesare Martinengo,l maestro di cappella at St Mark's before Monte-
verdi; but there were many younger men, notably Berti and Grandi, Barbarino
THE SOLO MOTET IN VENICE (1625-1775) 57
and Cavalli - or older men who were forward looking, surely a category to
which Monteverdi belonged. Some of the composers were singing teachersat St
Mark's Seminary; Barbarino was one of the counter-tenors who delighted the
English travellerThomas Coryatat the Festivalof S. Rocco in 1608, perhaps the
one praised as having 'such a supernaturalvoice for the sweetness that I think
there was never a better singer in all the world'; and if this was not he, it must
have been another composer represented in the Ghirlandasacra,Vido Rovetta,
about whom the Procuratorsof St Mark'shad a correspondence with the Holy
See, to obtain his release from a benefice in Padua.2 Simonetti himself was a
castrato in the choir at St Mark'sand clearly had a good acquaintanceshipwith
many musicians of the Veneto as well as Venice itself, since musicians at
churches in Padua, Treviso and Asolo are represented.
Naturally there is a greatvarietyof style and quality in such an anthology, but
there is enough attractive music to explain why it underwent three editions;3
and in general, the manner favoured in the mid 162os is clear. It might best be
described as a happy marriage of the style of the books of secular songs which
were flooding the Venetian market at the time and that of the post-Viadana
motet. From the motet comes the demand that the music must be well wrought;
declamation of the words is not enough and repetition of phrases to create a
balanced melody is almost de rigueur.Occasionally there is imitation between
the melody and the bass, and more frequently the melodic phrase begins with a
tag which could imitate if required.Just as Viadana had demanded good but
non-virtuoso singing, so do most of these works, though there are exceptions -
notably Monteverdi's contributions. The more extreme of the modern or-
naments of Caccini are rarely used, the usual graces being those derived from
the sixteenth-century treatises. Nor are they always applied to the 'affective'
word, the composer being more concerned with musical than purely verbal
considerations.
Yet much has come from secular song. The fact that ornamentation is not
continuous shows a distinct move away from the motettipasseggiatiof the
Romans and towards the more selective manner of the song writers.The formal
patterns frequently resemble those of the mid-2os aria. The splitting-up into
distinctive duple and triple time sections is one significant feature,4the triple
time often giving rise to catchytunes, such as this from Grandi's CantatoDomino
with its teasing hemiolias (ex. i). In this piece the held bass notes in the duple
time sections give a hint of the recitative-ariasplit which was to come; but this
is not typical. More so is the easy movement between the two metres of Grandi's
second setting of the words from the 'Song of Songs', O quamtupulchraes.5Here

Ex. i

Can - ta - bo Do -mi-no in vi ta me - a etc.

-/. t 3 K I I IJ 1 I 1
 MOTET THE SOLO(1625-1775)IN VENICE
58
the emotional climaxes often come in the duple time, createdby dissonances, as
can be heard in the very opening; and though certainlythe words are accurately
declaimed with little repetition, this is very far from a conventional idea of
recitative.
The use of the 'Song of Songs' in this work is typical. The majority of these
motets are in praise of Mary, suggesting an eroticism which allows for a secular
musical language. Others are in praise of saints, either mentioned by name or
with space left blank for its insertion to suit a particularfestival, the beginnings
of a musical hagiography which persists in solo motets until the end of the
eighteenth century. As yet, the texts are either biblical or liturgical, though
changed when necessary,and often with the word 'alleluia' inserted, composers
welcoming the opportunity to write a recurrentrefrain,or even, in Cavalli'sfirst
published piece, CantateDomino,a quasi-independent section (ex. 2).
Ex. 2

d ,J IItJ'
r JI Ilr rIr r X
A - I -lu -a, al- - l - lu- ja, a - I - lu-ja,

97 L ; iJJ
,j K J I
I ii. 11

^irr1^r
al- e - lu - ja etc.

ef rJ I r IJ. I
In the fifteen or so years after the publication of Ghirlandasacra, com-
paratively few solo motets were printed, partly because the plague of 1630
caused a general set-back to music publishing in Venice, partly because the
major composers, Monteverdi and Cavalli, assembled their church music in
grand retrospectivecollections such as the former'sSelvamoraleof 1640 and the
latter's Musichesacreof 1656. Grandi went on publishing them, though on his
removal to Bergamo in 1627 he turned his attention to the larger scale music
necessary for S. Maria Maggiore. His death from the plague three years later
must be accounted one of the tragedies in the historyof church music for he was
beginning to see how to integrate solo music into the Mass.As I have described
his later solo motets elsewhere6I shall pass them by here, especially as they do
not materially differ from those in the Ghirlandasacraexcept in their use of in-
struments, sometimes to play sinfonieand ritornelli,sometimes to echo vocal
phrases and even take part in some elementary dialogue or counterpoint. The
only example by Monteverdi published in this period is, interestingly, more
forward looking. Exultafiglia,7 a motet for soprano included in Calvi's Quarta
raccoltade sacricanti of 1629, is much more obviously sectional, each section
 -

THE SOLO MOTET IN VENICE (1625-1775) 59

being considerably extended, though the whole is integrated by both the
reprise of the opening section before the final brilliant 'alleluia' and the use of a
ritornello which is played after both the initial 'aria' and the first 'recitative'.
The lack of solo music written by composers at St Mark'sseems to reflect the
state of the choir. In Monteverdi's early years at the basilica, he had been keen
to recruit good singers, especially castrati,who included one Giovanni Battista
Calceta, appointed in 1613 at the high salaryof oo ducats; Felice Cazzelerfrom
Pistoia, on the same day as Cavalli was inducted in 1616; and Antonio
Grimani, given 80 ducats a year in 1617.8 After this, recruitment lagged, and
even after the decimation of the plague in which we may suspect Simonetti died,
the choir was only slowly re-built, apparently without soprano eunuchs. The
solo music in Monteverdi's retrospectivecollections consists of two motets for
bass voice, much in the extravagantlyornamented manner of Pluto's part in the
early Ballodell'ingrateand which might well date from his firstyearsat St Mark's;
several for soprano, mainly in a mood of rejoicing, of which the setting of
LaudateDominumis particularlyfine, breaking into a chaconne in the central
section, not unlike the famous duetZefirotornaof the period around 1630; and a
contrafactum of his Lamento d'Arianna(16o8) which now becomes the Piantodella
Madonna.This last had some influence on mid-century Roman composers such
as Carissimi and Rossi; but more in tune with the mood of Venice are the
hymns, set strophically to tunes based on such clear-cut rhythmicpatterns that,
as Monteverdi says 'si potranno cantare anche altri Hinni per6 che siino dello
stesso Metro'.9There is no chance for word painting with this proviso and this is
typical of the increasingly abstract attitude towards music now replacing the
ideas of the theorists of the early baroque. Cavalli also was good at hymns,
though turning them into concertato rather than solo works. His Marianmotet
0 quamsuavis,published by Gardano in 1645, reflectsthe older way, with some
florid writing for the voice, imitations between melody and bass and plenty of
repetition of verbal phrases. None the less, the smooth triple time of its middle
section and the way that the phrases are neatly balanced reveals its date, its sen-
suousness that it is by an increasinglywell known opera composer (ex. 3).

Ex. 3

I fi '
ii' I 0
I f1
a- i"t-
Ma n
ri- 2
a,
1

etc.

i'r; r t~I I'f~FrLF;_

oJI" r I"' J q o
 6o THE SOLO MOTET IN VENICE (16s5- 1775)

By this time, solo motets were beginning to be published by Venetian com-

posers working in other institutions than St Mark's. Giovanni Antonio Rigatti
may have been already the singing teacher at the Conservatoriodegli Incurabili
by the time he published his Motettia vocesolain 1643.10They are not very dis-
tinguished pieces, rather indeed like updated versions of the motettipasseggiati
of
the early 16oos, the decorative figures being almost continuous in some pieces,
though worked out in sequences to make them quite melodious. The use of
tempo markings for individual passages is interesting, partly because it un-
derlines the sectionalism of structure, partly because one or two passages
marked 'adagio' are very akin to recitative when sung at this speed; and the
operatic influence seems strong indeed in O dulcissimaVirgowhere an adagio
chaconne reminds us that 1642 was the year of Monteverdi's L'incoronazionedi
Poppea(ex. 4).

Ex. 4
r-
0 Adagio

--I- hIr
Ma-!-'1 I r , - r I
0 Mari- -a, OMa-ri-a,

_ Ii III I I I t I I I I . I
I d.I I rl.- I
I rj. v d-

t mr : r r I
0 Ma- ri - a- fons a - mo - ri .

: - | - I. Ij. 1
(note-values reduced)

If Rigatti was probably then a teacher at the Incurabili, there can be no doubt
that Natale Monferrato was employed at the Mendicanti twelve years later,
when publishing his first book of Motettia vocesola. The dedication" is to a
governor of that institution, and in it Monferrato says that these works were
written 'for the exercise (esercitio) of the girls of that place'. Monferrato was a
singer who became vice maestro at St Mark's,but had been in charge of music at
the Mendicanti since 1642, continuing until he finally obtained promotion to
be maestro di cappella at St Mark's in 1676, a position which allowed the
holding of no pluralities. A prolific composer, it is clear that he wrote Masses
and motets for the basilica's forces, using double choirs, and voices and in-
struments; when writing for the Conservatorio, he preferred the solo motet
with basso continuo, without even the modest stringscommonly found in such
publications. Of the twenty-one numbers in this volume, seven are meant for
soprano, twelve for alto (one having a theorbo accompaniment), only two for
male voices. The old tradition of the Marian or hagiographical texts is main-
 THE SOLO MOTET IN VENICE (1625-1775)
6i
tained, and many clearly stem from the manner of the senior generation. Some
are, however, longer and more substantial works than those of the Monteverdi
era. Compared with settings by Grandi, Monferrato's 0 quampulchraes is ex-
tremely extended. If I divide it into six sections, this is to some extent arbitrary,
because there are at least nine, if the old criteriaof time changes is followed; but
this is truly a series of recitativeswhich lead into mainly triple time arias. The
recitative passages in which the bass usually moves quite slowly to allow ex-
clamatory phrases to be deployed would not be out of place in an opera of the
164os or '5os. Nor would the arias, which vary from smooth ariettas using
hemiolias and passionate minor harmonies to those with easily memorable,
short breathed phrases over a 'walking' bass. There are 'sobbing trills' at
cadences, echo effects, in fact all the traits of opera; which, considering that
Monferrato had not joined that particular band wagon with Cavalli and
Rovetta is quite remarkable. But the incentive provided by superb singing was
obviously great. One English traveller, Robert Bargrave,heard music at both
the Mendicanti and Pieta and especially one nun, as he called her - one of the
teachers no doubt:
I observed her excellence above others: first in a soft stealing fall frorm - through
kb F into . Secondly by trilling when usually she made first three offers, and

then quickened her trillo by degrees beating strongest upon the higher half note, and rather
slow then quick in which she seemed to govern her voice by the motion of her tongue.
Thirdly in replicates, singing the first strong, the second echoing and the third very strong:
falling at the close into a soft trillo. Fourthly, after a pause she would rise in a third, drawing
the note as in length so in strength, and trilling at the last. Fifthly,in falling a
running sixth,
swift and strong. Sixthly, in drawing out a melting note from strong to faint.
Seventhly, in the
common close she often trilled not inl but in to end in and
sometimes would begin to trill in and steal it insensibly into before she
closed in . Lastlyin exercising of words by singing according to their sense as morire

dolefully, sospirisighingly and ridendolaughingly.'2

The feeling for the female alto voice is also significant.These pieces are too
low to be effective with a counter-tenor, and since the soprano motets use g"
freely, there can surely be no question of transposing them up, assuming a
higher pitch (a matterabout which little is known). They do suit a real contralto,
some of the first music to do so.
The next phase of the Venetian solo motet is badly documented. Venetian
publishing houses, diminished after 1630, now finally took second place to the
Emilian printers, who naturallyturned to their local composers, the musicians
of S. Petronio in Bologna and at the court of the Este family in Modena. A par-
ticularly fruitful source for the solo motet was a group,of composers, among
them Legrenzi and Giovanni Battista Bassani, who worked for two of the
religious confraternities at Ferrara, a minor centre since its inclusion in the
62 THE SOLO MOTET IN VENICE (1625-1775)

Papal States in 1597, but one where a strong musical tradition seems to have
persisted. Presumably having only a few, but seemingly choice, singers at their
disposal, they wrote solo motets in which virtuosity is not required, but using
attractivemelody, often with the crisply rhythmic motifs coming to the fore in
contemporary instrumental music (which was becoming increasingly impor-
tant with the emergence of the famous Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna).
It is in an anthology mainly of Emilians that solo motets of Venetian com-
posers turn up again. This, compiled by Marius Silvani in 1670, includes
Monferrato's Exaltabote Dew, first published in 1655 and here slightly altered
by the omission of a ritornello, and Evaefiliiby Carlo Pallavicino, then at work
in Dresden after a few years of activity in the Venetian opera houses.'3 He was
soon to return to Venice to become maestro di coro at the Incurabili. This link
between the opera house and the conservatory is significant; it presages many
another in the next o00years. Pallavicino's Evaefilii reveals its composer's
theatrical experience in many ways. The text, 'per il natale del Signore', seems
neither liturgical nor biblical, though there are vague echoes of the psalms. It is
so constructed that there can be strict divisions between recitative, which is
now evident from the long held notes in the bass and the fast movement in the
vocal line (which nevertheless repeats words freely); and the arias which are
highly tuneful whether in triple or duple time. One section is indeed marked
'affetuoso aria', and with gentle chromaticism and its repetition of'O care' to a
series of short easily memorable motifs, it would not be out of place in an
opera.
Much the same can be said of Antonio Sartorio's Ad tantumtriumphum
published in Bologna by Carlo Maria Fagnani in 1695. Here the company is
even more locally Emilian, only Legrenzi out of ten composers having strong
Venetian connections. The text is a made-up one to suit any Saint's day, full of
strongly emotional words to allow for a rich musical treatment. The operatic
flavour is made still more pronounced by the use of two violins who play both a
sinfonia which might be part of a trio sonata da camera, and interludes in the
vocal sections. The relationship between voice and instruments is not very
different from that in similar works by Grandi written over fifty years earlier,
though the violins participate on a more ample scale; yet there has been a
reversal of attitudes. In Grandi's motets, the vocal line gives rise to the violins'
phrases; Sartorio writesa vocal melody which often seems quite instrumentalin
character, the opening aria taking over the fanfare motif of the sinfonia and
there being trio sonata-like imitations in a later aria. The sections are now very
extended; and the second vocal one is marked 'recitative-adagio',even though
as in Pallavicino's motet, words and musical phrases are repeated quite freely.
The ordering of the sections is made absolutely clear in the basso continuo
book.

Sinfonia leading to
Aria - triple time
Recitative(with alternativewords to suit male and female saints)
THE SOLO MOTET IN VENICE (1625-1775)
63
Aria - duple time with violin echo effects
Recitative
Aria - triple time, strophic with violin ritornelli
Recitative
Aria - alleluja (marked allegro)

With the exception of the sinfonia and first aria, the sections are entirely
separated physically and in material from each other. The work is a church
cantata in all but name.
After this publication, virtually all solo motets, as does most other Italian
church music, survive only in manuscript copies, and lacking even an outline
music catalogue of library holdings, it is impossible to give any idea of the
extent of existing material. The encyclopedias rarely list manuscript church
music in any detail, and their descriptions are frequently inadequate. It is clear,
however, that the greatest influence on Venetian church music of the early
eighteenth century was the influx of foreigners, particularly from Southern
Italy, who came to make profits from the opera houses, and sometimes took
posts at the four conservatories to give them a regular salary.The first of these
was Gasparini, who took charge of the Pieta's music in 1701 and remained for
about twelve years. Though his surviving church music does not seemingly
include solo motets, there can be no doubt that the arrivalof a southerner must
have stimulated new thoughts about the genre. For the holdings of Neapolitan
libraries show that church music for soloists was surely practised in certain
churches there and though much is undated, some of it belongs to the period
around the turn of the century. Especially significant is a group of pieces by a
composer interestingly named Gaetano Veneziano - though whether he had
Venetian origins is unknown. They survive in the Oratorio dei Filippini in
Naples, and several of them bear the names of the singers for whom they were
composed. There is a setting of Laudamusfor 'voce sola con violini unisoni per
suor Eugenia alla Maddalena delle Spagnole'; several parts of the Holy Week
music including one 'de lamentatione Giovedi Santo la sera, per suor Maria
Giuseppa'; and yet another 'Cantateper il SS fatta per la suor Donna Luisa de
Franchisin S Chiara'. Not all the music is for women: there is a '2a Lettione del
Primo Notturno' written for Gioseppino lo Vero, perhaps a castrato.'4Never-
theless, such an extensive repertoirefor women's voices must surelyhave stimu-
lated the composers at the Venetian conservatories, if they became aware of it,
and such a supposition would form a convenient link with the considerable
amount of similar music by Vivaldi which survives,mainly in the Turin collec-
tion which has a distinct link with the Pieta.
Much of this music must surely date from those years when Gasparini
departed to return to Rome and Vivaldi was left, underpaid and apparentlyun-
appreciated by some of the Governors, in sole charge. The minute of the
Governors for 2 June 1715 awarding him a customary fifty ducats bonus
payment speaks of his composition of'A complete Mass, Vespers, an Oratorio,
more than 30 motets and other works.' Of the solo motets only twelve still
 THE SOLO MOTET IN VENICE (1625-1775)
64
survive, together with eight pieces entitled 'Introduction' to some part of the
Mass or to a psalm; and there are several hymns. The hymns hark back to the
traditions of Monteverdi and Cavalli, being strophic songs with very strong,
regular rhythms, completed by ritornelli for stringsand sometimes oboes. The
tunes are, however, distinctly modern: Deus tuorummilitumand GaudeMater
have been turned into a kind of concerto finale in 3/8, with a happily dance-like
feeling; Sanctorum meritisis a sixteen-bar tune in regularfour-bar phraseswith a
constantly recurring accent on the second quaver of each bar. The results are
distinctly square, lacking that suppleness which the hemiolia gave to the
seventeenth-century composers.
More interesting and substantial are the 'Introduzioni'. It is difficult to see
what liturgical function these fulfilled. The texts are, to say the least, un-
necessary in Mass or Vespers, and are sentimental, florid verse probably by
some local latinist poetaster. The music consists of arias and recitatives, the
latter often accompagnato of a very operatic nature. The introductions to the
Gloria begin with an allegro aria; those to the Miserere with accompanied
recitative. Cantoin Prato(R.V. 636), introduction to DixitDominus(the firstpsalm
sung at a Marian Vespers), could be held to be virtually a short concerto for
soprano and an orchestra of strings and oboes. There is a concertante da capo
aria, followed by a recitativein place of a slow movement; and finally there is a
brisk and very brief aria which looks as though it should have a middle section
and reprise. But there is only a directive 'subito dixit', and it is clear that the
proper proportions of the introduction are completed only on the performance
of the psalm. The same is true of Non inpratis(R.V. 641), an introduction to the
Miserere.This begins with a secco recitative leading to an accompagnato (with
'instrumenti sordini'); then comes a da capo aria marked 'Largo non molto'
which is rather plain in melody; the following recitativeleads straight into the
Miserere.
This sense of incompleteness is not true of another 'Introduzione al Dixit',
Ascendelaeta which has a large-scale virtuoso aria, a brief recitative, then an
extended aria-finale, a presto in 3/8 in ternaryform with ample ritornelli. The
Dixit should then follow; but in fact this is a self-sufficientwork and might be
called a motet. The reason why it is not is clear when we examine those of
Vivaldi's works which are so called. The verse is in the same style (in several, it is
identical with that of some of the introduction); there is an opening da capo
aria, a recitativeand then another aria; then comes a brilliantsetting of 'alleluia'
- and it is this that makes the difference. And it makesa considerable emotional
difference, for with no problems of word painting or setting, a brilliant concer-
tante movement is possible, especially since there is no point in a da capo. Thus
it is the concerto that severalof Vivaldi's motets resemble, not surprisinglysince
both his own profession as an instrumentalist and the recent success of L'estro
armonico had not in 1715 been overwhelmed by the operatic interestswhich were
increasingly to occupy his time. The first aria of Longemalaumbraeterrores (R.V.
629) opens with a long ritornello based on the 'hammer-blow' type of theme so
often heard in his opus 3; thereafter both the form and the vocal writing are
THE SOLO MOTET IN VENICE (1625-1775)
65
very like a concerto. A brief recitative leads to a slow aria with a melody which
begins with violinistic octave leaps leading to an amply ornamental line for the
voice. The 'alleluia' is certainly a concerto-like finale, a firmly memorable
theme giving way to pyrotechnics which some singers, at least, feel would be
better on an instrument.
Admittedly there are other motets in which operatic influence seems
stronger. Nulla in mundopax sincera(R.V. 630) begins with a siciliano aria which
might have been written by Alessandro Scarlatti or even Handel. Recitative
takes the place of a slow movement, but the succeeding aria is again concerto-
like; while the concluding 'alleluia' is as brilliant a piece as could be imagined,
with passage work much more suited to fingers than vocal chords (ex. 5).

Ex. s

Al-

- r etc.

- Ic-lu - ja

It is against these works that Bach'sJauchzet Gott (composed about 1730) and
Handel's Silete venti (dated by some also about 1730) must be seen. Bach
typically uses an obligato instrument and writes an accompagnato but otherwise
follows the Italian pattern and its virtuoso aspects of style. Handel sports a
French overture and a more obviously operatic attitude in the arias and vivid
accompanied recitative, yet ends with a Corellian gigue for his 'alleluia'. Bach
was presumably writing for a boy, for whom such vocal lines present a con-
siderable challenge, and it may well be that the chargefirstmade against him by
Scheibe that he wrote instrumental lines for voices may seem less seriously
unique to him when Vivaldi'smotets are takeninto account. Handel writing for
Cannons could possibly expect an opera diva for his motet, the manner of
which he may well have learned in Venice itself in 1708.
The next phase of the solo motet is more difficultto investigate.The libraries
of the conservatories have been largely dispersed, even the recently-discovered
collection of the Ospedaletto being the collection of a nineteenth-centurypriest
which contains only a fragment of the conservatory'smusic and includes much
that was an acquisition after the demise of the institution as a music school.
That the custom went on is evident from several sources. Giovanni Porta,
maestro di coro at the Pieta from 1726 to 1737, was praised by the Governors in
1730 for his compositions which included three psalms, six antiphons, twenty-
two motets and a setting of'Ave MarisStella'.'5Fiveyearslaterhe was given fifty
ducats for composing more psalms and motets.16An English traveller,Martin
66 THE SOLO MOTET IN VENICE (1615-1775)

Folkes, a Fellow and later President of the Royal Society, on Sunday 21 June
1733

went... to hear the music of the girls of the Incurabili, here are said to be some of the best
performances and voices in Italy, one they call Isabella was most admired when I was there,
they sat in a gallery guarded from sight by wires, and all who please come into the church to
hear, paying 2 sol[dli to a man who brings a chair, there is also a purse carried about for
charity to which any one gives or not as he pleases. . .7

The surviving church music of Porta and Bernasconi, his most substantial
successor at the Pieta, is largely concertante or choral, so that we cannot trace
the continuance of this solo tradition. But solo motets dating from the 176os
and '7os are in relativelyplentiful supply and show thatfar from declining in the
years after Vivaldi's death, music at the Venetian conservatories became, if
anything, even better.
The mid-century again saw an influx of foreigners to Venice, and thereafter
some notable Neapolitans were in charge of music at two of the conservatories,
Jommelli at the Incurabili;Traetta, Sacchini,Anfossi and later Cimarosaat the
Ospedaletto. In Naples, the traditions of the solo motet was still strong, as can
be seen from the libraries of both the Conservatoryand the Oratory of the
Filippini. There are works by Feo and Leo, by Feneroli (one intriguing motet
for the Festivalof the Immaculate Conception being marked'nel monastero dei
SS Pietro e Paolo per uso della Signora D. MargheritaMacDonald)and Hasse,
a substantial number by Alessandro Scarlattiand others by Francescode Majo
and many minor composers. Significantlythere are severalbyJommelli dating
from the 175os, which makes his similar compositions for the women of the In-
curabili in the next decade a natural extension of his work.
The Neapolitans who worked in Venice were all opera composers and
whereas Vivaldi's motets reflect his concerto style, theirsare operatic- though
in different ways, as the popular styles fluctuated. The pattern is usually that
established earlier: aria, recitative leading to another aria, with a brilliant
'alleluia' to end with. The texts retain the hagiographical element, and female
saints and martyrs are as popular subjects as they were in seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century paintings. Liturgical texts, especially for Marian feasts, are
also common (these often demanding a rather different arrangement of
movements). Jommelli's high style of opera seria clearly adapts quite well, as
can be judged from his Motetto cantato dalla Signora Cattarina degl'Incurabili in
praise of St Barbara.'8There is a huge fast aria with a middle section but only a
recapitulation of the opening ritornello in the first number. The recitativeis a
fine accompagnato with several changes of mood to allow for some succinct
working out of orchestral motives. The succeeding aria is a sentimental andan-
tino demanding a secure upper vocal range and the capacity to make some
dramatic interventions. There is a middle section set in a faster tempo and
after the da capo comes a jolly allegro in 3/8 time, very like the finale of a
symphony.
When the taste for opera buffa was being established in the 1770s, there were
THE SOLO MOTET IN VENICE (1625-1775)

difficulties in adapting it to the serious motet. There is a group of motets

composed by Anfossi for the Ospedaletto preservedin the Biblioteca Marciana
which show the problems. How these motets came to be writtenand the essence
of their style is described in an articlewhich will appear in the near future,19but
one example will suffice to place these most agreeable works in the present
context. Somnostuoswas composed in 1778 to words by a local priest, Abate
Pietro Chiari, and fits in the usual mould of aria - recitative - slow aria -
alleluia. The first aria is no longer da capo but much in the manner of the
concerto of the period with severalpossible places for brief cadenzasand one, at
the end of the recapitulation, for an extended one. The recitativeis remarkable
both in its length and emotional scope; it is in places extraordinarilylike Susan-
na's introduction to 'Deh vieni' in Act 4 ofLe nozzedi Figaro.The second aria has
figuration which is not unlike that in 'Sia soave il vento' in Cosifantutte;and this
is in da capo form with a faster middle section. If the 'alleluia' is slightly disap-
pointing in its steely virtuosity, it is largely because the rest of the motet is in so
sympathetic a style.
But here, I suspect, lay the rub. This style is amabilerather than heroic.
Mozart's Susanna is made in the human mould of opera buffa while Vivaldi's
and Jommelli's heroines belong to the sterner stuff of opera seria. The solo
motet was to continue into the early years of the nineteenth century, and the
music of Sacchini and Cimarosa, not to mention such native Venetians as
Bertoni and, somewhat earlier, Galuppi is not to be despised. But even Mozart's
Exsultatejubilate composed five years before Anfossi's Somnostuos had no
successor; or rather, the really serious religious works of the Enlightenmentare
meant for secular use rather than for church; and when Rossini, in the heart of
the Romantic era, writes a StabatMateror a little Mass, however officially
solennelle,we feel a shade uncomfortable at the frivolous associations of the
style. Whether we should do so is open to debate. What is indispensable is that
we should not make the same judgment of the solo motets of an earlier age.
Brilliant they are; attracting attention to Diva rather than Divine they may be;
but that some of them are excellent music is certain- and I, at least, see here no
element of blasphemy or even lese-majeste. If the Devil should not have all the
best tunes, neither should he be accorded some of the best arias of, in effect,
opera seria.

NOTES

1 Printed in H.J. Moser, Heinrich Schitz: Sein Lebenund Werk(Kassel, 1936; English translation by
C. F. Pfatteicher, Saint Louis, 1959).
2 Archivio di Stato, Venice (hereafterA.S.V.), Procuratiade Supra Registro 193 bis, f. 77v.
3 There is a copy of an edition dated 1630 in Christ Church, Oxford, in addition to the reprint of
1636 mentioned in RISM.
4 See N. Fortune, 'Italian Secular Monody from 1600 to 1635: an Introductory Survey', Musical
Quarterly, xxxix (1953).
5 Ed. D. Arnold (London, 1959).
6 D. Arnold, 'Alessandro Grandi, a Disciple of Monteverdi', Musical Quarterly, xliii (1957).
68 THE SOLO MOTET IN VENICE (1625-1775)

7 Monteverdi Collected Edition, Supplementary Volume (Venice, 1966), and ed. D. Arold
(London, 1960).
8 A.S.V. Proc. de Sup. Reg. 140, entry for 11 December 1613; Reg. 141 entries for 18 December
1616 and 2oJanuary 1617 (Venetian style i616).
9 For a fuller discussion of Venetian settings of hymns see D. Arnold, 'A Background Note on
Monteverdi's Hymn Settings' in Scrittiin onoredi LuigiRonga(Verona, 1973).
1o I am indebted to DrJ. Roche for the loan of his transcriptionsof several motets by Rigatti.
i1 The original is printed in full in G. Gaspari, Catalogodella bibliotecamusicaleC. B. Martinidi
Bologna(Bologna 1892, reprinted 1961), ii, p. 465.
12 Bodleian Library, Oxford Rawlinson MSS C. 799, f. 162v-63; see also M. Tilmouth, 'Music on
the Travels of an English Merchant: Robert Bargrave(1628-61)', Musicand Letters,liii (1972).
oftheRoyalMusical
13 For a fuller account of his career seeJ. Smith, 'Carlo Pallavicino',Proceedings
Association,xcvi (1970).
14 Settings of music for Holy Week for solo voice seem also to have been common in Rome in the
middle years of the seventeenth century according to recent work by an Oxford University
research student, MrJohn Burke. This may account for the popularity of Leconsde tenibresas
composed by M. A. Charpentierand F. Couperin in France.
15 A.S.V., busta 658 (Pieta parti), resolution dated 28July 1730.
16 Ibid., 30 August 1737.
1? Bodleian Library, Oxford MSS Eng. Misc. c. 444, f. 7.
18 Chioggia, Libraryof the Padri Filippini.
19 Festschriftfiir Heinrich Huschen.