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*Carrie Churnside (Carrie.Churnside@bcu.ac.uk) is Senior Lecturer in Music at Birmingham Conservatoire (part of Birmingham City University), UK. This article is developed from a paper given at the Fourteenth Biennial Conference on Baroque Music, Belfast 2010, and material in the author’s doctoral work, which was supported by the AHRC: “A Study of Sacred Cantatas Printed in Bologna (1659–1717)” (Ph.D. diss., University of Birmingham, 2008).

[1] For a detailed history of the period see Kenneth Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks in the Seventeenth Century (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1991). For examples of the Ottoman conflict in Bolognese artwork and literature of the period see Sara Dieci, “I manoscritti di cantate nell’archivio della basilica di San Petronio. Per una storia della cantata a Bologna fra Sei e Settecento” (Ph.D. diss., Dipartimento dei Beni delle Arti e della Storia, Università del Salento, 2009), 41–44, and Paolo Cassoli, “Giacomo Antonio Perti e la collana dell’Imperatore,” Rassegna storica crevalcorese 2 (December 2005): 31–45.

[2] Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks, 272.

[3] Venice and the Ottomans were at war from 1715, with Austria entering the conflict the following year. However, the Peace of Passarowitz ended the conflict in 1716: see Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks, particularly 427–44.

[4] On Marsigli see John Stoye, Marsigli’s Europe, 1680–1730: The Life and Times of Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, Soldier and Virtuoso (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994). On Caprara see Gino Benzoni, Dizionario biografico degli italiani, s.v. “Caprara, Enea Silvio” (accessed November 16, 2012), http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/enea-silvio-caprara_(Dizionario-Biografico).

[5] “furono tali i segni che (non) si sarebbe potuto desiderar più s’il Nemico fosse stato scacciato dalle proprie mura di Bologna”: Ghiselli, Notizie antiche manoscritte, I-Bu MS 770, vol. XLV, 26; quoted in Giorgio Cencetti, “Turchi e Bolognesi fra il sec. XVII e XVIII,” Il comune di Bologna, 21, no. 12 (December 1934): 78.

[6] See Cencetti, “Turchi e Bolognesi.” The festa della porchetta was a specifically Bolognese tradition. Every year on August 24, which was both the feast of S. Bartolomeo and the anniversary of the Battle of Fossalta, an elaborate celebration took place in the Piazza Maggiore. Scenery was erected as a stage for music and dancing, there were jousts, and money and roast pork was distributed to the poor.

[7] There is not the space here to list all the musical responses to the conflict. A sense of its ubiquity in Venice can be gained from Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Pallade Veneta: Writings on Music in Venetian Society 16501750 (Venice: Edizioni Fondazione Levi, 1985) and, for dramatic works, Selfridge-Field, A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 16601760 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007). References to the conflict in Roman music of the period can be found in Saverio Franchi, Drammaturgia romana. Repertorio bibliografico cronologico dei testi drammatici pubblicati a Roma e nel Lazio. Secolo XVII (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1988).

[8] “Hieri mattina … fù cantata nella Chiesa Metropolitana con isquisiti Cori di Musica Messa solenne pro gratiarum actione, per la Vittoria dell’Armi Christiane contro il Turco, con intervento degli Eminentissimi Signori Cardinali Legato, & Arcivescovo, Monsig. Illustrissimo Vicelegato, Illustrissimi Signori Gonfaloniere, ed Anziani, Illustriss. Reggimento, e tutti gli altri Magistrati, con incredibile concorso di Nobilità, e di Popolo, & in fine di detta Messa fù parimente cantato il Te Deum Laudamus collo sparo d’Artiglierie, e gran numero di Mortaletti.” Gazzetta di Bologna, September 22, 1683, available at http://badigit.comune.bologna.it/Gazzette/gazzettedefault.asp.

[9] Francesco Lora, “Motetti grossi di Perti per le chiese di Bologna,” Rassegna storica crevalcorese 4 (December 2006): 40.

[10] Giovanni Battista Bassani, Concerti sacri. Motetti a una, due, tre e quattro voci con violini e senza, op. 11 (Bologna: Pier Maria Monti, 1692).

[11] See Colin Timms, “A Lost Volume of Cantatas and Serenatas from the ‘Original Stradella Collection'” in Aspects of the Secular Cantata in Late Baroque Italy, ed. Michael Talbot (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 27–54. According to a printed libretto, the work was performed in the palace of the Duke of Bracciano: see Saverio Franchi, Drammaturgia romana, 557.

[12] See Teresa M. Gialdroni, “Dalla Biblioteca Comunale di Urbania: Due raccolte musicali per un interprete,” Aprosiana: Rivista annuale di studi barocchi, n.s., 16 (2008), 112–32. The cantata survives in three sources: in I-MOe Mus. F. 1366 and GB-Lam MS 128 it bears the heading L’ombra di Solimano, while in I-URBc Ms VI.2.3 it is entitled La presa di Buda dall’armi imperiali. A critical edition has recently been published by Alexandra Nigito: Bernardo Pasquini: Le cantate (Turnhout: Brepols, 2012), 300–310.

[13] See Teresa M. Gialdroni, “Turcherie ai castelli romani: Il canto dell’egizia Fatima,” in Musica come pensiero e come azione. Studi in onore di Guido Salvetti, ed. Andrea Estero, Maria Grazia Sità and Marina Vaccarini (Lucca: LIM, 2014), 83–96. My thanks to Professor Gialdroni for sharing her material with me in advance of its publication.

[14] Pirro Capacelli Albergati, Cantate morali, op. 3 (Bologna: Giacomo Monti, 1685). See Carrie Churnside, “A Study of Sacred Cantatas Printed in Bologna 1659–1717” (Ph.D.  diss., University of Birmingham, 2008), particularly 104–6 and 233–47. That same year a collection of cantatas by Bolognese composers, edited by Marino Silvani, was printed in the city: Melpomene coronata da Felsina. Cantate musicali a voce sola, date in luce da signori compositori bolognesi (Bologna: Giacomo Monti, 1685). Alongside works by both Albergati (Già ch’Amor così vuole [Fermezza in Amore]) and Perti (Stelle che più volete) the anthology also contains a cantata that alludes to the Ottomans: Rinaldo Gherardini’s Dal barbaro Bisanzio (Oronta in Cipro). While the latter does not directly discuss contemporary events, listeners would easily have made the connection between the ongoing war and the depiction of Oronta lamenting the fall of Cyprus to “barbarous Byzantium” and its wicked ways (including a reference to the “seraglij osceni” [obscene harems]). My thanks to an anonymous reader for signaling the existence of this work to me.

[15] This was the first volume of sacred music published by the young composer (who was only twenty-two years old at the time): his first two publications comprised instrumental chamber music.

[16] For a summary of vanitas in art see Hans J. Van Miegroet, Oxford Art Online, s.v. “Vanitas” (accessed August 18, 2016). Studies of the topic with reference to music include C. Jane Gosine, “Repentance, Piety and Praise: Sensual Imagery and Musical Depiction in the petits motets of Marc-Antoine Charpentier,” in New Perspectives on Marc-Antoine Charpentier, ed. Shirley Thompson (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010), 89–104; Silke Leopold, “Die Vanitas-Idee in der Musik,” Zeitsprünge: Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit 1 (1997): 645–69; and Linda Phyllis Austern, “‘All things in this world is but the musick of inconstancie’: Music, Sensuality and the Sublime in Seventeenth-Century Vanitas Imagery,” in Art and Music in the Early Modern Period: Essays in Honor of Franca Trinchieri Camiz, ed. Katherine A. McIver (Farnham: Ashgate, 2003), 287–332.

[17] See Roger Freitas, “Singing and Playing: The Italian Cantata and the Rage for Wit,” Music and Letters, 82, no. 4 (November 2001): 509–42.

[18] Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks, 277.

[19] While there is no indication that Albergati’s volume was intended for anything other than a local market, documents in the Albergati archive testify that the count was an ardent supporter and admirer of the Hapsburgs (I-Bas, Albergati Archive, Mazzo 67, no. 17). In the dedication of his Plettro armonico composto di 10 sonate da camera, op. 5 (Bologna: G. Monti, 1687) to the Emperor Leopold, Albergati states that he offers his music in tribute instead of the military service offered by his peers: “Non credo d’incorrer biasimo, se in vece di rassegnarmi con l’altre Nobili Spade d’Europa sotto gl’invittissimi Auspizj di Vostra Sacra Cesarea Maestà in Servigio della Fede, procuro d’introdurmi à dedicar questo Pletro in ossequiosa appendice de’ Vostri più Sovrani Trofei.” The volume also contains an initial frontispiece depicting Leopold triumphing over the Turks. It may be that Albergati’s choice of a text celebrating recent victories against the Ottomans was also a sign of his regard toward the house. I will focus on Albergati’s relationship with the court at Vienna in a subsequent study.

[20] While undoubtedly stylized, this bloodthirsty scene is a literal depiction of the events of the capture of Neuhäusel (see ref. 27).

[21] This volume dates from an interesting period in the development of aria forms. The da capo aria is beginning to prevail; just over half (eighteen out of thirty-five) the arias in the Cantate morali are in this form. In most cases, if the text contains a key rhyme and is clearly divisible into semistrophes Albergati chooses to follow the widely accepted convention and to set it as a da capo aria. However, there are a small number of instances where he decides not to have the material return; this usually happens when there is a sense of progression in the text and repeating the first part of an aria would place the stress on the wrong half. Binary arias, such as “Vuò d’un aquila importuna,” are the second most frequent, with twelve arias in this form. Just as in Example 2, they tend to be relatively short: the average length of a binary aria in common time is seventeen measures.

[22] Albergati makes no attempt to differentiate musically the characters of the Ottoman soldier and the narrator, nor are any stereotypical “Turkish” elements adopted in any of the cantatas under discussion here. Indeed, while the events of the Ottoman wars inspired the creation of numerous works, composers tended to employ their standard compositional language regardless, and it was rare that they sought to incorporate any references to Turkish musical style. Interestingly, Gialdroni suggests that the anonymous composer of Cane, chiaus, Occhialì may have deliberately employed such devices as parallel octaves and diminished fifths to create a musical “barbarism” that parallels the mixture of Italian and Italianate-Turkish found in the poetry, unusual for the very literary genre of the lament: see Gialdroni, “Turcherie ai castelli romani,” 94–96.

[23] Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks, 271–77.

[24] “Domenica sera, nella Terra di S. Giovanni in Persiceto furono alla presenza di molti Cavalieri, e Dame festeggiate le glorie dell’Eccellenza del Sig. Conte Marescial Caprara per l’acquisto di Nayaisel con illuminationi, suono di Trombe, e Tamburi, e Stucchi di varie figure simboleggianti detta Piazza, che allo sbarro di molte salve di Mortaletti scoppiorono per molto spatio di tempo varij giuochi di fiamme, e fuochi industriosamente artificiati, che tutto hebbe termine con la dispensa di varie compositioni, & applauso universale”: Gazzetta di Bologna, October 3, 1685.

[25] “Hieri giorno di Santa Barbara in questo famoso Tempio de’ Reverendi Canonici Regolari di S. Salvatore, i devoti dell’Augustissima Casa d’Austria con l’assistenza dell’Illustrissimo Signor Senatore Co. Carlo Francesco Caprara Protettore della Natione Alemana fecero cantare Messa Pontificiale, e Te Deum dal Reverendissimo Padre Abbate di detti Canonici, con l’intervento di tutti i Musici di Bologna a cinque Chori, e celebrare gran numero di Messe, con triplicate Salve di Moschetti fatte da questa Guardia de’ Svizzeri, e sbaro di Mortaletti da Bombardieri di questo Illustrissimo Senato con Trombe, e Tamburri, essendoli dispensato gran quantità di Pane a Poveri delle Parochie, e tutto ciò in rendimento di gratie a Sua Divina Maestà per li gran successi, e vittorie ottenute dall’Armi Imperiali contro Turchi, e  Ribelli, con l’intervento di quasi tutta la Nobilità sì di Dame, come di Cavalieri, e gran concorso di Popolo” (Yesterday, which was the feast of St. Barbara, in the famous church of the Most Reverend Canons Regular of S. Salvatore,  the ardent supporters of the Most August House of Austria, with the assistance of the Most Illustrious Signor Senator Count Carlo Francesco Caprara, Protector of the German Nation had a Pontifical High Mass and Te Deum sung by the Most Reverend Father Abbot of the said Canons, with the intervention of all the musicians of Bologna in five choirs. Celebrating a great number of masses were triple volleys of musket fire from the Swiss Guards and an uproar of firecrackers from the artillerymen of the Most Illustrious Senate with trumpets and drums. A great quantity of bread was given out to the poor of the parish, and all in order to give thanks to His Divine Majesty for the great successes and victories won by the Imperial armies against the Turks and the rebels. Almost all the nobility attended, both ladies and gentlemen, and there was a great crowd of the people): Gazzetta di Bologna, December 5, 1685.

[26] Giovanni Fantuzzi, Memorie del maresciallo Enea del conte Niccolò Caprara (Bologna: San Tommaso d’Aquino, 1783), 170.

[27] According to Setton (Venice, Austria, and the Turks, 276), the capture of Neuhäusel was “celebrated throughout Europe.” In Bologna numerous poems were published, including that published by “l’Università degli Scolari della Nazion Germanica” and dedicated to the “Ill[ustrissi]mo et Ecc[ellentissi]mo Sig. Maresciallo Conte Enea Caprara, Per la gloriosa Espugnazione di Naikasel, e Cassovia” (Fantuzzi, Memorie, 60). The Accademia degl’Inabili commemorated his victories at a grand ceremony in which poems in praise of Caprara were read out (these were later published as Componimenti poetici alla grandezza del merito di S. E. il Sig. maresciallo conte Enea Caprara, con l’orazione intitolata: Il museo accademico: del dottor Paolo Pasi, recitata nell’Accademia degli Inabili, tenutasi nella sala dell’Illustrissimo Sig. Marchese Guido Pepoli, principe dell’Accademia degli Inabili (Bologna: Per li Eredi di Domenico Barbieri, 1685), quoted in Fantuzzi, Memorie, 69–70). On December 24 the Inabili met in the hall of Marquis Pepoli, where they “rejoiced merrily because ‘in the Danube ran a current of blood,’ and they all became animated by the exciting images, served up by Dr. Paolo Pasi … of the ‘piazza paved with cadavers … resounding with the desperate cries of women and young girls'” (“giubilarono festosi perché nel ‘Danubio … sen’ corre un torrente di sangue’; si eccitarono tutti insieme all’esaltante immagine, propinata dal dott. Paolo Pasi … della ‘piazza … lastricata da’ cadaveri … risonante di disperate strida di donne e fanciulli'”): Benzoni, “Caprara, Enea Silvio.”

[28] Available in a modern facsimile edition: Giacomo Antonio Perti, Cantate morali e spirituali, op. 1 (Bologna: Giacomo Monti, 1688; reprint, Bologna: Forni, 1990).

[29] Giulia Giovani has analyzed in some detail the lengthy process Perti underwent while preparing the volume and obtaining the coveted dedication: “‘Ecco a Vostra Signoria quello che si è risoluto.’ Sulla genesi delle cantate opera I di Giacomo Antonio Perti,” Rivista italiana di musicologia 47 (2012): 125–55. From the correspondence between Perti and the bass singer Lorenzo Gaggiotti it appears that as early as October 1686 the volume was almost ready to go to press in one incarnation (intriguingly, Gaggiotti writes of a collection of twelve cantatas, whereas the final version contains only ten). Cassoli (“Giacomo Antonio Perti e la collana dell’Imperatore,” 31–34) notes the presence of the two Turkish cantatas in the collection, in an article that draws heavily on liner notes written by Carlo Vitali: Carlo Vitali, “The Emperor’s Golden Chain,” trans. Candace Smith, in Giacomo Antonio Perti, Cantate morali e spirituali, Rosita Frisani, Caterina Calvi, and Carlo Lepore, dir. Sergio Vartolo (Bongiovanni, GB 5061/62-2, 1996).

[30] “se potesse inserirvene una [cantata] che alludesse alle p[rese]nti vittorie non saria se non bene,” quoted in Giovani, “‘Ecco a Vostra Signoria,'”141.

[31] On Casali see Leandro Oresto [in Arcadia], “Gregorio Casali,” in Notizie degli Arcadi morti, ed. Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni, 3 vols. (Rome: Antonio de Rossi, 1720–21), 3: 300, and Churnside, “Sacred Cantatas in Bologna,” 108–9.

[32] Translations of the poetry set in Perti’s Cantate morali e spirituali are based upon those by Mike Clark in the booklet of the compact disc Perti, Cantate morali e spirituali.

[33] Carlo Vitali, “The Emperor’s Golden Chain,” 13.

[34] To place this in context, the cavata comprises thirty-four measures of common time, while the two arias, both in triple meter, total sixty (in 3/4) and eighty-two (in 3/8) measures, respectively.

[35] Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks, 366. Paolo Cassoli suggests that, rather than being mere coincidence, Perti deliberately backdated his dedication in order to allude subtly to the Imperialist success (“Giacomo Antonio Perti e la collana dell’Imperatore,” 34).

[36] Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks, 367.

[37] As late as 1699, Giuseppe Torelli wrote to Perti that no copy of the Cantate morali e spirituali had ever arrived in Vienna (“è indubitabile, che sono statte perse o a posta o non volendo poi questo non si sa”): Giovani, “‘Ecco a Vostra Signoria,'” 145.

[38] Victor Crowther, The Oratorio in Bologna (16501730) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 199. See also Churnside, “Sacred Cantatas in Bologna,” 105.

[39] As if to underline this religious element, the manuscript version of the work, rather unusually for a cantata, bears the heading “In nomine Domini”: Giacomo Antonio Perti, Tre cantate morali e storiche per voci e archi: Partitura autografa dell’archivio musicale di S. Petronio in Bologna (Bologna: Forni, 1969).

[40] The Gazzetta di Bologna of September 25, 1686, reports the celebrations in Rome: “L’allegrezza che tutta Roma ne sente, appena si puole esprimere … ha ordinato con solenne Editto, e con generale intimatione a tutte le Case di farne pubblica allegrezza questa sera, e la seguente, dovendosi anche domattina cantare il Te Deum in rendimento di gratie, non solamente nella Cappella Pontificia, ma anche in tutte le Basiliche, e Chiese di Roma, con suonarsi reiteratamente le Campane, e replicarsi le Salve Reali del Castel S. Angelo, oltre alle girandole, fuochi d’artifizio, & illuminationi più copiose” (“The jubilation that all of Rome felt can scarcely be expressed … it has been ordered by solemn edict and general order that all the houses rejoice publicly this evening and the following [evening], needing also tomorrow morning to sing the Te Deum in thanks, not only in the Papal Chapel, but also in all the basilicas and churches of Rome, with repeated ringing of the bells and repeating royal salvos from the Castel S. Angelo, besides the copious number of Catherine wheels, fireworks, and illuminations”). The Gazzetta di Bologna of October 23, 1686, gives an example of some of the celebrations in Bologna: “il Miracoloso Crocifisso …. fu … portata processionalmente, e datone su la Piazza publica la Benedittione con sparo di Moschetti, ed altri segni di giubilo, essendo concorso a tal devota funtione gran numero di riguardevole Machina esposta sopra detta Piazza allusiva la Real Fortezza di Buda, ancorche per mero accidente intempestivamente rimanessero i fuochi d’essa incendiati. In vece poi di ciò s’unirono tutti li Signori Musici sopra la Ringhiera del Publico illuminata con Torcie, di nuovo, con dilettevoli Sinfonie, Cantarono il Te Deum, terminato il quale si gettarono da essa denari al Popolo. Con tale occasione si sono vedute diverse Compositioni di quei Signori Accademici, e Solisti, ed Auroristi” (the Miraculous crucifix … was… carried in procession, and in the Piazza Pubblica benediction was given on it with a volley of musket fire and other signs of joy. A great number of remarkable stage machines were gathered together at such a devout event, visible above the aforementioned piazza, alluding to the royal fortress of Buda, although unfortunately by accident the fires set it alight. Instead then all the musicians joined together above the balcony of the [Palazzo] Pubblico illuminated with torches; with delightful sinfonias, they sang the Te Deum, and when it was finished they threw money down to the people. On such occasion various [poetic] compositions were seen by members of the Accademia del Sole and the Accademia dell’Aurora.”

[41] Vitali, “The Emperor’s Golden Chain,” 13.

[42] My thanks to an anonymous reader for this suggestion. See Caroline Finkel, Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire 13001923 (New York: Basic Books, 2005), 294–95.

[43] Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks, 288. If Neri’s text does indeed refer to Sarı Süleyman Pasha, this would date the cantata to after September 1687 while, as seen above, the other Turkish cantata (Pietà Signore! A le tue piante humile) must have been written after December of that year. Given that Perti appears to have already planned the contents of the volume as early as October 1686, the two cantatas in question must have been late additions in order to be as topical as possible.

[44] Perti amends the “A” section in its written-out return, adding a closing figure to avoid concluding the aria as a whole with an imperfect cadence. Throughout the volume the repeats of da capo arias are always written out, even when they are exact repeats, although the manuscript copies of the same works (from which, according to Sergio Paganelli, the prints were produced) do use the indication “da capo”: Paganelli, “Nota alla edizione,” in Perti, Tre cantate morali e storiche per voci e archi: Partitura autografa dell’archivio musicale di S. Petronio in Bologna (Bologna: Forni, 1969).

[45] See Gialdroni, “Dalla Biblioteca Comunale,” 122–24 and Nigito, Bernardo Pasquini: Le cantate, 300–10.

[46] That some of Perti’s work was known by Pasquini is suggested in a letter from Rome, written by the poet Giorgio Ra[p]parini to Perti, dated June 27, 1686. Rapparini uses an elaborate series of puns on composers’ names to describe how popular Perti is in the city: “giornalm[ent]e si ammirano in una Roma l’opere vostre, et è ormai più famoso il vostro nome fra musici che quello del Benevolo … insomma ne parla bene fino il med[esim]o Pasquino, che suol’essere sempre mordace, e dicono che siate la miglior Colonna di Bologna fabricata et eretta sula base di Petronio” (I-Bc, Carteggi, K.044.2.234, available at http://www.bibliotecamusica.it/cmbm/scripts/lettere/scheda.asp?id=7218 [accessed April 19, 2012]. See also Juliane Riepe, “Gli oratorii di Giacomo Antonio Perti: Cronologia e ricognizione delle fonti,” Studi musicali 22, no. 1 (1993): 115–232. Furthermore, Perti did have links with the Roman school. In the row over a passage of parallel fifths in Corelli’s op. 2, he aligned himself with the more progressive Romans, going directly against his fellow countryman Giovanni Paolo Colonna (see Massimo Privitera, “L’Arcangelo sulla Colonna. Un’altra querelle petroniana,” in Bologna in musica: Musica e poesia, teatro e polemica, arte e costume nella Bologna del Seicento e dell’Ottocento, ed. Piero Mioli (Bologna, 2003), 53–64). Similarly, in the preface addressed to the “Virtuoso amico” of his Cantate morali e spirituali, Perti pointedly aligns himself with “i tre maggiori lumi della nostra Professione, Rossi, Carissimi, e Cesti,” rather than the Bolognese school.

[47] While poetically the two cantatas are very similar, the only musical correspondence is that both composers set the line “l’ombra di Solimano” in the opening recitatives to the same music (rising from B natural to C; Perti then repeats this a fourth higher, from E to F). While this phrase is the title given to Pasquini’s cantata in two of the sources, to see this as anything but a coincidence would seem improbable.

[48] Sara Dieci, “I manoscritti di cantate,” 43–44. My thanks to Michele Vannelli for kindly providing me with access to a number of cantatas held in the archive of San Petronio.

[49] Cantate a basso solo di diversi autori, I-Bc, DD 51. Paolo Antonio Bassani (dates unknown) was the son of the prolific cantata composer Giovanni Battista (1650–1715). The only printed work known to be by him is a collection of cantatas entitled Le canore armonie rese soavi in cantate printed in Bologna by Marino Silvani in 1697, evidently an early work (in the dedication he describes the pieces as “queste armoniche mie primitie”). His decision to have his music printed (like his father) in Bologna seems to be his only link to the city; the title page describes him as “maestro di capella d’onore del altezza serenissima di Mantova, e vice maestro della cathedrale e … Accademia della Morte di Ferrara,” meaning that he was working under his father, who was maestro di cappella of both institutions in Ferrara. He was promoted at the Accademia della Morte in 1712, four years before his father’s death. Two surviving libretti, dated 1705, testify to an oratorio and a serenata performed in Ferrara (see Hermann Springer, Max Schneider, and Werner Wolffheim, Miscellanea musicae bio-bibliographica. Musikgeschichtliche Quellennachweise als Nachträge und Verbesserungen zu Eitners Quellenlexikon, 3 vols. [Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1912–16] 1:28). Giuseppe Maria Pò did work in Bologna; originally from Finale (near Modena), this Franciscan monk held the post of maestro di cappella at the basilica of San Francesco in Assisi before moving to San Francesco in Bologna in 1706 with an annual salary of 50 scudi (= lire 250). According to Gaspari he stayed in the city until either 1708 or 1709 (Gaetano Gaspari, “Zibaldone tomo primo,” I-Bc, Ms UU012, 11–12). Although largely forgotten today, he seems to have been well regarded during his lifetime: Gaspari describes him as “maestro di cappella applaudito e aggradito” (“Zibaldone, primo tomo,” 279), while Carlo Schmidl reports the strange story that “È detto nelle cronache che, invidiato per le sue belle composizioni, gli fu fatto mangiare cervello di gatto in seguito a che impazziva” (Supplemento al dizionario universale dei musicisti: Appendice, aggiunte e rettifiche al primo e secondo volume [Milan: Sonzogno, 1938], 445).

[50] A critical edition of the two cantatas at I-Bsp L 59/P (Pallida in fronte, insanguinata il volto and Odi regno infelice), edited by Giulia Giovani, has recently been published: Giacomo Antonio Perti, Due cantate per le vittorie di Venezia sugli Ottomani, ed. Giulia Giovani (Rome: Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2013). In her introduction to the volume Giovani agrees with my hypothesis concerning the identity of the “cantata prima” and points out that at one stage historically these three cantatas were evidently grouped together in the archive, as they bear the alternative shelf marks P. 64.1, P. 64.2 and P. 64.3. My thanks to Dr. Giovani for sharing her work with me prior to its publication.

[51] The first cantata, All’incendio di luce has, in addition to the score, the following parts: three first violin; three second violin; three viola; two violone ripieno and two cello ripieno, while the second cantata (Pallida in fronte, insanguinato il volto) has three parts each for first violin, second violin, viola, and cello. Only the score survives for the third cantata (Dieci, “I manoscritti di cantate,” 194, 211).

[52] Venice had long associated herself with the Virgin Mary: see James H. Moore, “‘Venezia favorita da Maria’: Music for the Madonna Nicopeia and Santa Maria della Salute,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 37, no. 2 (Summer 1984): 299–355.

[53] In this period “porporati” commonly refers to cardinals. However, John Florio’s 1611 English/Italian dictionary defines the term more generally as meaning those in authority (“Porporáti: chiefe Senators or grave Judges in their robes of purple”): Queen Anna’s New World of Words, or Dictionarie of the Italian and English Tongues (London: M. Bradwood for E. Blount and W. Barret, 1611), available at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio/ [accessed January 10, 2013].

[54] See “Epiro” in Barezzo Barezzi, Il proprinomio historico geografico, e poetico … con nuova aggionta, rev. Giovanni Molino (Venice: Stefano Curti, 1694), 168.

[55] For example, in 1687—the year in which Perti was setting other cantatas on the Ottoman conflict destined for his opus 1—the historian and Venetian statesman Michele Foscarini made a speech to the Senate concerning the government of the newly acquired Morea. Meanwhile, in September of that year “tre gravissimi Senatori,” one of whom was Domenico Gritti, were elected “sindici catasticatori” for the Morea. Their duties included deciding which buildings could be converted into Catholic churches. See Renata Targhetta, Dizionario biografico degli italiani, s.v. “Foscarini, Michele,” http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michele-foscarini_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ (accessed November 13, 2012) and James M. Paton, The Venetians in Athens 16871688, American School of Classical Studies at Athens (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1940), 23. This is the hypothesis put forward by Giovani: see Due cantate per le vittorie, ix.

[56] Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks, 373–74.

[57] Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks, 374–76.

[58] Gazzetta di Bologna, September 5, 1690.

[59] “Venetia li 9 corrente … Per la resa di Malvasia si principiarono Venerdì sera le feste di fuochi di gioia in molte parte della Città, e furono seguitate le due susseguenti sere, e quelle che furono fatte nella Piazza di San Marco riuscirono d’ammiratione, mentre che furono fatti fuochi d’artificio non più veduti, lavorati da un’Armeno, che durano fino alle 4 della notte con un concorso indicibile di Popolo. La qualità, ed importanza dell’acquisto, è ben degna d’ogni maggior segno d’allegrezza, seguito doppo 17 Mesi di travaglioso blocco con tanta varietà d’accidenti … Così la Piazza di Napoli di Malvasia … è tornata col Divino favore doppo più di un Secolo e mezzo di barbara soggettione sotto il primario felicissimo Dominio della Serenissima Republica. Resta con essa coronato l’acquisto del Regno di Morea” (Venice, the 9th of this month [September] … On Friday evening celebrations began in response to the surrender of Malvasia, with triumphant bonfires in many parts of the city, and these were continued on the following two evenings, with those in St Mark’s Square worthy of admiration, while fireworks, the like of which are no longer seen, made by an Armenian, lasted until 4 at night [approx. 9.30 p.m.] with an incredible crowd of people. The quality and importance of the acquisition is well worth so much jubilation, as it follows 17 months of laborious struggle with all sorts of incidents…Thus the piazza of Malvasia … is returned by divine favor, after more than a century and a half of barbaric subjugation, to the happy dominion of the Most Serene Republic. With this is crowned the acquisition of the kingdom of the Morea”): Gazzetta di Bologna, September 12, 1690.

[60] “L’Eccellentissimo Sig. Sebastiano Foscarini insignito dal Serenissimo Maggior Conseglio, come si disse, della Dignità Procuratoria, fece Lunedì la sua solenne entrata, a prese il possesso della Dignità stessa, con le forme solite. L’accompagnamento de’ Senatori fù numerosissimo, la Marciaria per dove passarono sontuosamente adobbata e tutto seguì con ogni pompa maggiore.” Gazzetta di Bologna, October 3, 1690.

[61] “Domenica mattina calò Sua Serenità colla Sereniss. Signoria nella Chiesa Ducale alla Messa Solenne, e Te Deum cantato in rendimento di gratie alla Divina Maestà per l’acquisto della Vallona fatto dall’Armi della Serenissima Republica con lo sparo di quantità di Mortaletti, così pure in tutte le Chiese della Città fù cantato il Te Deum, e per tre giorni festeggiato l’acquisto medemo col suono di Campane” (On Sunday morning Sua Serenità went with the Sereniss. Signoria into the ducal church for the solemn high Mass and Te Deum sung in thanksgiving to the Divine Majesty for the acquisition of Vallona by the armies of the Venetian Republic, with the shooting of a great quantity of firecrackers; likewise, the Te Deum was sung in all the churches of the city, and for three days the acquisition was celebrated with the ringing of bells): Gazzetta di Bologna, October 10, 1690.

[62] Among other roles, Pietro Ottoboni was vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, while Rubini was made legate of Urbino in September 1690: see Flavia Matitti, Dizionario biografico degli italiani, s.v. “Ottoboni, Pietro” (accessed September 1, 2016), http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/pietro-ottoboni_(Dizionario-Biografico) and Francesco Scipione Dondi dall’Orologio, Serie cronologico-istorica dei canonici di Padova (Padua: Stamperia del Seminario, 1805), 188 respectively.

[63] As a rough indicator, there are four da capo arias in common time in the three cantatas under discussion, of twenty-four, thirty-two, thirty-seven, and forty-four measures in length (including the repeat and instrumental ritornellos). Comparable arias in the Cantate morali e spirituali include “Non cadde, precipitò” from In tenebrosa eclissi (Perdite dell’Ottomano) and “Son legato, e a notte oscura” from the cantata of the same name (on the subject La notte illuminata), lasting thirty-five and thirty-two measures, respectively. Generally, the “A” section of all the cantatas discussed here comprises two presentations of the melody with relatively little development. Furthermore, the presence of a strophic aria (“Regno afflitto, consola il tuo cor”) in Odi, regno infelice is more typical of the seventeenth-century cantata (examples are also found in the Cantate morali e spirituali). In terms of cavatas, those in the three manuscript cantatas last thirty-seven measures (of C), twenty measures (of 3/4) and twelve measures (of C); the average length in the Cantate morali e spirituali is thirty-one measures (in C) and forty-seven (in 3/2). The preference in the early eighteenth century for an RARA (or ARA) structure meant that cavatas appeared less frequently.

[64] “Nel 1689 era mancato ai vivi in Bologna Orazio Ceschi, il quale cuopriva la carica di vice-maestro nella cappella di S. Petronio. Perti trovavasi in quel tempo in Venezia. Ma di là fece dimanda, acciò gli fosse conferito quel posto, dirigendo ai fabbricieri il memoriale che segue: ‘Giacomo Antonio Perti humilmente e con ogni ossequio, non ostante che hoggidì si trovi in Venezia, riverentissimo supplica le SS. loro Ill.me per ottener l’onore d’essere eletto Vice-m.ro di cappella di S. Petronio in luogo del defunto Oratio Ceschi'” (In 1689 Orazio Ceschi, who held the position of vice-maestro di capella of S. Petronio, died in Bologna. At that point Perti was in Venice. But writing from there he made a request that the post might be given to him, addressing the following message to the vestry board: “Humbly, and with every respect, in spite of the fact that at the moment he is in Venice, Giacomo Antonio Perti reverently entreats Your Most Illustrious Signori that he may obtain the honor of being elected vice-maestro di capella of San Petronio in place of the deceased Oratio Ceschi'”): Leonida Busi, Il padre G. B. Martini, musicista-letterato del secolo XVIII (Bologna: Zanichelli, 1891), 103. Brenno in Efeso was dedicated to Antonio Ottoboni: see Selfridge-Field, A New Chronology, 192.

[65] Busi, Il padre G. B. Martini, 104.

[66] L’inganno scoperto per vendetta premiered on December 28, 1690, and was dedicated to Sebastiano Soranzo: Selfridge-Field, A New Chronology, 196.

[67] While it has not been possible to attribute the present trio of cantatas to a particular performance context, mention must be made of another set of three cantatas for two altos by Perti housed in the same archive: Udite o voi di Giove belle figlie, Amazone di Brenno, and Zeffiretti vezzosetti (I-Bsp L59/P). Cantatas, when they are grouped together, tend to be in pairs; having three together is relatively unusual. Duets for two altos are also comparatively rare. The fact that these two sets exist, both comprising two solo cantatas for alto followed by a concluding duet, with parts for two violins, suggests that they may have been intended for the same performance circumstances. Furthermore, this second set shares a Venetian link. The cantata Udite o voi di Giove belle figlie bears the dedication “Invito alle grazie a cantar le lodi dell’Ecc.mo S. Girolamo Pisano Capitano grande di Brescia.” As Sara Dieci points out, Pisani held this position in Brescia (part of the Venetian territory) for little over a year, from December 13, 1691, to April 21, 1693. The dates come from the collection of letters held in the British National Archives, London, sent by Pisani in Brescia to the Council of Ten in Venice (“Registro delle lett[er]e scritte dall’Ill[ustrissi]mo et Ecc[ellentissi]mo Gir[ola]mo Pisani … nel suo Regg[iment]o di Cap[itan]o à Brescia che principiò il dì 13 Xmbre 1691, e terminò li 21. Aprile 1693”: GB-Lna PRO 30/25/105): see Dieci, “I manoscritti di cantate,” 55. While these dates do not correspond to the military victories referred to in the cantatas under discussion here, it may be that Perti was writing for a particular performance circumstance, such as an annual academic celebration, on both occasions.

[68] Catholics frequently invoked the Virgin Mary throughout this period; victory at the siege of Vienna, for example, was commonly attributed to her. One of the Venetians’ first acts when finally gaining Malvasia was to convert one of its largest mosques into a church dedicated to the Virgin: Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks, 373.

[69] A further opera from that season, Pirro e Demetrio (music by Giuseppe Felice Tosi, text by Adriano Morselli) similarly reenacts attempts to liberate Epirus, again situated in the past, this time in Ancient Greece: see Selfridge-Field, A New Chronology, 193.

[70] Antonio Arcoleo, Brenno in Efeso (Venice: Nicolini, 1690), 16.

[71] Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks, 306. A report of the installation of the lion in the Arsenal is found in the Gazzetta di Bologna of December 19, 1690.

[72] The Gazzetta di Bologna‘s Venetian correspondent gives a full account of an uprising that took place in March 1688. The Albanian people declared their allegiance to Venice and to the Christian faith: “fissi nelle loro risolutioni, e per la Religione Christiana, che professano, e per la brama di goder la felicità d’esser Sudditi della Serenissima Republica” (firm in their resolution, both for the Christian religion practiced by them and in their longing to enjoy the happiness of being subjects of the Serenissima). Aided by General Corner, they rejected Ottoman overtures and went on to take the fortress at Medun with very few losses (the correspondent reports only thirty dead, by contrast to the 1,600 Turkish soldiers who were lost). All the spoils of war, including the keys to the fortress, were given to General Corner: Gazzetta di Bologna, April 21, 1688.

[73] “Intanto sentito da quei Popoli Christiani la resa della Vallona s’invigorirono molto, e furono spedite lettere circolari a’ Cuzzi, Clementi, & altri di quei Monti, rimostrandogli esser hora il tempo da loro bramato, animandoli ad una generale insurrezione, per poter scuoter il giogo Ottomano”: Gazzetta di Bologna, October 17, 1690.

[74] There is one brief moment of imitation (lasting only three measures) where Perti paints the word “catene” (chains) by having the two vocal lines entwine. The closest resemblance to Perti’s duet writing in Odi, regno infelice to be found in the Cantate morali e spirituali is in the aria “Godi intanto, e dalle stelle” from Alme, voi che da un dio (Per S. Giuseppe). Here the soprano and alto begin in thirds, but the much longer “B” section contains an extended passage of imitation between the two voices. It should be noted that none of the duets in the Cantate morali e spirituali are for two equal voices.