Volume 8 (2002) No. 1
Jeffrey Kurtzman and Linda Maria Koldau
Trombe, Trombe d'argento, Trombe squarciate, Tromboni, and Pifferi in Venetian Processions and Ceremonies of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Document 3: Letter of July 14, 1609 from Giulio Cesare Bianchi to Vincenzo I, Duke of Mantua. Quoted from Susan Helen Parisi, "Ducal Patronage of Music in Mantua, 1587–1627: An Archival Study," (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1989), 552–53 (document 102: Mantua, Archivio di Stato, Archivio Gonzaga 2715). English translation from Rodolfo Baroncini, "'Sinfonie et balli allegri:' Functions, Genres, and Patronage of Instrumental Music at the Court of Mantua in the Early Seventeenth Century," Italian History and Culture 5 (1995): 46–47.
Gionto ch'io fui a Mantoa diedi ordine a quanto da S.A.Ser.ma mi fu imposto; Circa le Compositioni ch'io portai meco tutti hanno hauto le parti sue dal S.r D. fran.co im poi et questo per essere absente da Mant.a, Il Sig.r Claudio Monteverde gli ha perciò scritto acciò quanto p.a se ne venghi a Mant., haverelo da andare sul lago per servitio del Ser.mo S.r Duca, e con questa occagione se vi dara la cantata acciò la impara a la mente; Ho poi scritto a Cremona a quelli sonatori dicendogli che in breve se gli maderanno alcune compositioni da imparare tra di luoro a la mente, e far tanto che mettino in ordine gli suoi stromenti per suonare da Ballo e di Musica secondo si rappresentera l'occasione; Metteranno una Muta de fifferi in ordine e cossi anco una muta de pifferi soneranno di flauto, e di corna musa e alcuni di cuoro [loro?], soneranno di cornetto e di trombone; Io unito con gli altri insieme udirò l'entrata con il Rittornello, e poi vero costi portando meco gli stromenti per farne pigliar la misura da coprirli, secondo il gusto di V.A.Ser.ma.
When I reached Mantua I enacted what Your Most Serene Highness had ordered: Concerning the compositions which I took with me everyone has had their parts except Signor Don Francesco, since he is absent from Mantua, therefore Sig. Claudio Monteverdi has written him to come to Mantua as soon as possible; I have to go to the lake in the service of the Most Serene Lord Duke, and on this occasion I will give him the cantata so that he can learn it by heart. Then, I have written to Cremona to those players saying that soon they will be sent some compositions to be learned among themselves by heart, and that they should get their instruments in order to play for dances or music as the occasion arises. They will set up a consort of flutes and the same also a consort of shawms, they will play the recorder, the bagpipe, and some of them will play the cornett and trombone; I along with the others together will hear the entrada with the ritornello, and then I will come there bringing with me the instruments in order to have them measured and covered according to the taste of Your Most Serene Highness.
[Brackets added by authors.]