The Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music

Volume 8 (2002) No. 1

Trombe, Trombe d'argento, Trombe squarciate, Tromboni, and Pifferi in Venetian Processions and Ceremonies of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.

Jeffrey Kurtzman and Linda Maria Koldau

IV. Descriptions in Venetian Chronicles of Trombe, Trombe squarciate, and Pifferi

33. Marin Sanudo's References to Trombe squarciate

34. Summary of Marin Sanudo's Instrumental Terminology

35. Further References to Trombe and Pifferi in Venetian Chronicles and Documents

36. Association of Trumpets with Drums

References to Part IV

33. Marin Sanudo's References to Trombe squarciate

33.1 As indicated in the Prologue, one of the puzzles surrounding the nomenclature, shape and use of instruments in Venetian processions and ceremonies has revolved around the instruments called trombe squarzade or trombe squarciate by Sanudo, Sansovino, Stringa, and the authors of numerous other documents of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.While the majority of these Venetian references to trombe squarciate date from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the earliest appearance of the term of which we are aware is in Marin Sanudo's summary of a letter from Rome describing in detail a sumptuous banquet given by the Venetian Cardinal Domenico Grimani on March 16, 1505. Various courses of the meal were announced and/or accompanied by diverse musical instruments. One of the courses comprised "the duke's soup, served in eighteen dishes, with sweetbreads and the heads of kids dorati, each with a gold banner with San Marco and the arms of the cardinal, accompanied by the sound of trombe squarzate [sic]."381 Elsewhere in the same letter reference is made to the entrance of the cardinal to the sound of tanti trombeti, pifari e tamburlini and later of the washing of hands at the beginning of the meal accompanied by trombeti, pifari et tamburini. Another hand-washing at the end of the meal was also accompanied by pifari, trombeti et tamburini.382 In this letter, trombe squarzate are distinguished from trombeti, and the trombeti are clearly not subsumed under the generic term pifari. The trombe squarzate play alone, while three out of four appearances of the compbination of trombeti and pifari are accompanied by tamburini (tamburlini).  [Return to: paragraph 34.3, 36.2.]

33.2 On March 3, 1511, Sanudo reported on marriage festivities involving a procession with torches and trombe squarzade, followed by dancing and a banquet in the campo at Ca' Pixani--no other instruments are named.383 On September 19 of the same year, the captain Piero Pagan brought sixteen ships from Chioggia to St. Mark's, bound for Ferrara. As the ships arrived, trombe squarzade sounded and the sailors cried "Marco, Marco."384 The next year, Sanudo included a report from Alexandria dated April 16 describing the arrival there of an armada of ships bearing the ambassador of the Sultan of Constantinople. The sultan's ships were met by the admiral with a large company of mounted moors as well as a large company of Venetians on horseback with trombe squarzae [sic] et tamburli from the galleys. The ambassador was accompanied to his residence by a large quantity of men on horseback with pive (bagpipes), trombe et nacare (drums). His arrival was celebrated later that evening with bonfires and trombe squarzae [sic] et tamborini, bombarde et rochete asaissime.385 In this latter account, the trombe squarzae are consistently associated with drums and the only other instruments mentioned are bagpipes.

33.3 On March 13, 1513 the election of Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici as Pope Leo X was celebrated in Venice with trombe, pifari, trombe squarzade e una cena molto honorevole. Again, trombe squarzade are distinguished from trombe, which in Sanudo's text are named next to the pifari.386 Two months later, on May 15, the newly chosen captain general of Venice was given his standard and honored by a procession in which he was preceded by trombe squarzade. Later in the account, when the captain general exited the church followed by the doge and senators, the trumpets leading the procession are described as trombe di bataia and the long trumpets of the doge (quelle dil Principe) are also mentioned387 These are the only instruments named in the entire entry.  [Return to: paragraph 34.4, note 421.]

33.4 In Bologna, on December 8, 1515, the king of France made a triumphant entry into the city, where he was received by the Pope. The Venetian Giovanni Contarini reported the event from Bologna in a letter of December 11, which was summarized by Sanudo. Much of the letter describes the order and costumes of the processional entry, which began with two hundred crossbowmen of the Pope's Swiss Guard, dressed in their livery con le sue trombe squarzade inanzi. These are the only instruments mentioned in the letter, and they headed the procession.388 Two years later, on January 18, 1517, the proclamation of a treaty in Venice included mass at St. Mark's, after which a procession with trombe squarzade left the basilica by the door that led to the Palace before proceeding into St. Mark's square, where there was una gran rozata de trombe squarzade.389 Once again, no other instruments are named in the account.

33.5 In an entry of May, 1523, Sanudo summarized the report of a Venetian envoy sent to Rome to celebrate the election of Pope Adrian VI. The envoy's account of the events includes a description of trombe squarzate, drums, piffari, and other instruments playing from the Castello Sant'Angelo on March 20 as a procession on horseback passed over the Ponte Sant'Angelo.390 Drums are associated with the trombe squarzate in this report and the piffari are clearly a distinct set of instruments.

33.6 In February of the next year Sanudo mentioned trombe squarzade heard in St. Mark's Square at a performance of a comedy by Ruzante during carnival. The company sang villote and carried (and presumably played) trombe, pifari, pive (bagpipes) et trombe squarzade.391 Once more the trombe squarzade are distinguished from the trombe, which are again named adjacent to the pifari. Trombe squarzade also appear in connection with carnival festivities on February 8, 1526 when the night was filled with trombe et pifari e trombe squarzade.392 This account, too, distinguishes trombe squarzade from trombe, as well as from the pifari. On October 19, 1530, the doge is described as disembarking from the Bucintoro at the conclusion of a political celebration con torze e trombe squarzade.393

33.7 Sunday morning, May 18, 1533, Agustin [sic] Querini, Signor di la Compagnia, was honored in elaborate ceremonies that included entry by numerous trombe squarzade et altri instrumenti into the church of San Stefano. The mass was said with soni, canti, musica excellentissima et l'organo. After the mass, described as molto solenne, "the likes of which had not been performed anywhere in the world for years," the company went in procession to St. Mark's with the trombe et soni.394 In this latter passage it is not clear whether Sanudo is distinguishing between the trombe squarzade that entered the church and other types of trombe, as he did in earlier diary entries. Trombe in the procession may simply be a shorthand way of referring to the trombe squarzade previously mentioned in the account.

34. Summary of Marin Sanudo's Instrumental Terminology

34.1 These are the only references to trombe squarzade in Sanudo's diaries known to us, but there are many more references to trumpets and other instruments, beginning as early as 1499.395 On a few occasions Sanudo speaks of trombe et pifari del Serenissimo or trombe et pifari dil Doxe.396 In these instances, where the reference is to the instruments of the doge, Sanudo clearly means the doge's six long silver trumpets and the ensemble of shawms and one or more trombones, as depicted in the Gentile Bellini painting (Figure 12), the Pagan woodcut (Figure 14 and Figure15), and the Franco engraving (Figure 23). Much more frequent are references simply to trombe et pifari.397 In most of these latter contexts the instruments are not associated with the doge as his official ensembles. What Sanudo seems to mean in these passages is a wind band, probably made up of varying instruments from one occasion to another.

34.2 Whether Sanudo means trombones or trumpets of some kind by trombe in the phrase trombe et pifari is not always clear. For example, his account of the installation of the Duke of Urbino as Captain General on June 29, 1524 refers to the procession with the captain's eight battle trumpets (trombe di bataglia) and the trombe et pifari del Serenissimo entering into San Marco, but emerging later from the church con gran soni di trombe et pifari.398 The latter reference is probably to all of the trumpets and the wind band, and once again Sanudo apparently has used the term trombe in a generic sense to refer to more specific, distinct instruments already named. In one report of July 28, 1521, dancing in the doge's palace was accompanied by trombe e piffari.399 The piffari were very likely the piffari dil Doxe, but it is quite impossible that the doge's six long silver trumpets are meant by trombe; rather, the term most likely refers to trombones. Sanudo again cites trombe e pifari as accompanying dancing, this time on the Bucintoro in the Grand Canal during the celebration of a novitiate's initiation on January 25, 1526 (new style). As before, trombe likely refer to trombones, not trumpets. On December 6, 1500, and again in 1529, Sanudo reports on the mass of St. Nicholas in the chapel between St. Mark's and the ducal palace, accompanied by trombe et pifari.400 The 1564 cerimoniale of St. Mark's, as indicated in paragraph 12.1, calls for the mass in this chapel to be performed with the doge's pifferi. In both these instances Sanudo was apparently referring to trombones by the word trombe. In his entry of October 16, 1530, Sanudo describes a solemn mass in the church of San Salvador in honor of the duke of Milan (who couldn't attend because of a great downpour), celebrated "with all the virtuosi of this land," later identifying the virtuosi as trombe e pifari.401 In this passage it is less obvious that Sanudo means trombones by trombe, since this was a special occasion with the church decorated with tapestries and banners--just the kind of festive mass for the highest nobility where trumpets were used in some of the liturgical services described in section 12. The festivities for the duke, including regattas, receptions in the palace, dancing and other entertainments, continued for several days. At the conclusion of one of the events, the duke was accompanied from the doge's palace to his own residence by trombe e pifari avanti.402 Given the circumstances, trombe more probably refers in this instance to trumpets rather than trombones; the latter would have been subsumed under the term pifari. Other entries in Sanudo's diaries, however, demonstrate that he was at times perfectly capable of distinguishing trombones from trombe (see paragraphs 34.4 and 34.5). Sanudo's lack of precision and his inconsistency in terminology are quite typical of so many documentary sources through the end of the sixteenth century. In the seventeenth century the increasing use of instruments as independent elements in both secular and sacred music often leads to more specific and careful identification of individual instruments, though many sources are still quite unclear or ambiguous in their terminology.

34.3 Sanudo also uses the term trombeti on a couple of occasions, once distinguishing between trombe and trombeti and the other time between trombeti and trombe squarzate.403 It must be emphasized, however, that in the latter instance (see paragraph 33.1) Sanudo was simply summarizing a letter from two gentlemen present at a banquet in Rome given by the Venetian cardinal. The conjunction of trombe e pifari and trombe squarzade occurs in several of Sanudo's entries, in these instances arguing against the identification of the trombe squarzade with the trombe, whatever the latter term may mean in context.

34.4 Occasionally Sanudo mentions trombe alone.404 In these cases, he is clearly referring to trumpets as heraldic instruments used for announcing the passage of a segment of a procession, the appearance of an significant personage, or the proclamation of an important public event, though the same functions could also be accomplished by trombe e pifari.405 In a few instances, Sanudo distinguishes battle trumpets from other types of trumpets. In his extensive description of a procession celebrating the public proclamation of a peace treaty on October 20, 1511, Sanudo notes that many trombe e trombe di bataja played just before the posting of the treaty.406 Later in the same account the procession included assa' trombe di bataia e tromboni, which were separate from le trombe dil Doxe et li pifari "dressed in scarlet."407 Similarly in the description of the installation of the Duke of Urbino as Captain General, mentioned in paragraph 33.3, the captain had his own eight trombe di bataglia, distinct from the doge's six long trumpets.408 The trombe squarzade in one part of the description are later referred to as trombe di bataia.

34.5 The account of the ceremonies of October 20, 1511 also illustrates that Sanudo understood and sometimes used the term trombone as distinct from trombe. Another passage, describing a performance by the singers and instrumentalists of the King of France in St. Mark's on May 2, 1519 identifies tromboni and flauti (recorders).409 Indeed, the term tromboni emerges in Venice as early as 1463 in the document cited above providing for sufficient trombetti, tromboni e piffari for state processions.410 Sanudo also mentions cornettos in his account of a victory celebration on September 20, 1515 when psalms were sung in St. Mark's square to the sound of trombe, pifari, corneti e altri instrumenti musici.411 In this passage pifari and corneti are named separately, suggesting that other winds apart from cornettos were subsumed under the word pifari in that particular entry. This account indicates once again (see paragraph 10.2) that cornettos were already beginning to make their way into Venetian windbands by 1515, and the gradual replacement of shawms with cornettos in most sixteenth century wind ensembles makes the term pifari later in the century even more ambiguous.

34.6 As we have seen, the terminology for instruments in Sanudo's diaries is often fairly specific, but also somewhat varied. One cannot expect absolute consistency of terminology and reference over a period of several decades, and Sanudo's terminology is complicated by the fact that some of the entries are from letters written by others, mostly Venetian oratori (envoys or ambassadors) in other cities and courts. A variety of sizes and types of instruments may at times have been included under the general terms trombe and pifari, while trombeti, trombe squarzade, and tromboni are quite specific in their nomenclature. It is also clear that the Venetian phrase trombe squarzade was in use from early in the sixteenth century and that it was distinguished from trombe in several of the texts quoted above and from trombeti in another. That trombe di bataia (bataglia) refer to the same instruments as the term trombe squarzade is not only obvious from Sanudo's equation of the two in a couple of entries, but is also suggested by a Venetian Senate pay list from 1534, published by Giacomo Benvenuti. Among several other items, a payment is cited for four trombe squarzade "which preceded the meal, [and] were used in the regata and the battle."412 Stringa, in a passage quoted in paragraph 13.5, cited a tromba squarciata da guerra, also associating the term with battle trumpets.  [Return to paragraph 7.1, note 288, note 294.]

35. Further References to Trombe and Pifferi in Venetian Chronicles and Documents

35.1 Francescco Sansovino in 1581 made several references to trombe as well as the pifferi del doge in his vast description of the practices and customs of Venice, as did Giovanni Stringa in his updated edition of Sansovino's book in 1604. In general, both Sansonvino and Stringa tend to greater specificity in their naming of instruments than we often find in Sanudo's diaries, reflecting the growing interest in instruments in both secular and sacred music in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Nevertheless, many of their references to instruments remain ambiguous, especially their use of the increasingly generic term pifferi, which actually became more vague in meaning as more instruments were encompassed by the rubric.

35.2 Stringa's account of the celebration honoring the peace between Henry IV of France and Phillip II of Spain (see paragraph 13.5) and his description of the coronation of the dogaressa Morosini Grimani (see section 22) have already been discussed, as has Fausto Ciro's description of the mass by Giovanni Rovetta celebrating the birth of the dauphin of France in 1638 (see paragraph 12.2). From all the chroniclers we not only obtain an idea of the huge quantity of processions of various types that formed an essential part of civic life and the atmosphere of the city, but of other details of the festivities as well. Most of these descriptions don't pertain to the corteo of the doge, but rather to celebrations and processions or elements of processions not governed by the protocol of ducal andate. Where the ducal corteo is not part of the description, the trombe mentioned are never the sei trombe d'argento, and references to pifferi do not imply just trombones and shawms, as in the pifferi del doge, but possibly other instruments as well.413

35.3 In recounting the coronation of Dogaressa Zilia Dandola on September 18, 1557, which served as the model for the coronation of Dogaressa Morosina Morosini Grimani, Sansovino, with the eye of a visual artist, describes a scene in which the palace was filled with dignitaries and nobility. During the festivities in the throne room, crowded with nobility and people in maschera, the pifferi, positioned outside on a high platform near the well that overlooks the Grand Canal, played continuously. Whether these pifferi were shawms or cornettos (or a combination of the two) is uncertain, especially since the pifferi were playing outside in support of indoor activities.

35.4 When it became dark, young men carrying 100 torches descended into the courtyard along with certain members of the assembled company and formed a procession led by trombe, & tamburi (obviously trumpets and drums) that wended its way around the courtyard and then exited into the piazza for a procession that lasted until about 9:00 p.m., whereupon they returned to the doge's palace for dinner and dancing until about 2:30 a.m.414 During the dinner, a large pyramid that had been built in the courtyard served as the source of a three-hour display of fireworks that echoed with a great deal of noise. Nor did the celebration end after a night of feasting and dancing, but continued all the next day, including a bullfight in the courtyard and the piazza in the middle of the afternoon, as well as another the next afternoon, together with further parading through the city and more dancing. The festivities finally concluded on September 21 after a night of heavy rain.415

35.5 Such occasional architectural constructions as well as bullfights have been illustrated repeatedly in Venetian paintings and engravings of Fat Thursday (Giovedi grasso) celebrations. The diversity of these entertainments can be seen in an engraving of a Fat Thursday procession and other activities in the piazzetta from the Habiti of Giacomo Franco (Figure 51). On three sides the piazzetta is crowded with spectators, two groups of whom are seated in bleachers specially built for the occasion. A procession passes in the foreground, led on the far lower left by mid-length straight trumpets with large bells and at least one drum. In the middle of the piazzetta a group of acrobats form a human pyramid on top of a temporary stage, while just to the left of the stage a bull is about to be slain with a sword in accordance with an ancient Fat Thursday tradition.416 Below the stage, to the right, another bull is trying to run away while one man attempts to hold it by its tail and a dog tries to turn it back. In the meantime, the spectators standing on that side of the piazzetta have turned to flee.417 [Return to note 424.]

35.6 Among the most elaborate civic festivities were those celebrating the naval victory over the Turks at Lepanto in 1571, which saved the city and Italy from an imminent invasion by Turkish forces. Aside from processions around the city and banners and decorations hanging everywhere, especially in the Rialto area, Sansovino mentions two elaborate apparecchi, or temporary allegorical structures, or pageant-stages, of considerable size that had been erected, presumably in the piazza and piazzetta of St. Mark's, though Sansovino doesn't mention their location.418 At one site, there was the continuous sound of drums, pifferi, and trombe squarciate from the beginning of the evening until five hours after sunset. In the same location there were also diversi & rari concerti di musica, with frequent bursts of artillery fire. According to Sansovino, "the place resembled a house and the palace of joy and gaiety together," and this scene inspired the people to celebrate in similar fashion throughout the city.419 [Return to note 142.]

35.7 Liturgical services were a primary feature of the celebration. On the first morning of the festivities a solemn mass was sung from a temporary platform in front of the church of San Giacomo "with marvelous music" (con musiche maravigliose). After terce, there was a procession with the Crucifix at the head, followed by pifferi, trombe squarciate, & tamburi, with a long sequence of priests, singers, and merchants. After supper, vespers were said "with the same music" (con le musiche medesime). Presumably, Sansovino means with the same kind of music, and with the same musical forces, as at the mass. Vespers was over some two hours after sunset and the remaining time was taken up "with the harmony of diverse instrumental music" (harmonie con variati concerti). In waxing enthusiastic over the celebrations, comparing them to the triumphal entry into Rome of Scipione Africano, Sansovino singles out, in addition to the costumes, banners, decorations, and constant movement of people throughout the city, the noise (strepito) of the artillery and "the sound of drums and trumpets" (il suono de tamburi, & delle trombe).420

35.8 The investiture of a government official was also a cause for an elaborate procession and liturgical event featuring the sound of trumpets and drums. A document in the Biblioteca Correr describes the normal protocol for the procession that took place after the ceremonial baton was presented to the Governor of the land armies. The ceremonies concluded with the singing of the Te Deum and the ensuing procession was led by trombe squarzade et tamburi.421

35.9 As the power and wealth of Venice gradually declined in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the tendency to spend large sums of money on elaborate celebrations for an increasing quantity of feast days, special events in the life of the city, or appointments to high government offices actually grew, as a kind of civic psychological compensation for Venice's diminishing fortunes. The celebrations surrounding the visit of Japanese princes in 1585 were extremely lavish, and their detailed description occupies ten pages in Stringa's updated version of Sansovino's book.422 The procession included the scuole carrying innumerable extraordinarily elaborate floats (soleri) loaded with silver objects and tableaux vivants. One float mounted by the Scuola San Rocco contained a representation of the Last Judgment, the lower part of which showed the dead emerging from their graves, accompanied by the loud, boisterous sound of trumpets and drums (strepito grandissimo di trombe, & tamburi) emanating from a hidden source, which struck terror into the surrounding observers.423

35.10 The expenses for such celebrations were a drain on the increasingly strapped public treasury. The lavish coronation of the Dogaressa Morosina Morosini Grimani in 1597 had been very costly, and Venetian fortunes were in such decline after the plague of 1630–31 that the Senate in 1645, as a money-saving measure, forbade forever the coronation of a dogaressa, though that decree was ultimately honored in the breach as early as 1694.424

36. Association of Trumpets with Drums

36.1 Other than the doge's sei trombe d'argento, the trombe mentioned by Sansovino and Stringa as well as in other descriptions and documents pertaining to major civic processions and ceremonies are almost always associated with drums. Moreover, the iconography described above regularly pictures trumpets together with drums. Only Sanudo often mentions trombe, trombe e piffari, and trombe squarzade without reference to drums, though he too sometimes makes the same association. The coupling of trumpets and drums, of course, is not unique to Venice. Trumpets and drums had formed a normal contingent of court and civic ensembles in Burgundy and in German-speaking lands from as early as the fourteenth century, as well as in Italy. An allegorical engraving from the Rhétorique des Dieux, a seventeenth-century lute manuscript, explicitly associates trumpets of various types and shapes with drums and the warlike Phrygian mode.425 Many of the paintings described above associate trumpets with drums.

36.2 Sometimes Sansovino, Stringa, and others say simply trombe e tamburi, sometimes trombe squarciate e tamburi (leaving aside alternative spellings). The important point, in either case, is the ubiquitous association of trombe or trombe squarciate with drums, and their distinction from the pifferi. Even though pifferi and trumpets and drums may have cooperated together in music making, as in Sanudo's description of a banquet hosted by the Venetian Cardinal Grimani in Rome (see paragraph 33.1) or Sansovino's account of the celebrations over the victory at Lepanto, the combination of trumpets and drums is always verbally distinguished as a separate ensemble from the pifferi. The pifferi themselves are only rarely associated with drums, but we have never seen, in iconography, in chronicles or in documents, an association of trombones specifically with drums, a critical point with regard to understanding the meaning of trombe squarciate.426

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