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

V. Unraveling the Identity of Trombe squarciate

37. The Etymology and Meaning of the Term Tromba Squarciata

38. Extant Mid-length Straight Trumpets

39. Trumpet Bells in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

40. Wide Trumpet Bells in Venetian Iconography

41. Summary of Types of Trumpets in Venetian Iconography

42. Size and Pitch of Trombe squarciate

43. Trombe squarciate in Monteverdi's "Mass of Thanksgiving," November 21, 1631

44. Contradictory Evidence: Trombones and the Term Squarciato

45. A Hypothesis about Trumpets in Venice

46. Summary of Argument Regarding Trombe squarciate

References to Part V

37. The Etymology and Meaning of the Term Tromba squarciata

37.1 An etymological approach to the meaning of the term tromba squarciata involves the definition both of the noun tromba and of the participial adjective squarciata. Tromba, of course, refers to a trumpet, whether a straight instrument of shorter or greater length, an S-shaped instrument, a folded instrument, or a slide instrument of whatever shape.427 But the word tromba was also sometimes used more generically to include double-slide trombones, especially in the late fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth centuries, as we have already seen. Thus the term trombe in the phrase trombe squarciate has been thought by some to refer to trombones rather than trumpets, since the Monteverdi Gloria and Credo of the "Mass of Thanksgiving" described by Ginammi as including trombe squarciate are generally presumed to be the Gloria a 7 and the three Credo segments in the Selva morale e spirituale whose rubrics call for optional trombones, though no trombone parts are notated in the published part-books.428 [Return to note 266.]

37.2 The adjective squarciato is even more difficult to pin down than tromba. It derives etymologically from the Latin verb exquartiare, which means to divide into quarters.429 The Italian prefix s, derived from the Latin ex, normally attaches a negative or contrasting connotation to the root word. For example, parlare means "to speak," while sparlare means "to speak badly" of someone or something, to run someone or something down. Foderare means to line a piece of cloth with something, such as silk or fur, while sfoderare means to remove a lining. Similarly, while quarto means a fourth part in Italian, squartare means to cut into four parts, and squarciare, also derived from "to quarter," means to tear or rend apart. Literary applications of this term include, in the Italian translation of the Bible, the gospel according to St. Matthew 27:51–52: Ed ecco il velo del tempio si squarciò in due da cima a fondo, la terra si scosse, le rocce si sprezzarono, i sepolcri si aprirono e molti corpi di santi morti risuscitarono (King James version: "And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose").430 Other literary uses by Boccaccio, Dante, Petrarch, and Tasso, all in the sense of tearing, ripping, breaking or smashing are cited in the Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca.431 The earliest editions give references to opening something widely: cioè, s'apre; e spalanca, and the fourth edition of 1735 gives as metaphorical applications aprire and spalancare, "to open" and "to open wide."432 Thus the term squarciato in late sixteenth and early seventeenth-century Italy refers to some physical object rent, torn or ripped asunder, which may result in opening the object widely.433 When applied to the clouds, as rent by Jove's thunderbolts, the smashing results in a loud sound, and Boccaccio, in the passage quoted in note 431, follows the tearing of clothes with loud screaming. As an adjective, squarciato is also applied in modern dictionaries to speech and sound in a pejorative sense. When applied to pronunciation, it refers to a wide and breathy sound. When applied to sounds, per se, it means ugly or irritating.434

37.3 From the term's basic significance, numerous modern Italian expressions are derived, one of which is gridare a squarciagola,meaning to shout violently with a wide open throat, again associating the wide opening with a loud sound.435 Similarly, a voce squarciata is defined as "loud, as if the throat were split open."436 The noun squarcio refers to a "large cut" or "a broad and deep opening."437 The word squarciato itself does not seem to have evolved much in meaning over time. The entries in recent dictionaries all trace their lineage back to the original definitions offered in the first edition of the Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca of 1612. All of the derivatives and figurative expressions are obvious extensions and metaphorical applications of the meaning of tearing, ripping, splitting or rending.

37.4 The verb form appears in the Venetian dialect as squarzar, with the same basic meaning of tearing, but also with the particular application of anatomical dissection. The Venetian noun squarzo, equivalent to the Italian squarcio, has also taken on the significance of display and pomp, ostentation, splendor, luxury, and magnificence.438 The derivation of squarzar from squarciare is the obvious reason the tromba squarciata is often referred to by Venetian writers as a tromba squarzada.

37.5 The use of the term in the Milanese dialect is interesting in relation to our principal question of its application to trumpets. The term squarc, aside from meaning "to splay" refers to an opening in a wall for a window or door, which widens obliquely from the outside toward the inside. An alternative meaning is tronbadora. 439 Another form of squarc is squarcia, which has as a secondary definition tromba.440

37.6 When one examines all of the meanings and derivatives of squarciato, it is clear that the term refers to some physical entity that has been torn apart or forcibly opened up, especially in some kind of oblique shape. Although the principal reference is to some physical object, sound, especially a loud sound, may be a byproduct of the act of rending. Nevertheless, the basic meaning refers to the physical rending or opening, not to the sound per se.441

37.7 While the adjective squarciato is ubiquitous in Italian literature and dialectical speech, the combination tromba squarciata is, as far as is currently known, virtually unique to Venice, and tromba squarzada, of course, is specifically Venetian dialect. Indeed, the only associations of the word squarciata with the word tromba outside of Venice that we know of are organ stops in Bologna and Gubbio (see paragraph 44.7), and there are only two instances known to us of its association with any other musical instrument (see paragraphs 44.1–44.5). It is conceivable, of course, that documentary studies currently underway, especially those undertaken in many parts of Italy by the University of Venice, will unearth more uses of this term in locales outside Venice itself.

37.8 Thus, we believe we can reasonably conclude that the term squarciata, as an adjective modifying tromba, refers to an instrument whose throat and bell are wide open, or gives the visual impression of being rent apart, at least in relation to other trumpets with their narrow throats and conventionally narrow bells. In other words, a tromba squarciata, we believe, is an instrument with an unusually open or wide bell, resulting not from the increased flaring we see from the mid-seventeenth century onward, but rather the consequence of a wider conical segment that opens up more quickly and widely than the typical German folded trumpet. [Return to: paragraph 2.3, note 296.]

38. Extant Mid-length Straight Trumpets

38.1 Although most of the surviving early trumpets are of the folded type, Edward Tarr reports on four straight trumpets of 80–150 cm (2.6 to 4.9 feet) length from the fifteenth century.442 The earliest, dated 1406, is from Siena, belongs to Williams College and is pitched in A (a' = 440 Hz). A shorter instrument, pitched in D an octave higher than a normal Baroque trumpet, is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. This trumpet is inscribed with a date of 1460 and names as its maker the German Sebastian Hainlein. Since the first Sebastian Hainlein of the famous family of Nuremberg trumpet makers died in 1631, the inscription raises suspicions about its authenticity. The same is true of an instrument about 120 cm in length in the Gorga Collection in Rome. This one also names Sebastian Hainlein as its maker, but gives its origin as Siena, 1461. The fourth such trumpet, in the Stearns Collection of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, is anonymous and presumed to be from the fifteenth or possibly the sixteenth century. The questions raised by the Sebastian Hainlein attributions are as yet unresolvable. Tarr assumes that the instruments naming Hainlein as maker are authentic, and simply considers the dates as "another of the many riddles in the history of the trumpet."443 But if the instruments are authentic, then they are either by Hainlein and the dates were added later to give the impression that they were rare antique instruments, or the dates are correct, and only later were the instruments attributed to Hainlein, since the original Sienese makers were by then unknown. Adding the name of a famous maker would obviously have increased the market value of these trumpets, just as falsified early dates would have done. A third alternative, of course, is that the instruments are of even later origin than Hainlein, and the anonymous maker(s) forged both the name and the dates.  [Return to note 496.]

38.2 In addition to these widely dispersed trumpets described by Tarr, there are four straight instruments of moderate length with conical bells extant in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena (Figure 3 and Figure 52). The length of two of these is 114.3 cm, another is 114.7 cm and the fourth is 116.5 cm, i.e. approximately 3 feet 8 1/3 inches to approximately 3 feet 9 1/2 inches.444 Three of these have inscriptions indicating they were manufactured in 1609, 1617, and 1659 by members of the Hainlein family. The fourth is anonymous and displays different features from the Hainlein instruments. It is conceivable that this trumpet was the work of a local builder.445 While a few scholars have voiced suspicions that these instruments may have been altered in the late 19th century, there is no evidence to suggest this or that they are forgeries.446 Another straight trumpet, problematically dated 1523 and inscribed "Ubaldo Montini in (?) Siena" survives in the Musical Instrument Museum in Berlin.447 While very little is known of Italian manufacturers of brass instruments, there are records of a well-known maker of fine trumpets and trombones in Siena dating as far back as the early fifteenth century.448 Yet another straight trumpet, a bit shorter and pitched in E-flat, by Hans Hainlein from 1658, is preserved in the Historical Museum in Frankfurt.449 [Return to paragraph 41.4.]

38.3 These straight trumpets are rare, although the number of surviving folded trumpets from before the seventeenth century is likewise small. The earliest extant folded trumpet, dating from 1442 and manufactured by Marcian Guitbert of Limoges, has only recently been discovered.450 Another folded trumpet, made in Genoa by Lissandro Milanese in 1589, has recently been recovered from a shipwreck in Holland.451 Two folded trumpets from Basel from 1578 also survive (see paragraph 39.1). Other than these instruments, there are only a few known surviving trumpets from the sixteenth century, mostly folded German instruments. However, despite the widespread use of folded trumpets manufactured in Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, mid-length straight trumpets were obviously employed frequently in Venice according to their representation in so many Venetian paintings, frescos, engravings, and other forms of pictorial art. While such instruments could have come from German makers, it is also possible that many of them were of Italian manufacture. The recent discoveries cited above, together with the two surviving sixteenth-century instruments from Basel, are indicative of the much more widespread manufacture of trumpets than had previously been thought.

39. Trumpet Bells in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

39.1 We now address the question of the size and shape of the normal trumpet bell in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Surviving instruments, many from the workshops of Nuremberg, have cylindrical tubing until the final segment, which comprises a rather narrow conical tube culminating in a narrow conical bell. Typical examples are two instruments by Jakob Steiger of Basel from 1578, held in the Historical Museum of Basel (Figure 53). Another folded trumpet from 1632 by Hans Hainlein of Nuremberg, preserved in the City Museum of Munich, also gives a clear picture of the rather narrow bell that characterized such trumpets (Figure 54).

39.2 The majority of such extant instruments are folded trumpets, although mid-length straight trumpets from Siena and elsewhere have been described in section 38. These also have narrow conical bells, as does the shorter straight trumpet in E-flat by Hans Hainlein from 1658 preserved in Frankfurt.452 However, by this time a new shape of bell had already begun to emerge, which gradually superseded the conical bell in the second half of the seventeenth century.A more flared bell can be seen on an instrument inscribed with the name of Jan Sander of Hanover in 1623, which, however, may not be original at all (Figure 55),453 and an even flatter bell is found on an instrument by Johann Kodisch of Nuremberg dating from near the end of the seventeenth century (Figure 56).454

39.3 This increase in flaring is apparent in a comparison made by Robert Barclay of seven Nuremberg instruments from between 1599 and 1746. The diameters of the bells of trumpets by Anton Schnitzer, Hans and Paul Hainlein, and Wolfgang Birkholz increase from 95 mm to 103 and 104 mm between 1599 and 1680. The Kodisch instrument (Figure 56), from c. 1700, has an exceptional diameter of 120 mm, while the two later instruments from the Ehe family are 106.5 mm and 110 mm respectively. Along with the wider flare went a narrower throat.455 The earlier, shallow bell, according to Barclay, "tends to give stability and good intonation to the lower harmonics and produces a rich and luxurious sound."456 This kind of bell "persisted in some makers' hands until at least 1650."457

39.4 The difference between early and later bells can be clearly seen by comparing an instrument by Anton Schnitzer from 1581 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (Figure 57) with a very elaborate silver trumpet by Johann Wilhelm Haas from c. 1750 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Figure 58). The Kodisch instrument from c. 1700 (Figure 56) shows a slightly more flattened and pronounced flare than even the Haas example, but Kodisch's trumpet appears atypical in relation to the rather limited number of other surviving instruments. Barclay associates the more flared bell with the development of music for trumpet by such composers as Cazzati, Vejvanovský, and Lully, who made greater demands in the higher partials.458 Edward Tarr notes the change in sonority "from dark and heavy to light and clear."459 Such bells were produced simply by thinning the brass through additional hammering.460 According to Detlef Altenburg, the more flared bell only fully supplanted the conical bell in the period between 1670 and 1690.461

40. Wide Trumpet Bells in Venetian Iconography

40.1 None of these more flared bells open nearly as widely as the bells on many of the mid-length straight trumpets found in Venetian iconography as described in section 28. Moreover, these depictions of wide bells are accompanied by wide throats rather than the narrower throats developing on seventeenth-century German instruments. Indeed, Venetian iconography presents a more diverse picture of the size and shape of instruments than the limited quantity of examplars surviving in museums. Criteria affecting the accuracy of the Venetian pictorial record of trumpets have been discussed above in sections 30–32.

41. Summary of Types of Trumpets in Venetian Iconography

41.1 We now summarize the types of trumpets represented in Venetian iconography. The trombe d'argento have appeared in two forms: 1) the long, thin trumpets of Bellini (Figure 11 and Figure 12) that are carried by the trombettieri alone, echoed in the Franco engraving of the doge arriving at San Giorgio Maggiore for Christmas Vespers (Figure 24), as well as in the illustration by Grevembroch where one boy supports two trumpets (Figure 33); and 2) the even longer, larger trumpets pictured in the Pagan (Figure 14), Franco (Figure 23), and Vianen (Figure 25) processions in St. Mark's square that are so large that in Pagan's and Franco's versions they each must rest on the shoulder of a boy, while in Vianen's, each boy supports a pair of instruments. Documents also reveal how the size and weight of these instruments varied over time. It is the very large form of these instruments, requiring the support of boys, that has no known counterpart elsewhere in Europe.

41.2 S-shaped trumpets appear only rarely in Venetian iconography, as in Carpaccio's "Ten Thousand Crucified on Mount Ararat," cited in paragraph 27.2. More frequently we find folded trumpets of the type produced in Nuremberg, that were used all over Europe for field signaling, by tower trumpeters, for royal ceremonial events and for chamber music. These instruments eventually replaced other types of trumpets (except the trombe d'argento of the doge) almost altogether, though the time frame of this process probably differed in different locales. In Venice, the iconography, chroniclers' descriptions and the history of terminology suggest that such folded instruments may have supplanted all others types of trumpets by the end of the seventeenth century. Such a conclusion is still speculative, however.

41.3 The trumpet most frequently represented in Venetian iconography is the straight mid-length instrument of the type of which so few examplars survive. Such trumpets are ubiquitous in Venetian paintings, xylographs, and engravings from the mid-sixteenth century well into the seventeenth century. Their principal functions, in so far as iconography and documents indicate, were to act as leaders or participants in processions at important civic and religious events and as signaling instruments on boats; they are usually associated with one or more drums. This was very likely the type of instrument grouped in a band of twelve together with twelve drummers mentioned in a number of sources previously quoted (see note 173). These were evidently the trumpets and drums, separate from the doge's corteo, that lent their rimbomba strepitosa to ceremonial events, announcing the approach of a procession or the posting of a proclamation, and inciting the crowds to excitement.

41.4 As has been demonstrated, many of the pictorial representations of such instruments reveal a larger than normal throat and bell. While the depictions may not all be accurate in detail and proportion, and not all such mid-length straight trumpets are pictured with large bells, these straight trumpets seem to be a variety unto themselves, popular especially in Venice, and serving a particular type of civic function. From the iconography, it appears that the size of the bell was not created by simply flaring it more rapidly, as seen in some examples of extant folded trumpets from the seventeenth century, but rather by the last segment of tubing being constructed in a conical shape with a wider diameter, leading from the beginning of the segment to the broad bell in a steady enlargement. This wider conical segment resulted in a more open mouth than was customary on either the German folded trumpets or the German straight instruments as represented by the surviving examples in Siena, Frankfurt am Main, and elsewhere (see paragraphs 38.1–38.2).

42. Size and Pitch of Trombe squarciate

42.1 As a consequence of all these factors, we suggest that the term tromba squarciata in Venetian sources refers to this type of mid-length (less than four feet or even smaller) heraldic and signaling trumpet with a larger than normal throat and bell—a bell that gave the visual impression of the end of the instrument being torn asunder to form a wide opening. Because of the shorter length of such an instrument, its fundamental pitch and harmonic series were higher than those of a full-size trumpet. On the basis of estimated instrument lengths in iconographical depictions, Janez Höfler has suggested that trumpets could range in size from c. 120 cm to as large as 360 cm, but that at about the middle of the fifteenth century, trumpets most commonly pictured in German and Netherlandish sources ranged from c. 180–240 cm.462 These dimensions, of course, are only crude approximations of size derived from pictorial representations. The 180–240 cm Höfler cites represent fundamental pitches extending from approximately a modern C on the larger size to F a fourth higher. Höfler also notes, however, that Italian trumpets of the period were often shorter than their northern counterparts. Detlef Altenburg, basing his information on theoretical sources, lists fundamentals ranging from B-flat to Ffor trumpetsin the seventeenth century.463 Edward Tarr, citing the precise measurements of the theorists Marin Mersenne (1635–36) and Johann Ernst Altenburg (1795), reports 224 cm, approximately 7 feet 4 inches, as the length of a full-size natural trumpet.464 A full-size trumpet of 224 cm as described by Mersenne and Altenburg would have had a fundamental of c. 141 Hz, just below a modern D at c. 144 Hz.

42.2 The mid-length trumpets we have been describing, approximately half the length of a full-size instrument, had a fundamental an octave higher, approaching a modern d (notated as c) and a first sounding pitch an octave above that. An instrument 3/4 the size of a mid-length trumpet would have had its fundamental and first sounding pitch another fourth higher, and a trumpet 2/3 the size of a mid-length instrument would have had its fundamental and first sounding pitch a fifth higher. All trumpets, of course, could have their fundamental pitch and harmonic series lowered to some extent by the insertion of tuning bits or crooks, which were ubiquitous in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.465

42.3 The mid-length Siena instruments described above, ranging from 114.3 to 116.5 cm, are only very slightly larger than half the size of a 224 cm instrument. The lengths of these instruments accord with what is known of pitch standards in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The longest of these trumpets would produce a c' of c. 271 Hz, which is equivalent to a pitch standard of a' = c. 458 Hz. The other three instruments would sound slightly higher, with c' = c. 275 Hz., equivalent to a' = c. 465 Hz, the most common pitch standard found in other wind instruments of the period.466 The type of instrument we have identified as a tromba squarciata was, according to the iconography, approximately the same length as the Siena straight trumpets and would have been pitched at approximately the same level. Using the size of these Siena instruments and a 224 cm length for a full-size trumpet as a standard, a short instrument with a fundamental a fourth higher than a mid-length trumpet would have been approximately 2 feet 10 inches (c. 84–87 cm) long, and one with a fundamental a fifth higher just over 2 1/2 feet (c. 75–77 cm) in length.467 The iconography cited above confirms the virtually certain existence of these small trumpets.  [Return to note 497.]

42.4 The full-size trumpet could produce a substantial range of harmonics. Cesare Bendinelli's trumpet treatise of 1614 frequently notates the twelfth harmonic (nominal g") as a sustained pitch,468 while numerous musical examples in Girolamo Fantini's method for playing the trumpet, "both in war and musically"call for the 16th harmonic (nominal c"').469 Michael Praetorius, in his chart of the trumpet's range, designates c'''–f''' as notes the instrument can reach.470 Such trumpets, as indicated by Fantini's title, could not only play signals and fanfares, but could also participate in the performance of complex polyphonic music, especially with the aid of lipping. The smaller trumpets, sounding an octave or more higher, would have had a more limited range of usable harmonics (probably 6 or 7 notes) and were more suited to fanfares and signaling. It is especially these mid-length instruments that, apart from their appearance in processions, one frequently sees depicted on boats or in a military context, where signals and fanfares would have been their principal function.

42.5 It is not a simple matter to describe the character of the sound that a mid-length instrument would have produced when the conical segment was widened and the bell flared more broadly, as we have suggested was the case for the tromba squarciata. Much depends on the shape of the mouthpiece,471 on the thickness of the metal, on the evenness of its working, and on the degree of widening and flaring. In general, widening the throat of the instrument produces a mellower sound. If the conical segment is not widened gradually, but more abruptly as it approaches the bell, the sound becomes more brilliant. Widening the flare of the bell tends to emphasize upper partials and make the sound of the instrument brighter and more piercing. Thus such mid-length trumpets with wide throat and bell would have been high pitched, full, and piercing, and would have made ideal signaling and outdoor ceremonial instruments, especially since in Venice the sound often had to carry over water.472 Their repertoire would have been limited to signals and fanfares of varying degrees of elaborateness, along the lines of those in Bendinelli's or Fantini's treatises.  [Return to paragraph 23.4.]

43. Trombe squarciate in Monteverdi's "Mass of Thanksgiving," November 21, 1631

43.1 As indicated at the outset of this study, the modern confusion over just what kind of instrument is meant by the term tromba squarciata arose from two brief contemporaneous descriptions of the "Mass of Thanksgiving" performed under Monteverdi's direction in St. Mark's on the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin, November 21, 1631, marking the official end of the devastating plague of 1630–31. Among the several features of this celebration was the dedication of the site of Baldassare Longhena's Church of Santa Maria della Salute, not completed until 1681, that has ever since been such a prominent landmark along the Grand Canal.473

43.2 The most explicit of these descriptions, by Marc'Antonio Ginammi, a contemporary chronicler who was obviously in attendance at the event, reads, "A most solemn Mass was sung, and during the Gloria and Credo, Claudio Monteverdi, the maestro di cappella, and the glory of our age, had the singing joined by trombe squarciate, with exquisite and marvelous harmony."474

43.3 The other description, from the Ceremoniali for that period in the Archivio di Stato, proclaims: "A most solemn Mass was sung, with the trombe playing a few times [alcuna volta] in the Gloria in excelsis and the Credo."475 Trumpets and drums had also played outside St. Mark's; as the doge arrived there was a salvo of gunshots and the bells of St. Mark's rang. The trumpets and drums entered the basilica ahead of the Magistrate of Public Health and in St. Mark's itself "made a demonstration of joy" and remained in the basilica. Not only did trumpets play during the Gloria and the Credo, there was another salvo of gunshots, presumably in the piazza and not inside the church, at the reading from the Evangelist and at the Consecration of the Host.476

43.4 It has been generally assumed that the Mass in F, the three substitute Credo fragments (with rubrics indicating where they can fit into the Mass in F), and the Gloria a 7 concertato (presumably to be substituted for the four-part Gloria of the Mass in F, though there are no rubrics suggesting this comparable to those of the Credo fragments), all found in succession in Monteverdi's Selva morale e spirituale of 1641 constitute the surviving music from the "Mass of Thanksgiving." James Moore, in his 1984 article on Monteverdi's "Mass of Thanksgiving" and the Selva morale, went further, arguing that the entire first section of the print represented music for the plague ceremonies. In this article Moore for the first time disentangled the trombe squarciate mentioned in Ginammi's description from trombones, and suggested passages in the Gloriawhere trombe squarciate might have played.477 Moore postulated that the original Credo may have included fanfares or sinfonias for two trumpets and organs and possibly even much more elaborate participation, which cannot be reconstructed because of the fragmentary form in which the movement survives. In addition, Moore cited several other archival references to trombe squarzade et tamburi in connection with a procession and celebration of the investiture of the Governor of the land armies and the celebration of a pact among Venice, Spain, and the papacy. In the two documents quoted by Moore, the trombe squarzade et tamburi led the procession, that is, they came well ahead of that part of the corteo organized according to protocols for the doge and his insignia, involving the trombe d'argento and the pifferi del doge.478

43.5 A decade later, Kurtzman, in an article on Monteverdi's "Mass of Thanksgiving," critiqued some of Moore's methods and conclusions regarding the origin and purpose of the Selva morale.479 In that article Kurtzman accepted Moore's evidence of the distinction between trombe squarciate and trombones and made further suggestions for how trumpets might have been used in Monteverdi's Gloria and Credo. Kurtzman also suggested that the three substitute Credo sections published in the Selva morale may be all the concertato passages that had ever existed.480 Subsequently, in an article in Irish Musical Studies, Peter Downey vehemently attacked Kurtzman's interpretation and asserted his belief that the trombe squarciate were simply trombones after all.481

43.6 Our study, we believe, has identified what kind of instruments were meant by Ginammi's reference to trombe squarciate. Such mid-length trumpets, with their limited set of harmonics, would have been restricted to an essentially fanfare role in the "Mass of Thanksgiving," as suggested by Moore. Ironically, Moore's identification of trombe squarciate as trumpets undercuts the association of the Mass in F, Credo fragments and the Gloria a 7 with the "Mass of Thanksgiving" described by the chroniclers, for it was only the optional trombones in the published rubrics of the substitute Credo fragments and the Gloria that had caused scholars to associate these pieces and the Mass in Fwith Ginammi's description in the first place. Now that Ginammi's account and that of the anonymous chronicler are seen not to refer to trombones at all, there is no evidence to connect the mass movements in the Selva specifically with the "Mass of Thanksgiving" other than the elaborate, celebratory character of the Credo fragments and the Gloria. Obviously, there were many occasions in Monteverdi's thirty years in Venice that could have called for such sumptuous music. Although the traditional identification of the Mass, Credo fragments, and Gloria, either individually or collectively, as the "Mass of Thanksgiving" of 1631 could indeed be correct, at this point such an identification must be considered a mere assumption, without substantiation. In the Credo fragments and the Gloria the question of the role of the optional trombones remains, and if these movements are to be treated in performance as representing the "Mass of Thanksgiving," then the role of the trombe squarciate must also be considered in terms of performance possibilities, as Moore has done. These performance practice issues go beyond organology, however, and their discussion must be left to another occasion.  [Return to note 428.]

44. Contradictory Evidence: Trombones and the Term Squarciato

44.1 The only significant challenges to our conclusion regarding trombe squarciate are a few apparently contradictory references in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources that apply the term squarciato to the word trombone or to instruments that are unequivocally trombones. Why do these examples not suggest that the phrase tromba squarciata is nothing more than another name for a trombone, as has been suggested by several writers?482

44.2 The strongest contradictory evidence is the use of the term tromba squarzada in inventories of the Accademia Filarmonica in Verona to describe trombones in their possession. This is the single instance where we can actually connect the terminology with extant instruments. The instrument collection of the Accademia Filarmonica was assembled mostly around the middle of the sixteenth century by the merger of two pre-existing musical academies into the Accademia Filarmonica in 1543 and by the assimilation of the Accademia alla Vittoria to the Accademia Filarmonica in 1564.483 An inventory of 1559 lists "a tromba squarzada decorated in silver, with its case all decorated; and another decorated case with several crooks for the same tromba, and a wooden overcase for these other cases."484An inventory of instruments willed to the Accademia by Count Giovanni Severino, registered February 12, 1566, lists Uno Trombon over Tromba squarzada,which was added to two trombones already in the possession of the Accademia and inventoried in 1569 as Tromboni n. 3. The other two trombones were one from c.1560, possibly of Venetian origin (based on the character of its decorations), and one that is no longer extant. Sometime after 1579, a bass trombone by Anton Schnitzer of Nuremberg, dated in that year, was added.485 The next inventory, from 1628, lists "three trombe squarzade of brass with two pieces [crooks] to add to one of them, with their cases."486 These instruments are contrasted with the next item on the list, which is a military trumpet listed as "one case with field trumpet, with its instruction book in a case."487 An inventory of the next century, of March 14, 1716, simply lists three trombones, without the designation squarzado.488 One of these is listed as a trombon rotto, and, indeed, the surviving instruments include the c.1560 instrument, the 1579 Schnitzer bass trombone, and the fragments of two other trombones.489 The bells of both extant instruments are conical and rather small, 93mm for the tenor trombone, and 98mm for the bass trombone.490

44.3 It is not obvious to us how to reconcile these Veronese applications of the term squarzado, borrowed from the Venetian dialect, to what are clearly trombones with rather narrow bells, and the trombe squarciate[squarzade] e tamburi or tromba squarciata da guerra of Venetian sources that can only refer to trumpets. It is conceivable that the term squarciato, in its sense of split or broken into pieces, could have been understood by the compiler of the Accademia Filarmonica's inventory to refer to the slide mechanism of the trombone, which not only consists of separate pieces, but also may be said to "open widely" in its extension. It could even have referred to a "broken" instrument in a fragmentary state, as one of the instruments now is. Although Verona constituted part of the Veneto, its dialect shares many features with Mantua rather than Venice, and it is possible that the term squarzado, as applied in Verona to trombones, was understood there quite differently from its usage in Venice, where the associations, especially with drums, unequivocally point to trumpets. Indeed, given the variety of dialects and the differences and ambiguities of vocabulary and terminology throughout Italy, it is quite possible that the individual who first labeled a trombone at the Accademia Filarmonica as squarzada had a completely different understanding of its meaning from Venetian writers.

44.4 We are aware of only a single reference to tromboni squarciati. In the scenarios for intermezzi that Giambattista Guarini wrote for a 1592 Mantuan production of Il pastor fido, the third intermezzo, personifying La Musica dell'Aria,describes the winds at the four cardinal points as each carrying "a trombone like those they call squarciati."491 Guarini does not identify the term squarciato with trombones in general, but rather with a particular type of trombone. If, as with the Venetian tromba squarciata,he is referring to a trombone with a larger than normal conical segment and bell, the application of the term to a trombone would not contradict its application to a tromba,but rather would signify the same thing—the wider bell.

44.5 In the remainder of Guarini's paragraph, the players holding tromboni squarciati and representing winds at the four cardinal points are opposed by four other players representing winds at the collateral points, each holding a cornetto. The combination of cornettos and trombones is, of course, a ubiquitous ensemble in early seventeenth-century Italy. Guarini specifies that the cornettos are to be large (grandotti), so that they can play in concert with the trombones "as much as possible." Since cornettos and trombones normally played together in consort without difficulty, it seems that Guarini was concerned about the ability of the cornettos to provide appropriate simulation of the winds. Although it is unclear just what Guarini understood by grandotti when applied to cornettos, tenor cornettos are a possibility, since they would have played in a register closer to the trombones, perhaps better achieving the particular sound effect Guarini sought.  [Return to: paragraph 37.7, note 428.]

44.6 Despite these seemingly contradictory references, both originating outside Venice, that associate the term squarciato with trombones, they are insufficient to alter our fundamental conclusions with regard to the kind of instrument signified by the term tromba squarciata. In the first place, to the best of our knowledge, trombones were never associated with drums. Trombones formed part of the typical Italian pifferi, whether those of the doge, or any other pifferi ensemble, and played in this capacity for civic events, religious ceremonies, and in musica da tavola in the doge's palace or at the homes of other nobility, whether in Venice or in many other places in Europe. They were not associated with drums in processions or in courtly music, nor are we aware of any information that they, together with the other pifferi, appeared on Venetian battlefields, though other cities' pifferi did participate in battles. When Giovanni Stringa mentions a tromba squarciata da guerra, he could not mean a trombone, for the mass of documentary and iconographical evidence doesn't offer the slightest support for the existence of tromboni da guerra.492 Moreover, it is the trumpet, not the trombone, that is the standard and ubiquitous symbol for fame, the role served by the tromba squarciata da guerra in Stringa's description. The absence of connection between trombones and drums and the frequency with which trombe squarciate are paired with drums, as well as the military connotations of the tromba squarciata,would themselves rule out this term as another name for trombone.

44.7 Another, indirect confirmation of the distinction between trombones and trombe squarciate is found in Adriano Banchieri's account, in his Conclusioni nel suono dell'organo of 1609, of the registers of the new organ by Vincenzo Fiammingo in the church of San Pietro in Gubbio. Banchieri lauds the variety of registers on this organ that allow it to imitate various instruments. Among those listed are tromboni and trombe squarciate as quite separate registers.493 This was not the first instance of a register called a tromba squarciata, however. Such a stop was included in the organ installed by Giovanni Cipri in the church of San Martino in Bologna in 1566.494 [Return to paragraph 37.7.]

44.8 Whatever the explanation for Guarini's use of the term squarciati in connection with trombones, or the Veronese inventories' identification of their trombones as squarzadi, these two anomalies are just that—anomalies in the face of overwhelming evidence from Venice itself, unclouded by any contradictory evidence, that the term squarciato applied in that city exclusively to trumpets, and, very likely, exclusively to mid-length or even shorter straight trumpets with wide throats and bells.

45. A Hypothesis about Trumpets in Venice

45.1 Why would the Venetians have used the term trombe squarciate in the first place and, at least as far as is known to this point, have been the only ones to use it for trumpets per se?495 And why did the term first appear in the early sixteenth century and largely disappear by the mid-seventeenth century? Any answers, of course, are speculative, but we believe a reasonable hypothesis can be constructed from the evidence available. First, these mid-length straight trumpets with large conical bells appear much more frequently in Venetian iconography of the period than in the iconography of any other Italian city, suggesting that they were particularly favored by Venetians for the huge quantity of public civic and religious ceremonies that were traditional in Venice and were substantially augmented in the sixteenth century. These lavish processions and other ceremonies constituted a principal feature of the life of the Serenissima and its citizens.

45.2 Secondly, the history of trumpet making and the dissemination of different types of instruments in Venice may have stimulated a special term for mid-length straight trumpets with wide bells in the Serenissima. S-shaped instruments date back to the late fourteenth century, but appear infrequently in Venetian iconography. Folded trumpets originated around the turn of the fifteenth century, and the Nuremberg trumpet makers probably began producing folded instruments in the late fifteenth century, though no authenticated Nuremberg instruments survive from this period.496 By the early sixteenth century the primary product of the Nuremberg artisans was folded instruments, and by the middle of the century these folded trumpets had permeated most of Europe. As these folded instruments came into use in Venice, observable through iconography, the Venetians may have found it desirable to distinguish between the folded, full-size instruments and their traditional mid-size straight trumpets with large bells, ubiquitous in public processions and ceremonies. Thus the term squarciato was frequently adopted to distinguish the latter instruments. On the basis of Venetian written sources, the term appears early in the sixteenth century and became especially common toward the end of the century, remaining in popular use until around the middle of the seventeenth century, when the folded instruments may well have gained ascendancy for all types of Venetian trumpet functions except the trombe d'argento of the doge.497 Mid-length straight trumpets had limitations on what notes they could usefully play, consisting of the lowest several notes of the harmonic series, confining them largely to fanfares and military signals. The full-size folded trumpet, however, in having tubing twice as long, had the obvious advantage of being able to play more notes in the higher range of the harmonic series, thereby making the instrument much more useful for chamber music and in instrumental ensembles in church. The trumpeters added to the instrumental ensemble of St. Mark's in the late seventeenth century almost certainly played full-size, folded instruments most, if not all, of the time.

45.3 Folded trumpets shared the stage, perhaps in equal number, with mid-length straight trumpets in Venice by the late sixteenth century. The heraldic trumpet in Vicentino's "Embarkation of the Dogaressa" (Figure 26) of 1597 is a mid-length straight trumpet, but the trumpets performing the same heraldic function in his "Arrival of the Dogaressa" (Figure 28) of the same year are folded trumpets. Folded trumpets appear in other late sixteenth and early seventeenth-century paintings, such as Giovanni Le Clerc's illustration of the doge and crusaders swearing an oath in St. Mark's (Figure 8: see paragraph 12.3) and Pietro Damini's large and colorful canvas (c. 1619–21) of the military captain of Padua receiving the keys of his command (Figure 37: see paragraph 27.1). Folded trumpets are found in Venetian military iconography of the mid- to late-seventeenth century, and the straight trumpet, whether long, mid-length or short, seems to play only an allegorical role in Venetian painting and drawing after the middle of the seventeenth century. Folded trumpets also appear in eighteenth-century Venetian iconography as military instruments, and had probably supplanted straight trumpets altogether by that time.

45.4 If folded trumpets did indeed replace mid-length and shorter straight trumpets in Venice by the second half of the seventeenth century, then there would have been little further use for the distinguishing term squarciata, and the adjective would have dropped out of usage. However, it did not do so entirely, and perhaps even the straight trumpets survived for a long time for festive, symbolic purposes, since a description of a remarkably elaborate scenic representation projected for Fat Thursday, sometime in the period 1763–66, describes a sumptuous palace, a garden, a mountain, woods, the goddess Venus, a cupid, giants, rustic men, knights, nymphs, dragons, serpents, bears, and especially battles, balls, singing and playing. The document concludes with a description of a tableau vivant from which rose-colored water was to be sprinkled on the spectators and was to be accompanied by twelve nymphs, twelve rustic men, and six knights on horseback with white armaments adorned with gold and silver flames, "and they will be accompanied by trombe squarciate et tamburri da battaglia."498 Perhaps even at this late date the mid-length straight trumpet with wide throat and bell, though no longer in practical use, still served a traditional symbolic function.

46. Summary of Argument Regarding Trombe squarciate

46.1 In attempting to resolve the question of trombe squarciate introduced by Ginammi's account of  Monteverdi's "Mass of Thanksgiving" as well as many other sources, we have resorted to several different types of evidence in the absence of any documentation defining specifically what the term meant in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Venice. We have assembled material distinguishing the various types of trumpets used in Venice as well as their distinctive functions. The vast majority of this evidence converges on the same conclusion regarding trombe squarciate. The material we have gathered also suggests a reasonable hypothesis regarding the size, shape and function of trombe squarciate that responds to most of the questions that have been raised regarding the meaning of the term. Therefore we believe our hypotheses have a high probability of being historically accurate, though we cannot account at this time for the anomalous contradictory evidence from Verona and Mantua, two cities with close connections in their dialects and traditions.

46.2 Nevertheless, we do not claim that our arguments are absolutely definitive and that the question of trombe squarciate has now been resolved for all time. This is not at all unusual, for historical controversies are controversial for the very reason that the available evidence is not definitive and may include contradictions or anomalies. The incompleteness and inconsistency of the historical record always leaves room for other, contradictory evidence to be discovered and interpreted. Scholars must always be prepared to adjust and adapt their thinking to new information, new ideas and new interpretations. Just as history is the subject of scholarship, there is a history of scholarship itself, and for now we will have to leave it to the history of this issue to determine the reasonableness of our conclusions and the durability of our hypotheses.

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