Child Composers in the Old Conservatories: How Orphans Became Elite Musicians

Description

In seventeenth century Italy, overcrowding, violent political uprising, and plague led an astonishing number of abandoned and orphaned children to overwhelm the cities. Out of the piety of private citizens and the apathy of local governments, the system of conservatori was created to house, nurture, and train these fanciulli vaganti (roaming children) to become hatters, shoemakers, tailors, goldsmiths, cabinet makers, and musicians - a range of practical trades that might sustain them and enable them to contribute to society. Conservatori were founded across Italy, from Venice and Florence to Parma and Naples, many specializing in a particular trade. Four music conservatori in Naples gained particular renown for their exceptional training of musicians, both performers and composers, all boys. By the eighteenth century, the graduates of the Naples conservatories began to spread across Europe, with some 600 boys formerly in residence beginning to dominate the European musical world. Other conservatories in the country - including the Paris Conservatory - began to imitate the principles of the Naples' conservatory's training, known as the partimento tradition. The daily lessons and exercises associated with this tradition were largely lost-until author Robert Gjerdingen discovered evidence of them in the archives of conservatories across Italy and the rest of Europe. Compellingly narrated and richly illustrated, Child Composers in the Old Conservatory follows the story of these boys as they undergo rigorous training with the conservatory's maestri and eventually become maestri themselves, then moves forward in time to see the influence of partimenti in the training of such composers as Claude Debussy and Colette Boyer. Advocating for the revival of partimenti in modern music education, the book explores the tremendous potential of this tradition to enable natural musical fluency for students of all ages learning the craft today. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Preface: Learning Wizardry in Music 1 Introduction: The Wheel of Misfortune Part I: Children in Need and Their Adult Benefactors 2 Little Boys on Their Own: Domenico Cimarosa and Henri Busser 3 Masters Take up the Challenge: Durante, Leo, Fenaroli 4 Child Labor: Little Angels and Prodigies 5 Institutionalized Apprenticeship: London and Naples 6 Social Class: Artisans, Artistes, and a Continuing Schism Part II: Technologies of Training: In the Form of Music Lessons 7 Schemas, Exemplars, and the Treasure Trove of Memory 8 Solfeggi and the Acquisition of Style 9 Partimenti and the Power of Improvisation 10 Counterpoint and Collocation 11 Intavolature and the Techniques of Instruments 12 Dispositions and the Mastery of Complexity Part III: Trial by Contest and the Conferral of Status 13 Little Masters, Real Masters, and Masterpieces 14 The Contest Piece as a Probe of Memory 15 Affordance and the Musical Habitus 16 Predicting Creativity Within a Tradition 17 A Sickly Young Woman Speaks Elegant Harmony to One of the Immortals Part IV: Transforming Commonplaces into Works of Art 18 The Oval and Cross: Internalized Constructions in the Visual Domain 19 A Framework for Elaboration: The Moti del basso in Naples 20 The Beaux-Arts Framework: From Schema to Mise en Traite to Verisimilitude 21 A Beaux-Arts Framework for Music: From Sketch to Draft to Realization 22 Learning Old Music in a New Age of Digital Production Appendix A: For Further Study Appendix B: Movimenti, Schemas, and Exemplars Notes Index of Names Table of Topics by Chapter