Papal patronage and the music of St. Peter's, 1380-1513

the long version

Examining archival documents, musical styles, and issues of artistic patronage and cultural context, Christopher Reynolds offers a new picture of music at the basilica of St. Peter's in the fifteenth century. An expanding commitment to music during this period is signaled by the construction of several organs, the employment of singers from outside Italy, and the gathering of an international group of composers and scribes. The attraction of St. Peter's for northerners attests to the strength of the system of clerical patronage that existed from the Avignon papacy to the Council of Trent. The resulting artistic flowering left us the earliest documentable tradition of written polyphony in Rome. . Part 1 of Reynold's study is a historical account of singers, music scribes, composers, organists, and other instrumentalists. In Part 2, Reynolds examines several anonymous masses copied at St. Peter's, proposing attributions that have biographical implications for the composers. In Part 3, he examines the music to reveal the composers' cultural values and educational backgrounds in order to refute the accepted view that northern composers upheld scholastic values in a humanistic cultural milieu. In revealing a developing nationalism in patronage, which by the end of the century sought to favor Italian musicians once again, Reynolds chronicles changes in musical tastes and styles.