| 1453 | The Ottoman Empire
(established in 1301) advanced rapidly until it spread all the way from
the Euphrates to the Danube. The Byzantine Empire was steadily reduced
to a few territories and a small enclave around Constantinople. Unlike
the Arabs, who thought the use of firearms dishonorable, the Ottomans
became masters of artillery. In 1453 they brought their cannons to the
gate of Constantinople and stormed the Christian capital after a siege.
The Greek Emperor was killed; the great church of St. Sophia was
plundered of its treasure and turned into a mosque. The Fall of
Constantinople marks the end of the Middle Ages |
| The Ottomans |
| 1455 | The earliest Germanic version of the
Bible was the Gothic translation from Latin and Greek undertaken by
Ulfilas (ca. 381). From Ulfilas came much of the Germanic Christian
vocabulary that is still in use today. Later Charlemagne would foster
Frankish (Germanic) biblical translations in the 9th century. Over the
years, prior to the appearance of the first printed German Bible in
1466, various German and German dialect translations of the Scriptures
were published. The Augsburger Bibel of 1350 was a complete New
Testament, while the Wenzel Bible (1389) contained the Old Testament in
German. Johannes Gutenberg's so-called 42-line Bible, printed in Mainz
in 1455, was in Latin. About 40 copies exist today in various states of
completeness. It was Gutenberg's invention of printing with movable
type that made the Bible, in any language, vastly more influential and
important. It was now possible to produce Bibles (and other books) in
greater quantities at a lower cost |
| 1466 | Before Martin Luther was even born, a German-language Bible was published in 1466, using Gutenberg's invention. Known as the Mentel Bibel, this Bible was a literal translation of the Latin Vulgate. Printed in Strassburg, the Mentel Bibel appeared in some 18 editions until it was replaced by Luther's new translation in 1522 |
| 1492 | Columbus sailed from
Palos de la Frontera on 3 August, 1492. His flagship, the Santa Maria
had 52 men aboard while his other two ships, the Nina and Pinta each
held 18 men. The expedition made a stop at the Canary Islands and on 6
September 1492 sailed westward. The weather during the journey was
pleasant but by 10 October, after 34 days at sea and convinced that at
any moment they would reach and fall off the edge of a world they
believed was flat, the sailors were ready to mutiny. Columbus was able
to convince the mutineers to wait 3 more days and the very next day
they saw tree branches floating in the water, a sign that land was
close. After making landfall in the Bahamas at dawn on 12 October 1492,
Columbus explored the coasts and named a large number of islands,
including Cuba and La Espanola. When he went ashore he was puzzled
because the 'easterners' were not what Marco Polo described them to be
on his return to Europe in 1295 after spending 20 years in the Orient,
nor did Columbus see any 'pagodas' with golden roofs |
| The Columbus Navigation Page |
| In the spring of 1492, shortly after the Moors were driven out
of Granada, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain expelled all the Jews from
their lands and thus, by a stroke of the pen, put an end to the largest
and most distinguished Jewish settlement in Europe. The expulsion of
this intelligent, cultured, and industrious class was prompted only in
part by the greed of the king and the intensified nationalism of the
people who had just brought the crusade against the Muslim Moors to a
glorious close. The real motive was the religious zeal of the Church,
the Queen, and the masses. The official reason given for driving out
the Jews was that they encouraged the Marranos to persist in their
Jewishness and thus would not allow them to become good Christians
|
|
Jewish History Sourcebook from which this extract has been taken |
| Vasco da Gama was born in Sines, Portugal in 1469. Being the
son of the town’s governor, he was educated as a nobleman and served in
the court of King Joao II. Da Gama also served as a navel officer, and
in 1492 he commanded a defense of Portuguese colonies from the French
on the coast of Guinea. Da Gama was then given the mission to the take
command of the first Portuguese expedition around Africa to India. When
Vasco da Gama set out on July 8, 1497 he and his crew planned and
equipped four ships. Goncalo Alvares commanded the flagship Sao (Saint)
Gabriel. Paulo, da Gama's brother, commanded the Sao Rafael. The other
two ships were the Berrio and the Starship. Most of the men working on
the ship were convicts and were treated as expendable. On the voyage,
da Gama set out from Lisbon, Portugal, rounded the Cape of Good Hope on
November 22, and sailed north. Da Gama made various stops along the
coast of Africa in trading centers such as Mombasa, Mozambique,
Malindi, Kenya, and Quilmana. As the ships sailed along the east coast
of Africa, many conflicts arose between the Portuguese and the Muslims
who had already established trading centers along the coast. The Muslim
traders in Mozambique and Mombasa did not want interference in their
trade centers. Therefore, they perceived the Portuguese as a threat and
tried to seize the ships. In Malindi, on the other hand, the Portuguese
were well received, because the ruler was hoping to gain an ally
against Mombasa, the neighboring port. From Malindi, da Gama was
accompanied the rest of the way to India by Ahmad Ibn Majid, a famous
Arab pilot. Vasco da Gama finally arrived in Calicut, India on May 20,
1498 |
| Hapsburg from which this extract has been taken |
| 1493 | Djuradj Crnojevic
(1490-96), Ivan Crnojevic's elder son, was an educated ruler. He is
most famous for a single historical act: he used the printing press
brought to Cetinje by his father to print the first books in
southeastern Europe, in 1493. The Crnojevic printing press marked the
beginning of the printed word among the southern Slavs. The press
operated from 1493 through 1496, turning out religious books of which
five have been preserved: Oktoih prvoglasnik, Oktoih petoglasnik,
Psaltir, Molitvenik and Cetvorojevandjelje. Djuradj managed the
printing of the books, wrote prefaces and afterwords, and developed
sophisticated tables of Psalms with the lunar calendar. The books from
the Crnojevic press were printed in two colors, red and black, and were
richly ornamented. They served as models for many of the subsequent
books printed in cyrillic. The end of the 15th century and of Djuradj's
rule mark the end of the Crnojevic dynasty |
| Zeta (Montenegro) under the third Montenegrin dynasty, the Crnojevic (1427-1516) |
| 1500 | Birth of Charles V of
Hapsburg, who became Lord of the Netherlands in 1515, King of Spain in
1516, and was elected Holy Roman Emperor (German-speaking region) in
1519. He ruled most of Europe until his abdication in 1556. Most of the
Low Countries had been acquired by the marriage of the Hapsburg
Maximilian to Mary of Burgundy. The marriage of their son, Philip I, to
Joanna of Castile, brought Philip’s elder son, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V, to the throne of Spain. The marriage of Charles’s younger
brother, Ferdinand, to Anna, daughter of Louis II of Bohemia and
Hungary, strengthened the Hapsburg claim to these possessions after the
death (1526) of Louis at Mohács. Hapsburg power reached its zenith
under Charles V. The reigns of Maximilian I and Charles V, while
encompassing the height of Hapsburg power, also witnessed the emergence
of the enduring struggles that eventually sapped Hapsburg strength.
These included the defense of Central Europe against the Turks; the
support of the Catholic Church against the Protestant Reformation; and
the defense of the dynastic position against the rise of France |
|
Vasco da Gama Arrives in India - 1498 from which this extract has been taken |
| 1509 | Henry VIII (1491-1547)
ascends the throne of England. He was the second son and third child of
his father, Henry VII. His elder brother Arthur died in April, 1502,
and consequently Henry became heir to the throne when he was not yet
quite eleven years old. It has been asserted that Henry's interest in
theological questions was due to the bias of his early education, since
he had at first been destined by his father for the Church. But a child
of eleven can hardly have formed lifelong intellectual tastes, and it
is certain that secular titles, such as those of Earl Marshal and
Viceroy of Ireland, were heaped upon him when he was five. On the other
hand there can be no question as to the boy's great precocity and as to
the liberal scope of the studies which he was made to pursue from his
earliest years. |
| Henry VIII from which this extract has been taken |
| 1517 | Martin Luther (1483-1546)
dealt the symbolic blow that began the Reformation when he nailed his
Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church. That document
contained an attack on papal abuses and the sale of indulgences by
church officials. But Luther himself saw the Reformation as something
far more important than a revolt against ecclesiastical abuses. He
believed it was a fight for the gospel. Luther even stated that he
would have happily yielded every point of dispute to the Pope, if only
the Pope had affirmed the gospel. And at the heart of the gospel, in
Luther's estimation, was the doctrine of justification by faith - the
teaching that Christ's own righteousness is imputed to those who
believe, and on that ground alone, they are accepted by God |
| Martin Luther from which this extract has been taken |
| 1520 | An expedition sent by
Spain to the Caribbean in 1518 but under the leadership of Grijalva
touched the coast of Mexico, and brought home metallic objects and
evidences of superior culture. Velazquez determined to send a more
numerous squadron to the Mexican coast. Hernando Cortés (c.1485-1547),
then one of Velazquez's favourites, was named as the commander, a
choice which created no little envy. Cortés entered into the enterprise
with zeal and energy, sacrificing with a great deal of ostentation a
considerable part of his fortune to equip the expedition. Eleven
vessels were brought together, manned with well-armed men, and horses
and artillery were embarked. At the last moment Velazquez, whose
suspicions were aroused by the action of Cortés, instigated by his
surroundings, attempted to prevent the departure. It was too late;
Cortés, after the example set by Quintero, slipped away from the Cuban
coast and thus began the conquest of Mexico which he achieved by 1520 |
| Hernando Cortés from which this extract has been taken |
| 1520-22 | It was the Portuguese who first
sailed round Africa and realised Columbus' dream of reaching the Far
East by sea. But this route was one which could not be used by the
Spanish because in the famous Treaty of Tordesillas, it had been
stipulated that the southernmost limit for navigation by Castilian
vessels off the Atlantic Coast of Africa was Cape Bojador. Starting at
the beginning of the 16th century, the Spanish monarchy intensified
efforts to find a strait dividing the continent of America which would
allow passage to what would be called the Pacific and further east, the
Moluccas, or Spice Islands. The Crown assembled a flotilla of five
vessels to pursue this goal and command fell to a Portuguese, Ferdinand
Magellan; it was he who went on to persuade Spain that the project was
feasible, discover at the southern tip of America the strait which
would subsequently bear his name and carry on to the Moluccas, where he
in fact died. It was Juan Sebastian Elcano who with just one ship, went
on round the world for the first time, returning to Spain along the
Portuguese route. It is proof enough of the exceptional difficulty of
this crossing that only 18 men out of the 285 who had set out came back
in the Victoria |
| 1523 | translation of the New
Testament into French by Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples (Stapulensis)
(c.1455-1536) is published in Paris, 1523 |
| Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples |
| 1529 | The successful repulsion
of the Turkish besiegers in 1529 had earned the city of Vienna great
international prestige. Although Vienna was not conquered, the siege
was to have a dramatic impact on its physical structure. As early as
1530 work was undertaken to replace the now inefficient medieval city
walls by modern fortifications and bastions, built on the Italian
model. Travelogues and descriptions from the 16th century already
testify to the city's metropolitan character with strikingly tall
buildings, but also narrow lanes, and altogether vibrant urban life.
However, this also marked the beginning of the end of late medieval
burgher autonomy. The renewed rise to glory of the Habsburgs, who
returned to being Holy Roman Emperors in 1438, left little space for
that. Even the beginnings of Vienna, under the Babenbergs, had been
marked by the city's role as a residence, and this tendency became more
strongly apparent still with the dawn of the early modern age. At the
time, Vienna became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire and the
residence of the Emperor, and this is reflected not least in the fact
that all building activity was dominated by the court, the aristocracy
and the church |
| The period of the Turkish sieges (1529-1683) from which this extract has been taken |
| 1534 | Die Luther Bibel (Neues Testament
appeared earlier in 1522). The most influential German Bible, and the
one that continues to be most widely used in the Germanic world today
(last official revised edition in 1984), was translated from the
original Hebrew and Greek by Martin Luther (1483-1546) in the record
time of just ten weeks (New Testament) during his involuntary stay in
the Wartburg Castle near Eisenach, Germany. Luther's first complete
Bible in German appeared in 1534. He continued to revise his
translations up until his death. In response to Luther's Protestant
Bible, the German Catholic Church published its own versions, most
notably the Emser Bibel, which became the standard German
Catholic Bible. Luther's German Bible also became the primary source
for other northern European versions in Danish, Dutch, and Swedish |
| 1536 | John Calvin (1509-1564) publishes his Institutes of Christian Religion |
| Calvinism |
| 1540 | Pope Paul III authorizes
the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556). The
Society was not founded with the avowed intention of opposing
Protestantism. Neither the papal letters of approbation nor the
Constitutions of the order mention this as the object of the new
foundation. When Ignatius began to devote himself to the service of the
Church, he had probably not even heard of the names of the Protestant
Reformers. His early plan was rather the conversion of Mohammedans, an
idea which, a few decades after the final triumph of the Christians
over the Moors in Spain, must have strongly appealed to the chivalrous
Spaniard. The name "Societas Jesu" had been born by a military order
approved and recommended by Pius II in 1450, the purpose of which was
to fight against the Turks and aid in spreading the Christian faith.
The early Jesuits were sent by Ignatius first to pagan lands or to
Catholic countries; to Protestant countries only at the special request
of the pope and to Germany, the cradle-land of the Reformation, at the
urgent solicitation of the imperial ambassador. From the very beginning
the missionary labours of the Jesuits among the pagans of India, Japan,
China, Canada, Central and South America were as important as their
activity in Christian countries. As the object of the society was the
propagation and strengthening of the Catholic faith everywhere, the
Jesuits naturally endeavored to counteract the spread of Protestantism.
They became the main instruments of the Counter-Reformation; the
re-conquest of southern and western Germany and Austria for the Church,
and the preservation of the Catholic faith in France and other
countries were due chiefly to their exertions. |
| The Jesuits from which the above extract has been taken |
| 1541 | Calvin becomes the reformer and de facto ruler of Geneva until his death |
| John Calvin |
| 1543 | Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) publishes De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium |
| Nicholas Copernicus |
| Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) publishes De Humani Corporis Fabrica |
| Andreas Vesalius |
| 1545 | Beginning of the Council
of Trent, which met 1545-1547, 1551-1552, 1562-1563. The nineteenth
ecumenical council opened at Trent on 13 December, 1545, and closed
there on 4 December, 1563. Its main object was the definitive
determination of the doctrines of the Church in answer to the heresies
of the Protestants; a further object was the execution of a thorough
reform of the inner life of the Church by removing the numerous abuses
that had developed in it |
| Council of Trent |
| 1547 | Edward VI (1537–53)
becomes king of England. Edward succeeded his father to the throne at
the age of nine. Henry had made arrangements for a council of regents,
but the council immediately appointed Edward’s uncle, Edward Seymour,
earl of Hertford (later duke of Somerset), as lord protector. Henry’s
absolutism was relaxed by a liberalization of the treason and heresy
laws. Tempering the reforming zeal of Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of
Canterbury, the government moved slowly toward Protestantism. The Act
of Uniformity (1549), which required use of the first Book of Common
Prayer, increased contention between Roman Catholics and reformers, and
an unsuccessful rebellion occurred in the west. The dissolution of
chantries and the destruction of relics, both begun under Henry,
proceeded apace. Somerset won a victory over the Scots at Pinkie (1547)
but failed to persuade them to agree to a marriage between Edward and
Mary Queen of Scots. The Scots instead strengthened their alliance with
France, the power that increasingly threatened England’s safety. War
between France and England broke out in 1549 over the possession of
Boulogne. |
| Edward VI from which this extract has been taken |
| 1551 | Foundation of the
University of Lima, Peru. Lima was founded on its present site in 1535
by the Spanish soldier Francisco Pizarro, and the fountain in the
central square dates from 1651. An earthquake in 1746 destroyed all of
the colonial structures on the plaza, which were rebuilt in subsequent
decades. Lima’s cathedral (begun in 1746) faces the plaza and contains
a glass coffin said to hold Pizarro’s remains |
| The University of Mexico at Mexico City, founded in 1551 by the Spanish king Charles I (Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) |
| 1553 | Michael Servetus
(1511-1553), a Spaniard martyred in the Reformation for his criticism
of the doctrine of the trinity and his opposition to infant baptism,
has often been considered an early unitarian. Sharply critical though
he was of the orthodox formulation of the trinity, Servetus is better
described as a highly unorthodox trinitarian. Still, aspects of his
theology — for example, his rejection of the doctrine of original sin —
did influence those who later founded unitarian churches in Poland and
Transylvania. Public criticism of those responsible for his execution,
the Reform Protestants in Geneva and their pastor, John Calvin,
moreover, inspired unitarians and other groups on the radical left-wing
of the Reformation to develop and institutionalize their own heretical
views. Widespread aversion to Servetus' death has been taken as
signaling the birth in Europe of religious tolerance, a principle now
more important to modern Unitarian Universalists than
antitrinitarianism. Servetus is also celebrated as a pioneering
physician. He was the first to publish a description of the blood's
circulation through the lungs |
| Michael Servetus from which this extract has been taken |
| 1555 | The Peace of Augsburg (1555)
represented a victory for the German princes, granted recognition to
both Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism in Germany, and gave each ruler
the right to decide the religion to be practiced within his state.
Subjects not of this faith could move to another state with their
property, and disputes between the religions were to be settled in
court. The Protestant Reformation strengthened the long-standing trend
toward particularism in Germany. German leaders, whether Protestant or
Catholic, became yet more powerful at the expense of the central
governing institution, the empire. Protestant leaders gained by
receiving lands that formerly belonged to the Roman Catholic Church,
although not to as great an extent as, for example, would occur in
England. Each prince also became the head of the established church
within his territory. Catholic leaders benefited because the Roman
Catholic Church, in order to help them withstand Protestantism, gave
them greater access to church resources within their territories.
Germany was also less united than before because Germans were no longer
of one faith, a situation officially recognized by the Peace of
Augsburg. The agreement did not bring sectarian peace, however, because
the religious question in Germany had not yet been settled fully |
| 1558 | Elizabeth I becomes Queen
of England until her death in 1603. When Elizabeth became Queen, it was
widely believed that she would restore the Protestant faith in England.
Her sister Mary's persecution of Protestants had done much damage to
the standing of Catholicism in England, and the number of Protestants
in the country was steadily increasing. Although Elizabeth had adhered
to the Catholic faith during her sister's reign, she had been raised a
Protestant, and was committed to that faith. Elizabeth's religious
views were remarkably tolerant for the age in which she lived. She
believed sincerely in her own faith, but she also believed in religious
toleration, and that Catholics and Protestants were both part of the
same faith. "There is only one Christ, Jesus, one faith" she exclaimed
later in her reign, "all else is a dispute over trifles." She also
declared that she had "no desire to make windows into men's souls".
Throughout her reign, Elizabeth's main concern was the peace and
stability of the realm, and religious persecution was only adopted when
certain religious groups threatened this peace. It was unfortunate for
Elizabeth that so many of her contemporaries did not share her views on
toleration, and she was forced by circumstance to adopt a harsher line
towards Catholics than she intended or wanted. Elizabeth's toleration
of Catholics, and her refusal to make changes to the Church she
established in 1559, has led some historians to doubt her commitment to
her faith - even to assert that she was an atheist, but such statements
are misleading. Elizabeth wanted a Church that would appeal to both
Catholics and Protestants, and did not want to move the Church in a
more Protestant direction, thus making it more difficult for Catholics
to accept the Church than it was already. The form of worship also
suited the Queen's conservative religion. She had little sympathy with
Protestant extremists who wanted to strip the Church of it's finery,
ban choral music, vestments and bell-ringing, and liked her Church just
the way it was |
| Elizabeth I from which this extract has been taken |
| 1562 | Beginning of wars of
religion in France that last until 1589 when Henry IV of Navarre
ascends the throne. The religious wars began with overt hostilities in
1562 and lasted until the Edict of Nantes in 1598. It was warfare that
devastated a generation, although conducted in rather desultory,
inconclusive way. Although religion was certainly the basis for the
conflict, it was much more than a confessional dispute. Une foi, un loi, un roi,
(one faith, one law, one king). This traditional saying gives some
indication of how the state, society, and religion were all bound up
together in people's minds and experience. There was not the
distinction that we have now between public and private, between civic
and personal. Religion had formed the basis of the social consensus of
Europe for a millenium. Since Clovis, the French monarchy in particular
had closely tied itself to the church - the church sanctified its right
to rule in exchange for military and civil protection. France was "the
first daughter of the church" and its king "The Most Christian King" ,le roy tres chretien,
and no one could imagine life any other way. "One faith" was viewed as
essential to civil order - how else would society hold together? And
without the right faith, pleasing to God who upholds the natural order,
there was sure to be disaster. Heresy was treason, and vice versa.
Innovation caused trouble. The way things were is how they ought to be,
and new ideas would lead to anarchy and destruction. No one wanted to
admit to being an "innovator". The Renaissance thought of itself as
rediscovering a purer, earlier time and the Reformation needed to feel
that it was not new, but just a "return" to the simple, true religion
of the beginnings of Christianity |
| Wars of Religion from which this extract has been taken |
| 1564 | Throughout Calvin's rule,
Geneva was protected by Bern, which had acquired the territory
immediately surrounding the city in 1535; however in 1564, the year of
Calvin's death, Bern was forced to cede this territory back to Savoy
under the Treaty Of Lausanne. Geneva was an associated territory, not a
full member of the Swiss Federation. The Canton of Geneva consisted of
several patches of territory surrounded by Savoyard territory,
separated from the Swiss Confederation by a couple of kilometers. In
1602 the Savoyards tried to scale the city walls under cover of
darkness and take the city by surprise (the Duke of Savoy was a
Catholic). The town, alterted in time, overwhelmed the intruders.
Geneva continued to attract (Calvinist) religious refugees and it was
here that English Puritan exiles translated what is called the Geneva
Bible in 1599 |
| Death of Michelangelo (b. 1475) |
| Michaelangelo Buonarroti |
| Birth of Galileo (d. 1642) |
| Galileo Galilei |
| Birth of Shakespeare (d. 1616) |
| William Shakespeare |
| 1568 | Beginning of the revolt
of the northern Low Countries against Philip II, King of Spain. Philip
had committed the government to his aunt, Margaret of Parma, the
nobles, chafed because of their want of influence, plotted and trumped
up grievances. They protested against the presence in the country of
several thousands of Spanish soldiers, against Cardinal de Granvelle's
influence with the regent, and against the severity of Charles V's
decrees against heresy. Philip recalled the Spanish soldiers and the
Cardinal de Greavelle, but he refused to mitigate the decrees and
declared that he did not wish to reign over a nation of heretics. The
difficulties with the Iconoclasts having broken out he swore to punish
them and sent thither the Duke of Alva with an army, whereupon Margaret
of Parma resigned. Alva behaved as though in a conquered country,
caused the arrest and execution of Count Egmont and de Hornes, who were
accused of complicity with the rebels, created the Council of Troubles,
which was popularly styled the "Council of Blood", defeated the Prince
of Orange and his brother who had invaded the country with German
mercenaries, but could not prevent the "Sea-beggars" from capturing
Brille. He followed up his military successes but was recalled in 1573.
His successor Requesens could not recover Leyden. Influenced by the
Prince of Orange the provinces concluded the "Pacification of Ghent"
which regulated the religious situation in the Low Countries without
royal intervention. The new governor, Don Juan, upset the calculations
of Orange by accepting the "Pacification ", and finally the Prince of
Orange decided to proclaim Philip's deposition by the revolted
provinces. The king replied by placing the prince under the ban;
shortly afterwards he was slain by an assassin (1584). Nevertheless,
the united provinces did not submit and were lost to Spain. Those of
the South, however, were recovered one after another by the new
governor, Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma. But he having died in
1592 and the war becoming more difficult against the rebels, led by the
great general Maurice of Nassau, son of William of Orange, Philip II
realized that he must change his policy and ceded the Low Countries to
his daughter Isabella, whom he espoused to the Archduke Albert of
Austria, with the provision that the provinces would be returned to
Spain in case there were no children by this union (1598). The object
of Philip's reign was only partly realized. He had safeguarded the
religious unity of Spain and had exterminated heresy in the southern
Low Countries, but the northern Low Countries were lost to him forever |
| Philip II from which this extract has been taken |
| 1571 | Birth of Johannes Kepler (d. 1630) |
| Johannes Kepler |
| In the 1560s, the Ottoman Empire pursued a policy of expansion,
based on her military power. While the Great Siege of Malta (1565)
entered the history book as an Ottoman defeat, it had tested to the
limit the will of the Christian nations to resist. In the following
year, the Aegean Islands fell to an Ottoman fleet without resistance;
even Venice and Genoa, who owned these islands, failed to respond. In
1566, Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent died; his successor, Selim II,
continued his predecessor's expansionist policy. Philip II of Spain
aware that further conflict was inevitable, and unable to count on the
loyalty of his Morisco minority, only nominally Christian and living in
the territory which had formed the Kingdom of Granada, who might revolt
once a Spanish-Ottoman war broke out, provoked the Morisco Revolt
(1568-1571) which was put down by an army led by Don Juan d'Austria,
illegitimate son of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V and half brother
of Philip II. A naval alliance between Spain, the Papal State and
Venice, together with Genoa and Savoy-Piemont led to a combined fleet,
under the command of Don Juan d'Austria, crushing the Ottoman fleet off
Lepanto on the coast of Greece in 1571. Despite the victory, the
alliance failed to act upon it, and an Ottoman force invaded and
conquered the hitherto Venetian island of Cyprus (1571), which Venice
ceded in a 1573 treaty. Don Juan d'Austria retook Tunis for Spain, but
he was recalled and in 1574 the Spanish permitted the city to fall to
the Ottoman forces without resistance. Again, as in the case of the
Great Siege of Malta, the will of the Christian states to hold on to
their possessions in the eastern and southern shores of the
Mediterranean was lacking. The reluctance of the Alliance to follow up
on its victory was due in no small part on the enormous costs involved.
In 1574, Philip II informed the newly elected Pope, Gregory XIII, that
the defence of Malta and the maintenance of the fleet would cost him
two million ducats annually |
| 1572 | New star (nova stella, or nova) in Cassiopeia, fully described by Tycho Brahe |
| Tycho Brahe |
| St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, in which thousands of French Protestants (Huguenots) were killed |
| The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day |
| 1575 | Leiden University was
founded in 1575, as an unexpected gift to the city. In 1574, Prince
William of Orange took the first steps towards establishing the
university, when he wrote a letter to the States of Holland. In this
letter he proposed that as a reward for the town’s brave resistance
against the Spanish invaders a university be founded which would serve
as ‘a staunch support and maintenance of the freedom and good lawful
government of the country’. On February 8, 1575, the university was
founded, and was later granted the motto Praesidium Libertatis, or Bastion of Liberty |
| Leiden University from which this extract has been taken |
| 1577 | Comet of 1577, fully described by Tycho Brahe |
| 1582 | Pope Gregory XIII (Ugo
Buoncompagni (1502-1585) institutes the Gregorian Calendar. The
Gregorian Calendar is a revision of the Julian Calendar necessary to
correct for a drift in the dates of important religious fesitvals
(primarily Easter) and to prevent any further drift in the dates. The
important effects of the change were:
- drop 10 days from October 1582, to realign the Vernal Equinox with 21 March
- change leap year selection so that not all years ending in "00" are leap years
- change the beginning of the year to 1 January from 25 March
The change in the number frequency of leap years (by
dropping 3 every 400 years) slightly changes the average year length to
something closer to reality. The new calendar was adopted essentially
immediately within Catholic countries. In Protestant countries, where
papal authority was neither recognized not appreciated, adoption came
more slowly. England finally adopted the new calendar in 1752, with
eleven days removed from September. An additional day arose from the
fact that the old and new calendars disagreed on whether 1700 was a
leap year. The Gregorian year length gives an error of one day in
approximately 3,225 years |
| Pope Gregory XIII |
| 1588 | Spanish Armada defeated by the weather and the English fleet |
| The Spanish Armada |
| 1589 | Henry of Navarre
(1553-1610) becomes the first Bourbon king, Henry IV, of France. Henry
IV was a popular king who ruled France during the religious strife of
the Reformation. Although a notorious philanderer, he was renowned for
his common sense and political acumen, and for his valiant military
leadership. Born a Catholic, Henry converted to Protestantism and led
the Huguenots (Protestants) in religious wars against the Catholics. In
1572, to calm religious unrest, he married the Catholic king's sister,
Margaret of Valois, and later became heir to the throne. But after the
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Protestants, Henry continued to lead
the Huguenots, causing the Catholics to protest his succession to the
throne in 1589. He enforced his claim with arms, and then reconverted
to Catholicism to unify the country. Henry restored peace and
prosperity to France after decades of civil and foreign wars. He
fostered religious tolerance and proclaimed the Edict of Nantes, giving
political equality and religious freedom to the Huguenots. He increased
agricultural production, industry, and foreign trade, but was
assassinated by a Catholic extremist in 1610 |
| Henry IV, King of France |
| 1597 | Johannes Kepler publishes Cosmographic Mystery |
| 1598 | Edict of Nantes, under which Protestants in France are allowed to practice their religion in peace |
| Edict of Nantes |
| 1600 | Giordano Bruno burned at the stake in Rome |
| Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher |
| William Gilbert (1540-1603) publishes On the Magnet |
| William Gilbert |
| 1603 | Elizabeth I, Queen of England, dies, and with her
the Tudor line. Her successor is James I of the House of Stuart, who
rules until 1625 |
Humanism :: 
- Although the term 'humanism' was coined in 1808 by F.J. Niethammer,
to describe a program of study distinct from science and engineering, umanista,
or 'humanist', as employed in the fifteenth century, described a
professional group of teachers whose subject matter consisted of those
areas that were called litterae humanitatis or studia humanitatis. The studia humanitatis originated in the middle ages and comprised the trivium and the quadrivium,
educational disciplines that lay outside theology and natural science.
Humanism was opposed to a particular brand of logic known as
Scholasticism (where language was used to produce certainty, focussing
on syllogism, which is the construction of a truthful conclusion from
truthful premises); rather, it developed a science of logic based on
discovering arguments that would persuade people of the truth of what
they were saying rather than convincing them of the certainty of that
truth. While the 'humanist' scholars of the Renaissance made great
strides and discoveries in this field, humanistic studies were really a
product of the middle ages, of what others have called the Italian
proto-Renaissance, of those who looked to Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
(1304-1374) as their inspiration.
The movement spread throughout Europe. Steven Kreis writes:
"Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), one of the greatest humanists,
occupied a position midway between extreme piety and frank secularism.
Petrarch represented conservative Italian humanism. Robust secularism
and intellectual independence reached its height in Niccolo Machiavelli
(1469-1527) and Francesco Guicciardini (1483-1540). Rudolphus Agricola
(1443-1485) may be regarded as the German Petrarch. In England, John
Colet (c.1467-1519) and Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) were early or
conservative humanists, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) represented later or
agnostic and skeptical humanism. In France, pious classicists like
Lefèvre d'Étaples (1453-1536) were succeeded by frank, urbane, and
devout skeptics like Michel Montaigne (1533-1592) and bold
anti-clerical satirists like François Rabelais (c.1495-1533)."
In England, the neo-Platonist 'School of Night', led by Thomas
Harriot (1560–1621), English mathematician and astronomer, and former
tutor to Walter Raleigh, included John Florio (1553?-1625), the
translator of Montaigne, and a friend of Giordano Bruno (1548-1600).
Bruno's exceptional intellect and powers of memory brought him to the
attention of Rome. He was called upon to demonstrate his abilities to
the Pope. During this period he may also have come under the influence
of Giovanni Battista Della Porta (1536-1615), a Neapolitan polymath who
published an important work Magiae naturalist
on popular science, cosmology, geology, optics, plant products,
medicines, poisons, cooking, transmutation of the metals (not however
confining transmutation to the alchemistical signification, but
including chemical changes generally), distillation, artificial gems,
the magnet and its properties, known remedies for a host of ailments,
cosmetics used by women, fires, gunpowders, Greek fires (including
preparations of Marcus Gracchus) and on invisible and clandestine
writing. Much of this he derived from ancient texts from the time of
Theophrastus and Aristotle. Bruno was attracted to new streams of
thought, among which were the works of Plato and Hermes Trismegistus,
both resurrected in Florence by Marsilio Ficino in the late fifteenth
century. Hermes Trismegistus was thought to be a gentile prophet who
was a contemporary of Moses. The works attributed to him in fact date
from the turn of the Christian era. Because of his heterodox
tendencies, Bruno came to the attention of the Inquisition in Naples
and in 1576 he left the city to escape prosecution. When the same
happened in Rome, he fled again, this time abandoning his Dominican
habit. For the next seven years he lived in France, lecturing on
various subjects and attracting the attention of powerful patrons. From
1583 to 1585 he lived at the house of his patron, Michel de Castelnau,
seigneur de Mauvissiere, the longest-serving French ambassador to
Elizabeth I. During this period Bruno published Cena de le Ceneri and De l'Infinito, Universo e Mondi (both in 1584). In Cena de le Ceneri,
Bruno defended the heliocentric theory of Copernicus. It appears that
he did not understand astronomy very well, for his theory is confused
on several points. In De l'Infinito, Universo e Mondi he argued
that the universe was infinite, that it contained an infinite number of
worlds, and that these are all inhabited by intelligent beings.
Other members of the 'School of Night' included the explorer
Richard Hakluyt (c.1552-1616) and Shakespeare's patron Henry
Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton (1573-1624). Bruno's presence may
in fact have catalyzed the formation of the 'School of Night'. To those
memorable dinners at the French embassy came Walter Raleigh
(1552-1618), Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), Philip Sidney
(1554-1586), and Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke (1554-1628); Florio, Bruno
and Mauvissiere played host. The conversation, according to Bruno's Cena de le ceneri, dwelt on the new Copernican system of astronomy, and its philosophical implications. Florio's Montaigne
was on William Shakespeare's shelves, we know, for there is a copy with
his hooked-S signature in it. Another member was Florio's publisher,
Edward Blount (c.1565-1632?), one of the stationers in Paules churchyard
implicated with Marlowe in Thomas Kyd's accusations of atheism.
Together with Isaac and William Jaggard, Blount was the publisher of
Shakespeare's First Folio (1623). Matthew Roydon (1580-1622) the poet
and William Warner (1558?–1609), a scientist who probably anticipated
Harvey in his discovery of the circulation of the blood, were
associates of Marlowe's and also of other members of the 'School of
Night'. The 'wizard' John Dee (1527-1608/9), whose magical
entertainment of the emperor Rudolf II at his court at Prague in the
late eighties probably formed the basis of the corresponding scene in
Doctor Faustus, was also closely connected with the group. Although Dee
himself published little, the work of his disciple Robert Fludd gives
us a good idea of the nature of his thought. Fludd developed a
remarkable memory system called the Theatrum Mundi, the Theatre
of the World. Frances Yates believes that the architecture of the Globe
Theatre was partly inspired by this system. George Chapman, the
translater of Homer, was another member of the 'School'. Some have
speculated that Chapman was Shakespeare's 'rival poet', though others,
notably A.L. Rowse, believe Marlowe himself better fits the part. In
either case, the rivalry might explain the peculiar relationship of
Shakespeare to the group, one of close interest, admiration, and
intimate knowledge, but also a certain personal distance and even
hostility. Chapman's close relationship with Marlowe is attested by his
completing of Marlowe's Hero and Leander, which had been interrupted by Marlowe's death.
During the late 14th and early 15th century, humanism emerged in
Florence. With the patronage of the powerful Medici family, Coluccio
Salutati (1331-1406) and Leonardo Bruno (Aretino) (1369-1444) defined
the studia humanitatis
as an educational program based on the study of Greek and Roman
authors. The goal of their civic humanism was to train aristocratic men
for public affairs, philosophy, history, and poetry. Men and women
alike could study these subjects, but only men could take up rhetoric,
science, and mathematics. The humanists looked to the Greek and Latin
classics for the lessons one needed to lead a moral and effective life
and the best models for a powerful Latin style particularly Cicero.
They developed a new, rigorous kind of classical scholarship, with
which they corrected and tried to understand the works of the Greeks
and Romans, which seemed so vital to them. Both the republican elites
of Florence and Venice and the ruling families of Milan, Ferrara,
Mantua and Urbino hired humanists to teach their children classical
morality and to write elegant, classical letters, histories, and
propaganda. Two foundational figures in this project, as it developed
beyond Florence, were Guarino Veronese (1374-1406) in Ferrara and
Vittorino da Feltre (1373-1446) at Mantua.
Although the recovery of Greek texts began at the start of the
middle ages in Europe, Renaissance humanism is seen as the movement
which introduced Europeans, in particular Italians, to a vast range of
quantity of classical Greek texts particularly associated with the
arrival of Byzantine scholars, initially to teach but, from 1453, in
response to the Fall of Constantinople. Until this calamitous event,
Italian humanists could travel to Byzantium and they brought back Greek
texts. In 1423, Giovanni Aurispa travelled to Byzantium and returned
with almost 240 manuscripts, including the first copies of Sophocles
and Thucydides seen in Europe. As important as the recovery of these
Greek texts was the development of new modes of literary analysis that
would be employed to verify or falsify important documents in European
history. It was not long, however, before humanistic literary scholars
turned their attention to Christian scriptures, especially the New
Testament and armed with their new skills in Greek language and
composition, they set about reading the original Greek texts hoping to
recover the original spirit and meaning of these early Christian texts.
They argued that the Latin translation of the New Testament had
corrupted the sense of the original, work that would lay the
foundations of the European Reformation. The moral philosopher Lorenzo
Valla (1407-1454) investigated what it was constituted 'man'. He came
to the conclusion that humans always acted out of self-interest. This
argument would eventually become the foundation of the Enlightenment
view of humanity and form the central argument of the ideology of
capitalism, individual rights, and democracy.
Civic humanists like Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444) and Leon Battista
Alberti (1404-1472) stressed political science and political action
over everything else while the educational humanists centered their
attention primarily on grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Alberti, who is
more famous for his treatise on architecture as well as being a member
of the Platonic Florentine Academy (1459-1522) founded by Marsilio
Ficino (1433-1499), the father of Renaissance neo-Platonism, argued
that the best form of government was a republic built on the Florentine
model. Every citizen should be responsible for one another and should
define themselves primarily in relation to the duties to their family
and their city-state.
The major influence of 'humanism' on the arts was the Platonic concept
of beauty. Humanism was, above everything else, an aesthetic movement.
Human experience, man himself, tended to become the practical measure
of all things. The ideal life was no longer a monastic escape from
society, but a full participation in rich and varied human
relationships. Alberti defines beauty thus:
"Such a Consent and Agreement of the Parts of a Whole in which
it is found ... as Congruity, that is to say, the principal law of
Nature, requires. But the Judgement which you make that a thing is
beautiful does not proceed from mere opinion, but from a secret
Argument and Discourse in the Mind itself."
[Leone Battista Albert, Ten Books on Architecture, trans. Leoni, London 1955]
Plato built a cosmology on Pythagoras' association of
mathematics with music. Harmony was its underlying principle and,
through mathematics and music, we could comprehend nature and beauty.
If beauty in art was to be a reflection of beauty in nature, it too had
to subscribe to the same mathematical ideas of proportion and
perspective for "the same numbers that pleese the eare pleese the eie."
The 'humanist' preoccupation with Platonism finds itself alluded to in Ben Jonson's anti-masque Love's Welcome at Bolsover performed to celebrate the visit, to Bolsover Castle, of Charles I and Henrietta Maria in 1634. "Well
done, my Musicall, Arithmeticall, Geometrical gamsters! ... It is
carried in number, weight and measure, as if the Airs were all Harmonie
and the Figures a well-timed Proportion"
References:
Music Theory ::
- The sixteenth-century saw the revival of certain aspects of ancient
Greek musical practice. The application of Greek thought to music
lingered behind other fields because the Greek writings on music were
generally rather technical. The situation was not helped either by the
lack of existing translations from the Greek into either Latin or the
vernacular. The only widely available text that preserved Greek music
treatises in Latin was the De institutione musica of Anicius
Manlius Severinus Boethius (c.480-c.525). This text played a central
role in shaping the thought of Nicola Vicentino (1511-1576), the author
of L'Antica Musica ridotta alla moderna prattica, first
published in Rome, 1555, and reprinted in 1557, that attempted to
revive the Greek musical system, reconcile it with contemporary
practice, and demonstrate its applicability to contemporary
composition. Vicentino adapted the three genera (diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic) of the tetrachord to the Western musical system. Each genus
consists of four notes (hence, tetrachord) spanning the interval of a
perfect fourth (e.g. C-F), of which the two outside notes are fixed,
and the two interior notes move according to the genus. The diatonic and chromatic genera can be accommodated within the prevailing musical system in the West; the enharmonic genus,
however, requires a division of the semitone, which is normally the
smallest interval in the Western system. Consequently, Vicentino
devised a special keyboard instrument, the archicembalo, that
used thirty-one keys for the octave (instead of the usual twelve in
conventional keyboards). His motivation in reintroducing these genera
was to recapture the legendary power of ancient music to affect the
soul, particularly, in the modern application, through the expression
of the sentiments of sung literary text. Plato and Aristotle insisted
that various modes had different ethical effects. Renaissance theorists
and composers mistakenly assumed that the old Greek modes were
identical to the similarly-named Church modes and that the legendary
powers of the former could be attributed to the latter. Vicentino seems
to have been unaware of the principal ancient sources for tetrachord
theory, Aristoxenus (fl 300 BC) and Ptolemy (fl 120 AD). Rather,
Vicentino's account is adapted from that of Boethius Book 1 which is
probably a translation of a longer treatise of Nicomachus (fl 100 AD),
which has, otherwise, not survived. The influence of other works, for
example, the Lucidarium (1317-18) of Marchetto of Padua, a work
widely read in Italy until at least the end of the fifteenth century,
(latest extant source from the sixteenth century was copied in Venice
in 1509), remains to be demonstrated.
In the treatise Musica practi (1482) by Spanish-born
Bartolomeo Ramis (c.1440–1500), which may have been influenced by
earlier treatises by Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and Safi Al-Dinm, Ramis
writes:
"The regular monochord has been subtly divided by Boethius with numbers
and measure. But althought this division is useful and pleasant to
theorists, to singers it is laborious and difficult to understand. And
since we have promised to satisfy both, we shall give a most easy
division of the regular monochord."
He then goes on to give the earliest description of a 12-note chromatic scale.
Franchino Gaffurio (1451-1522) incorporated the tuning system devised by Ptolemy into his treatises, Theorica musice (1492), Practica musice (1496) and De harmonia musicorum intrumentorum opus (1518), the most influential of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Jonathan Walker writes:
"Ptolemy rejected both the dogma of Pythagoras and the pure subjectivism of Aristoxenus, describing the Greek genera
in terms of the lowest-numbered ratios he could judge, by ear, to
correspond to the intervals used by musicians; for example, he replaced
the Pythagorean description of the major third (to use our term)
(81:64) with the simpler ratio (5:4), which he judged to be in
accordance with practice. His approach was therefore to account for
practice without abandoning the precision of ratio terminology, but to
use this terminology without the prescriptivism of the Pythagoreans."
By the early 16th century, instrumental tunings were adjusted
to make thirds and sixths sound acceptable; as a result, the use of
triads became more frequent, even in the final note of cadences. A
sharper distinction was made between dissonance and consonance, and the
masters of counterpoint invented new rules for controlling dissonance.
Johannes Tinctoris (1435-c.1511), a Flemish composer at the Naples
court of King Ferrante, wrote and published the Liber de Arte Contrapuncti in 1477. Heinrich Glarean or Glareanus (1488-1563), the Swiss humanist, published his Dodekachordon
in 1547. In establishing his theory of twelve modes he added four new
modes to the eight already adopted, and misnamed, from the Greeks.
Tinctoris' rules for introducing dissonances were further refined in
later treatises by other authors, including Lodovico Fogliano
(?-c.1538) in Musica Theorica (1529), and Gioseffo Zarlino (1517-1590) in Le istitutioni harmoniche (1558).
Reference:
Music Printing ::
- Johann Gutenberg perfected the art of printing from moveable type
in 1450. In the 1470s, printing was applied to monophonic music,
coinciding with a new blossoming of native composition in Italy.
Ottaviano de' Petrucci's anthology of chansons from ca. 1470-1500
called the Odhecaton was the first polyphonic music printed
using triple impression. Michel de Toulouze had, in fact, printed at
Paris, some time between 1488 and 1496, and without attribution to an
author, L’Art et instruction de bien dancer, the text and
musical content of which are largely the same as the famous Brussels MS
9085 that is supposed to have belonged to Margaret of Austria.
Petrucci, however, occupies a position analogous to Gutenburg as a
printer of books, for, though Petrucci was not the first to print music
or even the first to do so from movable type, he was the earliest to
accomplish printing in an important way with respect to music other
than plainsong. Printed music naturally gained wider circulation than
manuscripts.
Using wood blocks, metal blocks or movable type, the last probably
invented in Italy, early music printers had to represent a wide range
of musical material whether monophonic Gregorian Chant, polyphonic
music, or short musical examples in theoretical or other works. In the
first known printed book that is meant to include music, the Psalterium,
printed by Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer, Gutenberg's associates, at
Mainz, in 1457, only the text and three black lines of the staff were
printed; the fourth line was drawn by hand in red, and the notes were
also written in manually. Hand-written insertions continued to be made
in many liturgical works, even after the general adoption of music
printing, since individual copies from large editions could thus be
made to conform with local traditions.
The earliest attempt to depict actual music in print appeared in the Collectorium super Magnificat of Charlier de Gerson, produced at Esslingen in 1473 by Conrad Fyner. Here, sol, la, mi, re, ut,
mentioned in the text, are represented, without staff lines, by five
black squares placed in a diagonally descending row and preceded by the
letter f as an F clef.
In Italy, a Roman Missale completed at Milan by Michael
Zarotus of Parma on April 26, 1476, is the earliest known instance of
the printing of music from movable type. Gothic-style (lozenge-shaped)
notes are used; however, the printing of the music is not continued
throughout. Six months later another Missale, also employing
movable type but using Roman-style (square) notes, was produced by
Ulrich Han (or Hahn) at Rome. In both books, double-impression printing
was employed: the staves were printed in red in one impression, the
plainsong notes in black in another.
Mensural note-shapes seem to have been printed for the first time in Franciscus Niger's Grammatica brevis,
produced at Venice in 1480, by Theodor von Würzburg. It is not clear
whether these were printed from type or from a metal block. Three
note-shapes are drawn upon to illustrate five poetic meters. There are
no staves, but the ascending and descending spacing of the note-heads
probably indicates that melodies were intended. In 1487 there appeared,
in Nicolo Burzio's Musices Opusculum, produced at Bologna by Ugo de
Rugeriis, the first known, complete, printed part-composition. This was
made from a wood block. It is noteworthy that printing from movable
type, a more advanced technique, preceded printing from blocks.
Among the liturgical incunabula printed in Italy are several examples by Ottaviano Scotto. The presses yielded also various books on theory.
A petition, addressed by Petrucci to the Signory of Venice and
dated May 25, 1498, requested the exclusive privilege for twenty years
of printing music for voices, lute, and organ. Not until May 14, 1501,
however, did Petrucci's first publication appear. This was the famous Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A,
which is the earliest printed collection of part-music. It includes
compositions by Ockeghem and Busnois, as well as by several later
Franco-Flemish composers. It was followed by Canti B and Canti C, published in 1502 and 1504, respectively. Together with the Odhecaton,
these form a series particularly rich in Franco-Flemish chansons. All
three are in choirbook form, like most of Petrucci's later prints of
secular part-music. His aim was evidently to offer "raw material," from
which copies for specific performance requirements could be derived. He
printed sacred music in partbook form, however, for direct practical
use.
Ten out of a series of eleven Petrucci books (1504-1514) preserve a treasury of frottole (Book X is lost). The earliest piece of the type to find its way into print, however, is the Viva el gran Re Don Fernando, a barzelletta (= frottola) celebrating the Spanish conquest of Granada and rejoicing that the powerful city de la falsa fè pagana è disciolta e liberata.
Probably first sung at Naples, it was included in a Roman publication
of 1493 that was devoted primarily to a play commemorating the event. A
few of Petrucci’s pieces are by Andrea Antico, who not only composed,
but also worked as a type cutter, printer and publisher. In association
with Giovanni Battista Columba, an engraver, and Marcello Silber (alias
Franck), a printer, he produced in 1510, at Rome, his first published
collection of frottole, the Canzoni nove con alcune scelte de varii libri di canto.
Venice had temporarily become an unfavorable scene for artistic
enterprise, owing to the serious defeat inflicted upon the republic by
the League of Cambrai in 1509. However, shortly before 1520 Antico
apparently returned to Venice, where he later brought out some prints
in partnership with Ottaviano Scotto. In connection with works produced
by partners, it is often hard to determine the exact role of each. Some
printers not only did their own work, but also commissioned the
printing of certain editions from other shops and printed for others as
well. In 1513, Antico secured papal privileges for the printing of
music and soon thereafter emerged as a serious competitor of Petrucci.
In 1525, an important advance in printing was made by Pierre Haultin of
Paris (d. 1580). Whereas Petrucci had printed the staff and the notes
separately, Haultin achieved one-impression type-printing: he made
type-pieces in which small fragments of the staff were combined with
the notes, and with these pieces the whole composite of staves and
notes was built up. His method fathered, in principle, the kind of
music type-printing still occasionally employed. However, it was not at
once universally adopted: double printing re-emerged sporadically for
more than 250 years.
Haultin's type was used by the Parisian publisher Attaingnant,
among whose important publications (1528-1549) 'sacred and secular,
vocal and instrumental' there are about seventy collections that
contain nearly 2000 chansons (including, however, some duplications). It is significant, particularly in relation to chansons
and madrigals, that Attaingnant was probably the first printer to
insist on the careful placing of words under their appropriate notes.
Haultin's system was applied also in the type made by Guillaume Le Bé
for the famous house of Ballard. Robert Ballard together with his
half-brother Adrian Le Roy established in Paris, in 1551, a firm that
was to print Lully in the 17th century and Couperin in the 18th and was
to retain its privileges until the revolution of 1789. Another
innovation is attributable to the type-founder Etienne Briard (working
at Avignon, ca. 1530). Instead of the square and lozenge-shaped
noteheads generally used for mensural music at that time, he employed
oval ones. The first printer known to have adopted this reform was Jean
de Channey of Avignon, who employed Briard's type when printing
Carpentras's four publications of Lamentations and other sacred music
between 1532 and 1537. Important, in addition, was Jacques Moderne
(known, because of his obesity, as "Grand Jacques") who founded a music
house at Lyons and among whose famous publications is the Parangon des chansons
(eleven books, 1538-1543). He was probably the first to print
choir-books in which two voice-parts face in opposite directions on
each page, to enable people sitting on either side of a table to sing
from the same volume. Noteworthy, too, is Nicolas Du Chemin (ca.
1510-1576), whose issues appeared in Paris from 1540 to 1576 and
included a seventeen-volume chanson collection.
Music publishing flourished also in the Low Countries, notably in
Antwerp and Louvain. Tielman Susato, one of the best-known Belgian
printers, established himself in Antwerp, ca. 1529, as music copyist,
flutist, and trumpeter, and later as publisher. In 1543, he produced
the Premier Livre des chansons à quatre parties . . . . including eight chansons
by himself. Hubert Waelrant, an important composer, and the printer
Jean Laet in 1554 established a publishing house, which continued to
operate until Laet's death in 1597.
The collections issued by Pierre Phalèse of Louvain include both French and Flemish chansons,
as well as lute music. At first a publisher employing independent
printers, he undertook his own printing in 1552. After his death, his
son moved the firm to Antwerp.
The reign (1515-1547) of that typically Renaissance monarch, François
I, corresponds closely to the first period of the 16th-century chanson.
Then and later the chanson drew on Italian and Netherlandish elements,
spicing them with native French grace and wit. Its textual charm-of
varying shades of respectability-was calculated to delight the
courtiers of Fontainebleau and Paris. Despite the extremely broad humor
evinced, many of the chanson composers wrote serious motets and Masses and even held positions in the Church.
The two earliest collections published by Attaingnant, apparently the first prints of polyphonic chansons,
indeed the first prints of polyphonic music in France, appeared in
1528. The older one is actually dated April 4, 1527, but under a
calendar in which the year began on Easter eve. Of this collection,
only two parts remain. Nevertheless, its contents can be largely
reconstructed from later sources in which some of the same pieces
recur. The second collection survives complete but bears no date; this,
however, can be approximated through circumstantial evidence.
One of the first Attaingnant collections that are not only dated but also extant in complete form is the Trente et une chansons musicales
(1529). The two main composers included in it are Claudin de Sermisy,
whom the music books usually name just Claudin, and Clement Janequin,
to whom the entire second collection had been devoted. Despite the
latter's greater fame today, and probably in his own time, we may well
consider Claudin at least his equal among chanson composers of the type
which, with certain differences, they both represent. These composers
have been said to comprise a Paris school.
Reference:
The Renaissance and the French Court ::
- The story of the musical Renaissance at the French Royal court must
be read between the lines. Scholars have long noted the absence of
sources emanating from this illustrious court, as summarized by Richard
Sherr:
"The French court has always been recognized as one of the major musical centers of the early sixteenth century, but
study of it is difficult; there seem to be no extant court records . . . and very few extant musical sources can be claimed
as originating in the court of the French king. However, enough can be surmised to show that composers active in court
circles were influential (perhaps even more influential than is at present believed) in creating and spreading a new style
of polyphony . . . that quickly became part of all sacred and secular genres as the sixteenth century progressed."
The dearth of sources and documentation not only hides our view of what must have been one of the
most splendid cultural centers in Europe, it also prevents us from establishing a clear concept of the
career of the most celebrated and elusive composer of the sixteenth century, Josquin Des Prez. As
scholarship increasingly points to the French court as one of the places that employed him, the frustration
at these lacunae increases. The dearth of sources for Josquin as well as for the French court forces us to
view the musical Renaissance only peripherally.
French documents and musical sources succumbed not only to the normal accidents of loss and decay,
but also to the deliberate destruction that took place during the French Revolution. Some anecdotes and
legends survive, however; some of these suggest that Josquin was a pupil of Ockeghem, that numerous
composers were pupils of Josquin, that Mouton was a colleague of Josquin, that Josquin was seen at the
French court at Lyons, that Josquin musically chided Louis XII (1498–1515). Poetic texts add another layer of
suggestion, listing Josquin among the composers who mourn the death of Ockeghem, the French chapel’s
premier member for nearly fifty years.
Reference:
Origins of Early Opera and Ballet ::
- The jongleurs of the Middle Ages moved from presenting court
entertainments to organising them. They became 'dancing masters' to the
nobility, teaching the steps and deportment. Many were well educated
and some were descended from the Klesmorim, medieval Jewish entertainers. Domenico da Piacenza, who published the first European dance manual, De arte saltandi et choreas ducendi
(1416) was the teacher of Antonio Cornazano, a nobleman by birth, who
became an immensely respected minister, educator of princes, court
poet, and dancing master to the Sforza family of Milan, where in about
1460 he published his Libro dell'arte del danzare. Books like these contain neither melody nor choreography, but they do detail the work of the dancing masters themselves.
Many court dances had their origins outside the enclosed world of the nobility. In France the branle, a round dance of peasant origin became fashionable in the courts. Another, the morisca, or moresque,
which was derived from the dances of Moorish Spain, was first mentioned
in 1446. Sumptuous spectacles with mythological, symbolical or
allegorical content became increasingly popular at court entertainments
throughout Savoy and northern Italy. The story of Jason and the Golden
Fleece featured both at the marriage of Philip the Good of Burgundy in
1430 and in the balli staged for the wedding of the Duke of
Milan in 1489. European dance's most exotic influences, however, would
come from Spain, which in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, was
enjoying a cultural renaissance, and a mixing of its own native dances
with those of Afro-American origin. For example, both the sarabande and the chaconne
came from Central America sometime before 1600, but within a short time
they are to be found integrated into French court dance.
Early 16th century Tudor England had similar pageants, with the
participants disguising “after the manner of Italie.” Robert Copland's Maner of Dauncynge of Bace Daunces after the Use of Fraunce
(1521) as an appendix to a French grammar, demonstrates without doubt
that the English were familiar with continental dance, the nobility
preferring dances of a slow, measured and dignified stature, stylishly
performed and modelled upon the standards of the French court, while
the peasants continued their more boisterous dancing, very much as they
had for centuries. Queen Elizabeth I, a skilled dancer herself, enjoyed
watching the traditional English country dances, such as the jig, which
came to infuse a new vitality into court dances.
The masque developed from annual chivalrous spectacles staged
by Queen Elizabeth's knights on her Accession day and from the fêtes,
essentially piéces d'occasions,
presented by nobility and gentry in her honour while the Court was
making its summer progess. It retained many features of its
predecessors including elaborate symbols expressing arcane meanings,
the mingling of actors and spectators and the mask. The only known
visual representation of an Elizabethan masque is to be found in the
Memorial Portrait of Sir Henry Unton (c.1596). Musico-dramatic elements
can be seen also in 16th century suites of madrigals that were strung
together to suggest a dramatic narrative. Reaching its height in the
early 17th century, the masque became a magnificent and colourful
spectacle with great emphasis placed on music and dance.
The foremost writer of the masque was Ben Jonson (1573-1637),
the great dramatist, poet, and wit, with whom, for more than
twenty-five years, Inigo Jones (1573-1652) would collaborate. Jones
had, sometime between 1597 and 1603, traveled in Italy, probably with
the brother of the 5th Earl of Rutland, where he became fluent in
Italian and with the architectural ideas of Italy. An important
influence was Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo (1538–1600) the author of Trattato dell'Arte della Pittura, Scultura et Architettura published in Milan in 1584.
As a theatrical architect, Jones became famous for his elaborate
costume designs, settings, and scenic effects, which gave the masque
its great popularity. Nearly 500 designs by Jones survive for costumes
and scenery related to the entertainments he produced for the Stuart
court between 1605 and 1640. Among the sources for Jones designs was Hieroglyphica
by Giovanni Pierio Valeriano (1477-1558) first published in 1556,
conceived as a manual of Egyptian and neo-Platonic hieroglyphs but
which became, for the Renaissance, the lexicon of visual meaning and
key to a mode of expression, thereby linking the past with the present.
For Jonson and Jones' first collaboration, 'The Masque of Blackness'
(1605), the costumes were drawn from Cesare Vecellio's celebrated
costume book Habiti antichi et moderni di tutto il mondo
(Venice, 1598). The masque was written for James I and his Queen, Anne
of Denmark. The Queen and eleven other aristocratic ladies performed,
wearing dress shortened to the ankle for dancing, and the staging
featured elaborate lighting effects, complex stage machinery (some
derived, possibly, from Book X of Vitruvius) and an artificial sea with
great sea-beast and mermaids. Professional actors were, however,
engaged to speak the lines. Later productions included an anti-masque
performed entirely by professionals which was followed by the masque
itself in which dancers in splendid costumes would descend from the
stage and take partners from the audience.
Later, in the summer of 1609, Jones travelled to France where he
assimilated the taste of the French court, and the theatrical spectacle
of the new genre of balletti or ballet de cour,
involving music, songs, poetry and dance, as well as sumptuous
costuming, staging and visual effects. French humanism was strongly
influenced by the Pléiade, a group of 16th-century French poets, named after the original Pleiade,
a group of seven Alexandrian poets (3rd century B.C.), corresponding to
the seven stars of the Pleiades constellation. Their 'manifesto' was
penned by Du Bellay in his La Deffense et illustration de la langue françoyse
(1549), in which an unashamedly elitist literary philosophy was
detailed. The group aimed to break with earlier traditions of French
poetry, especially Marot and the grands rhétoriqueurs. Du
Bellay recommends vernacular innovation of Greek and Roman poetic
forms, emulation of specific models, and the creation of neologisms
based on Greek and Latin, not so much through slavish imitation, but,
using the metaphor of 'digestion', by converting it into an entirely
new and rich poetic language in the vernacular.
 | |
The classically inspired Le Balet Comique de la Reyne
(1581) was presented by Queen Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont (1553-1601)
and directed by the Piedmontese violinist, Balthazar de Beaujoyeulx
(Baltazarini Di Belgioioso), lasted 5 and a half hours and cost 3.5
million gold francs. All the European courts were invited, as well as
Italian artists, and it formed part of the celebrations held in honour
of the wedding between Louise's half-sister, Marguerite, and King Henri
III's favourite, Anne, Duke de Joyeuse. The Balet Comique was
published in February 1582 and it was made even more accessible to
readers through the engraving by Jacques Patin (shown left) which
depicted the opening scene of the performance.
The engraving shows the Salle de Bourbon in the Louvre, with the royal
party seated at the end closest to the viewer, and the king, Henri III,
in the middle, flanked, on his right by his mother the Florentine-born
Catherine de Medicis (1519-1589), and by the Duke de Joyeuse on his
left. They are watched over by four Swiss guards with pikes; to the
right are foreign ambassadors and behind them the ladies of the court.
On the right side of the hall beneath the galleries crammed with
viewers, there is an oak wood, in which the figure of Pan can be seen.
From the trees hang silver lamps made in the form of ships; while
behind the trees, musicians were apparently concealed. On the left at
ground level, billowing clouds, gilded and covered with stars, form a
long vault (the voûte dorée), and in it groups of musicians and singers were placed. In 1632, Jones would use Le Balet Comique de la Reyne as a basis for his masque Tempe Restored,
memorable also for the first production in which professional women
singers Madame Coniack and Mistress Shepherd, appeared on stage.
In the first year of Charles I's reign, his Queen, Henrietta
Maria, had commissioned from Inigo Jones three pastorals, in the first
two of which she herself would play the lead. Her participation was to
cause the King severe embarrassment; no lady had taken a speaking part
on the British stage before. In 1633, another production, by Walter
Montague and entitled The Shepherd's Paradise,
was undertaken, again with the Queen's involvement but this time the
general sense of outrage found itself expressed in the lawyer William
Prynne's Histrio-Mastix, or the Scourge of Players and its
famous index entry "Women-Actors - notorious whores". Despite
protestations that his comments were not directed at the Queen, Prynne
was sentenced to life imprisonment, fined £5,000, disbarred, deprived
of his academic degree and had his ears cut off by the public
executioner.
During the fifteenth century, while humanism was influencing the
graphic arts, the sciences, politics and religion, Italian composers
continued to produce sacred and secular music in medieval polyphonic
styles. However, in the sixteenth century, intermezzi, initially composed as interludes during plays, emerged as a distinct form. Jones' masque Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly,
planned for 1610, but not actually performed until the following year,
shows the influence of the engravings by Agostino Carracci and Epifanio
d'Arfiano which depict the Florentine intermezzi of 1589
organised by Bernardo Buontalenti (1536-1608) for the marriage of the
Grand Duke Ferdinand de' Medici and Christina of Lorraine, niece of the
Queen of France.
By the 1630s he had turned to another source of inspiration. In
the early 1620s, following his return to Nancy from twelve years in
Italy, Jacques Callot produced his Balli di Sfessania,
a work consisting of a frontispiece and twenty-three pages of paired
figures. These figures are not standard players from the commedia
dell'arte, although some of them, such as Metzetin, Scaramuccia, and Scapino,
have namesakes in the impromptu theater. Rather, they are fair or
carnival performers, most of whom are dancing the high-spirited moresca, a form of which was known in Naples as the sfessania. These figures in their characteristic costumes would, from 1630 onwards, appear in Jones anti-masques.
|
The Latin word 'opera' is the plural of opus meaning
work. It suggests a combination of the arts of solo and choral singing,
declamation and dancing in a staged spectacle. Although music had been
part of medieval mystery plays (for example, a surviving musical work, Philotea,
set to a religious text, by a priest called Silberman, and the music of
Hildegard of Bingen may have been associated with dramatic staged
performances), the earliest work considered an opera, in the sense the
word is usually understood today, dates from around 1597. It is Dafne, now lost, written by Jacopo Peri for an elite circle, the Florentine Camerata
(1573-1589), who took as their inspiration Ficino's Academy. This group
of Italian humanists, attempting to revive classical Greek drama, felt
that if the words set to music were to have their full effect on the
listener then the music must not obscure them, that the music should be
there simply to support them. This radical departure from the
Renaissance concept of the way text should be set to music resulted in
a completely different musical texture from the polyphony common during
the Renaissance. Although there were precedents in accompanied song,
nothing that had existed previously was quite the same as the genre of
monody. A later work by Peri, Euridice, dating from 1600, is
the first opera score to have survived to the present day. Spoken or
declaimed dialogue accompanied by an orchestra, called 'recitative' in
opera, is the essential feature of melodrama, in its original sense.
When Louis XIV was crowned, his interest in dancing was
strongly supported and encouraged by Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin,
(formerly Mazarini), who assisted Louis XIV. The young king made his
ballet debut as a boy, but it was in 1653 as a teenager that he
accomplished his most memorable feat as a dancer. He performed a series
of dances in Le Ballet de la Nuit
and for his final piece he appeared as Apollo, god of the sun. Wearing
a fancy golden Roman-cut corselet and a kilt of golden rays he came to
be known as the Sun King. Cardinal Mazarin promoted Italian influences
in the French spectacle. The ballet master he imported from Italy was
Giovanni Baptista Lulli, who was rechristened Jean Baptiste Lully.
Lully became one of the king's favorite dancers and rivaled the king as
the best dancer in France. In 1661 Louis established the Académie Royale de Danse in a room of the Louvre, the world's first ballet school.
References:
Music in New Spain ::
- Although little music has survived from the period when Spain
was exploiting the wealth of its American possessions, it has been
possible to recover some of what had accumulated during three centuries
of colonial life. In Spain, music had been developed in organized
musical chapels since before the 16th century; different musical forms
were developed for liturgical ceremonies and for the court. The music
created in Mexico, however, was a fusion of local, European and African
cultures.
The motet, the mass and the hymn were brought from Europe and monks
taught the indigenous population to play and sing them. In 1523, two
years after the fall of Tenochtitlan, Juan de Ayora, Juan de Teclo and
Pedro de Gante, three Franciscan monks, arrived in Mexico. As part of
their work spreading the gospel, they founded a school for Indians in
Texcoco, where music, including Gregorian chant, organum and polyphony,
was taught and instrument building was encouraged. The vocal and
instrumental groups formed in schools like the one at Texcoco or in
Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, performed sacramental plays like the story of
Adam and Eve by Brother Toribio de Benavente that was sung in Tlaxcala
in 1538, and mention is made, in documents of the period, of talented
Indian musicians thus providing the earliest evidence for polyphony in
America.
Religious music was not only performed in churches or schools.
Hymns were sung at weddings, baptisms, birthdays and other social
occasions. In this way liturgical music percolated through local
society, the result of the evangelization process of the 16th century.
This provides the first manifestation of a mestizo
(half Indian, half Spanish) genre which went on to assimilate African
forms as well. Dance music too provided entertainment at private and
public parties.
From the beginning of the 18th century, we know of public performances of works like the drama El Rodrigo, the opera La Parténape
by Manuel de Sumaya, baroque musical comedies and Italian-style
operettas. Instrumental music appeared from the 17th century onwards.
The most important secular genre was vocal: romantic arias, simple
songs and madrigals. For example, Disguised as a shepherd in love by Juan Hidalgo and sung during the play, The Olympic Games by Agustín de Salazar y Torres, and the solo song, Zagales, Listen to my anguish, by an anonymous author, both of which are kept in the Sánchez Garza collection (some 300 compositions by Spanish and New Spanish composers) of the Santísima Trinidad monastery in Puebla. Other works from the period include the hymn Guarda la fiera
by Antonio de Salazar, the collection of unaccompanied song by
different authors in the Sutro Library in San Francisco, and
instrumental music consisting of dances, guitar pieces, baroque guitar
pieces, violin and flute sonatas, pieces for organ and piano,
symphonies, toccatas and overtures.
The majority of players we know of from the period were
Spaniards who emigrated to New Spain and set up schools in Mexico for
dancing or for the teaching musical instruments. Teachers of guitar,
harp, flute, the bugle, the flageolet and the sackbut were soon busy
working with the local Indians. Indeed, the use of music expanded so
rapidly that Felipe II had to order the priests in the religious orders
to regulate the use 'of all musical instruments and singers'.
At this time, the main religious musical centres were the cathedrals,
the monasteries, the seminaries, religious schools and the missions.
Music from the cathedrals in Mexico, Puebla, Oaxaca, Morelia, Durango
and Guadalajara still survive in copious archives. There is also music
from the missions in Baja California, from the del Carmen and the
Encarnación monasteries in Mexico City (several choir books at the
Monastery of the Incarnation that are currently being kept at the
Newberry Library in Chicago); from the Convent of the Holy Trinity in
Puebla and the Las Rosas college in Morelia; even from smaller churches
such as the San Pedro Metepec chapel in Tlaxcala, the basilica of the
Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City (Las Rosas college in Morelia and
the college at the basilica of Guadalupe both have archives comprising
more than 300 works from the 18th century onwards) and from a town
called Huamelula in Oaxaca.
The first archbishop of Mexico City, Juan de Zumárraga (1528)
requested funds from Carlos V for his ambitious musical program with
professional singers and musicians for the cathedral. He named Canon
Juan Xuárez the choir master and Antonio Ramos as the organist in 1539.
The main composer in 16th century New Spain was Hernando or Fernandus
Franco, who became the choir master of the cathedral of Mexico City in
1575 and in 1585. Among his surviving work, the famous Franco codex
contains a collection of the Magnificat which is kept in the Vice Regal
Museum in Tepozotlán. The music of Spanish composers was also sung in
the cathedrals of Mexico, Puebla, and Oaxaca where original editions of
music by Cristóbal de Morales, Sebastian Aguilera de Heredia, Tomás
Luis de Victoria , Francisco Guerrero, Rodrigo de Ceballos and Alonso
Lobo are kept. Other composers who played an important role in
cathedral music include Juan Xuárez, Lázaro de Álamo, Juan de Victoria,
and Hernando Franco. Pedro Bermúdez played his own works in Puebla
Cathedral.
It is still not known how much colonial society appreciated
purely instrumental music, such as sonatas, symphonies and concertos.
There are few examples of instrumental music written in New Spain.
There is a surviving organ piece (1620), a zither piece from the middle
of the 17th century by Sebastian de Aguirre, a guitar piece (1747), the
Saldívar Codex IV (guitar) that came from León, Guanajuato; the Hague
manuscript dated 1722 (dances and pieces of music by different
authors), a method for learning violin by José Herrando, a book
containing 11 pieces for the organ, an explanation of how to play the
guitar dated 1776, the MNA manuscript (1759) comprising 13 sonatas,
Guadalupe Mayner’s notebook for piano, 1804, the notebook with 34
anonymous sonatas from the cathedral in Mexico City, the Angulo Codex
(dances and transcripts of 15 Hayden symphonies), the Verses
for orchestra by Ignacio Jerusalem and José M. Aldana and the symphony
from the Las Rosas college in Morelia written by Antonio Samer and
Antonio Rodil, the complete works of Don Manuel Antonio del Corral, the
Concerti grossi del Persieri Adriarmonici by Giacomo Faco and some piano pieces for ballet, pieces for the guitar and for two guitars (Sutro Library, San Francisco).
Reference:
Sixteenth Century Chinese Opera ::
- Beijing Opera, one of China's most recent theatrical forms,
draws from a tradition extending back at least as far as the twelfth
century, when opera was performed in the huge public theaters of
Hangzhou, then capital of the Southern Song dynasty (1179-1276). The
most popular theatrical form at the time was the southern play (nanxi)
in which the dialogue, written in rhymed verse, was either sung or
spoken. The three extant southern play scripts, composed by anonymous
writing societies, have no internal divisions, such as acts or scenes,
and, according to contemporaneous descriptions, were performed with a
string and wind orchestra, and an offstage chorus which accompanied the
major arias, evidently along with the audience.
Beginning in the thirteenth century, the Mongol conquerors patronized a northern form of opera called zaju,
or "multi-act" play, usually divided into four acts. In contrast to
southern plays, the main character alone sang a lyric verse, using a
single major rhyme scheme throughout the entire act, while the other
characters spoke their lines. Zaju typically featured three major roles: a woman (dan), an older, usually venerable man (mo), and a young man (sheng). "Comics" (chou) also played a role, providing ironic commentary on the events taking place.
While high society enjoyed zaju in the capital in the north, a folk tradition of opera known as marvelous tales (chuanqi)
flourished in the south, particularly in the refined provinces of
Zhejiang and Jiangsu. The marvelous tales opera tradition produced one
of China's finest operas by Gao Ming (c. 1301-1370), The Lute Song (Pipa ji),
which portrays the irreconcilable tension between filial piety and
loyalty to the throne, two cardinal relations in Confucian social
thought. The sixteenth century saw fundamental changes in Chinese
society. It was a period of relative peace, and sustained economic
prosperity. Classical literacy could be translated into social prestige
and political power through the civil service examination system.
General literacy was growing, reaching heretofore excluded sectors of
society, particularly urban merchants and women. This was also a time
of the proliferation of the vernacular novel and certainly what is the
most elegant form of Chinese opera, Kunqu, which originated in Kunshan near Suzhou, Jiangsu. After innovations introducted by Wei Liangfu (c. 1522-73), Kunqu was characterized by soft singing and minimal orchestral accompaniment, typically the clapper or drum and a bamboo flute. Kunqu
rose to the status of national opera in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, even in Beijing, then ruled by foreign rulers from
Manchuria. Kunqu playwrights focused on prosody and novelty of expression, producing increasingly ornate operas.
It was precisely this ornate and allusive language that brought on Kunqu's
demise. And perhaps it was never quite boisterous enough to suit
popular tastes. In the late eighteenth century, a new form of opera was
formed in Beijing. At the risk of oversimplifying a complex set of
circumstances, Beijing opera as it is known today largely began on the
occasion of the Qianlong emperor's (r. 1736-96) seventieth birthday
celebration in 1779 which brought, among the throngs of people to the
capital, an accomplished clapper opera dramatist named Wei Changsheng
(1744-1802) from Sichuan, who introduced a number of innovations into
the opera of the capital that left an indelible mark that lasts to the
present. Clapper opera (bangzi qiang), came from the province of
Shaanxi and moved southward through Hunan into Sichuan. The sound of
the wooden clappers sets the rhythm of the music as well as some of the
actions of the performers. Clapper opera was one of many local opera
traditions, though not all influenced the national opera. By the end of
the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) there were several hundred local opera
traditions, differing in the dialects of the librettos, stage settings,
acting techniques, and music; most drew materials for stories from
Kunqu or popular novels.
References:
'The Palace of Eternal Youth' is a famous piece of Kun opera, a story of love, betrayal, self-sacrifice and reward.
An emperor and his concubine fall in love. Treacherous courtiers wreak
havoc on the county. A general launches a rebellion. To save her
emperor, the favoured concubine commits suicide. The rebellion is
suppressed. Their love transcends death with the help of the gods in
heaven.
Over the centuries, Kun opera experienced ups and downs in popularity.
In the middle of the Ming Dynasty (mid 16th century) Kun opera rapidly
became popular with the intellectual elite, and members of the literati
produced scripts designed to highlight this elite form of opera. Later,
historical events conspired to disrupt the continuity of Kun. In the
middle of the nineteenth century, political uprisings devastated the
region in which Kun was most popular. The style also suffered from
dilution, when it was mixed in performance with other types of Chinese
opera. It became the norm to perform traditional plays only in
excerpts. More recently, the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) brought the
cultivation of most traditional forms of Chinese art to a halt. 'The
Palace of Eternal Youth' was originally in 50 acts, indeed on a grand
scale. A recent reconstruction of the original work, stripped of its
later Beijing Opera additions, concentrated on reproducing the
traditional opera, but it also tries to stay in tune with modern times.
For this reason, references to the political and social concerns of the
literati of the time, were removed and the 50 acts were reduced to a
manageable 27.
Reference:
work in progess
| |