Introduction
There are several aspects of music history that a typical music historian can pursue. Perhaps the most popular topic is the study of the life and works of a specific composer or school of composers. Another common subject for study is the evolution of music composition and theory, and how they have changed and have been changed by various composers and compositional philosophies. Sometimes a form of music, such as the madrigal or the symphony, will be considered by music historians. Periodically a music historian will even choose to study the evolution of specific musical instrument, such as the violin. Rarely studied independent of the other subjects is the history of a specific instrumental ensemble. I feel this is a ripe topic for deeper scholarship and consideration. The dynamic and progressive nature of ensembles is as interesting as that of compositional theory, musical forms, the works of a composer, or any other aspect of music history. It is impossible to fully understand a composer's works without understanding the instruments or ensembles they composed for. Rimsky-Korsakov, for example, would never be viewed as an excellent orchestrator had he not had an orchestra to write for. We have to understand the orchestra and instruments with which Rimsky-Korsakov worked to understand the choices he made in composing his music. Likewise, we must understand the ensemble Giovanni Gabrieli wrote for and worked with to understand his ground-breaking compositions. It is the history of certain wind ensembles in Italy during the Renaissance that I have chosen to study.
The Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli is noted in many history books for two innovations: he was one of the very first composers to indicate dynamic markings and he was the first composer to indicate specific instruments for specific lines of music. That Giovanni Gabrieli was one of the first composers to designate dynamics is not controversial, however, to claim that any one person was the very first to do any one thing requires more justification. Denis Arnold clarifies the claim of Giovanni's innovation of instrumentation with his statement that, "Specific instruments are indicated for specific parts; the writing shows that this arises from an act of creative imagination. For us, it is commonplace to think in these terms: in Gabrieli's time it was not." Giovanni, p. 156This trend in musical thought is obviously central to the history of music and the creation of such institutions as the symphony orchestra. What I wanted to know, upon learning of this proto-instrumentation, was what manner of ensemble could be so interesting that it inspired this historical change of thought? It was this curiosity that sparked my study of the pifarri, which are ensembles of wind instruments in Renaissance Italy. What little I knew of the history of these ensembles inspired in me a strong desire to learn more.
Inevitably, my study expanded from the specific instrumentation at St. Marks for which Giovanni Gabrieli wrote, to a study of wind ensembles in Italy over an almost two hundred year period. Within this time period I have identified and studied three relatively stable and distinct ensembles, although I do not claim that these were the only wind ensembles that existed in Italy during this time period. The ensembles I have chosen to study are: the heraldic trumpet players known as trombetti, the ensemble containing shawms and either bombardes or trombones, and the cornett and trombone ensemble. I have investigated the instruments involved in these ensembles, the venues and locations in which they played, in what situations, for what occasions, what their repertoire might have been, their social role, and the amount of time the ensembles existed.
Sorting Through a Confusion of Terms
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges of this research has been that of attaching a name to an ensemble. The heraldic trumpet ensemble was regularly referred to as the trombetti in the sources I consulted. The names of the other two groups, the shawm and lower bombarde or trombone ensemble, and the cornett and trombone band, were not as easy to identify. Some sources refer to the two ensembles as pifarri, while another source would identify a pifarro specifically as a shawm player or a piper, and identify the ensemble as alta, alta instrumenta, or alta capella. Some sources might even, for instance, call the shawm and bombarde band alta and call the cornett and trombone group by a different name. Many sources avoided naming the ensembles at all, simply referring to them as 'instrumental ensembles,' 'wind ensembles,' 'wind bands,' 'brass bands,' 'orchestras,' or similarly ambiguous titles. As if this isn't confusing enough, the ensembles are called different things in different countries. For example, pifarri is a specifically Italian name. In France these ensembles were called hauts ménéstrels (literally 'loud minstrels'), in Spain ministriles altos (also translated as 'loud minstrels'), in England loud minstrels, and pfeifer in Germany. Thus, many relevant sources refer to the ensembles by varying terms that often make a positive identification of the pifarri difficult.
The conflict between various publications about the name of these ensembles is very difficult to sort out. For example, among those who called these ensembles pifarri are: C. AnthonSAS ; D. Arnold Giovanni , who calls it capella as well; Iain Fenlon M&M, who also refers to them as the alta capella; in G. Reese MR they are pifare; and in E. Selfridge-Field's VIM studies the ensembles are called not only pifarri, but also 'orchestras' and 'instrumental ensembles.' Among those who identify pifarri as the players of flutes, pipes, shawms, or various wind instruments are: A. Baines; BI I. Fenlon; Mantua H. Landon and J. Norwich; FCMV and A. Newcomb Newcomb. Lewis Lockwood says of the designation "pifarro" that it ". . .generally means wind player." Lockwood p. 226 Some publications even refer to them by different names in different articles or chapters! These are just a sampling of some of the various names given for the ensembles by experts in the field.
I prefer pifarri over alta if only because pifarri is specific to Italy, and appears slightly more accurate for the two hundred year period I am studying. For the purposes of this paper, the pifarri are the wind ensembles of the shawm and bombarde or trombone band, and the cornett and trombone band. I use the term as a general one for those ensembles, and where distinction is necessary, I will make it by identifying the ensembles as I have above, as the 'shawm and trombone band' or by whatever distinction seems necessary.
The Malleable Nature of the Pifarri
In the twentieth century we have grown accustomed to the concept of the fixed ensemble. For example, if the words "string trio," were said to a relatively well-educated listener, that listener would be able to name the exact instruments belonging in the ensemble. This concept of fixed instrumentation allows composers to write for ensembles they know exist and for performers to establish certain types of ensembles with assurance that music exists for that mixture of instruments.
The expectations of pre-Baroque musicians and composers were very different than ours. For example, the concept of a fixed ensemble composed of specific instruments was relatively foreign. Egon Kenton reminds us that, "It must not be forgotten that there was no standard instrumental ensemble at that time, not even for a limited period." Kenton p. 491-2 It was not that there were no ideas or concepts of how music, even in its manifestation of wind ensembles, should be. This is true despite the claim that, "Instrumental style per se was not recognized or discussed by theorists in the fifteenth century, and even asinstrumental a repertory as dance accompaniment was not limited to instruments." MR p. 143There were indeed some theoretical and philosophical ideals, especially in the Middle Ages, that guided the nature and organization of instrumental ensembles.
The first relevant criterion was that of the pure consort. Instruments during the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance tended to be designed and sold in families. A family would typically have several instruments of roughly the same design, but in different sizes and ranges. For example, the shawm family had seven members with ranging from the lowest, the bombarde, to the highest, a sopranino, with up to five instruments in between representing a wide selection of middle voices. The ideal was to have an ensemble containing only members of the same family. This was called an unmixed or pure consort. These pure consorts were especially popular in the early to middle fifteenth century, but gradually faded out of popularity during the course of the Renaissance.
Another theoretical concept during the Middle Ages regarded a separation between the 'loud' (haut) and the 'soft' (bas) instruments. The wind instruments of the pifarri--the shawms, trumpets, bombardes, and cornetts--would be considered loud. Among the instruments included in the soft category were lutes, vielles, rebecs, flutes, and even human voices. The ideal was that the two categories of instruments would never play together in an ensemble. This, too, is a more Medieval concept, and was decreasingly practiced ". . .though the medieval distinction between haut and bas--loud and soft--had largely broken down by then [mid to late sixteenth century]."Intermedii, p. 79
Please notice that I have specified that these are theoretical concepts, which were developed by theoretical musicians. In actual practice, they tended to be ignored or disregarded by the practical musicians who were actually in charge of creating and performing music. As Selfridge-Field says, ". . .there are two ways of approaching instrumental music. One was idealistically and intellectually, as the vocal composers and organists (i.e. the upper stratum of musicians) did, and as Zarlino recommended. The other was realistically and practically, as ensemble instrumentalists and other lesser mortals did." VIM For example, only one of the pifarri ensembles even came close to the ideal of the pure consort, the shawm and bombarde band. The other pifarri ensembles would not be considered pure consorts, however. Even the shawm and bombarde ensemble would periodically add a slide trumpet, which would 'ruin' that pure consort.
The actual practice of the loud/soft ideal was a little more common, especially as it makes a lot of musical sense. If a trumpet is playing with a harp, the harp will probably be drowned out by the louder brass instrument. Still, the concept was not always strictly adhered to by the "lesser mortals." Giovanni Gabrieli's cornett and trombone pifarri, which would typically be considered a loud ensemble, would frequently perform with voices, which were considered soft. As Crawford Young says ". . .strict, either-or classifications such as loud/soft have their place in Medieval theoretical writings, but in practice variety seems to have been the rule."CMRM, p. 143
Musicians, composers, and patrons of this period, despite having a set of theoretical ideals to worth with, did not pay much attention to the make-up of ensembles, and appeared to be rather uninterested in a fixed instrumentation or well-defined ensemble. H.M. Brown that, "Apparently, then, the concept of a wind band of trombones and cornetts was flexible enough to permit the addition of foreign elements." Intermedii, p. 61 Typically the additional instrument would be one in the middle range, like a crumhorn, recorder, or dolzaine. If further proof of the malleability of ensembles is required we need only look to Giovanni Gabrieli's groundbreaking work, Sonata Pian e Forte, which is scored for trombone, cornett and violin; two loud instruments and one soft one. It is not, however, only the cornett and trombone ensemble that was so flexible. The shawm and bombarde ensemble, as I mentioned earlier, could easily include a trumpet or an instrument in the middle range. The shawm and trombone ensemble could likewise easily have instruments added to it, whether they were more shawms and trombones, a vocalist to add text to the music of the instrumentalists, or simply another instrument that happened to be available.
The flexible nature of these ensembles makes it difficult for scholars to keep them well-defined, but it must have been a boon to their patrons. With this flexibility the pifarri could not only perform their usual duties, but could be combined to play for special gala events, in theater performances, for weddings, and generally be more fully in the life of their communities.
The Trombetti
The trombetti were corps of heraldic trumpet players in Italy during the Renaissance. The ensemble of trumpeters are sometimes also referred to as tubatores or simply as trumpeters; however, I will refer to them as trombetti. By trumpet, I do not mean the valved, chromatically capable instrument that is called a trumpet today. The trumpets of the trombetti more resemble the bugle than any other modern instrument, in that they can only play harmonic notes, as bugles do. Unlike bugles, which are folded and compact, the trumpets of the trombetti were generally long, straight tubes, although trumpets in that period could also be folded or curved in various ways. Some of these straight trumpets were so long that the player could not hold it by himself, but required a second person to hold the end. There is a description of a procession in Venice that included the Doge's six trumpets, "Next follow the silver trumpets, held up in front on the shoulders of several youths. . .".Giovanni, p. 22 While the trumpets of the trombetti could certainly perform by themselves, they were often paired with drums. The term trombetti may have referred to ensembles containing not only the trumpets for which the ensemble was named, but also drummers.
There were three main venues of patronage for the trombetti in Italy during this period. Many cities, especially in Northern Italy, would support a band of pifarri, or trombetti, or both. Most of the wealthier courts of Italy would, as a matter of pride, also maintain pifarri and trombetti ensembles. Indeed, there was considerable competition between courts for the better players, singers and other artists, both musical and nonmusical. A third source of patronage for instrumental ensembles was the Roman Catholic church. Not only would the churches maintain groups of instrumentalists, but religious leaders might support ensembles independent of a church or cathedral. One example of this sort of religious patron was the Doge, who was the spiritual leader of Venice. The Doge, by tradition, was required to maintain six silver trumpets out of his own purse. His trombetti relieved the city of Venice from its obligation to maintain a band of their own, at least in through the fifteenth century: "These silver trumpets fulfilled one of the functions of the pifarri in other towns where public show demanded them as symbols of authority rather than for any musical purpose." FCMV, p.49
The obligations of the municipal trombetti and the court trombetti were very similar, and were generally less musical than they were ceremonial and functional. The very presence and existence of trombetti gave a town or court prestige, and acted as a symbol of authority and power. One way this operated was that on occasions when distinguished visitors arrived the trombetti would perform and thus display that the patron was wealthy and prosperous enough to support the musicians. The trombetti also helped boost the images of their patrons by playing at official ceremonies and during big triumphant entries, when victors returned from battles. One example of the use of trombetti during one such triumphant entry was Alfonso Borgia's return to Naples, on 23 February 1443: "In addition to the customary pennant-draped royal trumpeters--at least twelve of them on this day--who were set on a 'carro triumfale', there were numerous other music-filled floats. . ." M&M, p. 160
The performance obligations of trombetti were not limited to reputation enhancing special events and processions. They also served an important role in everyday life. For instance in Florence there were two different sets of trumpeters as early as 1297. One set was composed of six tubatores for the comune, and the other had one banditore assigned to each quarter of the city. The banditore's functions were to make official announcements to the public while dressed in red and green clothing and holding (although not necessarily playing) a silver trumpet. Lockwood, p. 139 The eight salaried trumpeters of Perugia were regularly employed and given a horse and a uniform. Their main purpose was to make announcements as well, "'. . .in such a way that they are satisfactorily heard by al [sic]. . .'"Lockwood, p. 139 The Perugian trumpeters could earn extra money by making announcements regarding personal legal acts, such as announcing wills and donations. The trumpeters of the trombetti were present at many festive events and could be gathered from far and wide for the most important. One example, according to the first hand account of Tristano Calcho, was the wedding of Alfonso d'Este to Anna Maria Sforza in 1491 where there were forty-six pairs of trumpet players--that is ninety-two trumpets!
There was an additional aspect to the job for the trombetti that served in a religious context. I have already mentioned that the Doge maintained a band of trombetti, but he was not the only church figure to maintain instrumentalists. Popes, for example, would maintain their own trombetti and pifarri: "These instrumentalists routinely contributed fanfares for processions and entertainment for banquets, along with more prosaic duties such as accompanying the cannons that sounded a volley whenever a cardinal crossed the Tiber on his way to the Vatican."M&M, p. 76
An interesting problem with all the ensembles I am studying is that little music was ever written for them, and even less published. This was mostly because the trombetti could not play the full chromatic range that a trombone or modern trumpet could, but were limited to the harmonics on their instruments (those would be, for instance, the notes playable on a modern trumpet without pressing any valves). Thus, whatever repertoire the trombetti had would be comprised of mostly fanfares and flourishes, much like the army bugle calls. It is unlikely that their music ever needed to be written down and even more unlikely that having been written, it would ever have been published, since it was necessarily simple. It was not complicated enough to warrant the effort of the very difficult process of printing and publishing music. As I. Fenlon says, "Much of the music played by these ensembles of trumpeters, pifarri (bands of trombones and shawms) and singers and string players. . . was orally transmitted." M&M, p. 27 While this was probably not a problem for musicians of that period, it does leave music historians without much material on the ensemble or its capabilities.
Periodically the instrumentalists of the trombetti would perform in collaboration with the pifarri, who were slightly more likely to have music that was composed (simply because they were more flexible and could play chromatic tones). Some of the trombetti players probably even played other instruments, perhaps those of the pifarri. This must have encouraged collaboration and cooperation between the two ensembles. More rarely, the trombetti may even have performed in the interludes (known as "intermedii") between the acts of plays, or before or after the performances of the plays. Unfortunately, we have little occasional music from these plays, or any of these specific events, since music composed for a special occasion was not reusable. For example, music composed for a particular intermedio performance was almost immediately rendered obsolete, as it was dependent on the context of the play, and the plays that provided context were rarely, if ever, performed more than once.
There is some debate on the role of the trombetti in the intermedii. The louder wind instruments, such as the trumpets of the trombetti, may not have been considered quite appropriate for indoor use, even in a theater: "Trumpets, bagpipes, shawms and the other loudest members of the sixteenth-century instrumentarium are conspicuously absent from the intermedio ensembles. . ."Brown, p. 57 The question lies, however, in whether the sources are silent about the contribution of the trombetti because they did not contribute regularly to the intermedii, or for other reasons:
Unfortunately, the sources from that period do not make clear which of these scenarios is correct, and the scholar has no other way of knowing.
The primary role of the trombetti was, however, not so much musical as it was formal and utilitarian. While they were called upon to perform in musical contexts, the importance of the heraldic trumpeters was as messengers and announcers, as in the case of the banditore of Florence. They also functioned as diplomats, and were called upon to carry messages and information between two courts, or even between courts and battlefields. The trombetti were status symbols, and even (during times of battle) alarm clocks that awoke the soldiers in the morning.
The background and status of these musicians was as varied as their duties. Lockwood says of the social status of trombetti that they were ". . . very likely from poorer backgrounds than many of the singers or even the wind players. . ." Lockwood, p. 141.This does not mean that the trumpeters were not important or well paid--indeed, as Lockwood says, "In 1503 the average salary of the trombetti [at Ferrara] was 183 LM per annum, outdone only by the most outstanding pifarri but higher than the average of LM 145 for the chapel singers (in the years of Josquin's presence as leader)." Lockwood, p. 141--only that they were not as musically literate and educated as their pifarri brethren, and thus did not have the inter-court mobility of other musicians. In some ways the trombetti, especially those of the courts, might as well be considered diplomats as musicians, not only in regards to their duties but in their social status. For example, ". . .the leading trumpet-player at the court of Ferrara, one Raganello, earned 252 lira (=about 78 ducats) in 1503, more than any singer at the court except Josquin." Aragon, p. 100 It would be difficult to see how, with the severe musical limits of the straight trumpet, this remuneration could be for artistic merit. Atlas offers a justification for this exceptional salary, ". . .the generous salaries that the trumpeters received underscore the multi-faceted--generally non-artistic--services that they rendered. . ." Aragon, p. 100
Despite some trumpet players' roles as diplomat, the general social status of the trombetti cannot be categorized definitively as either high or low, near-courtier or mere peon. In all probability it depended almost completely on the trumpeter himself, his particular station, temperament, and talent. The best, and perhaps best born, were chosen as couriers while the lesser trumpeters simply performed in the ceremonial and civic duties. We do know that Isabella D'Este, who was at Mantua around the end of the fifteenth century onward, had strong opinions regarding them and, ". . .did not patronize 'bufoons, clowns or trumpeters', but rather, 'good, virtuous and learned persons' whom she rewarded with great liberality."M&M p. 144-145 How seriously we can take Isabella's characterization of trumpets as equal with "bufoons" and "clowns" is uncertain. However it is an interesting indication of the position, or at least perception, of the trombetti in Italian society that they are not necessarily "good, virtuous and learned persons."
It is not only the social status of the trombetti that is difficult to define. The chronological limits of the trumpet ensemble are also problematic. Court trumpeters, in world history, have been around since the time of the Old Testament patriarch David. There is no telling how long some sort of trumpet ensemble had a position on the peninsula of Italy. In some ways, the descendants of the trombetti and the ensembles like them are still with us in the form of drum and bugle corps and military buglers. It would be almost impossible to delineate the borders of the specific manifestation of the trumpet ensemble that were the trombetti. Certainly they existed before 1450, and did not disappear by 1620, but were indeed the most enduring of the ensembles I am studying.
The Shawm Pifarri
In the beginning, the pifarri were noisy, boisterous dance bands made up entirely of shawms. The shawm is a double reed instrument, as are, its relatives the bassoon and the bagpipe. Actually, the shawm is very much like a bagpipe without a bag. It has a brilliant, penetrating, and above all, loud tone. During the Renaissance shawms came in seven different sizes, from the bass shawm (commonly known as a bombarde), through five instruments in the middle range, to the highest, the sopranino. A typical early pifarri ensemble would have included a bombarde and two of the middle range or upper range shawms. The ensemble would have been able to play polyphonically, unlike the trombetti, and would have conformed to the Medieval concept of the pure consort, which calls for all the instruments in an ensemble to be of the same family.
The bombarde was not the ideal bass instrument because its range was limited in the lower register. Without an instrument capable of playing bass notes, it was difficult for the pifarri to play some polyphonic music. This problem was solved by replacing the bombarde with a trombone, which was capable of playing in the lower register. Lockwood says of the development of the trombone that:
It is generally believed, as Lockwood says, that trombone began as a slide trumpet, which had already been playing as an occasional additional member of the pifarri even when the ensemble was a shawm consort. Gradually the slide trumpet got bigger and made some changes, eventually coming to the familiar form of the trombone. The Renaissance trombone, while in many ways very similar to the modern tenor trombone, is not quite the equivalent of the current instrument. One difference is that the Renaissance version was much quieter than its modern counterpart. The Renaissance instrument had a conical bell instead of the flaring one of the modern trombone and lacked the water key that is standard today. The mechanics of the Renaissance trombone, as well as its abilities, were otherwise very similar to the modern tenor trombone which has evolved very little in the last 400 years.
The replacement of the bombarde with the trombone seems to be a gradual one. The estimates vary on when the trombone came into fashion. A. Atlas writes of an ensemble that begins with the three shawms (two high shawms and the bombarde) which might possibly also have a slide trumpet, and replaces both the trumpet and bombarde with a trombone around 1450. Aragon, p. 110 Iain Fenlon identifies the trombone as part of the ensemble in the "early fifteenth century."M&M p. 27 Most of the other dates given by scholars that discuss the pifarri ensemble with a trombone instead of bombarde are later than 1450. Thus, we can assume 1450 as the general date for the gradual replacement of the bombarde with trombone. However, regardless of whether the pifarri ensemble had a bombarde or a trombone as the lowest voice, the basic concept and function of the ensemble remained the same.
The pifarri were present in cities, courts and even in the entourages of some of the prominent figures in the Catholic church. For a municipality, a band of pifarri was a necessary status symbol, "They were there when distinguished visitors arrived, and attended at state ceremonial."Giovanni, p. 128 The pifarri were slightly more musical and slightly less formal and ceremonial than the trombetti, although they probably shared many duties with the trumpeters. A city might consider the choice between pifarri and trombetti an either/or decision. For example, in Venice the Doge's trombetti "filled one of the functions of the pifarri in other towns where public show demanded them as symbols of authority rather than for any musical purpose." FCMV, p. 49 One dissimilarity, however, is that the pifarri, ". . .were also present in public celebrations, but their main job was to entertain the citizenry with concerts from the balcony of the town hall or on the market square at regular hours of the day."SAS, p. 222 The trombetti were not musically capable of playing that sort of lengthy musical concert. Thus trombetti and pifarri were not completely interchangeable, although there duties were very similar.
The social status of the players in these municipal pifarri bands was not significantly higher than that of a typical citizen. Indeed, their status may have been lower, as C. Anthon points out, "Italian town musicians during the sixteenth century occupied beyond doubt the lowest rank in the hierarchy of musicians. They probably inherited their status, to a certain extent, from the histriones and joculares of the Middle Ages, when, as wandering minstrels, they were considered vagabonds and had no rights."SAS, p. 222 Anthon goes on to say that while there might be some social mobility for other musicians, for instance those who were better educated and more able to read music, such as singers, there was little opportunity for the town pifarri player to better their state.
The status of the pifarri of the courts was not so static, however. Musicians, if well enough educated, were one of the few classes of people in feudal Italy that had any opportunity for social mobility. The pifarri was one of the three secular ensembles maintained by a typical Italian court. The trombetti were another, and in addition to the instrumentalists, most courts maintained a group of secular singers, who could sing the popular madrigals. Most courts also maintained their own chapels, and with the chapels came chapel choirs, whose duties were mainly liturgical.
The responsibilities of the court pifarri were similar to, or even included, those of the municipal ensemble--that is--playing for festivals, weddings, concerts in the square, dinner parties, grand processions and outdoor events. But the duties of the pifarri were not limited to those events. Primarily, the pifarri were dance bands. This is especially true of the shawm and bombarde ensemble, whose loud tone was very appropriate for outdoor dances: ". . .the alta capella performed at weddings, banquets, public and civic ceremonies, and even on the battlefield and in church. But perhaps their most important function was to provide music for social dancing."M&M, p. 159 This ensemble, and its responsibility to provide dance music, was especially popular between 1440 to 1500 when the basse danse was all the rage throughout Europe. Dancing was a a very important social construct in the courts.
The pifarri were also used for other purposes. Their integral importance to festivals can be seen in an excerpt of a letter from Ferrante of Naples to Francesco Gonzaga, written 18 August 1488, in which Ferrante implores Francesco to command two wind players to return to the court of Naples, since Ferrante needed them for a festival. Not only that, but he had advanced them 148 ducats, and may have been getting a little nervous about their return, and the return of his advance. M&M p. 169 This letter is interesting in that it shows that Ferrante valued his players sufficiently to take the trouble to write a letter requesting their return. His motivations are similarly revealing. It is interesting that he felt that his festival could not be successful without them. Not only were the players integral to the festive life of the court, but they were also important enough to him that he had advanced them money in the first place. The court wind players were obviously important to their employers, and because of this importance enjoyed a higher status than their municipal counterparts.
A wind player at court actually had the opportunity to earn a decent salary. Courts went through a great deal of trouble to hire the best musicians, including the pifarri members, as seen by the fact that "In contrast to town and church musicians almost all court musicians were hired through long-distance negotiations."SAS p. 227 Competition for the best musicians could be fierce and often one court would attempt to steal or woo a musician from a rival court. Dukes would even come up with excuses to prevent their musicians from going to another court just to avoid the possibility of this happening. Success in doing so not only added to the prestige of an ensemble and a court, but was also a victory over a rival court in the political arena: "Their [court musicians] employer was a whimsical autocrat of a small principality whose entire life was spent in securing and improving his precarious position among a host of jealous rivals and enemies." SAS, p. 225
Because of this competitive demand, the musicians were able to command significant salaries and benefits. The best musicians got salaries equal to those, for example, of professionals such as dancing masters or court physicians, or even the best of artists, philosophers and poets. There were numerous ways other than salaries for a pifarri player to make money. To keep a talented musician, a duke or prince might try to obtain a benefice, a paid position in the Roman Catholic clergy, for the player. The musicians might also be offered the equivalent of a signing bonus in traveling expenses or gifts of land. The pifarri players' salaries were also almost entirely profit as most of their needs, such as room and board, were provided by their employers. Not only did the pifarri of the courts get room, board, good salaries and signing bonuses, they were also often given good tips: "We also find substantial evidence that visiting members of the nobility paid lavish tips to pifarri and trumpeters belonging to their hosts and other nobles, but there is as yet no comparable evidence of special gifts to singers in court chapels, at least in Northern Italy." Lockwood p. 181 This is especially interesting as singers in the Renaissance are often thought to hold a higher status than the players of instruments that comprise the pifarri.
I could find almost no information on the social status of church pifarri. The ensembles were definitely present at churches, as documentation proves, and performed there in them, "Performance with instruments other than organs became commonplace in churches throughout Europe in the sixteenth century. . ."M&M p. 75 We also know that the Pope, for example, maintained a band of pifarri as well as one of trombetti, and that the two periodically performed together. More than this was not obvious from the sources I consulted. It can only be assumed that the pifarri players in churches held a similar position to those in the courts.
The music that pifarri players performed was largely derived either from an oral tradition, or was an adaptation of existing vocal music:
This does not mean that the instrumentalists were not capable of reading music, although undoubtedly not all were musically literate, especially the pifarri players of the towns who were less educated. Many of the instrumentalists were musically literate. At the court of Mantua under the reign of Francesco Gonzaga, there was even a school to train instrumentalists to read music, "The court wind players. . . could read music and were capable of playing arrangements of motets and secular songs as well as purely instrumental pieces." M&M p. 147-8 The pifarri of the courts were perfectly capable of not only reading music specifically written for them, or playing the music that comprised their "oral tradition", but were also quite able to easily adapt vocal music to their purposes.
As I have said before, there was very little music composed specifically for the pifarri, and even less was written down, and less again has survived the ravages of time. Even if some music has survived, it is very difficult to ascertain without a doubt whether or not the music was truly intended for instrumental performance or was actually vocal music.PST There are a number of manuscripts that may be written for instrumental ensemble, judging from a lack of text, but may not be, as the texts may simply have been well known. A further complication in trying to ascertain whether music was written for instrumentalists or not is that a primary source of repertoire for the pifarri was preexisting secular vocal music. Motets, for example, were generally vocal but could be adapted for instruments. This adaptation was especially common early in the life of the pifarri as, "The majority of all these early instrumental pieces were vocal music transferred to instruments." Giovanni, p. 468 Periodically, however, a composer would indeed write specifically for the pifarri for a dance, wedding, or other a special occasion. Unfortunately, scholars do not always have these manuscripts, and are not always sure they are intended to be instrumental.
There is some music, however, that appears to be written specifically for wind instruments. In Ferrara there was a musical manuscript dating from Duke Ercole's reign, which is called the Casantanese MS (now in the Biblioteca Casantanese, Rome, no. 2856). This chansonnier appears to be specifically for the pifarri because, "The entry includes, additionally, the curious remark that the MS is written and notated 'a la pifaresca'. This means 'in the pifarro style', and pifarro generally means wind player." Lockwood, p. 226 Besides the comment that the chansonnier is written "in pifarro style," there are other internal reasons to believe that the book of chansons was intended for the pifarri: "Some of the compositions are adjusted in their extremes of tessitura, both high and low, in such a way that they can accommodate the known ranges of the instruments of the Alta--the shawms and trombone." Lockwood, p. 270 The Casantanse MS, besides being an interesting manuscript in its own right, shows that the pifarri could and did adapt vocal models, such as the chanson, for their own repertoire.
The shawm and bombarde ensemble was prominent from the mid fourteenth century (roughly 1350) through the early to mid fifteenth century, until roughly 1450. The shawm and trombone band was popular in Italy until the early part of the sixteenth century, although the shawms and trombones can already be found in conjunction with the more modern cornetts in some instances. Eventually dancing became unfashionable, especially in Italy, and thus the dance band gradually became unnecessary. This ensemble, and dancing, remained popular in the northern countries of Europe through the mid seventeenth century. It is recorded during Emperor Ferdinand II's reign, which was from 1637-57, "Instrumental music in the Hapsburg domains was less oriented towards length and complexity than the Venetian species. The dance was cultivated, and brass instruments, lately all but abandoned by the Venetians, remained in favor throughout Austria and Germany."VIM
Thus the shawm pifarri fell out of favor as the musical and entertainment tastes of Italians changed. They may have been considered too loud for the increasingly refined courts, churches, and municipalities of the Italian peninsula as it headed from the late Medieval period into the High Renaissance.
The Venetian Pifarri
Renaissance Venice was like no other place in Italy, or in the known world. It was a maritime culture dependent on trade instead of agriculture. Unlike most other Italian cities, Venice did not inherit its history from the ancient Romans or Greeks. Its mythological founding was noon, 25 March 421 AC by refugees fleeing the ravages of Attila the Hun. Not only did Venice have a unique history and streets of water, but it was its own political entity, the Most Serene Republic, whose center of authority and religion was the church of St. Marks. Most of Venice's peer cities did not have the freeing advantage of independence in both political and religious arenas, but were instead strongly tied to Rome and papal authority.
This alternative leadership allowed Venetians religious and political independence within their Republic that was not found in the Papal states, or in areas more directly tied to the Pope and the church in Rome. The music of Venice is directly impacted by this--indeed, "Had the Venetians not steadfastly rejected papal pronouncements in the seventeenth century, there would be little of their instrumental music to discuss."VIM Because of this independence, the musical developments of Venice were unparalleled in Italy, and unique to their age.
The instruments present in the orchestra of San Marco changed throughout the centuries. The basic wind ensemble by the end of the sixteenth century included a mixture of cornetts and trombones. Other instrumentalists, such as shawmists or trumpeters, could be called in for special occasions or festivals. The cornett (typically spelled with a terminal double "t" to distinguish it from the nineteenth century brass band instrument) is unlike anything that exists in the modern instrumentarium. It is a hybrid wind instrument, combining a brass mouthpiece with woodwind finger technique. There were three varieties of the cornett, the first and most popular being the curved cornett, which was the one most frequently used for virtuostic displays, as well as the one used by the pifarri players of St. Marks. The curved cornett was given a conical bore by cutting a piece of wood in half, removing the center, gluing the two halves back together, and finally binding them with black leather. The straight cornett, while easier to make, was much less common. It could be turned on a lathe, and had a much less laborious production process. It has a softer tone than its curved cousin, and was not typically used by the pifarri players. The mute cornett, also less common than the curved, is described as having "an exquisitely soft tone." ODM, p. 195 The cornett was described as having a mellow, flexible tone that could sound much like a human voice, while handling difficult virtuosic passages a voice would be unable to. The modern trumpet that now usually plays the parts of the cornetts is a much louder, brighter instrument than its sonorous Renaissance counterpoint. The standard cornett had a range roughly analogous to that of the violins of the Renaissance, playing from a g to a", or perhaps a little higher in the hands of an exceptional cornett player.
The pairing of cornett and trombone seems to be a fairly stable arrangement during the sixteenth century, "Two trombones and two cornetts constituted the usual wind band a 4; in music a 5, three trombones normally played with two cornetts, and in music a 6 four trombones with two cornetts."Brown, p. 61 While closely related to the shawm pifarri, it appears that the cornett and trombone ensemble also had roots in a pure trombone consort. The smallest trombones were not very satisfactory in the highest roles because they were a hazard to the teeth of whomever played them, and were less easily played in tune than the cornetts. A consort of tenor trombones was retained for melancholy effects in theatrical productions, but in general practice, the higher trombones gave way to the more flexible and less dangerous cornetts. This was only possible as the Medieval concept of the pure consort gave way to the more practical considerations about music performance.
The cornett and trombone band was a flexible ensemble. It was quite capable of including other instruments, especially those that played in the middle register, such as the dolzaine, crumhorns, bassoons, shawms, flutes, and recorders. The additional instruments were not always even wind instruments. Giovanni Gabrieli's Sonata pian e forte, for example, uses a violin in one of the inner parts. Viols or various other string instruments might be included as well. The cornett and trombone pifarri might also be called upon to perform with one or more organs, whether permanent church organs or portable organs, especially when the ensemble was performing in a liturgical situation. The pifarri might also perform with voices, "Shortly after 1500 we find the cornett and trombone performing together with human voices, not only in secular feasts and in the theater, but also during Mass."CMRM, p. 150 Again, this was only possible because the Medieval ideal of separating loud and soft voices was not adhered to. This freedom of ensemble was more specific to Venice, although not unknown in other places, such as the neighboring cities of Treviso, Vicenza, and Udine. The mixture of string, brass and woodwind was fairly unique to the Most Serene Republic and its neighbors. Germany during the period was much more interested in all wind ensembles (like the pifarri dance band) and France, England and Rome were focusing their musical attention on all-string ensembles.VIM, p. 13
The cornett and trombone pifarri was popular all over Western Europe, not just in Venice. There is, for example, documentation of this cornett and trombone pifarri ensemble in the Court of Ferrara. However, the most striking examples and some of the best documentation of the use of pifarri was in Venice, where the ensemble is highlighted by the groundbreaking achievements of the Gabrielis. The church of St. Marks was central to the life of Venetians. It was at St. Marks, too, that some of the most interesting developments in instrumental music took place. The pifarri ensemble was probably established on a permanent basis around 1565 by Andrea Gabrieli, who was the organist for St. Marks during the 1560s. He had spent a few years in Munich, where he was exposed to some excellent wind bands. This experience of his was probably instrumental in encouraging St. Marks to develop its own ensemble of wind players. Of course, the competitive nature of Italian municipalities probably played a role, as most of Venice's neighbors already had such ensembles.
Much of the music performed in St. Marks was done so by two, or on the most festive occasions three, choirs. A choir in St. Marks could consist of singers, a combination of vocalists and instrumentalists, or simply the instrumentalists by themselves. Music performed by multiple choirs is known as antiphonal, and this antiphonal music was a trademark characteristic of the Gabrielis' music. St. Marks has two lofts on either side which contain organs and room for choirs (although, in all probability there were additional platforms, known as palchetti, built at need to accommodate the instrumentalists during the larger festivals). VIM, p. 6-7 Thus the two choirs playing together would be separated and elevated, playing across the cathedral to each other with the congregation between them. It must have been a glorious sound.
The pifarri players did not perform in every single service held at St. Marks. Indeed, their duties were light enough that many of them were able to hold a second job. They were generally only called upon to play for the larger celebrations and occasions as, "It is fairly certain that the main purpose of these players was to swell the sound in the sung parts of mass and vespers." Giovanni, p. 130 It was these pifarri ensembles that performed the polychoral polyphonic music of Giovanni Gabrieli. The music was probably composed for special occasions, "There can be no doubt about it: Giovanni composed his polychoral canzoni for the festivities in San Marco. This explains the instruments he indicated in the score."Kenton, p. 476 One example of such a use of the pifarri was recorded by the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Duval, who was in St. Marks for a mass on Christmas Day, 1607, when he records, ". . .the double organs and different instruments, such as trombones, cornettos and treble voices of the singers, and all this indeed filled the church and produced a grand harmony." Kenton, p. 35
St. Marks was not the only place in Venice where music was made. Venice had a very strange phenomenon called, six fraternal organizations called confraternities, or scuoli. The Venetian confraternities resemble, in some ways, more modern fraternal organizations such as the Elks or the Lions Clubs easily found in small town America today. Venice was blessed with a merchant middle class due to its position as a maritime trading center, something not frequently found in feudal Italy of the Renaissance and as such, ". . .Venice was also home of a host of rich and music-loving patricians who could bestow favors as only the ruling houses of Mantua, Ferrara or Urbino could offer."Kenton p. 470 Members of this middle class could not necessarily afford to support an ensemble of musicians by themselves, but through the confraternities they could pool their resources to do good deeds, such as maintaining orphanages, as well as build places of worship, and supply those places with decent musicians.
The most affluent and musically significant of the confraternities is the Scuole de San Rocco (a.k.a. S. Rocco). The salaried musicians at S. Rocco were mainly harp, lute, and lirone or viol players, all of which are soft instruments. Some of the authorities in the field find the emphasis on these soft string instruments mildly confusing, "But it remains a little puzzling that the cornetts and trombones in common use in St. Marks were not employed [by S. Rocco]," Givoanni, p. 193 while others attribute the difference in instrumentation to other reasons, "It would seem that the fact that San Marco had mainly cornetto and trombone players in steady employ, and that San Rocco had harp, lute and lirone players, can be ascribed to the acoustical situation in both places." Kenton, p. 521 Whatever the cause, S. Rocco had a very different ensemble than did St. Marks, and did not employ the pifarri players.
Not all the Venetian confraternities focused on music the way S. Rocco did. The Scuole di San Giovanni Evangelista, for example, patronized the visual arts, and commissioned Jacobo and Gentile Bellini to portray Venetian ceremonial life. The Scuole di Santa Maria della Carita was primarily interested in the patronage of drama. The Scuole di San Marco (not to be confused with the Basilica of St. Marks, which may also be referred to as San Marco) supported music, but not to the same extent as did the more affluent S. Rocco. Whatever the artistic interest of each confraternity, all the scuoli were obliged to participate in processions, in which the pifarri players did play.
The principal processions in which all confraternities were called upon to participate were on Good Friday, St. Mark's Day, Corpus Domini, the Feast of St. Vito, and the Feast of the Redeemer. Processional participation was not limited to these few occasions, however, in the 1570s there were roughly forty processions a year!VIM, p. 34 These processions were a primary venue for free-lance wind instrumentalists in Venice and supported at least six bands of pifarri--one for each confraternity, "In addition to the doge's group there were at least six independent pifarri companies in Venice, for each of the six principal confraternities was to be represented by one at a lavish procession on the feat of Corpus Domini." VIM, p. 14 These processions would include not only singers, but might also have the trumpets of a trombetti group, trombones, cornetts, shawms, bagpipes, drums, recorders, viols, transverse flutes, and any other instrumentalists the scuoli could hire.
In addition to hiring members of pifarri bands and other wind instrumentalists for processions, the confraternities might also call upon their services for concerts. Thomas Coryat, an English visitor to Italy in 1608, heard a concert held at the Scuole de San Rocco on the Feast of San Rocco which he described in glowing terms, "This feast consisted principally of Musicke, both vocal and instrumentall, . . .so superexcellent, that it did ravish and stupifie all those strangers that never heard the like. . ."VIM, p. 35 Among the instrumentalists present at this concert, he reports ten trombones, four cornetts, two double bass voils, a treble viol, two theorbos, and seven pairs of organs, all in various ensemble combinations.
What with the large ensembles at major festivals in St. Marks, frequent musical processions by the confraternities, and various concerts, Venetian musicians must not have been able to rely upon the limits of an oral tradition to supply enough music to these various and diverse groups. Indeed, unlike the shawm pifarri, they were provided with a significant body of composed music. It is this composition that makes Venice so very significant in the eyes of musicologists. As I mentioned earlier, Andrea Gabrieli (c.1510-1586) was the organist at St. Marks from 1566-1586, during which time he succeeded in establishing the resident pifarri band. Andrea, as well as being an organist, was a composer. During Andrea's tenure the pifarri players of St. Marks most frequently played music written for vocalists during masses. Music written specifically for instrumentalists was rare during Andrea's time. One interesting and notable exception is a composition by Andrea, a battaglia, or a battle piece. Another period composer, Annibale Padovano, had written a piece in this genre, played by cornetts and trombones, previously for the wedding of Duke Wilhelm of Bavaria in March 1567. With his example, and Jannequin's La Bataille da Marignan, Andrea wrote his own version. As a piece of music, it is not particularly distinguished but, in the course of music history, it holds its own. What is most interesting about it is its idiomatic nature and the fact that it was specifically written and composed for the pifarri, ". . .but because it borrows fanfares for wind, it is really idiomatic in its use of the instruments in a way that adaptations of vocal music could never be."Giovanni, p. 142
The next important step in the evolution of Venetian instrumental music was the publishing of Concerti by Andrea and his more famous nephew Giovanni Gabrieli (c.1554-1612). The publication included a piece called Lieto godeo, per sonar ("per sonar" means for playing, as opposed to "per cantar" which would indicate that the piece was designed for singing). Before this publication there were not many significant examples of music composed specifically with instrumental players in mind, "Music for ensembles was an arrangement of chansons or their imitation, of motets, or of, again, dance pieces. Important instrumental music of the length and complexity of motets first appeared in the Concerti of 1587 by the Gabrielis, and the first tentative piece was Lieto godeo per sonar."Kenton, p. 489
Giovanni Gabrieli was the second organist in St. Marks from 1585, as well as holding a second job as organist for S. Rocco. Like his uncle Andrea, Giovanni spent some time in Germany, theoretically familiarizing himself with the brass and wind ensembles. What his uncle tentatively started in writing the battaglia and other instrumental pieces, Giovanni continued, built upon, and is remembered for: instrumental ensemble compositions. Most music historians cannot overemphasize Giovanni's importance in the evolution of the ensemble as we now know it. Egon Kenton claims that, "By transmitting the technique of polychoral writing to instrumental ensembles, Giovanni Gabrieli laid the foundation of the modern orchestra!" Kenton, p. 487-488 Denis Arnold says that while the Gabrieli's madrigals and organ pieces might not be of the greatest significance in music history, their music for pifarri is very influential, ". . .the music for instrumental ensemble. . . is of the highest aesthetic quality and of unique importance for its epoch." Giovanni p. vii
Simply put, the Gabrielis, especially Giovanni, were among the first to write music for wind ensembles that was intended for those ensembles--music that had no vocal model and that could not be easily sung. Giovanni published a number of works specifically for instruments. He also designated specific instruments (like a cornett) to a specific line of music, something that had never been done before in quite the same way. The combination of idiomatic writing, specific instrumentation, and publication of works that reflected these innovations influenced composers of that period, and formed the course of music history.
It is Giovanni Gabrieli that makes Venice at the turn of the sixteenth century so important to music historians. In studying the innovations of the Renaissance, it is important to remember that the ensemble Giovanni made history writing for was the cornett and trombone pifarri of St. Marks! One influential effect of the pifarri upon the compositions of Giovanni was the virtuosic cornett playing of Giovanni Bassano, who was added to the permanent establishment of St. Marks in 1576. Bassano's affect upon Giovanni's writing can be seen in the agility and tessitura required to play the upper lines of the La Spiritata canzoni. The florid and un-vocal nature of these lines exemplifies Giovanni's freedom to write for a instrument, instead of for voices as had been done previously. It is in the specifically cornett-designed music that Giovanni exploited the ability of instruments as they had never been used before. In 1596, Bassano was given a position at the seminary, which is a strong statement on the respect held for him and his playing, ". . .since instrumentalists were considered both musically and socially inferior to the singers, and a senior member of the capella would normally have been chosen." Giovanni, p. 35 Bassano was not the only virtuosic cornett player during Giovanni's tenure at St. Marks, the playing of Girolamo dalla Casa, who replaced Bassano, allowed Giovanni to continue writing for a technically excellent cornettist. Thus the instrumentalists at St. Marks enable Giovanni Gabrieli to develop the use of instrumentation.
The make-up of the pifarri ensemble obviously also influenced Giovanni's compositions. The Sacrae Symphoniae, an extremely influential publication of Giovanni's canzoni, exhibits this influence, "Such a piece [as 'Canzona Duodecimi Toni'] could not have been written except in the Venice of the later 1580s and 1590s. It is an obvious reflection of the structure of the ensembles led by Girolamo dalla Casa, with its virtuoso salariati in particular the superb cornettists. . ."Giovanni, p. 157
It is hard to focus on the pifarri ensembles with the fascinating and influential figure of Giovanni Gabrieli in the foreground. If you are interested in the composer, I would refer you to the biographies of D. Arnold and E. Kenton, both of which are excellent. The pifarri ensemble's importance and legacy is inexorably intertwined with that of its greatest composer, the only one well-remembered by our age. The cornett and trombone pifarri was a force in Venice and in Italy for roughly a century, from the early sixteenth century until the early seventeenth century, ". . .most Venetian composers had stopped scoring for cornetts and trombones in the 1620s."VIM, p. The pifarri ensemble lingered on into the eighteenth century in the more northern countries, such as Germany, but in Venice it did not stay much past Giovanni's tragic death because of kidney stones. Cornetts and trombones (along with bassoons) carried some interesting associations in the intermedii and the earliest operas (such as those by Cavalli, 1602-76) of Hell and the underworld, but their status as a major part of the instrumentarium gradually diminished.
The legacy of the cornett and trombone ensemble is obvious and important. It was the ensemble that inspired brand new thinking on the part of Giovanni Gabrieli about instruments and instrumental writings. Music written for cornetts and trombones is still in the repertoire today, played by modern brass ensembles. D. Arnold says the sixteen instrumental pieces included in Giovanni's Sacrae Symphoniae marks, "a turning-point in the history of instrumental music". Giovanni, p. 148 It was Giovanni's ingenuity and innovation that led to this turning point, but the pifarri were the instrumental vehicle that made it all possible. The Social Status of Wind Instrumentalists
In the Renaissance, like today, there were certain ideas about which instruments were appropriate for whom. For example, today most people feel that the electric guitar belongs to a different category or class than a saxophone, and that a saxophone falls into a different area than a violin. The analogy is different because we currently live a theoretically classless society, and Renaissance Italians most certainly did not, but the similarity in assigning certain instruments to certain classes remains. It is clear is that the loud wind instruments of the pifarri and trombetti, in all their manifestations, were considered lower-class instruments and not quite appropriate for genteel society. This fact might also explain the lack of documentation regarding the ensembles as well as why they have been ignored by many musicologists.
Almost all written sources of the period that even mention wind instruments in a theoretical context (as opposed to a simple documentation of a pifarri's performance) are not particularly positive about them. For instance A. Agarazzi wrote in 1607:
This is one of many denigrating comments that writers and the more theoretical musicians of the Renaissance recorded for posterity. The wind instruments are apparently so musically insignificant that the Agarazzi feels as though they are not even worth commenting upon. The exception of the organ is interesting, as most modern musicians would not really categorize the organ as a wind instrument, despite the fact it is powered by air. However, the organ is exempt of the fatal flaws of wind instruments, mainly that other wind instruments are hard to keep in tune, subject to the vagaries of human breath, and are "great and noisy".
One of the premier writers of the Renaissance was Baldassare Castiglione, who wrote a book called Il Cortegiano (The Courtier) which was published in 1514. Castiglione was something of a Miss Manners for the Renaissance, not only in Italy but across Europe. Il Cortegiano was a handbook describing, via a dialogue, how the perfect courtier should act, think and speak. The book was both well published and widely read. It was even translated into English in 1561 by Sir Thomas Hoby; a sign of its international influence. The publication had a very similar opinion to A. Agarazzi regarding the status of wind instruments. Castiglione wrote that part singing is a good attribute for a courtier, that singing with the lute is better, that playing instruments with frets is enjoyable, and that viols are delightful. The sole negative opinion Castiglione offers about music at all was expressed about wind instruments, although in a very roundabout way, "Yet the more cunning is he [the courtier] upon them [string instruments], the better it is for him, without meddling much with the instruments that Minerva and Alcibiades refused, because it seemeth they are noisome." The instruments which Minerva and Alcibiades refused were wind instruments. This quote is significant not only because it advises against upper class involvement with wind instruments, but also because it does so in such a desultory manner, again indicating their insignificance.
This attitude towards wind instruments is well and widely known in the works of the scholars studying the music of the Renaissance, for example E. Kenton says, ". . .singers were in any case considered more important people than instrumentalists."Kenton, p. 91 Carter says that ". . .instrumentalists. . . [were] practitioners of a kind of music less noble than music with a text."Carter p. 165 P. Young says in his introduction, "Today we are amused by the fact that most strings, in particular the lute, were considered genteel and therefore suitable for the nobility to play, whereas winds were consigned to the less well-born."Look Scholars are in general agreement that wind instruments were not of the same class nor held in the same esteem as their string brethren, or even as the human voice.
Indeed, it may even have been considered inappropriate for a lady to patronize such "loud" instrumentalists. Isabella D'Este's unwillingness to tip "bufoons, clowns or trumpeters"M&M p. 144-145 is as much a statement on the loud instruments as it is slander on "bufoons" and clowns. The conclusion is drawn by Prizer that Isabella's patronage of secular vocal music was a reflection of the fact that the societal constraints of her period prevented her from maintaining her own chapel or her own band of pifarri.
Like many distinctions, apparently the prohibition against women's involvement with wind instruments appears to have disintegrated as the Renaissance wore on. There are records that four ladies (and they are described as ladies) from Vicenza not only sang well, but also played cornetts and trombones in a production of Oedipo Tiranno in 1585. Thus, either the low-brow status of wind instruments had changed since Isabella's time, or societal constraints upon women had lessened enough to permit them to play the lower class instruments.
There are very few sources that mitigate the low status of loud wind instruments. One period letter, c. 1580, from Giovanni de'Barti to Giulio Caccini gives some credit to the wind instruments by stating that; "Wind instruments, as more nearly imitating the human voice, are given preference over the others by Aristotle in his Problems." Strunk, p. 296 This cannot be taken too far, however, since the only merit of these wind instruments is their similarity to the human voice. Obviously, then, the human voice is still to be preferred over these acceptable imitators.
While wind instruments were not given the highest degree of respect, many players of the instruments might hope for slightly better status. Trombetti players could be called upon to be diplomats and serve in full diplomatic function as a liaison between two courts. Some of the trombetti were relatively well-paid. While the situation of small-town pifarri was fairly undesirable, their court brethren were in great demand and could become wealthy from not only salaries, but tips and large inducements of land or money. The pifarri players of St. Marks were not doomed to poverty or disrespect, as the promotion of the cornettist Bassano to a position at the seminary makes clear. Not only that, but many of the less famous players at St. Marks had the opportunity to hold second jobs, "The musicians at St. Marks were naturally in demand outside their own church, and we find their names turning up as the temporary, and even permanent, employees of other bodies." Giovanni, p. 188 It is important to reiterate that the social status and remuneration of wind instrumentalists depended in large part upon their merit as musicians and diplomats, as well as upon the instrumentalists' personalities and abilities.
Conclusion
It is easy to fall in love with the various wind ensembles I have discussed--from the musically challenged but politically important trombetti, to the loud dance band pifarri, to the pifarri ensemble that inspired Giovanni Gabrieli to use the first ever instrumentation. The images involved can be very beautiful, such as the fanfares played across the Tiber when a Cardinal crossed, or amusing as the silver trumpets that were so long they required a second person to hold up their end, or breathtaking as ninety-two trumpeter at the wedding of Alfonso d'Este and Anna Maria Sforza. These ensembles were dynamic forces and vital parts of the lives of the communities in which they lived and played. A festival could not be held without them!
I have come to love these ensembles. If there is one thing I could wish, however, it would be for a serious scholarly study specifically of the ensembles of Renaissance Italy to be published. These ensembles, and other ensembles I have not studied, deserve more attention and research by those in a position to do them justice. My work is based on the secondary work of others, and I strongly hope that one of those "others" might focus more closely on the ensembles that were so interesting and influential.
That said, I leave you with one of my favorite images of the pifarri, specifically the shawm and trombone ensemble, which performed in 1468 for the wedding of the Duke of Burgundy to Margaret of York. Olivier de la Marche records that, ". . .the music included a motet played by the hauts menestrels with trompette-saicqueboute, and three shawms, disguised as goats." BI, p. 108 Any ensemble in which the players can be disguised as goats is an ensemble worth knowing more about!
Further, some are stringed instruments, others wind instruments. Of this second group (excepting the organ) I shall say nothing, because they are not used in good and pleasing consorts, because of their insufficient union with the stringed instruments and because of the variation produced in them by the human breath, although they are introduced in great and noisy ones.Strunk, p. 65