Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

(iii) The ‘most faithful city’ and the Treasury of S Gennaro.

Even when ruled by the viceroy, the city of Naples had an autonomous mechanism of self-government, with the election of representatives: these ‘Eletti’ represented the nobility's five piazzas and the single piazza of the people. The Eletti also had responsibility for organizing public celebrations, including processions and carnival entertainments. The music which accompanied such ceremonies, the most important of which were the three evenings of the September feast of St Januarius (Gennaro), one of the 22 patron saints of Naples in the 17th century, was entrusted to a maestro di cappella elected for the purpose. In 1665 the ‘maestro di cappella della Fidelissima Città’ was Francesco Provenzale, who retained the post until 1699, when he was replaced by Gaetano Greco. The Eletti of the ‘most faithful city’ also supervised the religious ceremonies within the cathedral, in the famous chapel of the Treasury of S Gennaro (inaugurated in 1646).

The first information on the musical chapel of the Treasury, which was assembled specifically for celebrations connected with the saint, dates from the 1660s, when the maestro di cappella was Filippo Coppola, and the forces consisted of between two and four choirs with two organists (the two organs had been constructed in 1649 by Pompeo di Franco), harp, archlute, four violins and violas. Provenzale attempted to assume the direction of the Treasury as well from 1665, but he had to wait for the deaths of both Coppola and his successor G.C. Netti before he became maestro di cappella of the Treasury in 1686. He retained the post until 1699, when he was replaced by Cristoforo Caresana, who died in 1709 and was in turn replaced by a pupil of Provenzale, Nicola Fago (1709–31). His son Lorenzo and grandson Pasquale took the post in succession, followed by Giacomo Insanguine in 1781, who on his death in 1795 was followed in turn by Raffaele Orgitano and Antonio Cipolla. One of the most significant maestri of the ‘most faithful city’ after Greco was Carlo Cotumacci. During the 18th century some of the finest singers, including Farinelli, and instrumentalists were involved in the music of the Treasury. Apart from the chapel of the Treasury, the cathedral also had its own musical chapel, employed by the Archbishop of Naples, which was in open rivalry with the royal chapel. The maestri di cappella at the cathedral were always prestigious musicians, from Stefano Felis at the end of the 16th century to Angelo Durante at the beginning of the 18th century.

Naples, §3: The Spanish era (1503–1734)

(iv) The SS Annunziata, Congregazione dell'Oratorio and other churches.

After the royal chapel and the cathedral and Treasury, the most important musical institutions in the city were the Casa dell' Annunziata and the Congregazione dell'Oratorio. The former was a charitable institution for orphans, which gradually came to specialize in providing the children with a musical education, and in performing music in the church. According to Giovanthomaso Cimello, the celebrated Tinctoris had been maestro di musica of the church of the SS Annunziata at the end of the 15th century. The name of the composer Di Maio appears in the registers in 1548, although the first maestro di cappella, documented in 1557, was G.A. Bolderino. In 1563 Giovanni Domenico da Nola was appointed maestro di cappella, and in 1580 the chapel, still under Nola, consisted of between 18 and 24 singers, with three organists, a trombonist, a cornett player and a viola da gamba player. On Nola's death in 1592 Camillo Lambardi became maestro di cappella, with even larger forces, including the best musicians in the city, particularly the organists Giovanni de Macque and Scipione Stella, subsequently replaced by G.M. Trabaci and Ascanio Maione (later followed by his son Giulio, a virtuoso harpist). At the same time there was an increase in the teaching at the orphanage, where music was now taught to the girls as well as the boys. However, the institution soon found itself in straitened circumstances, and was obliged to reduce the musical forces and use ‘sabbatari’ musicians, usually members of the royal chapel brought in only for the most significant musical events. In 1604 there were only nine choristers, with two organists and five ‘sabbatari’. Over the years, names associated with the Annunziata included the lutenist Crescentio Salzilli, the theorist Pietro Cerone, the composers Orazio Giaccio, Scipione Dentice and Gregorio Strozzi (from 1641) and also the first castratos. When Lambardi died in 1634, G.M. Sabino was elected maestro, succeeded on his death in 1649 by his brother Donato Antonio, organist at the Annunziata since 1635, who survived him by only a year. In 1650 the maestro di cappella was Filippo Coppola, who held the post until his death in 1680. But by now the crisis in the musical life of the Annunziata, caused by a drop in earnings and by competition from the conservatories, had reduced the forces to a small group of choristers and violinists, with regular guest musicians. There was even a reduction in the duties of the new maestro di cappella, Gennaro Ursino, who was limited to directing the music for the major feast days, and in 1700 the post of master of plainchant was abolished. However, the full post of maestro di cappella was restored to Ursino in 1705, and on his death in 1715 it passed to Lorenzo Rispoli. In the following decades, despite the Annunziata's apparent decline in importance, the church employed maestri of the level of Francesco Feo (1727–45), his nephew Gennaro Manna (1745–54) and Carlo Cotumacci (organist from 1749). After the destruction of the church by fire in 1757, the new building designed by Vanvitelli saw the return of Gennaro Manna (1774) who succeeded in having his grandson Gaetano appointed (1780), instead of the prestigious assistant maestri already serving the institution.

The Congregazione dell'Oratorio was established in Naples in 1586, at the behest of Filippo Neri, and from the very beginning it attached great importance to music, with the Roman composer Giovenale Ancina present until 1596: in his Tempio armonico (1599⁶) he included laudi and other works by Neapolitan composers. In 1612, after years of disagreement, the Naples establishment separated from the Roman one, and assumed its present name of the Oratorio dei Girolamini. From 1632 onwards liturgical functions with music were governed by precise instructions, under the direction of a musicae praefectus. Soon the Girolamini's musical chapel rivalled the leading musical institutions in the city. Musicians associated with the institution include Scipione Dentice (who composed two books of Madrigali spirituali for the Girolamini), G.M. Trabaci (maestro from 1625 to 1630), G.M. Sabino (maestro from 1630 to 1637), Erasmo Bartoli, known as Padre Raimo (who introduced the use of four choirs in the middle of the 17th century, prefetto from 1645), Filippo Coppola (maestro about 1664), Donato Ricchezza (maestro until 1714), Giuseppe Conti (1717–31), his son Nicola Conti (1731–62), Nicola Sabatino (1763–88), Giuseppe de Magistris (1781–93) and finally Giuseppe Arena. There were also many musicians who worked with the Oratorio on an occasional basis, including Cristoforo Caresana who bequeathed his entire music collection to the Oratorio, which still holds the most valuable collection of Neapolitan sacred music in existence. The Oratorio also encouraged the publication and dissemination of numerous collections of laudi and frottolas, and put on performances of oratorios and sacred music dramas.

There were many other religious institutions in Naples which were musically active, especially from the end of the 16th century. These included the Spanish church, S Giacomo degli Spagnoli, the church of the Gesù Nuovo, the Collegio Gesuitico dei Nobili, S Domenico Soriano, S Maria del Carmine, S Gregorio Armeno (which still possesses a valuable collection of music), the convents of S Maria la Nova and of SS Severino e Sossio, S Chiara and Monteoliveto, as well as the confraternities. But, as many surviving organs indicate, music was cultivated in virtually every tiny chapel of the nearly 500 churches in Naples during the Spanish era.

Naples, §3: The Spanish era (1503–1734)