Sackbutts and Hurdy Gurdys

Thursdays are usually my “long” days because I have TWO lectures in the afternoon as opposed to just one, like I do Monday-Wednesday. They are also two classes that I dread…but then usually end up enjoying every week: Aural Skills IV and Music History II: Baroque and Classical Eras.

This past Thursday, however, I got a little reprieve, because my music history lecture was meeting downtown at the Galleria dell’Accademia (where David is) to see the Historical Musical Instruments Exhibit that is permanently housed there.

I marvel at the wealth of knowledge possessed by our instructor, Kate Bolton. She’s this fantastic British woman with an infectious accent (complete with hilarious little phrases) and that iconic, dry, British sense of humor I can’t get enough of. She also knows what seems to be an infinite amount of information about the era, the composers, their music, and (as we saw on Thursday) the instruments of the time.  She could rattle on forever about these things without looking at her notes once. It was fascinating.

You always see those ridiculous pictures in university pamphlets with the small groups of students at a museum or something, all gazing intently at their professor as (s)he points out some piece of art or a historical artifact and is explaining it...well, on Thursday, I was one of those people! It actually does happen in college. I remember thinking as we were going through the exhibit (this is SO "college" right now...)

Unfortunately for us, they closed early on Thursday (unbeknownst to us) and we were cut short. So we finished the rest of the lecture in a little café in Piazza San Marco.

The exhibit is very interesting. They have several period cellos, a “tenor viola”, many violins...harpsichords, pianofortes, and all sorts of instruments you’ve never seen or heard of before (like sackbutts and the hurdy gurdy). They have a collection of period wind and percussion instruments as well. The instruments of the day (in correlation with the "baroque" style of art focusing on grandeur and splendor) were often very ornate and works of art themselves. Many of the instruments were shaped to look like animals.

They have also digitally catalogued recordings of these instruments so you can hear what they sounded like. Apparently they give concerts every now and then on the instruments in the exhibit that are still playable. Mind you, these things are a minimum of 300 years old. But many instruments, particularly stringed instruments, improve in tone quality with age. This is why the few remaining Stradivarius string instruments from the early 18^th century sell for millions of dollars. (A Russian collector recently bought a Stradivarius from 1718 for 9.5 million dollars…)

What’s been so interesting and exciting about this class is that all the music we are studying was composed HERE, or at least influenced by Italian composers of the age. Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Corelli all lived and worked here…the French composer Lully was actually born in Italy and changed his name when he moved to France…Handel, Purcell, and Bach were all heavily influenced by the Italian tradition. These composers would make a point of coming to Italy and spending time here just to learn how to do what was being created down here. And FLORENCE was THE birthplace of opera. The first operas ever performed in western history were performed right down the street. It’s incredible.

While I’m enjoying the class…I’m not enjoying the research paper we’ve been assigned that’s due on Thursday.  The prompt is to “discuss the term ‘Baroque’ focusing in particular on music.”

A bit, vague, I think.

I realize it’s been a little while since I’ve written a paper like this, and I’m out of practice. Or out of motivation. Or both. But I’ll hammer it out in the coming days. As with any history course…it’s a lot of raw facts we need to know. Our mid-term is the paper which is due, but also and IN-CLASS essay on Baroque vocal music.

I set to work on it today, Saturday, but the weather was SO GORGEOUS that I just had to take my work outside! My roommates and I set up camp on the soccer field in the middle of the olive grove on the estate, and we ate lunch and studied in the sunshine. It was in the 60s! I was in a short-sleeved shirt and more than comfortable! This is not good for studying students on the brink of midterms and Spring Break in one short week!

But that’s a topic for another day.