Phenomena of Keyboard Instrument Decoration in the Sixteenth Century Heidelinde Pollerus   Appearance and prestige – two perennially interrelated terms. Where historical keyboard instruments are concerned, ‘appearance’ naturally refers to an object’s purely visual outward effect. However, such appearance is closely related to the meaning and reputation of the object as well as its purpose. This functions on two levels. …

Mario Aschauer   It is all but a miracle that the friars of the Vienna Minorite Order have been able to shield the treasures of their music archive against the perils of time for over 400 years. Around 1600, the monastery began to establish itself as an elite musical institution in Vienna.1 One of its most significant members, Father Alexander Giessel …

Vania Dal Maso   Introduction The history of Italian keyboard instrument literature is initially linked to tablatures of vocal pieces. This music was conceived and created with different sound destinations in mind than those typically associated with instrumental music. The first autonomous pieces in Italian keyboard music sources that were not derived from pre-existing models are predominantly dances. The earliest …

Paola Erdas   This article offers a glimpse into the world of Antonio Valente, author of the seminal Intavolatura de cimbalo, Naples 1576, as well as on the music he wrote and his innovative and unique notation in the history of music.1 Figure 1: Antonio Valente, Intavolatura de cimbalo (Naples, 1576), frontispiece. Giulio Cesare Capaccio, Neapolitan gentleman, theologist and erudite …

Sébastien Wonner   Figure 1: Jean-Paul Sartre, ‘Le séquestré de Venise’, in: Situations IV (Paris, 1964), 291. In 1957, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote a long text entitled The Prisoner of Venice. The philosopher had a little-known passion for this city and one of its emblematic artists, the painter Tintoretto. Unfortunately, he did not complete the work he had hoped to devote …

  ‘Per Aures ad Animum’ – The Harpsichord in the 16th Century II Museo San Colombano – Tagliavini Collection, Genus Bononiae (Bologna), Conservatorio di Musica Giovan Battista Martini, Genus Bononiae (Bologna) in cooperation with University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Department of Musicology and Performance Studies and Department of Early Music), Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica (Bologna), HipER …

  Mario Aschauer is Associate Professor of Music at Sam Houston State University (Huntsville, Texas) where he serves as coordinator of the musicology area and director of the Center for Early Music Research and Performance (CEMRAP). Moreover, he his lecturer of harpsichord and basso continuo at Rice University (Houston, Texas). He holds degrees in conducting, harpsichord performance, and musicology from …

  Mario Aschauer The Merulo Toccata in Codex Vienna, Minorite Convent 714 One of the treasures of the Vienna Minorite Convent (A-Wm) is a manuscript codex (XVI.714), created in the first three decades of the 17th century, which contains over 500 pieces for harpsichord and organ. As such, it is one of the largest collections of early 17th-century keyboard music, …

  General abbreviations anon. anonymous app. appendix appr. approximately ASBN Archivio Storico del Banco di Napoli ASN Archivio di Stato di Napoli attr. attributed b./bb. bar(s) bibl. bibliography c. circa cap. capitulum cf. confer ch. chapter cit. cited col./cols. column(s) doc./docs. document(s) ed., eds. editor(s)/edited e.g. exempli gratia esp. especially et al. et alia, -i, -ae ex., exs. example(s) f. …