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“First Wednesdays” Lecture and Performance Series
presents Davitt Moroney, Professor, University of California, Berkeley
“The Pope, the Emperor and the Grand Duke: The Rediscovery of a Musical Masterpiece from Renaissance Florence: Alessandro Striggio's Great Mass in Forty and Sixty Parts”
Sponsored by the American Beethoven Society and the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies. Download flyer (pdf)
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
7:00-8:00 p.m.
Free! (reception following)Schiro Program Room, Fifth Floor, Room 550, King Library
South Fourth and San Fernando Streets,
150 E. San Fernando Street, San Jose CA 95112
Parking is available in the Fourth Street Garage:
http://www.sjlibrary.org/about/locations/king/directions.htmOne of the most spectacular works of the entire Renaissance, Striggio’s Great Mass had been lost for almost four centuries until it was rediscovered in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris by Davitt Moroney, world-renowned harpsichordist and musicologist. Davitt, famous for his lively public lectures and concerts, will tell the story of this fascinating work that he spent 20 years trying to locate. The work was miscataloged, under the wrong name, and under the wrong title. Dating from 1566-67, it is one of the most extravagant pieces ever composed in the history of music.
Most of the mass is written for 40 voices (five 8-part choirs and ten times the normal arrangement for a choir), but it expands to 60 voices in the last movement of the 30-minute work. The story of the mass is about a particularly spectacular manifestation of musical culture in 16th-century Florence. Alessandro Striggio the Elder was the highest paid composer at the Medici court, earning twice as much as any other composer. No story about the immensely wealthy Medici family and about Florence would be complete without its share of popes and emperors and political intrigue.
Davitt Moroney received his degrees from King’s College, the Royal College of Music, and the University of California-Berkeley. For 21 years he worked as a freelance artist in many European countries. For his services to music he was named Chevalier in "Order of Cultural Merit" by Prince Rainier III of Monaco (1988), and the French government named him Officier in the "Order of Arts and Letters" (2000). He returned to Berkeley as a Professor in August 2001. He is also University Organist. His list of acclaimed recordings is extensive: http://music.berkeley.edu/Moroney.html
For a Quicktime introduction to the lecture, see:
http://www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/presents/media/2007/bfx/Striggio_Hi.movFor questions about the event, please contact the Beethoven Center at:
(408) 808-2058Seating is limited, so we recommend that you arrive early for the event. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.
This event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Library.
