Dr. Sara Pecknold

This course explores the wealth of sacred music composed in Venice throughout the seventeenth century. Course discussions begin with the composers of the Basilica di San Marco, including Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Monteverdi, and Francesco Cavalli. Different types of sacred music-making in the Serene Republic are explored: ecclesiastical, confraternal, monastic, domestic, and pedagogical (i.e., at the Venetian ospedali). The course includes a discussion of early modern music theory and pedagogy, in order to train students to analyze seventeenth-century music in a historically sensitive manner.