music in venice: a historiographical overview 867
his illustrious countryman willaert, presenting new biographical informa-
tion and, in the later study, the results, including document transcriptions,
of a detailed study of the san Marco archives for the period of willaert’s
tenure as maestro. He clearly hoped that this archival work, showing the
maestro’s role in establishing the international fame of the cappella ducale,
combined with the study of willaert’s music made possible by the recent
publication (1937) of the first volume of his collected works, would allow
one to affirm that with this “grand maitre flamand,” “we are dealing with a
genius of exceptional stature, which only an unjustifiable oversight could
deny a place alongside Josquin des pres, lassus and philippe de Monte.”
As the field of musicology expanded greatly after world war ii, studies
of music in renaissance Venice proliferated. Much continued in the same
vein as the earlier work, but new trends also developed. not surprisingly,
the cappella di san Marco and its major figures, willaert and gabrieli, still
attracted much attention. the former remained primarily the domain of
Belgian and german authors, with a further biographical article by len-
aerts, and finally, in 1985, a full-scale life and works by ignace Bossuyt. At
the same time, a complete edition of willaert’s music (that from the 1930s
having been a false start) got underway (and is not yet quite complete).
willaert’s sacred music was the subject of several studies by Hermann
Beck, who also reaffirmed the centrality of willaert and his disciple cip-
riano de rore to the development of the Venetian style. giovanni gabrieli
also received great attention, with the publication of two full-scale bio-
graphical/musical studies. the 1967 study by egon Kenton began as an
expansion of winterfeld’s 1834 book, adding a more extensive biography, a
detailed works list, and examination of gabrieli’s secular as well as sacred
works. Denis Arnold, whose work played a key role in the broadening
of research into Venetian music (see below), published his monograph
on gabrieli in 1980 (having issued a small-scale biography in 1974). this
book offers a detailed biography of the organist-composer, documenting
his employment not only at san Marco but also at one of Venice’s great
lay confraternities. it also addresses a wide variety of questions concern-
ing the function of the musical works, their style and performance prac-
tice, and their chronology. Despite the book’s contributions, it is often
superficial and inaccurate, so that it cannot yet be considered the defini-
tive treatment. Arnold also served as principal editor of the new edition
of gabrieli’s works (1980). richard charteris, who has scoured libraries
around the world for sources for the music of gabrieli and other Vene-
tian composers, issued a complete thematic catalogue of gabrieli’s works
in 1996.