music in venice: a historiographical overview 875
have only recently become clear. As late as 1974, when eleanor selfridge-
Field published her book on instrumental music in Venice, there was not
enough known about the earlier period to warrant more than a few vague
paragraphs. that has now changed significantly. giulio ongaro traces
instrumentalists at san Marco back to the early 16th century and presents
in some detail the developments from 1568, when girolamo dalla casa da
udine headed up the first official ensemble. rodolfo Baroncini has looked
at the renaissance history of the piffari of the doge, in particular the
ensemble of Zorzi trombetta and his band, which also included his sons.
the issue of what instruments were actually used by these ensembles and
others in Venetian ceremonial life is explored in detail by linda Koldau
and Jeffrey Kurtzman, in a carefully researched and profusely illustrated
article that also puts Venetian practice into a broader italian perspec-
tive. they clarify the sometimes vague terminology used by contempo-
rary writers and determine, after much earlier speculation, the nature of
the trombe squarciate often referred to, particularly in military contexts.
the instrumentalists of the doge and san Marco were the backbone
of the Venetian instrumentalists guild, which was founded sometime in
the 15th century. Most of the early records are lost, but gastone Vio has
been able to reconstruct some of its early history. As he shows, the train-
ing of instrumentalists was very different from that of singers, who usu-
ally learned while serving as choirboys or novice monks. instrumentalists,
as Vio shows, operated much more like craftsmen, in which boys were
apprenticed to masters, often their own fathers or uncles.
renaissance Venice was a center not only for the performance of
instrumental music but also for the manufacture of the instruments them-
selves. A fair number of examples manufactured in Venice in the 16th
century survive in museums, and some of these have been the subject of
organological investigations. notable among these are studies of viols, a
clavichord, and a lute. other scholars have been investigating the makers
themselves and the business of instrument making. notable in this area
is giulio ongaro, who has looked at builders of wind instruments, viols,
and the immigrant tieffenbrucker family of lute makers. More encyclo-
pedic, if less rigorous, is the work of stefano toffolo, who has published
a series of articles and books surveying the entire history of the instru-
ment building industry in Venice, from the renaissance through the end
of the 18th century. Venetian organs have received considerable attention
as well, and although no renaissance instruments survive, documentation
continues to surface as scholars research the activities of religious institu-
tions. two fundamental works are the books by sandro dalla libera and