Instrumental Music in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples
Politics, Patronage and Artistic Culture

Demonstrates the cultivation and interest in instrumental genres by Neapolitan musicians and its significant stature at the royal court.

Anthony R. DelDonna (Author)

9781108725781, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 November 2022

338 pages, 1 b/w illus. 3 tables 43 music examples
24.4 x 17 x 1.8 cm, 0.587 kg

'DelDonna's expertise in Neapolitan history and culture and his command of recent scholarship, both in English and Italian, place him in the most authoritative position to offer a new and compelling view on instrumental music in late eighteenth-century Naples … [the] work … resents a major addition to the current studies on musical, artistic, and pedagogical features of one of the most dynamic European capitals of the eighteenth century.' Guido Olivieri, Music and Letters

The music of early modern Naples and its renowned artistic traditions remain a fruitful area for scholars in eighteenth-century studies. Contemporary social, political, and artistic conditions had stimulated a significant growth of music, musicians and culture in the Kingdom of Naples from the beginning of the seventeenth century. Although eighteenth-century Neapolitan opera is well documented in scholarship, historians have paid much less attention to the simultaneous cultivation of instrumental genres. Yet the culture of instrumental music grew steadily and by its end became an exclusive area of focus for the royal court, a remarkable departure from past norms of patronage. By bridging this gap, Anthony R. DelDonna brings together diverse fields, including historical musicology, music theory, Neapolitan and European history. His book investigates the wide-ranging role of instrumental genres within late eighteenth-century Neapolitan culture and introduces readers to new material, including recently discovered instrumental works of Paisiello, Cimarosa and Pleyel.

List of illustrations
List of music examples
List of tables
Acknowledgements
1. Naples on the grand tour and within the historical imagination
2. The Neapolitan conservatories: identity, formation, operation
3. Pedagogical training in the conservatories
4. Maria Carolina as cultural patron and icon
5. Music for the court of Naples
6. Genre, style, and transnational currents
7. Maestri e operisti: Paisiello
8. Maestri e operisti: Cimarosa and Guglielmi
9. Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Classical music [c 1750 to c 1830 AVGC4], Western "classical" music [AVGC], Music [AV]