Music-selling in seventeenth-century Rome: three ... - Patrizio Barbieri

144 Patrizio Barbierinot however appear to have had a particular preference for instrumental compositions(Table 3), such editions seeing a considerable development only toward the endof the century.We have seen that, at least up to 1633, the Franzini-Carampelli repertory was keptup to date and an analysis of the 1621 inventory shows that this was even more so inthe case of secular music. With regard to composers, for sacred publications the nameof Antonio Cifra (1584–1629) stands out in particular, while for the secular his nameis found together with that of Giovanni Francesco Anerio (1567–1630). Among thelatter’s compositions, the collection of “arie, canzonetti, e madrigali” La bella Cloriarmonica (Rome, Soldi, 1619) must have enjoyed considerable popularity: of the 72copies recorded in 1621, not one remains in the inventory drawn up four years later(and we cannot be sure that in the meantime Carampelli had not procured othercopies). The two said inventories show that the Salmi passeggiati con basso continuo byConforti (Rome, Muzi heirs, 1601–02) must have been an even greater commercialsuccess, the work intended not only for vocal soloists, but also for solists of bowedand wind instruments.In the second half of the century, the Franzini’s commercial activity declines bothquantitatively and in works on sale. In secular music, which in these latter years seemsto have been less updated than the sacred, we may note a surprising survival of thefive-part madrigal (see, for example, the inventory printed in 1676). 49 Although theinventories are doubtless influenced by stocks, there must still have been a certaindemand for music by earlier composers, such as the Primo libro dei madrigali a quattrovoci by Archadelt (c.1504–1568), reprinted – as were others – by Andrea Fei in 1620and 1642, both editions commissioned by our Giovanni Domenico Franzini (Fig. 2above). Works by Palestrina were of course sold continually, as evidenced by the factthat, absent from the printed 1676 inventory, numerous copies reappear in the 1686one.49. carter, “Music publishing in Italy c.1580–c.1625”, p. 28 has already remarked that “the fivepartmadrigal does not appear to have suffered significantly from the competition of the newer genreswith basso continuo at least until the second decade of the [17th] century”.