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Art, History & Politics, Music

Early Renaissance – Florence

“What Makes it Italian?”: The Music and Architecture of Italy

Date
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
Time
6:00 pm

Overview

“What Makes It Italian?” is a music listening and discussion group that meets online on the Zoom platform and is open to everyone.
Participation is free.
The group is led by Gina Crusco, who guides listening at Bard LLI and Riverdale Y, and who has been music instructor at The New School and director of Underworld Productions.
Please email ginacrusco@gmail.com to confirm your attendance and receive an invitation link.

This Spring “What Makes it Italian?” takes a look at stylistic parallels between the most ephemeral of the arts – music, which dissipates moment by moment – and the near-permanent – architecture, constructed to last many lifetimes.

Italy is the birthplace of Renaissance architecture and the homeland of Palladianism, a style which influenced design all over the world. The history of Western architecture has been shaped by such edifices as the Duomo of Milan, the Mole Antonelliana in Turin, and the Villa Capra in Vicenza. Nowadays, ​​Italy is in the forefront of modernist architecture, with two Pritzker Architecture Prizes having gone to Italians.

Who were the composers who produced music in the regions and during the eras when these great buildings were erected? Does their music reflect then-current architecture trends? The likes of Alessandro Scarlatti, Giuseppe Verdi, and today’s young Giovanni Allevi tell the story.

Architecture: Facade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, 1470
by Leon Battista Alberti (1406 – 1472)

 Music: Nicolaus Zacharie (c.1400 – 1466)
Gloria