The decades around the turn of the seventeenth century were marked by a new religious self-consciousness developing within the Catholic world over the course of the latter part of the sixteenth century - usually associated with the Council of Trent and the Counter-Reformation but in fact fuelled by a great diversity of intellectual and religious currents which continue to fuel discussions among historians. Italy, besides being one of the main centres of the Catholic world, was home to an extremely rich musical culture, witnessing in the time around 1600 a huge variety of musical styles designated or adapted to enhance the practice of the faith. Large-scale polychoral works for the Tridentine liturgy existed side-by-side with the more intimate genres of musica spirituale which occasionally straddled the stylistic and functional boundaries to the secular realm.
Fascinatingly diverse, this repertoire has long offered a fruitful field of research for musicologists. However, given its chronological situation in a period transgressing the traditional epochal definitions, study of this music has struggled to find a 'home' in the standard historiographical discourse, resulting in a perceivable lack of opportunity for researchers working in this area to communicate their knowledge. This conference aims to respond to this need and to act as a forum of exchange for scholars working on Italian liturgical and devotional music in the decades around 1600.
Fascinatingly diverse, this repertoire has long offered a fruitful field of research for musicologists. However, given its chronological situation in a period transgressing the traditional epochal definitions, study of this music has struggled to find a 'home' in the standard historiographical discourse, resulting in a perceivable lack of opportunity for researchers working in this area to communicate their knowledge. This conference aims to respond to this need and to act as a forum of exchange for scholars working on Italian liturgical and devotional music in the decades around 1600.