Per una indagine sulle cappelle musicali in Puglia durante il XVIII secolo

Abstract

Research on musical chapels in the Kingdom of Naples has so far focused on the capital. Recently, many documents emerged, out of several Puglia archives, allowing to outline a history of the musical institutions in three provinces: Capitanata, Terra di Bari, and Terra d'Otranto. 

This essay focuses on chapels located in cathedrals, collegiate churches, or convents. As combing-up of 18th-century business books andconclusioni capitolari shows, musical positions were mostly given to clerics, especially as organists and chapel masters—two often interchangeable roles. Only the two palatine chapels in Altamura and Acquaviva delle Fonti and the Bari basilica, St. Nicholas, could afford to pay lay musicians—those were dominio regio churches, placed under the Neapolitan major chaplain's direct power. Here, both polyphonic and concertato-style music was played, albeit with small outfits. As documents show, more performers were recruited on patron saints' days, when musici forestieri were also involved, usually drawn from the same province. 

Musicians were trained in Naples conservatories, or in music schools attached to seminars or—less often—in private schools, like the one the Tricarico family ran in Gallipoli. Some activity is also attested in a few convents, were a maestra di cappella position was created. Along the entire century, being a musician in Puglia was largely a family tradition, or a job related to specific social agreements.