Dalla 'Potentia auditiva' all'universal genio de' spettatori. La ricezione della musica nel pensiero teorico tra Rinascimento e Barocco (II)

Abstract

In this second part of this study, the focus is above all on the strong convergence between poetics and music in the final decades of the 16th century. It is a profound interrelationship that develops fundamentally within the context of the effects of music on the soul. Apart from Francesco Patrizi's interesting contribution on the symbolic importance of music and poetry, it is the writings of theorists like Lorenzo Giacomini, Francesco Buonamici and Pomponio Torelli that define the premises that lie at the basis of the aesthetic ideas of the dramma in musica. The element creating what can be viewed as a shared universe of “discourse” is above all their marked stress on psychological effect, which can be determined by either reading or listening. A decisive role in this manifest concurrence of opinions is played by the ideas of Girolamo Mei, which introduce a fertile mediation between poetics and music.
More specifically on the theme of reception, the study then tackles the role of the public in the early Baroque. It stresses how the elitist positions voiced by exponents of the Florentine Camerata were superseded by writers such as Bottrigari and Banchieri, who pronounced in favour of an art that might delight “universally all listeners” or might bring “delight to the greater part” of them. In the light of these statements, it is not surprising that certain theorists – though closely associated with the humanistic tradition – should stress the audientis disposizio (Kircher) and the need to resort to artifice to gratify the eyes and ears of the spectators (Doni).
The ideas of Kircher and Doni lay bare an evident tension between humanistic assumptions and Baroque inclinations. It was a tension that was to find a solution (in the first half of the 17th century) only in the realm of practice, where the dominant features were conspicuous artifice and the seduction of an increasingly demanding public. The triumph of this new paradigm – the pursuit of spectacle – is emblematically expressed by Giacomo Badoaro when he asserts the need to satisfy “the universal genius of the spectators”. It is a need that can essentially be attributed to a poetic vision in which adherence to contemporaneity is an inescapable assumption.
Yet it is important to note that this rebellion against the conditionings of the classical rules is not a completely new theoretical approach. As is confirmed by the positions contrary to the Aristotelian precepts expressed by various authors of the preceding century: including Bruno, Guarini, Ingegneri, Malatesta and Michele.