Description
The gaps in musical witnesses, produced during the process of tradition or along the paths of dissemination, represent as many open wounds and often compromise the transmission of repertoires in space and time. Sometimes, however, this loss is not irreparable but transforms into a stimulus to analyse the compositions that have reached us incomplete with more attention and seek strategies to make them performable again.
Among the repertoires most affected by this issue is the polyphonic music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, often published in separate parts and reaching us incomplete due to the dispersion of one or more part-books.
Because of such gaps, thousands of incomplete compositions, originally no less significant than those which are still complete, have fallen into oblivion: they are neither studied nor transcribed, as if they had never existed. Even complete compositions within incomplete collections are often overlooked by scholars and performers, distorting modern understandings of the music of the past.
The poster illustrates the results of the Mus.I.Care project, created to address this topic and investigate the incomplete polyphonic collections of sacred and secular music printed in Italy (1580-1640). The project aims to:
- census incomplete musical sources;
- quantify the proportion of incomplete collections in relation to complete ones;
- analyse the extent and nature of missing parts;
- identify later editions that could help restore the musical text of incomplete first editions;
- detect the presence of complete compositions preserved within incomplete collections;
- identify and promote incomplete compositions of historical or musical interest through music editions, reconstruction of missing parts and performance.
By uncovering and reassessing these overlooked compositions, Mus.I.Care seeks to restore their rightful place in musical history, ensuring a more complete and accurate understanding of our musical past.
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