L'AFFETTO E LA SUA MISURA. LE AUTORITÀ ECCLESIASTICHE E LA REGOLAMENTAZIONE DELLA MUSICA NELLA PRIMA ETÀ MODERNA

Is it possible to censure music? This question may sound rather extravagant, and this is perhaps why music is often overlooked in studies on ecclesiastical censorship in the early modern period, for it would seem that its very essence is incompatible with any form of control. In fact, the huge transformation the Catholic Church had to face, between the sixteenth and the seventeenth century, had a big impact on the music scene. Unavoidably, music was involved in the disputes between Catholics and Protestants as essential liturgical element. The musicologists have mainly studied the Council of Trent action, which seemed to be animated by the desire to remove the secular textual and melodic components from the church repertory. Therefore, Rome became the main center of production for sacred and spiritual music used in celebrations, devotional practices and also in teaching catechism. The case of the Society of Jesus is exemplar: music represent a powerful means of education in college programs, and a strategic tool in the catechesis work. To the enhancement of spiritual genres corresponds as well the will of ‘suppress’ the profane repertories. This is well documented during the age of Counter Reformation, by the variety of cases of ‘‘travestimento’’ which invest canzonette and madrigals. This attitude was also proved by some of the measures the ecclesiastical censure adopted against the vocal production since the seventies of the sixteenth century. In ancient Greek musical theory, harmony was seen as being endowed with a natural virtue capable of altering the rational faculties of the listener’s soul, to the extent of depriving that person of his freedom. The many ethical implications of this classical axiom featured in early modern theological debates. My thesis tries to provide a first answer to these questions by studying the conciliar decrees, the documents of the Index Congregation, the treatises on music and the manuals on demonology. These sources reveal musical censorship did not only involve zealous inquisitors battling with some licentious musician, but also the language of worship and the circulation of prohibited knowledge, which included dangers in the form of sounds that went beyond erotic seduction.