Written and Unwritten Practices in the Tradition of Cori Spezzati. Gabrieli's Contribution in Context

Though double- and multi-choir music as compositional practice and Giovanni Gabrieli's personal contribution to the repertoire have long attracted the attention of musicologists, relatively little is known about Cori Spezzati as sound, above all in the contexts of music-making in minor churches and the often obscure relationship between compositional style and the potentially multiple locations, functions and economics of performances. The present contribution looks at unwritten practices in the tradition of Cori Spezzati in Venice and elsewhere on the Italian peninsula with the aim of placing the written contributions by Gabrieli and others in a broader historical perspective which takes account of the real sounds of music in everyday performance.