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Book Review
Mar. 31st, 2015 10:59 pmFrancesca Caccini at the Medici Court: Music and the Circulation of Power
by Suzanne G. Cusick
Cusick's marvelous book concerns Francesca Caccini, a seventeenth-century singer and composer at the Medici court. Caccini was one of the chief musicians at the court during the early 1600s - not only did she give many performances, she also composed many vocal works and an important theatrical production, La liberazione di Ruggierio. She also acted as a kind of music director and taught.
Cusick examines Caccini's life and work, illuminating how she helped express and promote the court's power, and how she navigated those channels of power in her professional and private life. Caccini's music was both an artistic expression of emotion and beauty and a vehicle through which her patrons demonstrated their power. Cusick deftly shows this through discussion of the context and circumstances of Caccini's work and through musical analysis of individual pieces. Cusick also thus provides a very detailed and fascinating look at how music and musicians functioned in late Renaissance Italian courts, the private and public roles they fulfilled, and how they fashioned their lives.
Cusick's prose and arguments both flow extremely well, making this a book that is both highly intellectual and eminently readable. The balance between musical analysis and cultural information is nigh-perfect. Cusick does a very good job of evoking the world of seventeenth century Florence, too, such that this book was as immersive as many novels. Best of all, the book comes with a CD of Caccini's music, most of which is discussed in the text.
by Suzanne G. Cusick
Cusick's marvelous book concerns Francesca Caccini, a seventeenth-century singer and composer at the Medici court. Caccini was one of the chief musicians at the court during the early 1600s - not only did she give many performances, she also composed many vocal works and an important theatrical production, La liberazione di Ruggierio. She also acted as a kind of music director and taught.
Cusick examines Caccini's life and work, illuminating how she helped express and promote the court's power, and how she navigated those channels of power in her professional and private life. Caccini's music was both an artistic expression of emotion and beauty and a vehicle through which her patrons demonstrated their power. Cusick deftly shows this through discussion of the context and circumstances of Caccini's work and through musical analysis of individual pieces. Cusick also thus provides a very detailed and fascinating look at how music and musicians functioned in late Renaissance Italian courts, the private and public roles they fulfilled, and how they fashioned their lives.
Cusick's prose and arguments both flow extremely well, making this a book that is both highly intellectual and eminently readable. The balance between musical analysis and cultural information is nigh-perfect. Cusick does a very good job of evoking the world of seventeenth century Florence, too, such that this book was as immersive as many novels. Best of all, the book comes with a CD of Caccini's music, most of which is discussed in the text.
