The Basilica of St Mark served a dual function as both private chapel of the Doge and principal church of the State, and as such figured prominently in Venetian political life. With its own distinctive liturgy, a minutely detailed ceremonial, sumptuous mosaic decoration, works of art and magnificent music, the Basilica not only reflected vividly the worldly glories of the Serenissima Repubblica, but also served to illustrate a complex fusion of political and religious ideology. Differing ranks of feasts called for specific types of music: in particular, the formal appearance of the Doge at Mass and Vespers on 30 or so days each year required the exposition of the great golden altarpiece, the Pala d’oro, the presence of instrumentalists and the performance of elaborate music. Every few years a major event would demand yet more lavish celebration: the signing of a treaty, a naval victory, the end of a plague, the visit of a prince or ambassador, or the coronation of a Doge. These festivals are frequently described in Venetian histories and, even judged by Venetian standards of opulence, would be of quite stupendous extravagance. This performance recreates one such event, the Coronation Mass of Doge Marino Grimani celebrated on the morning of 27 April 1595.

The sequence of music in this performance takes the form of a liturgical reconstruction, not only incorporating the texts and ceremonial procedures of the Venetian Rite, but also reflecting the musico-liturgical practices of the era. In northern Italy it was customary to suppress certain items of the liturgy in order to place greater emphasis on extra-liturgical music. Most often the official text was said by the celebrant ‘in secreto’ at the High Altar. This practice was never sanctioned by the official (Roman) authorities but in Venice, more than anywhere else, it allowed music to take an ever-increasing importance in services – at St Mark’s there was even a rule allowing priests to be fined if they interrupted the music!

Certain points in the Mass were considered particularly suited to musical elaboration with toccatas, motets, sonatas and canzonas, especially the Gradual, Offertory, Elevation, Agnus Dei, Communion, Postcommunion and Deo Gratias. It is not yet clear how much of the official text was spoken, sotto voce, the reconstruction under such music, and in any case there seems to have been considerable flexibility in practice. In Venice, even the Agnus Dei was sometimes omitted and it is possible that almost all the chant items from the Preface onwards were covered by the multiplicity of musical substitutes. The Coronation Mass was celebrated with its own unusual and hybrid liturgy, that of a Mass of the Holy Trinity with the collect of the feast of St Mark.

Venetian liturgical sources are always complex, and research is constantly developing. If some decisions regarding minor aspects of the reconstruction are conjectural, it is nonetheless based on a thorough interpretation of all the major Venetian sources. In any case such details are relatively unimportant – the reconstruction is of necessity speculative in terms of the actual music performed on that April morning over 400 years ago. More interesting is the possibility of recreating something greater than the sum of the individual pieces, and to put all the music into a richer, more colourful and more dramatic perspective. We may have lost our ability to respond to religious and civic ritual so beloved of renaissance Venetians, but in reconstructing such events we can perhaps rediscover something of the artistic and spiritual riches of this great city at the zenith of her powers.

Text reproduced with kind permission from Signum Records