The music of early modern Naples and its renowned artistic traditions remain a fruitful area for scholars in eighteenth-century studies. Contemporary social, political, and artistic conditions had stimulated a significant growth of music, musicians and culture in the Kingdom of Naples from the beginning of the seventeenth century. Although eighteenth-century Neapolitan opera is well documented in scholarship, historians have paid much less attention to the simultaneous cultivation of instrumental genres. Yet the culture of instrumental music grew steadily and by its end became an exclusive area of focus for the royal court, a remarkable departure from past norms of patronage. By bridging this gap, Anthony R. DelDonna brings together diverse fields, including historical musicology, music theory, Neapolitan and European history. His book investigates the wide-ranging role of instrumental genres within late eighteenth-century Neapolitan culture and introduces readers to new material, including recently discovered instrumental works of Paisiello, Cimarosa and Pleyel.

‘DelDonna’s expertise in Neapolitan history and culture and his command of recent scholarship, both in English and Italian, place him in the most authoritative position to offer a new and compelling view on instrumental music in late eighteenth-century Naples … [the] work … resents a major addition to the current studies on musical, artistic, and pedagogical features of one of the most dynamic European capitals of the eighteenth century.’

Guido Olivieri Source: Music and Letters