7 - Under the Wings of the Imperial Eagle

Summary

The rapidly changing political landscape of the Neapolitan Viceregno had a significant impact on the professional path of artists and musicians. Driven by a growing awareness of their central place in artistic culture, the Neapolitan string virtuosi became in many cases cultural agents who played an active role in endorsing and shaping the political and cultural programs of dynastic powers. The career of violinist Angelo Ragazzi is emblematic of the close cultural and artistic networks established between the Neapolitan and Viennese courts and illustrates the musicians’ negotiations with political powers. Ragazzi’s sonatas offer a privileged viewpoint from which to investigate the blending of “old” contrapuntal and “modern” concertante styles. In the first quarter of the eighteenth century, the proliferation in Naples of sonatas for three violins and continuo, characterized by marked contrapuntal language, derives in part from the influence of the Viennese contrapuntal style. The sonatas for three violins published by Giuseppe Antonio Avitrano appears as a unique case of printed instrumental music in Naples, realized thanks to influential aristocratic patronage, in a market that suffered from the absence of a significant middle-class amateur performers.