Marian devotion in music: Three settings of the Ave Maris Stella by selected composers at the Santissima Annunziata, Florence (1700-1900 A.D.)

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2019-05

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Abstract

Music historians have commented on the lack of research regarding the history of sacred music in nineteenth-century Italy. Fewer musicologists have explored the even more intimate category within this lacuna-- the music composed for devotional purposes to the Mother of God. The city of Florence has a long tradition in its devotion to the Virgin Mary. Visually, this is evident in its distinctive skyline demarked by the monumental Duomo crowning the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, a dedication which bears a distinctive Tuscan Marian appellation. Within close proximity to the Cathedral is the Santissima Annunziata, the main priory of the Order of the Servants of Mary (Servi di Maria) and site of the city’s most important Marian miracle-working image, the Madonna del ‘Nunziata.’ Serving as the primary focus of the city’s civic and ecclesiastic rituals from the thirteenth century, the music performed by la cappella musicale della SS.Annunziata, considered the city’s most prestigious musical chapel, took on an important and consistent role in aurally adorning the liturgy of the Servite shrine until the dawn of Vatican II. The Ave maris stella, a hymn of particular resonance to this religious order and location serves to illuminate the reverence, consistency and growth of Marian devotion in music as found in the city of Florence through the twentieth century. This study, which incorporates cultural and political history, theology, and musicological analysis, examines the compositions of three long-forgotten eighteenth and nineteenth-century manuscript compositions of the Ave maris stella which are preserved in the archives of the SS.Annunziata by Giovanni Maria Dreyer, Ferdinando and Giuseppe Ceccherini. Ultimately, through studying the unique historical conditions and sacred topography of the city of Florence, these compositions can be viewed not just as individual pieces, but as representative artifacts of the rich political, cultural and religious history of Florence, stretching from the thirteenth century through the dawn of Vatican II.


This dissertation won 1st Place in the Texas Tech University Outstanding Thesis and Dissertation Award, Humanities/Fine Arts, 2019.


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Keywords

Marian devotion in music, Ave Maris Stella, Florence, Santissima Annunziata, Servi di Maria, Giovanni M. Dreyer, Ferdinando Ceccherini, Servants of Mary, Servi di Maria, Giuseppe Ceccherini

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