Project

Clori. Archivio della cantata italiana is a project promoted by the Italian Society of Musicology in collaboration with the Centro studi sulla Cantata Italiana (of the University of Rome "Tor Vergata") and with the Istituto Italiano per la Storia della Musica. In 2012 an agreement was signed with the RISM, which laid the foundations for a productive collaboration.

The project focuses on the Italian cantata, a genre of vocal chamber music on an Italian text that flourished from about 1620 until the early decades of the nineteenth century. The main goals of the project are, on the one hand, the study of the sources and the establishment of a database of the Italian cantata, and on the other hand an inquiry on hitherto little known aspects of this genre: poetic texts, metric and musical structures, style, performing practices, text-music relationship; the social context including patronage, circulation of texts and composers, occasions, and iconography;  the terminological issues and the relationships with treatises, harmonic structures and the realization of thoroughbass.

The core of the project is a database called ‘Clori. Archivio della cantata italiana’ (already available). The organization of the records conforms to the international standard as indicated in the Cataloguing Guide in SBN relating to musical material.

In addition to the standard data, each record may include additional data, such as the entire poetic text of each cantata, its analytical description, links to images, reproductions of dedications, prefaces, notes of possession, reports of any documentation relating to each single piece or collection of cantatas, information obtained from external documentary sources, bibliography.

Thanks to the data thus collected, structured and made easily available, in the second phase of the project we will proceed to the historical and critical study of the specific aspects mentioned above through the production of essays, critical editions, conferences and seminars.

The project was first presented in Nashville in November 2008, during the Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society, then in July 2009 in Amsterdam at the annual conference of the IAML (International Association of Music Libraries) and in 2012 in Mainz at the “Music Documentation conference in Libraries, Scholarship, and Practice” on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales).

Several conferences and seminaries have been devoted to Clori, including the following:

  • Giornata di studi Dal database alla ricerca: nuovi studi sulla cantata italiana (Roma, Fondazione Primoli, 9 dicembre 2019) n collaboration with the Società Italiana di Musicologia, the Fondazione Primoli, the Istituto Italiano per la Storia della Musica, the Festival Barocco, the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (the video of this  conference is and available at the address https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJqwQbqGtcc&t=45s)
  • Roberto Basili, Teresa M. Gialdroni, Intelligent content-processing for complex data: an advanced application to culturally rich digital libraries such as Clori, the archive of Italian Cantata, paper presented at the 65° Congresso IAML (Roma, Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia, luglio 2016)
  • Teresa M. Gialdroni, A Cantata Archive: a Resource for the Musicological Research, relazione presentata al congresso Towards the 150th Anniversary of the Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Second Congress of the Society for Theory of Music. Schools and Directions in Music Scholarship, Performance and Composition (Moscow, Russia, 26-29 settembre 2015);
  • Teresa M. Gialdroni, Per una collaborazione con il Conservatorio di musica “L. Cherubini” di Firenze: i manoscritti delle cantate, paper presented at the Manifestazioni per Firenze Capitale (1865 - 2015) Quartetti per archi a Firenze Giornate di studi e di concerti in ricordo di Giuliana Zaccagnini (Firenze, Conservatorio “Cherubini”, venerdì 2 ottobre 2015);
  • Teresa M. Gialdroni, Licia Sirch, CLORI, a Database of the Italian Cantata After Ten Years: A Resource for Research and a Research for Resources, paper presented at the International Congress Music Research in the Digital Age, International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML)-International Musicological Society (IMS) (New York The Juilliard School, 21–26 June 2015);
  • Teresa M. Gialdroni, Giulia Giovani, Giacomo Sciommeri, Clori. Archivio della Cantata Italiana. Un progetto multidisciplinare, paper presented at the Conferenza annuale della Società Italiana di Studi sul Secolo XVIII, Settecento oggi: studi e ricerche in corso (Marina di Massa, 8-30 maggio 2015);
  • Presentation of “Centro studi sulla cantata italiana” at the Dipartimento di Scienze storiche, filosofico-sociali, dei Beni culturali e del Territorio (Roma, Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, 16 Aprile 2014) (the Centro studi is among the founders of the Clori project);
  • Giacomo Sciommeri, José María Domínguez, Un nuevo instrumento para el estudio de la difusión europea de la música vocal profana de cámara en la Edad Moderna: 'Clori. Archivio della cantata italiana', paper presented at the I° Congreso Internacional sobre Libro Medieval y Moderno. Edición, Producción y Distribución del Libro, (Zaragoza, 10-12 settembre 2014);
  • Giacomo Sciommeri, Licia Sirch, Clori. L'archivio della cantata italiana nove anni dopo: verifiche, osservazioni e novità (Modena, Accademia Nazionale di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti di Modena, «Fonti musicali in rete. Standard descrittivi e sistemi informativi - 3 edizione», 3 ottobre 2014);
  • Licia Sirch, Gabriele Gamba, Clori, il data-base on-line della cantata italiana. Un approccio multidisciplinare, paper presented at the conference "Questioni di Musica …. in Rete. Fonti musicali e tecnologie informatiche in una giornata di studi e concerti" (Biblioteca Universitaria Estense, Archivio di Stato di Modena, Accademia nazionale di Scienze, lettere e arti, Modena, 5 ottobre 2012);
  • Teresa M. Gialdroni, An electronic catalogue for the Italian Chamber Cantata, paper presented at the 19th Congress of the International Musicological Society: Musics, Cultures, Identities (Rome, 1-7 July 2012), Study Group on Digital Musicology: Collaborative projects in digital musicology: Demos and discussion, coordinators Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Frans Wiering;
  • Teresa M. Gialdroni, Clori. Archivio della cantata italiana da camera: Current state of advancement and new perspectives, paper presented at the international conference "Music Documentation in Libraries, Scholarship, and Practice" (Mainz 4-6 giugno 2012) in occasione del 60° anniversario del RISM;
  • Research Directions in the Italian Cantata, “Round Table” held during the Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society Nashville, 7 novembre 2008) with the participation of Roger Freitas (Organizer); Margaret Murata (Moderator); Agostino Ziino, Teresa M. Gialdroni, Licia Sirch, Ellen Harris, Colin Timms.

Collaborations

Currently Clori. Archivio della cantata italiana collaborates with the following institutions:

  • The Società Italiana di Musicologia financed the creation of a management software and supported the participation of a member of its board at the American Musicological Society conference (Nashville, 2008) to encourage the international dissemination of the project;
  • The University of Rome "Tor Vergata" encourages research projects related to the Italian cantata within the doctorate in "Cultural Heritage, Education and Territory". Since October 2014 it has been hosting the Archivio della Cantata Italiana on its servers (previously the Archive was hosted by the Music Sources Research Office at the Braidense Library in Milan). A "Music Librarianship" Laboratory contributes to the implementation of the database thanks to the work of specifically trained students;
  • The Istituto Italiano per la Storia della Musica supports the project through grants for technicians and researchers in order to implement the database;
  • The Institut für Musikwissenschaft of the University of Vienna hosted a seminar held by Licia Sirch and Andrea Zedler entitled Kantatenforschung mit CLORI (Onlinedatenbank): Praktikum zu italienischen Kantaten für den Wiener Kaiserhof um 1700 (Cantata research with CLORI (online data base): Hands on training on Italian Cantatas for the Viennese imperial court around 1700) from 5 October 2012 to 26 January 2013;
  • In 2014, thanks to a seminar held by Teresa Gialdroni, a research group from the University of Palermo coordinated by prof. Anna Tedesco has included in Clori records relating to all the cantatas kept at the Library of the Conservatory “A. Scarlatti ”of Palermo;
  • In 2014, the German Historical Institute of Rome awarded a six-month grant aimed at supporting Clori through a research project on the Sigismondo Fund of the Library of the "S. Pietro a Maiella ”in Naples;
  • The Academy of Arcadia has granted its patronage to the project;
  • On 28 February 2015 Marco Bizzarini held a seminar at the "Benedetto Marcello" Conservatory in Venice on the inclusion of the manuscript collection of chamber cantatas records kept at the Conservatory's Library in the Clori database.;
  • On May 8, 2014, Giacomo Sciommeri held a seminar on Italian cantata at the "G. Rossini" State Conservatory of Music in Pesaro, to train students to catalog in Clori;
  • In addition, Clori collaborates with several groups specialized in early music that include their concert programs music found thanks to our database.

Collaborating institutions:

  • Biblioteca Angelo Mai (Bergamo)
  • Biblioteca del Conservatorio “G. Verdi” (Milano)
  • Biblioteca Estense Universitaria (Modena)
  • Conservatorio di musica “F. Cilea” (Reggio Calabria)
  • Conservatorio di musica “G. Rossini” (Pesaro)
  • Fondazione Arcadia (Milano)
  • Fritz Thyssen Stiftung (Köln)
  • Gruppo di ricerca Música en España en la Edad Moderna (Proyecto I+D HAR2011-22712), Universidad de la Rioja (La Rioja)
  • Istituto Antonio Vivaldi / Fondazione Cini (Venezia)
  • Istituto di Bibliografia Musicale (IBIMUS, Roma)
  • Istituto Storico Germanico di Roma - Sezione musica (DHI, Roma)
  • Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Musikwissenschaftliches Institut (Mainz)
  • Università degli studi di Milano - Sezione Musica (Milano)
  • Università di Palermo - Corso di laurea magistrale in musicologia (Palermo)
  • Università di Pavia - Facoltà di Musicologia di Cremona (Cremona)
  • Uppsala University Library (Uppsala)

Partner institutions

The following institutions have provided images of the documents they own and/or have granted their publication:

  • Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (München)
  • Bibliomediateca dell'Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia (Roma)
  • Biblioteca dell'Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei e Corsiniana (Roma)
  • Biblioteca Angelica (Roma)
  • Biblioteca di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte (Roma)
  • Biblioteca Casanatense (Roma)
  • Biblioteca Comunale (Correggio)
  • Biblioteca Comunale Federiciana (Fano)
  • Biblioteca Comunale Planettiana (Jesi)
  • Biblioteca del Conservatorio di musica “Arrigo Pedrollo” (Vicenza)
  • Biblioteca del Conservatorio di musica “S. Cecilia” (Roma)
  • Biblioteca del Conservatorio di musica “V. Bellini” (Palermo)
  • Biblioteca Nacional de España (Madrid)
  • Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (Firenze)
  • Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (Roma)
  • Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria (Torino)
  • Biblioteca Padre Antonio Maria Fania da Rignano [Santuario di San Matteo sul Gargano] (S. Marco in Lamis, Foggia)
  • Biblioteca Provinciale “Pasquale Albino” (Campobasso)
  • Biblioteca Pública del Estado en Palma de Mallorca “Ca’n Salas” (Palma de Mallorca)
  • Biblioteca del Sacro Convento (Assisi)
  • Biblioteca Statale del Monumento Nazionale (Grottaferrata)
  • Biblioteca Vallicelliana (Roma)
  • British Library (London)
  • Central Library, Henry Watson Music Library (Manchester)
  • Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles
  • Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge)
  • Northwestern University Music Library (Evanston, IL)
  • Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Musiksammlung (Wien)
  • Santini-Bibliothek (Münster)
  • Santuari de Santa Maria de Lluc, Arxiu (Escorca, Palma de Mallorca)
  • Staatliche Museen, Abteilung Musikgeschichte, Max-Reger-Archiv (Meiningen)
  • Staatsbibliothek (Berlin)
  • Staats und Universitätsbibliothek Carl von Ossietzky, Musiksammlung (Hamburg)
  • Stadtbibliothek, Musikbibliothek (Hannover)
  • Università degli Studi di Perugia, Biblioteca "Fondo Antico Sala del Dottorato" (Perugia)

Further information on the project can be found in the following bibliography: