7 Since then, only the work of Peter Leech has considered the Italian ensemble to any extent. Margaret Mabbett examined the archival evidence available in 1986, arguing that Charles hired the ensemble to establish Italian opera in England. Perhaps because of a previous lack of evidence regarding the recruitment of the Italian ensemble, little research has attempted to penetrate its function at court. Most musicians returned to the Continent, although some transferred to the queen’s Catholic chapel, which was exempt from the Act.
The group served at the English court until the Test Act of 1673 (which required all courtiers to take Anglican Communion once per year) forced Charles to disband it. The appointment of the Italian ensemble, I suggest, was made in imitation of French cultural practices, which had reached new heights at the hands of Mazarin but ultimately derived from Barberini Rome.īetween 16, the Roman Vincenzo Albrici (1631–90) and his brother and sister, together with Pietro Cefalo (161?–168?), Giovanni Sebenico ( c.1640–1705), Matteo Battaglia (dates unknown) and an unnamed castrato arrived to form Charles II’s ‘Italian Musicke’. I argue that Charles II’s ‘Italian Musicke’ was hired in 1664 by the secretary of state Sir Henry Bennet to perform Roman chamber music, to which Charles had first been exposed during his stay at the French court. Without seeking to downplay the significance of the ‘24 violins’, this article highlights the Italian music at the English court. 6 Before Lully, numerous Roman-trained singers and composers had visited the French court through the extensive importation by Cardinal Mazarin (1602–61) of Roman art and music as a means of power representation inspired by his old Barberini patrons. 5 Although Lully had been dancing at the French court since 1651, his composing career started to soar only in the 1660s, after Charles had been restored as king of England. 4A great deal of the French musical culture the young Charles encountered had to a large extent been appropriated from Italy. Because at that time the master of the Court musick in France, whose name was Baptista, 3 (an Italian frenchifyed), had influenced the French style by infusing a great portion of the Italian harmony into it, whereby the Ayre was exceedingly improved.
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