In search of the lost voice in seventeenth-century music.

Marina Toffetti – Gabriele Taschetti In search of the lost voice in seventeenth-century music. AMS American Musicological Society 2020, Minneapolis, Poster session. Our way of conceiving music of the past is not only compromised by compositions that have not survived the passage of time (we do not know exactly how many), but is also affected by works that have reached us in an incomplete form. As is known, numerous collections published in separate parts have survived without one or more part-books. These are generally not transcribed, studied, or compared with the complete collections, nor are they mentioned in the compendiums of music history. Furthermore, and perhaps the most severe consequence, nobody performs them, and therefore it is impossible to hear them. The only way to ensure that such compositions are performed again is to propose a hypothetical reconstruction of the missing part (or parts). To investigate this phenomenon, we examined incomplete collections of Italian sacred music published between 1600 and 1630, in order to map them according to the data contained in the main repertoires and evaluate the extent of the lacuna. Depending on the quantity and type of the extant parts, the surviving collections have been grouped into complete, incomplete, and those that could be completed by combining the parts of different editions. In addition, the incomplete collections have been divided into three groups according to the number of missing parts: collections where only one part-book is missing, those where two are missing, and those where three or more are missing. Particular attention was paid to the collections where only one part-book is missing, considering what the missing voice is and, if it is the bass, whether the part of the basso continuo has been preserved (which could partially coincide with the missing part of the bass, thus facilitating the task of reconstruction), and vice versa. The poster contains 1) charts on the percentage of complete, incomplete, and ‘completable’ music; 2) data relating to the different types of gaps: number and types of missing voices; elements inferable from the surviving parts that may help in the reconstruction of the missing parts (presence of a voice that could correspond totally or partially to the missing one; of canons, imitation procedures, and cantus firmi that could facilitate reconstruction); 3) musical examples taken from critical editions of incomplete compositions with a reconstruction of one or more missing part(s). The main objectives of this poster presentation are to show the nature and extent of the phenomenon of incomplete music; to raise awareness among scholars of the importance of reconstructing missing parts and encourage dedication to this procedure; to illustrate the conditions under which the reconstruction of the missing parts could guarantee more reliable results; and to show the results of musical editions that have already been published with a reconstruction of missing parts.