From Mantua to Vienna: A New Look at the Early Seventeenth-Century Dance Suite

Abstract

There is a gaping hole in the instrumental chamber-music literature at the Habsburg court of Vienna in the early seventeenth century. Of the composers in the employ of Emperor Ferdinand II, Giovanni Battista Buonamente was the only one to publish instrumental chamber works; but Buonamente's origins were Mantuan and the contents of his publications reflect the influence of the sinfonie, sonatas and dances by the leading Mantuan instrumental music composer Salamone Rossi. The similarities raise various questions. How does the Mantuan-born empress Eleonora impress her musical tastes on the Viennese court? To what extent is the Mantuan exemplar operative in Viennese instrumental music, particularly dances? How do the dance works of both Rossi and Buonamente relate to the incipient suite? And what new evidence can be brought to bear on the ordering of its constituents to form a larger construct?