'The famous and new Italian taste': The Dissemination of Italian Sacred Music in the Southern Netherlands, 1675-1755

Abstract

The seventeenth- and eighteenth-century diaspora of Italian music and musicians in Europe has been widely investigated, yet only fragmentary attention has been paid to the dissemination of Italian sacred music in the Southern Netherlands. By combining data from music inventories made between 1675 and 1755 and the remains of historical music collections, the present article constitutes a systematic inquiry into the circulation of Italian sacred music within this region. Questions are raised about the repertory that may have been available at a typical church, the proportion of Italian music within ecclesiastical music collections, and the extent to which the sacred repertory was renewed. The channels through which Italian sacred music circulated are mapped, with attention paid to the role of the local music presses, the mobility of musicians, and private donations to churches. Finally, closer consideration of the differences in character between the collections at different institutions clarifies the evolving availability of Italian sacred music within the southern Netherlands and demonstrates how extensive personal music collections, such as those of Vanden Boom and van den Branden de Reeth, influenced the repertories of local churches.