Orazio Busino in London - 1618

from A performance of Ben Jonson's Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue described by Orazio Busino, pages 112-113:

At about the 6th hour of the night the king appeared with his court…. On entering the house, the cornets and trumpets [sic.; this is an erroneous translation of Piffari et i Tromboni] to the number of fifteen or twenty began to play very well a sort of recitative, and then after his Majesty had seated himself under the canopy…he caused the ambassadors to sit below him on two stools, while the great officers of the crown and courts of law sat upon benches ... Next followed twelve extravagant masquers, one of whom was in a barrel, all but his extremities, his companions being similarly …   more >>
cite as

Orazio Busino, A performance of Ben Jonson's Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue described by Orazio Busino. In A. B. Hinds (ed.), Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts relating to English Affairs existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice, volume 15 (London, 1909), p. 112-113. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1392910602670 accessed: 28 March, 2024

location of experience: London

Listeners

Orazio Busino
Chaplain to the Venetian Embassy in London

Listening to

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Antimasque dance

Experience Information

Date/Time 1618
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, in private, indoors

Notes

Busino's understanding of English was not perfect and it is clear that he experienced some difficulty in following the text of the masque. His account of the musical content is valuable, however, and the instruments he mentions, piffari, tromboni, and so on, would have been familiar to him from Venice.


Originally submitted by th4 on Thu, 20 Feb 2014 15:36:42 +0000