There is a chapel inside the Palace of Queluz, 5 km from Lisboa, with a sort
of upper chamber with a beautiful baroque hole with a golden grid, as far as
I remember . Musicians used to play upstairs and the royals sat below the
hole. Scarlatti played there and the chapel was open for the Mass to the
people of the village ( I can't see how, because it's quite small, but the
notes I read there said so, maybe they just left the door towards the yard
open). They also used to celebrate royal marriages there, if my memory about
what I read is not mistaken. Of course it's quite difficult to find this
chapel mentioned on a tourist guide, they just mention the gardens,
Versailles-like and the mirror room. Should you adventure there, just sit
and listen, that's what I did, and the music seemed to be still there. You
come to the chapel through a small corridor, considering the palace, and
this baroque feast is in front of your eyes. There are also some big windows
above, which open on the corridor (and on the yard), as far as I remember,
so that the music was probably brought to the nearby room as from a
resonance chanber ( is my English correct?) . The room must be like a big
instrument itself .
Of course, no photographs allowed, and no postcards of the place...maybe on
the net..
Donatella
http://web.tiscali.it/awebd
- Original Message -
From: AJN (boston) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: LUTE NET lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2005 6:29 PM
Subject: Re: Sacred music for baroque lute
The lute books seem to have been for personal use, Pater (later Abbot)
Herman Kniebandl, for example. But there are sacred pieces in two of the
books from Gruessau (Mss 2009?? and 2011 now in Warsaw). I imagine the
use
of secular music in the monasteries may have been local option.
The magnificent mountainside Monastery at Melk maintained an orchestra in
the 18th cen. which played for visitors from a hidden room. (e.g., the
emperor stayed at Melk while travelling). (The sounds issued through a
circle-shaped window above the banquet hall. Otherwise secular music was
apparently prohibited the monks, with one exception. Every year the monks
were bleed, and for a few days thereafter the orchestra was permitted to
play minuets while the monks recuperated..
But the question is an interesting one. That is, secular music in sacred
places. As well as sacred music in secular places. Now about Johann
Michael Sciurius aka? Eichörnchen? Is that a valid German family name?
AJN.
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