The Wurttemberg Hofkapelle c.1680-1721

<p>Today the prosperous reign of Duke Eberhard Ludwig IV (r. 1693-1733) at the court of Wurttemberg is principally associated with the construction of the magnificent palace of Ludwigsburg, some fifteen miles north of Stuttgart. His quest for prestige also resulted in a major expansion of the ducal Hofkapelle, and while much is known about music at other German courts at this time (such as Dresden, Berlin, and Vienna) that at Wurttemberg, which was comparable in size and importance, has been largely overlooked. This study aims to redress the situation through close examination of the wealth of archival documents dealing with the everyday life of the court musicians c.1700. The original employment contracts offer insights into the duties of the Kapellmeister, while the registers of musicians record the evolution of a clear division between the ordinary Hofmusici and the more select and specialized Cammermusici. The development of specialization came about as the direct result of foreign influence, and a period of foreign study was a prerequisite for a successful career as Kapellmeister. Although in the final decades of the seventeenth century French style had dominated the music at court, by the turn of the eighteenth century Italian music had begun to rise markedly in popularity. Contemporary documents show that a wider selection of instruments came into regular use following the appointment of Johann Christoph Pez as Rath und Oberkapellmeister in 1706. Between 1684 and 1714 the membership of the Hofkapelle had risen from twenty-three to thirty-five. In addition to the Kapelle there was a quite diverse range of other musical groups present at the court - the trumpeters and kettledrum players, the court and regimental oboe bands, and the Bock-music, an ensemble with origins in Eastern European folk music. Again the archival documents throw considerable light on the daily lives, musical standards, and relative status of these musicians. We are particularly fortunate that a sizeable selection of the music owned by the Wurttemberg court during this period of increased musical activity can now be found in a collection held by the Universitatsbibliothek in Rostock. Included are around 400 instrumental pieces dating from approximately 1680 up until the death of the Prince Regent, Friedrich Ludwig, in 1731. While the majority of composers represented are German, works of French and Italian origin are also included. Perhaps most interesting are the compositions by two contemporary Wurttemberg Kapellmeister, Theodor Schwartzkopff and Johann Christoph Pez, whose obscurity is due largely to the relative inaccessibility of the Rostock collection in recent years. These works were written or at least adapted for the forces of the Wurttemberg Hofkapelle. Together with the archival documents these pieces furnish a fascinating picture of a once-flourishing musical establishment, one which provided entertainment for a Duke who hoped in his own corner of Germany to emulate the court of Versailles.</p>

The Wurttemberg Hofkapelle c.1680-1721

<p>Today the prosperous reign of Duke Eberhard Ludwig IV (r. 1693-1733) at the court of Wurttemberg is principally associated with the construction of the magnificent palace of Ludwigsburg, some fifteen miles north of Stuttgart. His quest for prestige also resulted in a major expansion of the ducal Hofkapelle, and while much is known about music at other German courts at this time (such as Dresden, Berlin, and Vienna) that at Wurttemberg, which was comparable in size and importance, has been largely overlooked. This study aims to redress the situation through close examination of the wealth of archival documents dealing with the everyday life of the court musicians c.1700. The original employment contracts offer insights into the duties of the Kapellmeister, while the registers of musicians record the evolution of a clear division between the ordinary Hofmusici and the more select and specialized Cammermusici. The development of specialization came about as the direct result of foreign influence, and a period of foreign study was a prerequisite for a successful career as Kapellmeister. Although in the final decades of the seventeenth century French style had dominated the music at court, by the turn of the eighteenth century Italian music had begun to rise markedly in popularity. Contemporary documents show that a wider selection of instruments came into regular use following the appointment of Johann Christoph Pez as Rath und Oberkapellmeister in 1706. Between 1684 and 1714 the membership of the Hofkapelle had risen from twenty-three to thirty-five. In addition to the Kapelle there was a quite diverse range of other musical groups present at the court - the trumpeters and kettledrum players, the court and regimental oboe bands, and the Bock-music, an ensemble with origins in Eastern European folk music. Again the archival documents throw considerable light on the daily lives, musical standards, and relative status of these musicians. We are particularly fortunate that a sizeable selection of the music owned by the Wurttemberg court during this period of increased musical activity can now be found in a collection held by the Universitatsbibliothek in Rostock. Included are around 400 instrumental pieces dating from approximately 1680 up until the death of the Prince Regent, Friedrich Ludwig, in 1731. While the majority of composers represented are German, works of French and Italian origin are also included. Perhaps most interesting are the compositions by two contemporary Wurttemberg Kapellmeister, Theodor Schwartzkopff and Johann Christoph Pez, whose obscurity is due largely to the relative inaccessibility of the Rostock collection in recent years. These works were written or at least adapted for the forces of the Wurttemberg Hofkapelle. Together with the archival documents these pieces furnish a fascinating picture of a once-flourishing musical establishment, one which provided entertainment for a Duke who hoped in his own corner of Germany to emulate the court of Versailles.</p>

The outstanding architect Alexander Iosifovich Bernardazzi (1831–1907)

This year marks the 190th birthday of the famous Swiss architect of Italian origin A.I. Bernardazzi, who is also known for creating various historic buildings in Ukraine, Bessarabia and Poland. Archival documents were an evidence of the beginning of architectural career of Bernardazzi, when the Bessarabian Road and Construction Commission appointed him as the technician for urban planning of Akkerman and Bendery in 1853 and also for building some bridges and causeways in those districts. He took part in the organization of the third market in the Forest Square in Kishinev in September of 1855. This was the first mission of his creativity in Kishinev. Alexander Bernardazzi executed his duty as municipal architect from 1856 to 1878 having taken the place of another architect Luca Zaushkevich. All his subsequent monumental buildings became the best examples of European architecture by their style, shape, and quality. . In Bessarabia, he participated in the design and construction of many buildings such as the temporal theatre, the Lutheran school, the railway station, the Greek Church, the Manuk-Bei’s palace, etc. As for Kishinev, the architect Bernardazzi performed the beautification of paving many streets, the construction of urban water supply and the cast-iron railing in the city park. Also, he participated in many architects’ meetings where he submitted interesting reports referring to the theater, some windows, fire safety of buildings and so on. After his arrival to Odessa in 1878, Alexander Bernardazzi continued to participate in designing social and civil buildings in Bessarabia. For his enormous creative contribution to urban development, he was appreciated with the title of honorable citizen of Kishinev and appointed member of the Bessarabian department of the Imperial Russian Technical Society.

A Cross-cultural, Trans-generational Portrait of Italian-Canadians in Adriana Monti’s Two Short Films

Adriana Monti is an Italian-Canadian independent producer, feminist filmmaker and author. She started her career in Italy in the late 1970s by developing a collaborative and experimental style that allowed the women object of her research to take an active and creative role in her films. This interview centers around her two recent documentaries. Family 001 and Family 005 are two shorts exploring the lives of several influential Torontonians and Montrealers of Italian origin through a series of informal interviews with women, men and members of the same family from diverse age groups. This brings a captivating and often touching perspective of the Italian-Canadian immigrant experience. In the course of this interview, Monti explores the deeper issues of identity, integration, acculturation, shifting gender roles, generational lifestyles and career choices. She also talks about the influence/interference of government in people’s lives and in respect to creativity and cultural life.

Polyphenols Content and In Vitro α-Glycosidase Activity of Different Italian Monofloral Honeys, and Their Effect on Selected Pathogenic and Probiotic Bacteria

We evaluated the polyphenol content and the α-glucosidase activity exhibited by different monofloral honeys of Italian origin. Their capacity to act on different pathogenic (Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus) as well as probiotic bacteria (Lacticaseibacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus gasseri, and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus) was also assessed. Total polyphenols varied between 110.46 μg/g of fresh product (rhododendron honey) and 552.29 μg/g of fresh product (strawberry tree honey). Such result did not correspond to a parallel inhibitory α-glycosidase activity that, in each case was never higher than 33 μg/mL. Honeys were differently capable to fight the biofilm formation of the pathogens (inhibition up to 93.27%); they inhibited the in vitro adhesive process (inhibition up to 84.27%), and acted on mature biofilm (with values up to 76.64%). Their effect on bacterial metabolism was different too. Honeys were ineffective to inhibit E. coli mature biofilm nor to act on its metabolism. The action of the honey on probiotic strains seemed almost always stimulate their growth. Thus, these monofloral honeys might exhibit effects on human health and act positively as prebiotics.

“A Man of Intrigue but of No Virtue”

This chapter reconstructs the life of Jean-Baptiste Stouppe (1623–1692), a Huguenot of Italian origin who in the 1650s moved to England and was employed by Oliver Cromwell in important diplomatic / espionage missions. Passing into the service of Louis XIV as a soldier, he published some pro-French propaganda works aimed at Protestants, including a famous description of Dutch religious life, published in 1673, notorious for its negative portrayal of Spinoza’s philosophy. While presenting himself as a defender of Protestant orthodoxy, Stouppe was in fact a libertine with magical-alchemical interests. An unscrupulous and ambiguous figure, his intellectual trajectory is clearly inserted in what has been defined as the crisis of the European conscience.

Taste Beats Reputation in New Food Products Choice: The Case of Ready-to-Eat Pomegranate among Young Consumers in Veneto Region (Italy)

This study investigates the preferences for ready-to-eat pomegranate arils in Italy through a discrete choice experiment (DCE) on 264 young consumers in Italy. The aim is to estimate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the reputational attributes of the product (e.g., the product origin and sales channel) and to discriminate the elicited preferences between tasting and non-tasting situations. To this purpose, a random parameter logit model was employed to assess the heterogeneity in consumer preferences. The results suggest that non-tasters attach a relevant value to the reputational attributes (e.g., +75% WTP for Italian origin). Moreover, considering the sensory features of the products, we found that consumers in this group discriminate against the proposed samples only through their visual characteristics: they prefer the sample with the largest size and red colored arils. In addition, we found that the tasting experience reduced the value attached to the reputational attributes (e.g., −50% WTP for local origin) for consumers, compared to non-tasting situation, thus shifting their preference to the samples that they appreciated the most (high liking). Specifically, we found that consumers in the tasting group preferred the product sample with the highest level of sweetness and the lowest level of sourness and astringency, showing a higher preference for sweetness. The findings contribute to the literature on consumers’ behavior on new food products (NFPs), showing that reputational attributes lose value after the tasting experience. In contrast, the sensory features of the NFPs can help tasters to reduce the information asymmetry, which traditionally represents a hurdle in purchases for new consumers. However, this depends on the individuals’ subjective preferences, as demonstrated by the significant effect of liking levels in discriminating consumers’ choices. To conclude, although these results cannot be extended to the general population, they may give some interesting insights about future trends of NFP demand.

Phenotypic Features and Genetic Findings in a Cohort of Italian Pseudoxanthoma Elasticum Patients and Update of the Ophthalmologic Evaluation Score

Background: Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is a rare ectopic calcification genetic disease mainly caused by ABCC6 rare sequence variants. The clinical phenotype is characterized by typical dermatological, ophthalmological and cardiovascular manifestations, whose frequency and severity are differently reported in the literature. Methods: A retrospective study was performed on 377 PXE patients of Italian origin, clinically evaluated according to the Phenodex Index, who underwent ABCC6 biomolecular analyses. Moreover, 53 PXE patients were further characterized by in-depth ophthalmological examinations. Results: A total of 117 different ABCC6 rare sequence variants were detected as being spread through the whole gene. The severity of the clinical phenotype was dependent on age, but it was not influenced by gender or by the type of sequence variants. In-depth ophthalmological examinations focused on the incidences of coquille d’oeuf, comet lesions, pattern dystrophy-like lesions, optic disk drusen and posterior-pole atrophy. Conclusion: Given the large number of patients analyzed, we were able to better evaluate the occurrence of less frequent alterations (e.g., stroke, myocardial infarction, nephrolithiasis). A more detailed description of ophthalmological abnormalities allowed us to stratify patients and better evaluate disease progression, thus suggesting a further update of the PXE score system.

Discovering intercultural relations in the digital age with school students. A few Polish-Italian cases

This article briefly presents how the implementation of ICT in cultural institutions has improved education and research. The article emphasizes discovering the activity of Italian artists in Poland, thanks to digitization, which was carried out with particular intensity in the last two decades. Digitization has become a great achievement thanks to the funding of numerous international projects by the European Commission. Special recognition in this action should be given to Rossella Caffo and her team, under whose guidance the plan for the coordination of digitization in Europe and numerous detailed projects were created. In addition to the millions of digitized objects sent to Europeana, the project teams also developed several programs. One of them, MOVIO, software for virtual exhibitions, began to be used in projects with Polish schools. One of the virtual exhibitions was devoted to Elwiro Michał Andriolli, an outstanding artist of Italian origin. The exhibition was prepared on the basis of digitized materials available on Polish websites and in Europeana, where we also found unique French and Lithuanian materials. Unfortunately, no Italian objects were found there. We plan to continue searching for the achievements of Italian artists in Poland, in the CrowdSchool project (Creative Learning at School thanks to a collaborative Crowdsourcing Annotation Process), whose aim is to prepare didactic materials useful in distance learning and intercultural connections. Close cooperation is planned here between a Polish secondary school from Jarosław, interested in architecture, and a Liceo Artistico from Bologna.

Multilingual Behaviour within the Portuguese and Italian Communities in Montreal: A Quest of Purism

Many heritage speakers, starting particularly from the second generation, return to the practice of their heritage languages so as to build or rebuild their diasporic and heritage identities. Within an urban context such as in Montreal (Quebec), multilingual behaviour exists. This is due to the presence of multiple languages and dialects, as well as the bilingual reality of this city, where both French and English are dominant. Such conditions provide evidence of how determinant in-group ideologies and stereotypical attitudes are concerned with communities and languages (standard and vernacular) and how they function in the process of linguistic integration within the group and the Canadian city. Focusing on recent research that compares heritage speakers of Portuguese and Italian origin in Montreal, this contribution addresses whether identifying places have an important role in the process of integration within the group, in shared spaces of language or dialect practice, both private and public. Moreover, questions arise as to how standard languages are valued within both communities (mainly in schools) and how competency and legitimacy have been evaluated and by whom, in this process of integration. The two communities observed are very different, given the practice and behaviour as well as in-group ideologies of inclusion. This contribution argues that, as a consequence of our ‘global’ societies, there is an extension of new identities during the process of development where multilingual behaviour is reviewed and analysed for the dynamicity in the repertories of new generation speakers. Our comparison brings to light a central ideology of language purism, and the ways in which it is institutionalized and/or contested across the two groups.