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Member of the Florentine piffari

Markus Grassl

In 1489, Schubinger moved to Florence, one of the leading centres of instrumental music-making at the time.[21] The pivotal role in Florentine instrumental music was played by the piffari, an alta cappella ensemble, alongside two groups of trumpeters. Initially composed of three musicians, since 1443 the ensemble consisted of four musicians—three players of the soprano or alto shawm, and one trombonist.

 

Schubinger was hired in 1489 as the successor to the recently deceased trombonist Johannes di Johannes d’Alamania,[22] and thus held a position that was not only prestigious but also economically attractive. In addition to a comfortable base salary with various additional benefits, the Florentine piffari were offered the prospect of retirement benefits and the opportunity for additional income through private engagements, particularly from members of the Florentine nobility.[23]

The alta ensemble, combining shawms and a brass instrument with a slide mechanism, had become an established standard ensemble by 1450 across much of Europe, maintained by numerous cities and princes in Burgundy, the German-speaking regions, and Italy.[24] The widespread adoption of this ensemble type and its associated playing practices and repertoires was accompanied by increased transregional mobility of alta cappella players. A prominent phenomenon in the instrumental music scene of the fifteenth century was the significant presence of “German” instrumentalists in Italy. From the mid-century, musicians from “Alemania”[25] in the wind ensembles of Italian cities and courts played a leading role in their field. This phenomenon is sometimes compared in the secondary literature to the hegemony of Franco-Flemish singer-composers in the field of vocal polyphony.[26] Augustin Schubinger, his brothers Michel, who worked as a piffaro at the court in Ferrara from 1479 to 1519/20,[27] Ulrich the Younger, who was employed by the Gonzaga in Mantua from 1502 to 1519,[28] and Anthon, who also served the d’Este in Ferrara between 1506 and 1511,[29] thus represented a general condition, albeit in a particularly pronounced manner.

The trend towards recruiting German musicians can be clearly traced in Florence thanks to the abundant source material. As early as 1399, a “Niccolao Niccolai Teotonico” was employed there. In 1443, the piffaro ensemble was expanded to four players, all from the German-speaking region, specifically from Basel, Constance, Augsburg, and Cologne. That same year, the Signoria also decreed that henceforth only “forenses et alienigeni” (foreigners) should be appointed as piffari, likely referring to persons from north of the Alps.[30] While this stipulation was not consistently observed subsequently, the trombonists of the Florentine alta cappella were indeed always from the German-speaking area until the end of the fifteenth century.

[21] Cf. on the now well-documented instrumental music in Florence of the fifteenth century: Zippel 1892; Polk 1986; McGee 1999; McGee 2000; Polk 2000; McGee 2005; McGee 2008.

[22] McGee 2008, 185–186, 202.

[23] McGee 1999, 730–731; McGee 2000, 212–213.

[24] Cf. general literature on the alta cappellaPolk 1975; Welker 1983; Polk 1992a, 60–70, estimating that around 100 cities and 150 princes in the Holy Roman Empire employed an alta cappella (68); Tröster 2001; Neumeier 2015, especially 46–54. On practice in the Austrian region, see » E. Kap. Repräsentation und Unterhaltung; » I. Kap. Musica, Schalmeyen.

[25] The exact origin of musicians from “Alemania” is often not determinable. According to contemporary Italian usage, “Alemania” included the entire territory of the Holy Roman Empire, including regions like Flanders and Alsace. See Böninger 2006, 9–10.

[26] Cf. especially Polk 1994a.

[27] Lockwood 1984, 321–326; Lockwood 1985, 110 and 112, who also identified a son of Michel named Alberto (Albrecht), documented as a piffaro at the court of Ferrara in 1510/11 and 1517–1520.

[28] Ulrich is last documented in Mantua in October 1519; see Prizer 1981, 160. Contrary to the speculation that he may have remained in Mantua until 1522 (Polk 1989a, 502; Filocamo 2009, 235, note 17), it should be noted that Ulrich was employed by Archbishop Matthäus Lang in Salzburg in December 1519; see the service agreement (“Abred”) text in Hintermaier 1993, 38; see previously the note in Senn 1954, 21.

[30] McGee 1999, 732; McGee 2008, 162–163.