Music and Musicians

...if I try another word for music, and I always come back to the only one, Venice. Friederich Nietzsche

The Venetians were famous for being mad for music; even the gondoliers sang as they rowed, songs called barcarole that would inspire the barcarolle of composers over the centuries. As European capital of printing, it's not surprising that in 1501 it was a Venetian, Ottaviano Petrucci, who printed the world's first book of music.

From then on, up through the 18th century, the Republic was at the forefront of the European musical scene, its innovative composers playing a major role in the development of modern opera.

It all happened just as Venice began its long slow decline. The fall of Constantinople and rise of the Ottomans in the eastern Mediterranean, the discovery of the New World and a route around the Cape of Good Hope to the Far East didn't bode well for Venice's long term survival as a trading maritime republic, living in the manner to which it had become accustomed.