Quattrocento: Italian and Flemish

“What Makes It Italian?” is a music listening and discussion group that meets online on the Zoom platform and is open to everyone.
Participation is free.
The group is led by Gina Crusco, who has also guided listening at Bard LLI and Riverdale Y; acted as maestro del coro for opera in Italy; instructed music at The New School; and directed Underworld Productions.
Please email ginacrusco@gmail.com to confirm your attendance and receive an invitation link.

When Flemish influence flowed into Italy, the Italians made lyricism of musical and painterly line their trademark.

Italian pairing: Composer Franchino Gaffurio (1451 – 1522) and painter Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445 – 1510)

Flemish pairing: Composer Josquin des Prez (c. 1450–1455 – 1521) and Painter Hans Memling (1430 – 1494)

What seems indescribable in music is often easy to name in the visual arts. So each session in this series we explore four works: a pairing of an Italian painting with a musical work, and a similar pair from outside of Italy. Discovering riches from painters like Sandro Botticelli, Guido Reni, Francois Boucher, and Vanessa Bell, and composers like Girolamo Frescobaldi, Joseph Bologne, Edward Elgar and Dominick Argento, we define more clearly “What Makes it Italian.”