On Croatian Renaissance: About Music Education

Abstract

In spite of the scarcity of information at our disposal, it is possible to discernsome regularities in Croatian Renaissance music education: 1) music teachers weremost often organists, the classes were held in seminaries or cathedral schools and theclasses were usually limited to choral singing (canto fermo) lessons; 2) polyphonicmusic (canto figurato) was taught almost exclusively in archdiocesan centers suchas Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik, with the exception of the scola di musica in Rabwhich was the only specialized institution who could teach choral and polyphonicsinging in Croatia in the 16th century; 3) the example of a private humanist school inKorčula shows that music was also taught to students from patrician backgrounds;4) in Dubrovnik the Rector’s cappella existed alongside the cathedral school TheRector’s cappella was an ensemble of professional instrument players, who initiatedthe basic education of instrument playing.