A masked reveler poses in St. Mark’s Square during the Venice Carnival, February 7, 2015. Photo by Stefano Rellandini/REUTERS/PBS.org
From the Carnival in Venice to the salons of the social elite in Paris and the amateur music societies in London, music in the seventeenth century was sponsored by a variety of institutions, each with its own clientele, aesthetic concerns, and economic realities. Part of the richness of musical life in the 1600s is directly attributable to the diversity in these institutions.
Wendy Heller, Music in the Baroque, p. 94
