Venice

Friedrich Nietzsche once said "If I look for another word for music, the only word I ever find is Venice". Venice is a city known as the ‘serenissima’ (the most serene) among Venetians because of the absence of cars and mopeds in its streets. Gondolas, the traditional means of transport, have been superseded by small river boats. It is the city of the canals (with 160 of such), built upon 119 small islands with 369 bridges between them. The chief bridge is the Rialto, named after the island that was the historical nucleus of Venice.

In the past Venice was one of the most important cities of Italy, a rich and powerful city with the strongest naval force in the Mediterranean, with great art, architecture and music. Saint Marcus Cathedral has been known, since the 16th century, for its musical tradition that made the city the greatest single Italian music center in all Europe. In this cathedral, with its two choir lofts facing each other, the composers Andrea Gabrieli and his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli created magnificent polyphonic music for 2, 3 or 4 seperate (!!!) choirs or instrumental ensembles and voices. The latter also created here, the first known instrumental work to have markings on the score to indicate changes in volume dynamics.

Antonio Vivaldi was born here in 1678 and worked as a teacher, composer and conductor of a wonderful orchestra at "Ospedale de la Pieta", which was a home for orphan girls.

In Venice you can find the graves of Claudio Monteverdi, who came to live here from Cremona and Igor Stravinsky who was burried in the "Cimitero di San Michele" on the island with this name.