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Networked Music Performance

Networked Music Performance (NMP) is the essential guide to both playing

music online and ensemble music through networks. Offering a range of case
studies, from highly technical solutions to inclusive community projects, this
book provides inspiration to musicians to try NMP whatever their level of
technical expertise.
Drawing upon recent research to examine the background and history of
the practice as well as specific practical approaches, technical and musical
considerations are included for readers, as are ideas around accessibility and
creativity. Accessibility is considered in the context of the opportunities that
NMP gives to musicians working remotely, as well as some of the barriers
to participation in NMP and how these can be overcome. Synchronous and
asynchronous approaches to NMP are explored in detail, examining the
technical and musical affordances and challenges of working remotely for
musicians.
Networked Music Performance will appeal to music and music technology
students as well as professional musicians and technicians who have started
working online and wish to improve their practice. As NMP in the context of
music education and community music are also explored, this book supplies
educators and community leaders with knowledge and practical guidance on
how to move their practice online.

Miriam Iorwerth is the Digital Development Manager at the Royal

Conservatoire of Scotland. Prior to this, she was a Lecturer in Music at the
University of the Highlands and Islands, specialising in music technology and
online music collaboration. She completed her PhD in 2019 on musicians’
experiences of networked music performance and is a graduate of the
Tonmeister course at the University of Surrey. Before her career in academia,
she worked in electronics, including at Halley Research Station in Antarctica.
“Today’s musician works online, yet we haven’t even begun to plumb the
depths of creative collaboration over the Internet. Iorwerth’s book illuminates
why Networked Music Performance is an emerging force: culture and tech-
nology become more sophisticated when driven by both social necessity and
obviously rich rewards of new musical and cultural opportunities.”
Rebekah Wilson

“The thorough technical treatment in Miriam Iorwerth’s book Networked Mu-

sic Performance lays a groundwork for describing the present moment where
it seems that whatever can go online will go online. It is not only about net-
works of the kind our devices are attached to but also the social aspects of
music and music teaching, the human networks that emerged when going
online was the only way to go. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic,
tools and practices for connected musical collaboration increased dramati-
cally and this book takes stock of the moment, comprehensively.”
Chris Chafe, Director, Center for Computer Research
in Music and Acoustics, Stanford University
Networked Music Performance

Theory and Applications

Miriam Iorwerth
Designed cover image: © David Russell
First published 2024
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2024 Miriam Iorwerth
The right of Miriam Iorwerth to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-032-21537-2 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-21536-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-26885-7 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003268857
Typeset in Optima
by codeMantra
To my students, who are some of the most inspirational
and creative people I know.
Contents

List of figures ix
Prefacexi
Acknowledgementsxiii
List of abbreviations xv

1 Introduction 1

2 Music over the internet 26

3 Synchronous networked music performance 55

4 Asynchronous networked music performance 99

5 Online music teaching and community music 148

6 Accessibility in networked music performance 198

Glossary 229
Index 231
Figures

1.1 Diagram of a League of Automatic Music Composers

performance drawn by Rich Gold in 1978 8
2.1 Overview of an NMP system 27
2.2 Common directivity patterns of microphones 30
2.3 Internet Protocol layers 39
2.4 Server configurations 42
2.5 Buffering 46
2.6 Sources of latency in a synchronous NMP system 48
3.1 Diagram of trade-offs between quality, latency, and accessibility 56
3.2 Considerations for scoring in synchronous NMP 82
3.3 Playing together, apart framework (Iorwerth, 2019;
Iorwerth & Knox, in press) 85
3.4 Excerpt of Mosaic score by Peter Longworth 90
4.1 Virtual ensemble process 101
4.2 Collaborative recording cycle approach 102
4.3 Collaborative recording hub approach 103
4.4 Synchronising tracks with timing errors 113
4.5 Normalisation 116
4.6 Bussed reverb 120
4.7 Virtual ensemble versus collaborative recording 133
4.8 Asynchronous NMP approaches flowchart 137
4.9 Audio set up for Brandywine Baroque recording 144
Preface

My interest in NMP developed out of necessity. In 2012, I was working with

colleagues at the University of Highlands and Islands, developing a new
blended learning music degree course that had students and staff distributed
around Scotland. We had to find a way for our students to work collabora-
tively across these distances to support their ensemble work. A module named
Remote Digital Music Collaboration was born, and I taught the students how
to record themselves and work on asynchronous musical collaborations.
I always thought that live collaboration would be a more interesting ap-
proach, so in 2013, I started researching how musicians’ experiences were
affected by working on synchronous networked music performances. I visited
conferences on audio education, music psychology, web audio, and musi-
cology, and spoke to many musicians across genres about my work. I en-
countered two reactions: “why would anyone want to do that?” and “latency
makes that impossible”, before the person would invariably back away slowly
and find someone with a more fashionable subject to talk about.
In March 2020, this all changed with lockdowns as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic. Suddenly, musicians could understand why people might want to
play together online, with many ensembles embracing the challenges inherent
in this (including the latency). The networked music performance community
offered their support to new adopters, with many new collaborations popping
up online. I hope this book will be a valuable resource for musicians, audio
technicians, educators, and students across music and audio disciplines. This
book will also bring together the technical, musical, educational, and acces-
sibility issues that may be encountered in NMP.
My musical education was through a Western classical training as a per-
cussionist and recording engineer, and I recognise that this is only one way
to approach music, both in teaching and performance. I have attempted to
bring in other musical cultures throughout the book, especially within the
case studies, and would welcome readers to get in touch with me with further
examples.
Acknowledgements

Thanks to: Hannah Rowe and Emily Tagg at Focal Press; for the case stud-
ies: Will Anderson, Ken Blair, Gillian Desmarais, Stephen Fischbacher, Pe-
ter Longworth, Iain Macpherson, Ninian Perry, Jilliene Sellner, and Rebekah
­Wilson; for images: John Bischoff for the diagram of a League performance
drawn by Rich Gold in 1978 and David Russell for the front cover; for feed-
back on drafts: Professor Dave Fisher and Ben Loveridge; and to my valued
colleagues and friends: Anna-Wendy Stevenson, Simon Bradley, and Peter
Noble.
Abbreviations

ADC – analogue to digital converter

ADSL – asymmetric digital subscriber line
CPD – continuing professional development
CPU – central processing unit
DAC – digital to analogue converter
DAW – digital audio workstation
DHCP – dynamic host configuration protocol
EQ – equalisation
FTP – file transfer protocol
IP – internet protocol
ISDN – integrated services digital network
ISP – internet service provider
LAN – local area network
MIDI – musical instrument digital interface
MOOC – massive open online course
NMP – networked music performance
OAIM – Online Academy of Irish Music
PCM – pulse code modulation
SATB – soprano, alto, tenor, bass
USB – universal serial bus
VLE – virtual learning environment
VR – virtual reality
Chapter 1

Introduction

What is NMP?
Networked Music Performance (NMP) is the practice of musical interaction
over computer networks (Gabrielli & Squartini, 2016) and is a growing area of
musical activity that allows musicians to perform, compose, improvise, teach,
and learn music across physical distances. The context for NMP can be wide-
ranging, from musicians working in a room together connected via a local
area network (LAN) to international collaborations of musicians working via
the internet and from real time to asynchronous working. NMP projects vary
in their interactivity from full involvement of an audience to a more formal
musician/audience divide; the numbers of musicians involved – from two
up to thousands; from real-time interaction to sending audio and video files
between collaborators; and the experience of the participants, from amateur
musicians to professionals.
Weibel (2021) highlights how music is traditionally a dialogue between in-
struments and people, created through reading notation from a score or through
improvisation, where musicians react to one another. There are, of course, other
musical traditions that are passed between musicians orally and aurally. In all
of these cases, the musicians are connected mentally and acoustically. Weibel
goes on to explain the difference between this tradition and networked music:

A radical change in this line of tradition happened with the advent of the
computer, when algorithms and networks became the basis of musical
composition. Now the musicians have an additional, physical connection.
Creative music becomes networked music.
(Weibel, 2021, p. 13)

The name NMP suggests a performance element is essential – perhaps with

an audience – however, the term has become accepted to mean any type
of musical interaction that requires a computer network. This encompasses
rehearsal, teaching, collaborative composition, recording, and improvisation
as well as formal and informal performances. It includes approaches that use

DOI: 10.4324/9781003268857-1
2 Introduction

the network to send and receive control signals as well as audio and video
streaming approaches. It includes musicians who are playing live in a room
together as well as those separated by distance. Networks may be local or
far-reaching.
As we will see when we look at the history of NMP, there are multiple
strands and approaches that have developed independently of one another,
which are now included under the NMP umbrella. This has led to a sense of
hierarchy in approaches to NMP, with perhaps synchronous (or real-time) ap-
proaches seen as more important, or creative, than asynchronous approaches.
Even within synchronous approaches, some musicians place higher value on
NMP within a single physical space than NMP using the internet for transmis-
sion of sound across a distance:

It would be gatekeeping to insist that [musical interaction over the inter-

net] is not network music; clearly it is, in the most literal sense. In terms
suggested earlier, however, this is low-entropy network music; it serves a
worthy purpose of making musical interaction even possible in a time of
isolation, but it is still a poor substitute for actual co-located live music. In
the post-pandemic world, ‘internet music’ will remain useful for rehears-
als and collaborations that cannot be accomplished in-person. It is hoped,
however, that ‘network music’ will not come to be synonymous with music
that merely happens to travel over the internet.
(Stone, 2021, p. 332)

This hierarchy is not particularly helpful, as all the approaches have their own
creative affordances and challenges. Music that happens to travel over the in-
ternet rather than local networks is also probably the most accessible approach
to NMP that musicians may encounter. Stone does, however, make an impor-
tant point that NMP is not only about music that travels over the internet –
there are other approaches that we explore throughout this book.
Another term for synchronous NMP is telematic music. This is a translation
of the French word télématique – a portmanteau of télécommunication and
­informatique – a convergence of telecommunications and computer science.
Unlike Stone’s definition of network music, this term suggests that distance
is an important element, and this illustrates some of the tensions inherent in
NMP. Lewis (2021) highlights the tensions of this distance:

… the interplay between two desires – first, to hide distance, and second to
assert it – provides pleasure in telematic encounters, both for direct partici-
pants and for audiences. Moreover, the elimination of physical distance as
an affective factor in a telematic musical interaction also creates an ironic
psychic connection between the immediacy of the experience and the an-
nounced fact that the interaction is taking place between entities whose
places are ostensibly widely spaced from each other geographically.
(Lewis, 2021, p. 157)
 Introduction 3

Here, Lewis is describing synchronous methods of NMP. Synchronous

methods focus on live events, whether they are rehearsals, collaborative com-
positional sessions, or performances with an audience. Audio, and sometimes
video, is transmitted live via networks between musicians. As a result of using
the internet for transmission of the audio (and potentially video), latency is
introduced to the signal, which interrupts the usual communication channel
between the musicians.
Asynchronous methods include file sharing, where musicians record their
own parts and share them with fellow musicians, who also record tracks to
build up a multi-tracked recording of a piece of music. This can include ele-
ments of collaborative composition and improvisation, as well as the record-
ing of pre-composed pieces. This method has the advantage of the potential
to create a high-quality recording of a piece of music while the musicians
work at a distance, although it does not allow for the real-time interaction of
musicians that synchronous methods do.
When the final output of a session is the most important (i.e. a high-­quality
recording), usually asynchronous methods are most appropriate. When the
real-time interaction between musicians is the focus of a collaboration, syn-
chronous methods may be more suitable, despite the inherent technical
difficulties.
There is some overlap between these approaches. Barbosa (2003) catego-
rises collaborative systems based on computer networks into four categories,
and the examples outlined here will be explained in greater detail later in this
book:

• Local Interconnected Musical Networks: these are co-located and

s­ ynchronous – groups of performers in one physical space, with intercon-
nected instruments, for example, a laptop orchestra or the approach de-
scribed by Stone (2021) above;
• Musical Composition Support Systems: these can be co-located and asyn-
chronous, or remote and synchronous or asynchronous, and are used to
assist traditional forms of collaborative composition and production, for
example, online digital audio workstations (DAWs);
• Remote Music Performance Systems: these are remote and synchronous,
with multiple performers in remote locations playing instruments or sing-
ing for performance purposes, for example, real-time remote (or telematic
music) as described in Chapter 3;
• Shared Sonic Environments: these may be remote or co-located and syn-
chronous, and are participatory networked environments that allow inter-
action and improvisation, not necessarily using musical instruments.

NMP also has applications in remote music education, and a combination

of asynchronous and synchronous methods can be used for successful in-
strumental tuition at a distance. This can happen with musicians with all lev-
els of experience, from complete beginners to conservatoire masterclasses.
4 Introduction

Learning through NMP may also happen in one-to-one and group lessons, in
formal and informal learning environments. NMP may also be used within a
broader music education to facilitate ensemble performance or collaborative
composition projects.
It is likely that NMP has benefits particularly to those musicians who are
isolated in some way, either for geographical or social reasons, as it may
allow them to overcome some of the barriers to participation in ensemble
music-making that they may otherwise face. While many NMP collaborations
require a great deal of technical expertise and equipment, it is also possible
to participate in NMP with typical equipment that many amateur musicians
may have at home, using domestic broadband internet connections and mo-
bile devices.
One common factor in all approaches to NMP is that it is about collabora-
tion between musicians. NMP is a group endeavour, offering opportunities for
creativity via networks that are not possible in traditional, acoustic settings.

Overview of NMP approaches

There are two main approaches for NMP: synchronous (i.e., all participants
playing at the same time as one another and interacting musically in real
time); and asynchronous (i.e., participants recording parts in their own time
and building a final recording from these parts). Any particular project may
also use a combination of these approaches. Online music teaching also has
specific requirements that may use both approaches in many contexts. It is
likely that alongside any musical collaboration, many other forms of online
communication will take place during a project, including email, text mes-
sages, file exchange, and video conferencing, which may be synchronous or
asynchronous, regardless of the musical approach taken in the project.
In general, synchronous approaches focus on the communicative and in-
teractive nature of ensemble music. The process is an important part of these
projects, and the ability to communicate with other musicians in real time
(or very close to real time) is appealing. These projects may or may not result
in a finished musical output, such as a public performance, and this may or
may not be presented in an NMP environment. They are often most success-
ful with small ensemble sizes, where each participant can have meaningful
communication with their fellow musicians.
In contrast, asynchronous NMP approaches are more likely to focus on
the creation of a final musical output, whether this is a recording of a pre-
composed piece or a collaborative composition, created in the NMP environ-
ment. Asynchronous NMP can have varying levels of interaction between
participants, from none at all in some virtual ensembles to highly collabora-
tive relationships in remote composition. This approach can be suitable for
any size of ensemble, from pairs of musicians up to tens of thousands of
participants.
 Introduction 5

The ‘problem’ of latency

When discussing NMP, it does not take long before the question of latency (the
delay between a musician making a sound and their fellow musician(s) hearing
it) arises. There tend to be two reactions to this topic: either declare that NMP
is impossible due to latency; or ask when the ‘problem’ of latency is going to
be solved. There are several reasons why these reactions are problematic. First,
not all NMP approaches are impacted by latency, and these reactions highlight
a lack of awareness around the possibilities of NMP. This is not surprising,
given how NMP has until recently been a niche activity. Second, not all music
needs strict synchronisation and is impacted by latency. An example of this is
Gaelic psalm singing, a musical tradition in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland,
which is group singing with highly improvisatory elements. Rebekah Wilson,
a composer who regularly works in the networked environment, highlights the
example of Monteverdi’s Vespers 1609 as a piece of music that encompasses
antiphonal echoes which do not synchronise (Wilson, 2019). This is seen as
a key aesthetic feature of the music rather than a technical issue to be solved.
Despite these examples, there are, of course, approaches to NMP and types of
music where strict synchronisation is important.
The good news is that NMP is possible, even with latency (or this would be
a very short book), and there are NMP systems that solve the ‘problem’ of la-
tency very well. An example is LoLa (LoLa, 2020), a low-latency audiovisual
system designed for music performance. The downside is that it requires very
high-speed internet connections and specialist hardware, which is beyond
the financial reach of most musicians. A case study of the LoLa system is
included in Chapter 2.
This book takes a more enquiring approach, accepting that the majority of
musicians who want to take part in NMP will not have access to high-quality,
low-latency systems such as LoLa. It looks at creative ways that musicians can
work with the equipment and technical skills that they have available to them
and ways they can embrace some of the challenges that arise in NMP. It does
not suggest the ‘right’ way to take part in NMP, accepting that there are many
different approaches that might be suitable for different situations and differ-
ent musicians. It looks at the music of NMP, including how musicians might
need to adapt what they play to fit the idiosyncrasies of NMP, as well as how
composers might write music that suits this particular environment and way
of working. It also examines the role of NMP in music education, from the
perspective of both the learner and the teacher.
Rather than focusing on questions around latency, perhaps more appropri-
ate questions might be:

• How can musicians embrace the technical challenges of NMP?

• What are the creative affordances offered by NMP?
• How can NMP be used as a tool for accessing ensemble music-making
and music education?
6 Introduction

History of NMP
NMP has an interesting history, having developed in parallel in several differ-
ent spheres, including from the performance perspective (having close links
with sound art and experimental music), from the academic perspective (with
many studies focusing on the impacts of latency and the development of spe-
cific software for NMP as well as some of the aesthetic considerations), and in
the educational world (with the focus on the pragmatic aspects of NMP and
access to music education). Up until the COVID-19 pandemic, it was seen
by many musicians as a rather niche activity, which might only suit musicians
who could not work together in any other way. As many more musicians have
now had practical experience in NMP, attitudes may be changing, although
it is likely that if musicians were forced into NMP (e.g., for teaching) with lit-
tle preparation, the challenges may have outweighed the perceived benefits.
Within the academic sphere, most research has been on the synchronous
approach to NMP, probably as this has been perceived by researchers to be the
most interesting approach that musicians may want to engage in and the one
with the most technical challenges that may be tackled with research. Since
the COVID-19 pandemic, however, there has been some research into the
uptake of NMP in education and community groups (see, e.g., Biasutti et al.,
2021; Crisp, 2021), particularly around the community benefits of working
this way. Much of this research highlights the differences (and challenges)
between working in-person and working in NMP rather than examining the
creative affordances offered by NMP or even acknowledging that NMP has
been a part of musicians’ creative practice for decades. These studies also
focus on musicians and educators who have moved to NMP as an emergency
measure rather than with appropriate consideration of the methods used and
suitable planning and preparation.
The research on asynchronous NMP is much more limited, however, this
has been developing as a practice for remote musicians for decades and has
applications in music education (see, e.g., Martin & Büchert, 2021). There are
also some parallels with multitrack studio recording and the use of overdubs,
which is effectively what asynchronous NMP is in some settings, albeit with
the musicians at a distance from one another.
John Cage’s Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (March No. 2), which is scored
for 12 radios, is regarded as one of the first pieces of music composed for
an interdependent network and could be considered to be an example of
NMP (Weinberg, 2005; Rebelo & Renaud, 2006; Renaud et al., 2007). In
this piece, what is being received on the radios is down to chance rather
than musicians using the network to share sounds, so it may be stretching
the definition of NMP somewhat to include this as an example. What it does
highlight, however, is how musicians have always taken creative approaches
to the technology available to them and used equipment in ways that were
never intended (see, e.g., Pendulum Music by Steve Reich). It also highlights
some of the musical methods that can be used in NMP as a result of some
of the technical challenges of working musically on networks. In the case of
 Introduction 7

Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (March No. 2), this includes the use of chance
elements, for example, “…in the radio piece, numbers on a tuning dial are
written instead of sounds, whatever happens being acceptable (station, static,
silence)” (Cage, 1952, 1968, p. 58).
The first musicians to connect computers together through networks and
use them in performance were the League of Automatic Music Composers,
who were based in the San Francisco Bay Area (now also known as Silicon
Valley), and were active between 1977 and 1983. The group was influenced
by two major factors centred on the geographical region where they were
based: the development of domestic computers (known as microcomput-
ers as opposed to mainframe computers common in academia and industry)
which became available at an affordable price; and the musical influences of
the West Coast of the US.
The group used microcomputers, analogue electronics, and electronic in-
struments, networked together, to create new forms of music, influenced by
this huge technological development, but also by the aesthetics of the experi-
mental acoustic music of the time. This included the chance music of John
Cage and minimal process music of Steve Reich, the methods of which could
be easily transferred to computers in live electronic music. The West Coast
of the US at the time also included a melting pot of musicians coming from
various non-commercial musical backgrounds, including classical, free jazz,
and experimental rock (Brown & Bischoff, 2005).
The League of Automatic Music Composers built circuits for use in live
performance that determined the character of the music and saw the elec-
tronic system as having a part in the music itself rather than just being a tool
for its creation (see Figure 1.1). Initial connections between the computers
were made using eight-bit parallel ports and various methods of communica-
tion between the machines were used. These included looking for new data
arriving at the ports or using interrupt lines, to send a burst of data to an-
other player to be used by the receiving programme immediately. Initially, the
group would let their networked workstations run on their own during a per-
formance, but later the musicians began to interact with the computers during
a performance to adjust parameters and influence the music as it happened.
In the mid-1980s, former members of the League of Automatic Music
Composers joined with others to form The Hub, who expanded on the previ-
ous work using networked microcomputers. In 1987, The Hub was commis-
sioned to create a performance that linked two locations in New York City to
demonstrate the potential of NMP to link musicians at a distance:

Two trios performed together in each space, each networked locally with
one of two new, more robustly built, identical hubs, and the hubs com-
municated with each other automatically via a modem over a phone line.
Each trio performed music that sounded different from that performed
in the other space, but data generated from each ensemble were shared
within The Hub, so the trios were informationally linked.
(Brown & Bischoff, 2005, p. 383)
8 Introduction

Figure 1.1 D iagram of a League of Automatic Music Composers performance

drawn by Rich Gold in 1978.

While this performance proved that it was possible for musicians to work
at a physical distance from one another, this particular application of NMP
was not a major aim of The Hub. The musicians were more interested in the
interactivity and complexity that the network provided and creating a new
form of music ensemble with interaction that was unique to the networked
environment. Over time, The Hub’s technical approaches evolved, using
 Introduction 9

RS-232 serial communications, later using MIDI (musical instrument digital

interface) for communication, and more recently an Ethernet router.
Brown and Bischoff (2005) suggest that the technical implementation of
The Hub’s work sometimes overshadowed the aesthetics or the musical is-
sues, from both an audience and a musician’s perspective. These are cer-
tainly issues that continue within NMP today, with sometimes more concern
about the technical issues, such as latency, than the musical possibilities of
the network.
A development from The Hub’s approach to networked music is the idea of
a laptop orchestra, where laptops are used as instruments in chamber ensem-
bles, which may or may not be connected through networks. These are often
used alongside other musical devices, such as loudspeakers and homemade
instruments (Wang, 2018). Examples of these ensembles include The Prince-
ton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk), who first performed in 2006, and the Stanford
Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk), who formed two years later.
Heidi Grundmann (2005) describes an early example of synchronous
NMP in 1992 called CHIP-RADIO. This was a performance for radio that
used acoustic instruments as well as electronics with the musicians based at
three different locations. The musicians were located at radio and TV studios
in Innsbruck, Salzburg, and Dornbirn. The artists used data gloves, arm inter-
faces, a MIDI saxophone, and graphical interfaces to play instruments and
robotic devices at other locations. Instruments included violins, samplers,
marimba, percussion, synthesiser, and guitars, some of which were played
remotely via robotic devices. Both musicians and audiences could see the
musicians on video monitors.
A project of this type and scale was only possible through the access that art-
ists had to state-of-the-art production facilities (and associated data networks)
and cultural broadcasting by public radio stations. It also required artists with
technical knowledge who were able to motivate staff of the broadcasters to
become innovative partners in realising art projects (Grundmann, 2005).
ISDN (integrated services digital network) is used by broadcasters to cre-
ate reliable live, low-latency audio links between remote locations and was
also available to the general public by subscription to an ISDN line. ISDN
allows multiple digital channels to be operated simultaneously through nor-
mal phone wiring used for analogue lines, although a digital signal is carried
down these lines. Although very suitable for music applications, ISDN was
largely superseded by ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) for consumer
applications and then fibre optic broadband, although it is still used in the
broadcast industry.
The development of high-speed internet through academic networks from
the mid-1990s paved the way for high-quality audio links that could be used
for NMP that were more accessible for musicians. One of the first research
groups investigating the possibilities of NMP was the SoundWIRE group
10 Introduction

(CCRMA, 2010) at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Mu-

sic and Acoustics (CCRMA), continuing the geographical links between NMP
and the San Francisco Bay Area. The SoundWIRE group started developing
the JackTrip software in 2000, which is an audio system specifically designed
for synchronous NMP over the internet, and is currently a popular method for
accessing NMP.
The technical development of creating audio links across the internet in-
stead of musicians needing to design their own equipment to send control
signals has led to the way that most musicians now access synchronous NMP.
It allows musicians to play acoustic instruments in NMP rather than using
computers as instruments, opening up NMP to musicians without music tech-
nology or computer networking experience.
At the same time as the development of synchronous NMP techniques
and projects, asynchronous NMP was being developed. An early example
of an online band project happened in 1994 called ResRocket. The project
had over 1,000 participants who exchanged ideas and files via a mailing
list and FTP (file transfer protocol) server (Hajimichael, 2011). The develop-
ment of accessible DAWs has had a major impact on asynchronous NMP, as
more and more people have been able to make high-quality recordings at
home. Coupled with improved domestic internet accessibility, both in cost
and bandwidth, it is now very quick and easy to produce and share audio
files, which previously may have only been possible in a studio setting.
Even more accessible asynchronous NMP projects require users to record
themselves on their mobile phones (either in audio or in video format), so the
accessibility of these devices coupled with access to the internet has also al-
lowed ‘virtual ensemble’ projects to proliferate. One of the first examples to
gain popular success was Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir, which started in 2010,
with social media used very successfully to reach a wide audience (Whitacre,
2022).

The music of NMP

The use of networks for music performance has possibilities for aleatoric
music (music that involves elements of random chance), where latency and
packet loss could be considered a feature of the medium to be embraced and
timings of interactions between parts left to chance. Renaud et al. (2007) sug-
gest an ‘internet performance style’, in which certain notes or phrases could
be played within time brackets, to allow latency issues to be part of the music.
The network itself could also be considered to be contributing to the music
through recirculating echoes and a unique acoustic ‘space’ – a network rever-
beration (Chafe, 2003; 2009). A similar idea is described by Tanaka (2006),
with music existing in the environment that it is played in. When music is
played on networks the network infrastructure is the environment, along with
the associated qualities of that space.
 Introduction 11

While some musicians may find network latency a technical problem, oth-
ers consider it a key aesthetic consideration of their work and use the latency
as a feature of the music (Tanaka, 2000; Renaud & Cáceres, 2008; Kim-Boyle,
2009). Examples of this include accepting the network delay and using it in a
musical fashion; combining the acoustics of physical spaces with those of the
network; translating the latencies into spatial diffusion algorithms – making
the distance ‘audible’; and deliberately creating music that sounds different
at each performer’s location by embracing synchronisation and asynchronisa-
tion (Renaud & Cáceres, 2008).
Several projects have embraced the latency issue in NMP by specifying free
improvisation as the musical content. This avoids all problems with latency by
allowing the musicians to react to other musicians (or other stimuli) as they
hear them rather than being concerned with strict rhythmic coordination. Ex-
amples include Flight of the Sea Swallow (Mills et al., 2016), where musicians
responded with free improvisation to interaction within a virtual environment,
and Distant Presences (Mills, 2011), an improvisatory performance with both
musicians and visual artists. Free improvisation is particularly suited to NMP,
as it is a highly communicative form of music, yet is adaptable to the chal-
lenges of latency and associated technical issues. There is no specific shared
performance goal, and musicians react to what they hear, as they hear it. A
disadvantage for the typical performing musician is that, although accessible,
it is not a style that many musicians are comfortable playing in.
Composer Rob King took another approach to the interruption caused by
the internet connection in his piece SenTENSes:

SenTENSes is a piece for two cellists, TENS machine, and video chat soft-
ware. The cellists engage in an imitative dialogue over the video chat, ex-
changing similar musical gestures. Meanwhile, the TENS machine provides
electrical nerve stimulation, inducing muscle spasms in the bow-arm. This
interference is a metaphor for the inconvenience of the video chat; the
imperfections in the video chat itself, over which the cellists are obliged to
interact, means that either cellist may miss, misinterpret, or exaggerate the
gestures of the other cellist, generating more interference still.
(Network Music Festival, 2020)

The piece, which can only be performed using a video conferencing environ-
ment as a performance space, brings the unique features of NMP to the fore-
front of the music in a slightly alarming way, as the muscle spasms become
clearly uncomfortable for the cellist.
Playing music designed for co-located ensembles brings its own chal-
lenges, however, in the Pacific Rim of Wire project (Cáceres & Hamilton,
2008), Terry Riley’s In C was played. Although there are some improvisatory
elements in this piece, strict timing is required. In this case, a metronome was
used to ensure the musicians were playing to the same pulse, however, this
12 Introduction

also meant that audiences in the two locations heard slightly different rendi-
tions of the piece. This particular piece was very suitable for an NMP situation
due to its improvisatory elements, however, there are few similar pieces that
have been composed for co-located performances that would be as suitable.
In some cases, pieces of music have been composed specifically for NMP
settings, for example, Eric Whitacre’s compositions for virtual choir (Whi-
tacre, 2022). These pieces were originally written for asynchronous NMP
rather than live performance, therefore minimising technical difficulties for
participants. Whitacre’s piece Sing Gently, however, has also been performed
synchronously using Jacktrip Virtual Studio (JackTrip Labs, 2022). Synchro-
nous examples of composed music for NMP were showcased in the Online
Orchestra project (Rofe & Geelhoed, 2017). Amateur and student musicians
took part in this project in various places around Cornwall and the Scilly Isles,
UK, with groups of instrumentalists in each place. Three pieces of music were
written by composers John Pickard, Jim Aitchison, and Federico Reuben,
and they each demonstrated musical features such as distributed textures,
polyrhythm and ostinati, blurred transitions, slow rates of harmonic change,
layered textures, and semi-improvised rhythmic notation. These particular
features aimed to reflect the advantages of NMP (e.g., distributed and layered
textures) or mitigate the difficulties (e.g., blurred transitions and slow rates of
harmonic change).
In a conventional music performance, musicians and audience hear al-
most identical versions of the music played (with only slight variations due
to balance and small latencies due to the distance between musicians and
audiences). In synchronous NMP, there are multiple versions: at each NMP
location, musicians will hear a different version due to latency affecting the
incoming signals. As the number of locations increases, multiple latencies
are introduced, creating further versions of the music. In addition, the latency
causes audio artefacts, which manifest themselves as a ringing or reverbera-
tion, or echoes, depending on the latency. A unique aspect of the NMP en-
vironment is the fact that musicians can play together while performing in
different acoustic spaces (see, e.g., Renaud & Cáceres, 2008). All these factors
can impact musicians and the music they play. These factors create chal-
lenges for musicians in terms of the ability to synchronise and create coherent
pieces of music, however, they also provide creative opportunities that are
not available in any other performance setting.
Different musicians approach NMP with various expectations: some at-
tempt to recreate face-to-face musical encounters (see, e.g., Bartlette et al.,
2006), while others embrace the technical idiosyncrasies of the equipment
(see, e.g., Tanaka, 2000; Renaud & Cáceres, 2008; Kim-Boyle, 2009). The
technical limitations discussed previously make an NMP environment par-
ticularly challenging if attempting to work in the same way as in a typical co-
located musical setting. However, NMP offers unique opportunities for those
willing to accept the technical difficulties as a creative opportunity.
 Introduction 13

Given the technical environment of NMP, many NMP projects have in-
cluded elements of sound design and performance art (see, e.g., CHIP-­RADIO
(Grundmann, 2005)), and therefore have sometimes been seen as only suit-
able for experimental music. While it may certainly be easier for some ex-
perimental musicians to see the potential for NMP, there are no limitations on
creativity or imagination within NMP. Conventional instruments can be used
alongside electronic instruments, and new forms and structures for music can
be developed alongside those that are currently part of musical traditions.

Distance music education

An early form of distance music education in the US was the ‘School of the Air’.
These were programmes broadcast on the radio specifically linked to school
curricula. Music Appreciation Hour, launched in 1928, was programmes for
specific levels covering orchestral instruments, music as expressive media,
musical structure and form, and specific composers (Bianchi, 2008). Although
these programmes were without interaction, they were a way of providing
learning materials at a distance. While not a substitute for classroom teaching
of music, they enabled small, underfunded schools to provide a high level of
music instruction that otherwise would have been unavailable.
In some remote and rural parts of the world, for example, in outback Aus-
tralia and the Falkland Islands, distance learning – even for primary school
students – is very common. This originally took the form of education by
radio, and in Australia, this was also known as ‘School of the Air’. Radio
was used for interaction with teachers and peers rather than teaching new
concepts (Hockley, 1985). More recently, satellite phone replaced radio, with
music groups taking place via satellite phone (King, 2007). The ABC (Austral-
ian Broadcasting Corporation) in Australia also has a long history of providing
Australian primary school students with music educational content, both over
the radio in the 1960s and then via cassette and eventually CD through to the
early 2010s.
The Manhattan School of Music were pioneers in the use of video confer-
encing in music education, where they launched the first video-conferenced
music course at a US conservatoire in 1996 (Manhattan School of Music,
2022). Throughout the late 1990s, they offered workshops and performances
via video conference as well as establishing video-conferenced music educa-
tion programmes for schools in the New York area. In 2002, they also estab-
lished specific teacher training courses to teach prospective music teachers
how to deliver online music courses. The early adoption of such technology
in music education may come as a surprise, but it demonstrates the possibili-
ties of the use of technology within music education at a time when the tech-
nical limitations of video conferencing may have made it seem impossible.
The COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 saw a large uptake in NMP, par-
ticularly among community groups and music educators, recognising the
14 Introduction

importance of ensemble music and learning on health and well-being (see,

e.g., McCrary, 2022). Asynchronous NMP was particularly popular in com-
munity ensembles, as it was seen as a relatively easy way for musicians to col-
laborate (although some underestimated the technical challenges of working
this way). As local lockdowns extended and meeting for rehearsals (particu-
larly for amateur musicians) was not possible in the longer term, some com-
munity groups started video-conferenced rehearsals, usually playing along to
a backing track while participants muted their microphones. While this gave
some sense of working within a musical community, rehearsing music com-
posed specifically for NMP settings may have provided more sense of purpose
and achievement. This sudden increase in musicians taking part in NMP also
saw a move away from the experimental music origins of NMP, with many
musicians wanting to perform more traditional repertoire over the internet,
highlighting some of the technical challenges of doing this.
In music education, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a sudden shift in
instrumental tuition from in-person to online through synchronous video
conferencing. Many instructors were not prepared for this shift, which hap-
pened virtually overnight. Although online instrumental tuition can be very
successful, it requires careful planning and preparation. As time went on,
many educators could see the access benefits of online instrumental tuition,
and their pedagogy developed to suit the environment. Some teachers have
further developed their online offerings since restrictions were lifted.
Of course, music education does not only consist of instrumental tuition:
composition, music listening, contextual studies, and music technology are
also important elements of a general music education at all levels. These
elements were also forced online as part of the COVID-19 restrictions, al-
though some institutions (especially at higher education level) were already
delivering these elements fully online. Ensemble playing is also part of music
education, and this is one of the more difficult elements to deliver online,
particularly if attempting to emulate in-person performance. Educators can,
however, use some of the synchronous and asynchronous NMP techniques
discussed in this book to encourage creative ensemble practices.
Online and distance education is nothing new – consider, for example,
the Open University in the UK, which was established in 1969 – including
theoretical music courses. The first blended learning practical music degree
in the UK was the BA Honours Applied Music degree at the University of the
Highlands and Islands, which was established in 2012. A case study of the
approaches taken in this degree is included in Chapter 5.

The COVID-19 pandemic

The pandemic gave researchers an unprecedented opportunity to study par-
ticipation in NMP on a large scale, with almost all musicians taking part in
NMP in one form or another, if they had access to suitable equipment. Many
 Introduction 15

research papers written around this time highlight the lack of awareness in
the general population of musicians around NMP, for example, stating ‘…
in most cases these new ways of working are experimental, necessitated by
the speed at which this unprecedented crisis has developed’ (Crisp, 2021,
p. 131). Given the history of NMP going back to the 1970s, it could be argued
that these ways of working are anything but experimental (although synchro-
nous NMP does attract experimental musicians). It may, however, feel experi-
mental for the musicians taking part if they have had no experience of NMP.
Much of this research has focused on the challenges of unprepared musicians
being forced into working online rather than the creative opportunities of
NMP or projects that were specifically designed to be online from the outset.
The pandemic also led to an increase in streaming of performances by
professional musicians from homes, partly as a way of maintaining an income
when conventional performances were not possible, but this soon moved into
professional ensembles considering their streamed output. This may result in
a big change in the way professional ensembles consider access for and en-
gagement with audiences.

Playing together in NMP

NMP is an ensemble activity, requiring at least two musicians. In a traditional
sense, musical performance encompasses not just the act of playing music
with other musicians, but also hearing and seeing one another, musical com-
munication, exchange of creative ideas, and the social aspects of physically
being in space with other musicians. In NMP, all these elements are possible,
but in many cases, the musicians are not physically in the same space as one
another. This means a loss of acoustic resonance between the instruments
(Wilson, 2019), which can have an impact on blending and tuning (Iorwerth
& Knox, 2019). So what does playing together mean in the context of physi-
cally playing apart?
A reaction when discussing the possibilities of synchronous NMP is often
that it is not the same as playing in a room together, with the implication that
it is an inferior musical practice. There is no doubt that it is a different way of
working and that there are some aspects of ensemble music that are impos-
sible in an NMP environment. As Wilson and Mcmillan explain:

It is almost an impossible task to negotiate around recreating full-­bandwidth

sensory connections: “being-together” is not something we can aspire to
while remote connection software remains limited in transmission quality.
We can, at least, aspire to be less un-together.
(Wilson & Mcmillan, 2019, p. 10)

We explore specific strategies for this later in this book, but one of the ways
that we can aspire to be ‘un-together’ is through collaboration. As previously
16 Introduction

stated, by its very nature, NMP is a group activity. How the participants work
together within the group and the level of interaction will depend on the
approach taken. Collaboration can be described as shared ownership and
shared interest in the outcome of a project, while cooperation can be de-
scribed as working with others for a common benefit.
Makelberge (2012) examined different approaches to NMP and catego-
rised them based on their level of reciprocity between participants, describ-
ing the interaction as collaboration, cooperation, or collective creation. They
suggested that a jazz improvisation in synchronous NMP could be considered
collaboration, while asynchronous co-authoring of a MIDI file could be con-
sidered cooperation, as it has less intense reciprocity. These categorisations
appear to focus on whether the work is real time or not rather than the level
of reciprocity. In a synchronous performance, there may actually be very lit-
tle collaboration between the musicians, depending on the musical content,
while in an asynchronous composition project there may be intense collabo-
ration as musical content emerges. The level of collaboration is therefore less
about the methods used and more related to the musicians involved and their
approach to the music.
Where collaboration as opposed to cooperation is involved, there appears
to be a better outcome for participants, not necessarily around the musical
content of the project, but in terms of a positive experience of NMP. Daffern
et al. (2021) highlight some of the challenges of NMP for community choirs
during the COVID-19 pandemic, and some participants commented on the
sense of disconnection, particularly in online rehearsals with one-way audio.
Virtual ensemble activities (asynchronous NMP where recorded parts are as-
sembled into a group recording) felt more rewarding for some participants.
For even more collaborative projects, for example, if the musicians were also
composing parts and working closely together to do this, it is likely that this
sense of disconnect would reduce further.

Technical versus aesthetic concerns

NMP is at an interesting intersection between technology and the arts, where
the technological environment has an impact on the aesthetics and the aes-
thetics must react to the technological environment. This has led to two
rather different perspectives on the topic: one that aims to engineer away the
challenges (which we see later may not be particularly successful with syn-
chronous collaborations over long distances); and one that embraces these
challenges as part of the unique nature of working online.
Scholz (2021) describes these two approaches to the use of technology in
music, first, the teleological approach: ‘Teleology has a predetermined goal
in mind, and directs all efforts toward that goal; in this effort, technology is
a tool for exerting more power and control towards your end’ (p. 52). In this
approach, there is an imagined goal which the musician has in mind, which
 Introduction 17

is arrived at through ‘detailed notation, obsessive practice, correction, refine-

ment, the elimination of chance and noise’ (p. 59).
In the ontological approach:

Technology is not an adjunct or an assistant, but the material itself. This

approach seeks new sound and techniques unique to the new technology.
Equipment is repurposed, surprise and unpredictability are welcomed, im-
perfect and the defects that engineers call “artifacts” are of interest… There
is an enthusiasm for sounds newly in the world, that sound like nothing
before them.
(Scholz, 2021, p. 52)

They go on to describe the ontologist’s sound as one that ‘emerges from the
playing situation, whether that situation is meticulously constructed or ad
hoc’ (Scholz, 2021, p. 59).
We can see evidence of these different approaches in the musical exam-
ples given in this chapter and in the development of NMP over time. In many
cases, the musical approach to NMP has developed despite musicians using
technology that was not designed for musical performance. In other cases, the
technology has been carefully selected and optimised to make it as transpar-
ent as possible for musicians.
In parallel to the development of musical approaches to NMP, researchers
and engineers are developing and refining systems specifically designed for
NMP (e.g., LoLa and JackTrip as low-latency systems). As Wilson and Macmil-
lan (2019, p. 2) put it:

Technology emerges through a combination of purposeful and causal de-

velopments, where a particular goal is in mind [and] efforts are made to
reach that goal using technology; the goal may shift according to feasibility
and cost. Likewise, aesthetics emerges, alongside the act of creating within
a cultural and technical context.

As we will discover, the feasibility of latency-free performance is pretty

low, particularly at long distances, however, the aesthetics of NMP take
this technical context into account. The cultural context of NMP has the
potential to be as wide as the cultural context of music itself alongside de-
veloping conventions of working at a distance. NMP is not limited to any
particular musical genre, although there are specific musical features and
ways of working that are particularly suited to the environment, which are
explored in later chapters. Renaud et al. (2007) discuss the need for an in-
ternet performance style, however, this does not need to extend to the style
of music itself, rather, it refers to particular ways that musicians may need
to adapt their performance conventions when playing in synchronous NMP
environments.
18 Introduction

An example of the impact of technological developments on the musical

aspects of NMP is how recently several video conference software providers
have included settings in their software to allow improved transmission of
music as a result of demand from customers. Although, as a musician, this
may seem like an obvious nod towards NMP, it will also help anyone who
may be sharing content with music (e.g., videos) through video conferencing.
For NMP, it has opened up possibilities for many more musicians to get in-
volved in NMP with very little technical knowledge, therefore increasing the
creative possibilities of NMP and reducing its exclusivity.
While it may seem that these issues are most important in synchronous
NMP, where challenges of latency are at the forefront of many musicians’
minds, these issues also impact on asynchronous NMP. Hajimichael (2011)
argues against technological determinism (where the technological devel-
opments drive the music) when discussing online production tools and
asynchronous collaborative projects. They argue that the societal impact
of interactive creative processes is more important than the tools that are
used.
As a relatively recent discipline, it is likely that there will be developments
in both aesthetic and technological approaches that will move NMP, both
synchronous and asynchronous, in new and interesting directions. There are
also crossovers with performance art, sonic art, and sound design that are
likely to influence (and be influenced by) NMP.

The future of NMP

It is perhaps foolish to attempt to imagine a future for NMP with such rapid
changes in technology, but also relatively slower changes in musical practice.
Chris Chafe asked in 2009:

How close are we to adopting/adapting to this new medium? This may

seem a bit of a stretch at this point in the game, but perhaps there will
come a time when it seems less usual and even a bit special to congregate
for music face-to-face.
(Chafe, 2009, p. 416)

Chafe probably did not consider a worldwide pandemic as a factor in helping

musicians to adopt NMP into their practice, but certainly, at least for a while,
it was extremely special to congregate for music face-to-face. Whether musi-
cians will adopt these practices in the longer term remains to be seen. As we
have already seen, much of the online work during the COVID-19 pandemic
happened with little planning or preparation, or careful considerations of the
aesthetic possibilities of NMP. This may have the result of setting back the
development of NMP outside the core practitioners who were involved in
NMP prior to the pandemic. Alternatively, it may have allowed musicians to
 Introduction 19

take risks they would not otherwise have done and develop an interest in the
possibilities of NMP.
It is likely that some of the NMP practices that music educators took up
during the COVID-19 pandemic are here to stay. In particular, those relating
to online instrumental instruction and more general music education through
online platforms have proved to be successful and convenient for both teach-
ers and learners. It is likely that these will be used in the long term in combi-
nation with face-to-face learning in a blended approach. These approaches
are explored in detail in Chapter 5.
Chafe goes on to say:

Music-making will take place increasingly in the new medium because

general trends in communication run towards lower energy expenditure,
higher content. Networked music performance does reduce travel and
does seem poised to raise the ‘channel content’ (if we consider one’s daily
musical life as a channel)—similar to how email had already infested the
early years of the Stanford AI Lab….
(Chafe, 2009, p. 416)

This lower energy expenditure could be seen from multiple angles, includ-
ing from the musician’s perspective in terms of time and energy needed to
travel to face-to-face rehearsals, for example, as well as from the perspective of
energy resources, which are becoming more valuable in times of climate crisis.
NMP can be quick and convenient, fitted around other commitments,
although perhaps this takes away from some of the elements of ensemble
music-making that musicians find so special. Ensemble music-making can
be an opportunity to disconnect from the electronic world and focus on the
creative, with few distractions. Whether these two worlds will become more
integrated over time, and with more musicians experiencing NMP during
the COVID-19 pandemic, remains to be seen.

Structure of book
This book aims to examine multiple facets of NMP, including both practical
and theoretical aspects of playing music through networks. It focuses mainly
on projects where the participants are separated geographically and are con-
nected via the internet. This is not to suggest that other networked approaches
(such as laptop orchestras or other co-located networked music) are not
­important – these are, after all, the approaches that started the development
of synchronous NMP – rather that online approaches are perhaps more acces-
sible for a general musician without extensive technical knowledge.
This book is aimed at musicians and educators who are interested in tak-
ing part in online NMP projects and technicians who are supporting these
projects. It is also aimed at those studying music, to gain some insight into the
20 Introduction

creative possibilities of working in NMP. It is not a handbook on the mechan-

ics of how to take part in NMP, nor does it suggest particular software that
musicians might like to use. There are some references to NMP systems and
software, but these change and develop all the time, and any specific details
are likely to go out of date very quickly. Instead, it aims to guide the reader
through some of the considerations, challenges, and affordances offered by
different approaches to NMP and help them to make informed decisions on
the types of system that may work in their own situation and with the re-
sources they have available. NMP combines highly technical aspects of tech-
nology with highly creative aspects of music. There are crossovers between
these two, and a reader may wish to concentrate on one or the other or to
understand how one informs the other.
Chapter 2 explores music over the internet, including elements of an NMP
system, how audio is transmitted over the internet, and the origins of latency
in networked music. Hardware and software that can be used for NMP are
also examined. This chapter will be of particular interest to those who are
planning NMP projects and need to think about the technical implications
and limitations of projects. It will also give musicians an insight into the ori-
gins of some of the technical challenges of NMP, such as latency, and why
these exist in an NMP system. It includes a case study of the LoLa system to
demonstrate the difficulties for musicians in setting up a low-latency system
in terms of hardware, software, and networking.
Chapter 3 focuses on synchronous NMP – or musicians playing together in
real time. It explores some of the common methods for working this way and
includes a detailed discussion on dealing with latency, both from a techni-
cal and musical perspective. It includes a discussion on the use of video in
synchronous NMP and some of the conflicting arguments around video use.
It investigates some of the musical approaches possible in synchronous NMP,
including a discussion around the meaning of coherent performances in NMP
and considerations for composers working in this area. Practical suggestions
are made for musicians working in this setting, including around choices of
music and software.
This chapter will be of interest to musicians who are interested in some
of the more creative approaches to working online and who are willing to
explore some of the more challenging aspects of NMP. Several case stud-
ies are examined in this chapter: Mosaic, a composition by Peter Longworth
for amateur orchestra, strongly focusing on community and using the Zoom
video conferencing platform; F. not F., a composition by Rebekah Wilson for
remote musicians with a computer-generated score that adapts as the musi-
cians play; and Heya, a group of female musicians based across the Middle
East and Europe, who perform live jams across the internet, using whatever
connectivity they have available to them.
Asynchronous NMP is explored in Chapter 4. This includes an overview
of the methods of some common approaches, including the virtual ensemble
 Introduction 21

and collaborative approaches to composition and recording. It also briefly

looks at remote recording, an approach mostly taken in professional envi-
ronments. This chapter may be of interest in particular to those working on
collaborative creative projects, where asynchronous NMP is a practical ap-
proach to remote collaborative working while avoiding some of the technical
pitfalls of working synchronously. It may also help musicians who are work-
ing on collaborative recording and composition projects at a distance, using
file-sharing methods to build up pieces of music. This chapter includes three
case studies: the first looks at some of the interesting technical approaches to
synchronisation and spatial mixing in a virtual ensemble choir recording; the
second explores asynchronous collaborations between DJs in house music
working internationally; and the third describes a remote recording session of
Baroque harpsichord, with musicians in the US and recording engineer and
producer in the UK.
Online music teaching and community music (which combines elements
of synchronous and asynchronous NMP) are examined in Chapter 5. This will
be of particular interest to educators and community musicians – both those
who are currently working online and those who may want to explore this
in the future. While it focuses mainly on instrumental tuition, it also looks
at other applications of NMP within educational and community settings. It
examines some of the methods for teaching online, including synchronous
and asynchronous methods, and some of the specific pedagogies used in
online teaching. It discusses student-centred teaching and the benefits of this
within music education and when preparing students for life-long learning in
music and how this relates to community music. It also looks at approaches
and methods for assessment in online music learning, including assessment
of, for, and as learning, and how these may be applied online. This chapter
contains three case studies: the first is about Applied Music courses at the
University of the Highlands and Islands and how NMP is embedding through-
out these degree courses; the second examines blended learning approaches
to music technology education in a school in Maplewood, Minnesota, USA;
and the third describes a project by music education charity Fischy Music
and their songwriting work connecting school pupils and hospice patients in
Edinburgh and Athens based on themes of loss and grief.
The final chapter is dedicated to accessibility in NMP, covering both the
benefits of NMP and the accessibility challenges. There are practical benefits
to NMP compared to traditional, in-person music-making, which include
the reduced need to travel (and associated time, cost, and environmental
benefits) and the ability to form communities of musical practice online –
­potentially connecting people with niche musical tastes and practices. There
are particular benefits for people who are not able to travel to meet like-
minded musicians for many reasons. This chapter also examines some of
the creative affordances offered by NMP. How can musicians make the most
of the NMP environment and create music that not only suits the online
22 Introduction

environment, but would not be possible in a traditional face-to-face setting?

The barriers to participation in NMP are also examined in this chapter, in-
cluding the attitudinal, technical, and musical barriers that may be encoun-
tered. This chapter finally makes suggestions on how to make NMP projects
more accessible and highlights some of the areas for consideration when
planning a project. It includes a case study about a collaborative project
between inclusive music groups in Scotland and Mexico which involved
synchronous and asynchronous NMP approaches to compose, record, and
perform an album of new music.
While the three areas of synchronous NMP, asynchronous NMP, and NMP
in educational settings are addressed separately, there are many common-
alities and crossovers between them. This is perhaps best demonstrated in
some of the case studies examined throughout this book where different ap-
proaches are taken that suit the particular aspect of the project that musicians
are undertaking. These distinctions are used only to allow readers to direct
their attention to the most relevant areas to their own practice rather than to
limit or pigeonhole musicians’ practice.
A note on definitions: throughout this book, the word ‘musician’ is used.
Following Matarasso’s definition of an artist (2019, p. 49), everyone involved
in the musical act is a musician. This is used to refer to anyone engaging in
NMP and does not refer to any particular level of experience – if a person is
willing and able to make a sound, whether that is an acoustic or electronic in-
strument, their voice, or anything else, they are considered a musician. There
is no specific, agreed-upon definition for a professional musician, and in this
book, this term is used to describe someone for whom music is a key part
of their livelihood and may have different approaches and requirements for
NMP than someone who takes part in music activities for other reasons. There
will, of course, be much crossover between those who consider themselves
professional, or not, and it is up to the reader to decide what is appropriate
in any given context.

Author’s perspective

The word ‘virtual’ implies something that is not real – that it appears to
exist but does not in the real world. Virtual ensembles are made of real
musicians that do exist in the real world. I do not feel entirely comfort-
able with this term, but it was coined by Eric Whitacre and has persisted
throughout the COVID-19 pandemic for groups of musicians creating
ensemble recordings in their own homes, so I will use it to describe this
particular way of working in asynchronous NMP.
 Introduction 23

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24 Introduction

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 Introduction 25

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Chapter 2

Music over the internet

Introduction
This chapter will explore how an audio (and video) signal travels via a network
to arrive at another musician. Some parts of the signal chain are the same in
asynchronous and synchronous networked music performance (NMP), and
we will follow the audio file or real-time signal through this journey in its
entirety. Some parts of this signal chain are controllable by the musician who
is using the system (e.g., the use of microphones and audio interfaces), while
other parts of the chain are a result of the design of the specific system. This
chapter will help to explain why the internet was not designed for the real-time
transmission of audio (and video). It will also explore the sources of latency
on the internet. The final part of the chapter will look at some of the practical
implications of working online and some basic fault-finding methods.

Brief history of the internet

The internet was originally developed in the 1960s as a network between gov-
ernment research facilities and universities (called ARPAnet). The key concept
of ARPAnet was to have multiple routes for data to travel so that the network
was robust in the event of a nuclear attack. Eventually, a communications
protocol was established called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Inter-
net Protocol), which allowed different kinds of computers on different net-
works to communicate with one another. ARPAnet adopted this protocol in
1983, and this is considered to be the start of the internet as we now know it.
The internet allows the transfer of many types of data, including email and
web pages, and most importantly for NMP, audio and video streams, and file
transfer. Importantly, the internet was not designed for the live transmission
of audio and video data. It was designed as a robust method of sending data
but with no guarantees on the timeliness of this data transfer or whether every
part of the data would even arrive at its destination. The impact of not offering
guarantees on data transfer is that in the event of part of the network being
unavailable, data can be rerouted and still reach its destination.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003268857-2
 Music over the internet 27

As we will see, this flexibility means that the internet is not particularly
well suited for time-critical information, such as the live streams that are im-
portant for musicians to play together in time with one another. Despite its
limitations, musicians have been able to use some of the features offered by
the internet to work together either synchronously or asynchronously and
adapted their practices to suit the networked environment.

Overview of a NMP system

There are two parts to the signal in a synchronous NMP system: the audio and
the video streams (although the video is not always used). While these both
travel in a similar way through networks, the capture and display of video will
be described separately from audio. There may be considerable differences
in the way that individual musicians capture and process the audio before
it reaches the internet, and this will be based on the equipment available to
them and their technical expertise. Figure 2.1 shows an overview of the audio
and video signal chains.
The audio signal chain starts with the musician. They may be playing
an acoustic instrument, which requires a microphone to convert the sound
waves into an electrical signal. If they are playing an electronic instrument,
the output of this instrument will be an electrical signal. The level of this sig-
nal must be set appropriately to get the best possible sound quality: too low
and there will be significant noise present; or too high and clipping will cause
unpleasant audio artefacts.
At this point, the analogue electrical signal must be converted to a digital
signal so that it can be processed by a computer. This happens in an audio in-
terface, which may be a stand-alone piece of equipment or built into a device
such as a mobile phone or tablet. The signal may then have some processing

Audio interface
Audio path

ADC
Microphone Software
Musician via router
Data
to Internet
compression
Video path

Camera
Video capture card
Video path Audio path

Audio interface
Loudspeakers
via router Software DAC /headphones
from Musician
Data
Internet decompression Video monitor

Figure 2.1 Overview of an NMP system.

28 Music over the internet

applied either by the musician or automatically by the device used to capture

the sound (such as a mobile phone). This processing is dynamic range com-
pression, which is used to smooth out the levels in the signal, to make it more
consistent. Depending on the software used (and usually in video conferenc-
ing systems designed for speech rather than dedicated NMP software), there
may be other processing, such as noise suppression or echo cancellation, to
prevent audio problems when communicating through video conferencing
systems.
This digital audio signal is now routed to the software that will be used to
transmit the audio signal over the internet. This is where the asynchronous
and synchronous approaches to NMP diverge. In an asynchronous system,
the audio will be saved as an audio file, which will be sent via the internet to
the recipient, and does not require real-time transmission of the audio data.
In a synchronous system, the audio is streamed to the recipient, with the aim
of the audio arriving as close to real time as possible.
In both cases, data compression may be used before the transmission of
the audio to reduce either the file size or the bandwidth required to transmit
the audio stream. This file or stream is then split up into packets and sent out
of the computer or other recording device (such as a phone or tablet), either
wirelessly via Wi-Fi or via an Ethernet cable to a router. These packets are
then sent through multiple switches and routers to reach the recipient’s router
and travel wirelessly via Wi-Fi or via an Ethernet cable to the device they are
listening on.
The packets are reassembled into either the audio file that was sent or into
an audio stream which is routed to the software that is used for listening. The
data is decompressed, and then using an audio interface, the digital signal is
converted back to an analogue signal that can be played out through head-
phones or loudspeakers.
The video path is very similar to the audio path once it reaches the internet,
although there are some differences at the start and end of the chain, with
cameras and monitors being used instead of microphones and headphones
or loudspeakers. In addition, in synchronous NMP, the video and audio feeds
may not be sent together through the internet. As with the audio path, the ex-
act way the image is captured and processed will depend on the equipment
available to the musician.
The first stage of the process is the video camera. This captures light and
focuses it onto a silicon sensor that is made up of a grid of pixels (a contrac-
tion of ‘picture element’), and the output of each of these pixels is stored as a
digital value. When all the pixels in the array have been scanned and coded,
this is known as a frame, and multiple frames per second are recorded to give
the impression to a viewer of a moving image. A video capture card is a hard-
ware device that converts a video signal from a camera’s output into a digital
format that a computer can recognise. If using a webcam (either external
with a USB [universal serial bus] connector or in-built into a device such as
 Music over the internet 29

a mobile phone), this video capture card will be integrated into the camera.
Data compression will happen at this stage, depending on the format of the
output of the card.
This video stream can then be used by software within the computer, which
may be recorded, in the case of an asynchronous NMP project, ready for the
musician to send to others, or it may be used by video conferencing software for
sending live through the internet. This then follows a similar path through the
internet as the audio, with the data being split into small segments called pack-
ets, and transmitted. At the receiving end, the packetised data is reassembled,
decompressed, and displayed on a video monitor for the musician to view.

Microphones
While a detailed discussion on microphones is beyond the scope of this
book, an overview will be given here of microphone types and some consid-
erations for networked music. For further information on microphones, there
are many excellent technical resources available on this subject (see, e.g.,
Corbett, 2021).
A microphone is a transducer, a device that converts one form of energy
into another, in this case from acoustical energy into electrical energy. Within
an NMP system, this microphone may be built into a computer or other de-
vices, such as a phone or tablet, or may be separate. Using a microphone that
is external to the device used for NMP can help improve audio quality and
flexibility. It allows the microphone to be moved independently of any screen
that is being used, and microphone placement can have a large impact on the
audio quality captured.
A microphone contains a diaphragm that vibrates when sound waves hit
it. The output from a microphone is an analogue electrical signal, the volt-
age of which fluctuates to represent the acoustical energy picked up by the
microphone’s diaphragm. Most microphones designed for music have an XLR
connection that carries this analogue signal, which can then be plugged into
an audio interface. Microphones with a USB connector are also available and
may be encountered by those working in NMP. These contain an analogue to
digital converter (ADC) and can be plugged directly into a computer. While
this may be convenient, they do not offer the range or quality available from
traditional microphones with XLR connectors.
There are several considerations when choosing a microphone for NMP,
alongside the obvious pragmatic consideration of cost. The first is the way
that the microphone converts the movement of the diaphragm into electri-
cal energy. These fall into four categories: dynamic (or moving coil), ribbon,
condenser (or capacitor), and electret.
A dynamic (or moving coil) microphone has a coil of wire that is fixed to
the diaphragm, which is free to move within a magnetic field. The movement
of the coil around the magnet produces a current in the coil, which is fed to
30 Music over the internet

the output of the microphone. Due to their construction, this type of micro-
phone tends to be robust, their sensitivity is relatively low, and they are most
sensitive at mid-frequencies.
A ribbon microphone has a thin ribbon of metal that acts as the diaphragm.
This vibrates within a magnetic field and an electrical signal is induced in the
ribbon. Given how light the ribbon is, these microphones respond well to
transients and have a smooth frequency response. Their construction, how-
ever, makes them delicate and very sensitive to external vibrations. In a musi-
cal context, they would not often be used outside a studio environment.
The diaphragm of a condenser (or capacitor) microphone forms one plate
of a capacitor close to a fixed backplate, which forms the other plate. The
vibrations of the diaphragm cause the distance between these two plates to
fluctuate. This alters the capacitance of the capacitor and so, since the micro-
phone has a power supply which imposes a constant charge on the capacitor,
the voltage across the capacitor changes in step with the movement of the
diaphragm, producing a voltage at the output of the microphone. Condenser
microphones require a power source to charge the capacitor (either a battery
or phantom power via the audio interface), and are generally more expensive
than dynamic microphones, but are almost universally of a better quality.
Electret microphones work in a similar way to condenser microphones, but
the diaphragm or backplate is charged with a permanently polarised electret
material. Electret microphones also require a low-voltage power source, but
this is to power a preamplifier rather than to charge the capacitor. They are
small and are often found in laptops, mobile phones, and other devices.
Another consideration when choosing a microphone is its directivity pat-
tern. As a result of the method of producing mechanical vibrations from
sound waves, microphones have different directivity patterns or polar pat-
terns (­Figure 2.2). This describes the sensitivity of the microphone at different
angles. In most dynamic, ribbon, and some condenser microphones, this is
fixed, and in some condenser microphones, combinations of capsules can be
used to make the polar pattern switchable.

0° 0° 0°

270° 90° 270° 90° 270° 90°

180° 180° 180°

Omnidirectional Cardioid Figure of eight

Figure 2.2 Common directivity patterns of microphones.

 Music over the internet 31

An omnidirectional microphone is, in theory, equally sensitive in all direc-

tions. In practice, however, this is only the case at low frequencies. At higher
frequencies, the physical size of the microphone acts as an obstacle to sound
waves. This means that the microphone becomes slightly less sensitive at the
rear as the frequency increases. The smaller the microphone, the higher the
frequency at which this reduction in sensitivity occurs.
A figure of eight microphone is equally sensitive at the front and rear,
although the signal at the rear is out of phase with the front signal. At right
angles to the microphone the signal reduces to zero (or close to zero), pro-
ducing a polar pattern that looks like a figure of eight.
A cardioid polar pattern is a combination of the omnidirectional and figure
of eight patterns, if one were superimposed on the other. Because the rear
signal of the figure of eight is out of phase with the front signal, this would
combine with an omnidirectional pattern to produce what looks like a heart
shape. This is most sensitive directly in front of the microphone and least
sensitive at the rear.
A final factor to consider when choosing microphones is proximity ef-
fect or bass tip-up. When using directional (i.e., not omnidirectional) micro-
phones, low frequencies are increased as the sound source gets closer to the
microphone. Some microphones are equalised to take this into account, and
so are designed to be used very close to the sound source.

Microphone and recording techniques

The placement of microphones is a key part of achieving the best possible
sound when recording. In some cases, for example, when using a phone to
record, optimum microphone placement might not be possible, because a
video camera on the phone may also be used. This means there may be a
compromise between audio and video quality, as the phone is placed in the
best position for the camera view. Using external microphones allows much
more flexibility and potentially better audio quality.
There are several factors to consider when placing microphones that need
to be balanced: the quality of the sound from the instrument; the ratio of
direct to reverberant sound; and the isolation of individual instruments. In
some cases, avoiding acoustic feedback (howlround) is also a consideration,
however, this will only be a factor in synchronous NMP when monitoring on
loudspeakers (which is discussed further in Chapter 3).
While there are no specific rules on microphone placement in terms of
specific instruments, a pragmatic approach is to consider how an instrument
produces sound and where a typical listener might be placed in relation to
the instrument. This can be used as a starting point for microphone placement
and adjustments made from there. Using the features of microphones (such as
the proximity effect) and the different frequency responses on- and off-axis,
adjustments can be made to the frequency content of the sound by moving
32 Music over the internet

the microphone. Any specific unwanted sounds (such as key noises) can also
be considered when placing the microphone.
The next consideration is the ratio of direct to reverberant sound. Micro-
phones pick up all aspects of the acoustic environment – not only the direct
sound from the instrument. In NMP, often the aim is to produce a coherent
overall sound, and this means rejecting as much of each individual’s acous-
tic space as possible, and usually including artificial reverberation to give a
sense of bringing all the sounds into a single acoustic space. A simple way
to increase the ratio of direct sound is to move the microphone closer to the
instrument. The directivity of the microphone will also have an impact on
this ratio – an omnidirectional microphone, for example, will pick up sound
equally from all directions and so include more of the room’s reverberation
than a directional microphone, such as a cardioid.
The final consideration is the isolation of individual instruments. In some
cases, there may be more than one instrument being played at once, either
by the same person (e.g., singing and playing a guitar) or by different people.
In these cases, there should be a separate microphone for each instrument if
practical and their sounds isolated as much as possible. In an asynchronous
NMP project, each instrument should be recorded in a separate audio file.

Audio interfaces
After the microphone, the next part of the NMP signal chain is the audio
interface. For those working with mobile phones and tablets, the audio inter-
face will be built into these devices. If external microphones are being used
(with the exception of USB microphones), then a separate audio interface is
needed between the microphones and the computer. As well as microphone
inputs, audio interfaces often also provide a way to plug an instrument with
an electrical output (such as a guitar or electronic keyboard) directly into the
interface. This is often labelled ‘instrument’.
External audio interfaces have multiple functions. They include analogue
to digital converters (ADCs) and digital to analogue converters (DACs) as well
as gain control and power for condenser microphones. They are available in
many levels of complexity, quality, and number of channels (and therefore
cost). They often connect to a computer using a USB connection, although
other connections, such as Thunderbolt, are available.
Gain controls on audio interfaces are used to adjust the input voltage of
the interface, which appears from the microphone, to a usable level. If the
level is too low, the signal will be noisy, and if it is too high, there will be
clipping (where the signal reaches the maximum voltage in the electronics
of the audio interface), which adds unwanted harmonics to the signal. There
is often a level indicator, which may just be a coloured LED (light-emitting
diode) or may be a level meter, to show the level of the signal at the input to
the interface.
 Music over the internet 33

Setting the correct level is a balance between the distance from the instru-
ment to the microphone, the dynamic level that the musician plays at, and the
setting of the gain control. The level should be set to be the highest it possibly
can be without clipping. Given that musicians often play louder when playing
with others than when playing on their own, it makes sense to set the gain
control using the meter and then reduce it slightly to allow for louder pas-
sages. When the same person is playing the instrument and setting the levels,
this may require some trial and error.
Audio interfaces can also provide the power needed by condenser micro-
phones (phantom power is 48 volts, direct current), which travels through the
XLR cable, through the same wires as the audio signal, without affecting it.
There is often a switch on the audio interface to turn this on and off for either
individual or all channels and may be labelled +48V. A common error when
setting up condenser microphones is forgetting to switch the phantom power
on, which results in no signal appearing from the microphone.
Each different audio source requires its own channel on an audio interface.
A typical home user may only require an interface with one or two inputs
(e.g., a microphone for speaking or singing and/or an instrument input). De-
pending on their set-up, more inputs may be required, for example, a drum-
mer may wish to use separate microphones for each drum as well as stereo
overhead microphones.
If using a digital audio workstation (DAW) for recording for subsequent
asynchronous NMP, then each input of the audio interface will have a cor-
responding audio channel in the DAW. If the audio interface is being used
for synchronous NMP, then how the outputs of the audio interface are routed
must be considered. Some video conferencing systems allow stereo inputs,
which can be routed in the audio settings of the software. Some, however,
only allow one audio input. If this is the case, then only one input of an inter-
face may be recognised by the software. For more than two inputs, some sort
of mixing and routing must then take place in the computer, before it is sent
to the video conference software.
Different devices deal with this routing in different ways. On Mac com-
puters, for example, it is possible to create an aggregate audio device within
the audio settings, combining multiple inputs into a device that other pro-
grammes can then use. On Windows machines, a third-party programme is
needed to do the same thing. Alternatively, a DAW can be used to mix multi-
ple input signals and then the output of the DAW can be sent to synchronous
NMP software.

Video cameras
Most of this chapter is focused on the audio chain in NMP because music is
primarily a sound-based phenomenon. Despite this, video potentially has a
large role to play in NMP as a communicative device as well as an aesthetic
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concentrated all power in the hands of the old nobility, whom he
made blindly devoted to his interests. It is no marvel that he
directed at pleasure the ship of the Republic. Without the name, he
possessed the supremacy and honours of a prince. Men called him
the Father of his country and the Restorer of liberty. What we have
said shows the nature of the liberties which he gave the State, and
they will be further illustrated in the progress of this history. He
loved his country; but he spent all his long life in establishing a
stable despotism in the room of tumultuous liberty. He loved his
country; but obeying the orders which he received weekly from
Cæsar, he enslaved that country to Spain. On the contrary, the
Republic had always better consulted her interests by standing in a
neutral attitude between contending princes.
Ottaviano Sauli gave eminent proof of such political wisdom
when the Republic sent him as its envoy to the Duke of Milan, and
he brought back and enforced by his advice the counsel of that
prince, to keep neutral and resist the influence of Cæsar in Genoa.
The government preferred this policy, and in its letters to the English
king, to Venice and to Florence, openly avowed that its chief care
was to live in freedom; that it knew the advantages of neutrality, and
would not bow to the will of others; that its single aim was to
strengthen and maintain its integrity and its policy of supporting the
independence of the other Italian Republics.[20]
These were generous words, and they were supported by deeds.
But Doria willed the supremacy of Spain, and he triumphed. Then
Genoa, in the siege of Florence, favoured the enemies of Italy; even
threw a lance at Siena; extinguished in blood the revolt of Naples,
and, with the arm of Doria, strangled everywhere the voice of
national liberty.
From that moment the robust vigour of the Republic began to
decrease, and the shadows of old age fell on her. The lifeless forms
of the court of Spain took the place of our civil strifes and our heroic
achievements abroad.
Doria, though naturally disposed to temperate and modest habits
of life, gradually developed the pomp and state of a prince. He lived
in Fassolo, in the houses once given to Pietro Fregoso for his brave
deeds in Cyprus (1373). Doria called from every part of Italy the
most famous architects to embellish this palace. The sculptures of
Montorsoli and of Giovanni and Silvio Corsini da Fiesole, the
paintings of Pierin del Vaga, Pordenone, Gerolamo da Trevigi, Giulio
Romano and Beccafumi rendered this residence famous throughout
Italy. Here he was surrounded by his own soldiers, and received,
writes Mascardi,[21] not as a simple citizen, but as a proud grandee.
The same author ascribes to this luxury of life the origin of the
conspiracy of Fieschi; and he approves ostracism by republics of
citizens who affect the manners of princes.
These mimicries of royalty gave general dissatisfaction; but the
selection of Gianettino di Tommaso as his adopted son and his
successor in the dignity of Admiral, was even more unpopular.
We find notices of this young man which represent him to have
once, on account of the slender means of his father, kept a shop for
the sale of oil. Afterwards he entered the service of Bernardo Invrea,
a silk-weaver, and remained with him until, being pursued by the
sheriff for some offence, he found it necessary to seek safety on
board the galleys of Andrea, to whom he was allied by blood.
Taking up from necessity the profession of arms, Gianettino soon
acquired a considerable name for warlike feats marked by enterprise
and audacity. He possessed an intrepidity rather singular than rare.
He soon became haughty and despotic putting on airs fitter for a
Castilian than a Genoese, and decorating himself with a coat of arms
as though supreme authority were already in his hands. The prince,
instead of correcting these excesses, permitted the arrogant youth
to lord it over the plebeians and to indulge his wild caprices at
pleasure.
Count Filippino Doria, as we have seen, contributed to the fame
of Doria. He was of humble fortune until the Duke of Urbino, as a
mark of gratitude for having perilled his life to succour the duke in a
single combat, conferred upon him an estate of the Urbino family.
Some other members of Doria’s house, who had been schooled
under him, gave good proof of their skill and acquired riches and
honours which reflected lustre on their master. Such were Francesco
Doria di Giovanni; Antonio Doria, marquis of Santo Stefano, Aveto
and Ginnosa, and one of the principal generals at the victory of San
Quintino; Giovanni Battista Doria, son of Antonio and heir of his
valour; Giorgio Doria, and Domenico Doria who having abandoned
the cloister was called the Converso.
To these we should add, Andrea Doria d’Alaone; the brothers
Cristoforo and Erasmo Opizio, who as lieutenants of Andrea went in
1534 to the aid of Messina; Giorgio di Melchiorre; Imperiale di
Bartolomeo, lord of Dolceaqua; Lamba di Alaone; Lazzaro di Andrea;
and Scipione di Antonio, all in repute as brave Admirals; and they
sailed so many ships and gained so many victories that it seemed as
if this family claimed exclusive dominion of the seas.
When Andrea prepared for any enterprise he commanded, in
addition to the triremes of the empire, not less than twenty taride or
large galleys of his own, manned by his own officers and crews and
paid by the emperor at the rate of five hundred broad ducats of gold
per month for each vessel. He took with him, also, the ships of the
Republic, and those of his relations and of other citizens who
chartered their panfili, or vessels of sixty oars, to the emperor of
Spain. At the assault of Prevesa the prince commanded, not to speak
of square-sailed galleons and caracks, twenty-two triremes whose
names we find set down in the chronicles of that period.[22] Antonio
Doria, who was only less illustrious in naval warfare than Andrea—
though, as Badaero wrote in his report to the Venitian senate, he
was so fond of traffic that, when his ships passed from one port to
another, they carried so much merchandise that they looked like
merchantmen—had six vessels in his division. There were many
other Genoese ships in this expedition. Two belonged to Onorato
Grimaldi, lord of Monaco; two were the property of the Cicala, and
one each of Centurione, Preve, the Gentile and Francesco Costa, not
to speak of many others. The Fieschi also sent a vessel, and the
Republic furnished twelve.
In fact there was no distinguished family which did not arm a
ship, but not one of these houses could rival Doria, not even the
Cicala who always kept not less than six galleys in commission. It is
worth while to remind the Italians, who are so prone to forget the
glory of their ancestors, that Andrea was the first to use armoured
ships in battle. In his assault on Tunis, he had in his fleet a galleon
called Sant’Anna, to which he was principally indebted for the victory
which restored Muley-Hassan to his throne. This ship was the first
ever clad with slabs of lead fastened by pivots of bronze. She was
built at Nice in 1530, and was equipped by the Knights of St. John of
Jerusalem. She was manned by three hundred warriors and carried
many guns. The solidity of her armour rendered her invulnerable to
the enemy’s fire. There were a large chapel and sumptuous saloons
under her decks, and what seems more strange, ovens so well
arranged that they furnished her crew with fresh bread daily.[23]
The Republic having broken with France, was prostrated under
the power of Spain and Doria. The citizens were profoundly
indignant at this double servitude. They were prohibited by law,
under the severest penalties, from proposing or advocating any
change in the new constitution of the Republic; so that many, before
the attempt of Fieschi, ardently wished to throw off the yoke and
place the country once more under the protection of France. In
1534, Granara and Corsanico went to Marseilles followed by many of
the people with the intention of preparing a revolution. The
enterprise became known by Doria, and Granara lost his head.
Corsanico was captured by Doria, and, without the least form of
condemnation, hurled into the sea.
A few months later, Tomaso Sauli who had attempted a similar
conspiracy with Cardinal di Agramonte, in Bologna, was condemned
and quartered. The exiles excelled all others in their devotion to
liberty; and in 1536, led by Cæsar Fregoso and Cagnino Gonzaga,
with ten thousand foot and eight hundred horse, they marched to
attack Genoa. This is not the place to relate how after a few
skirmishes they broke up their camp; it is only to our purpose to add
that hundreds of citizens who were suspected of complicity with the
exiles lost their heads, while their houses were levelled with the
earth.
 Not only in Genoa, but throughout Liguria these conspiracies
abounded; especially in Chiavari, where the revolt of Fregoso, of
which Stradiotto was the leader, had its origin. Blood whenever it
was shed, far from quenching the thirst for liberty, begot new
advocates for the old supremacy of the people. Soon after, that is in
1539, a pious priest named Valerio Zuccarello, beloved by the
people, was accused of revolutionary sympathies and leanings to
France. He was subjected to an inquisition and lost his head on the
scaffold. The nobility struggled to maintain its power; the people to
regain the inheritance of which they had been defrauded. The
Republic was passing through such pains as these when Gianluigi
Fieschi listened to her complaints and resolved to avenge them.
 CHAPTER IV.

GIANLUIGI FIESCHI.

Maria della Rovere and her children.—The natural gifts of Gianluigi.—Andrea Doria
prevents his marriage with the daughter of Prince Centurione.—Gianluigi’s first
quarrels with Gianettino Doria.—Naval battle of Giralatte and capture of the
corsair Torghud Rais—Count Fieschi espouses Eleonora of the Princes of Cybo
—The hill of Carignano in the early part of the sixteenth century—
Sumptousness of the Fieschi palace—Gianluigi, Pansa and other distinguished
men—Female writers—Eleonora Fieschi and her rhymes.

Maria Grasso della Rovere, the spirited niece of Julius II. after the
death of Sinibaldo removed from the city to her castles, first to those
in Pontremoli and Valditaro where she gave birth to Scipione, and
then to Montobbio where she established her residence. In those
days our matrons, when their husbands were fighting abroad or
when they became widows, took active charge of their estates and,
laying aside all elegant recreations, employed their zeal in promoting
their family fortunes. From this came the masculine counsels and
splendid examples which illustrated their history. Of such was Maria
della Rovere, daughter of the Duke of Urbino.
Emancipated from the luxury and pomp of her Genoese life, she
applied herself, like a good farmer’s wife, to restore the fortunes of
her house and to pay the large debts of Sinibaldo, especially the
twelve thousand ducats of gold due to Sforza for the feud of
Pontremoli. Her chief care, however, was the education of her
children. The eldest of them, Gianluigi, was ten years of age at the
death of his father. The others were Gerolamo, Ottobuono, Camilla
(who became the wife of Nicolò Doria, illegitimate son of Cardinal
Gerolamo), Angela, Caterina, and Scipione, born after his father’s
death. There was in addition a Cornelio, who though illegitimate (his
mother was a certain Clementina of Torriglia), was much beloved on
account of his spirited character. Some report that Sinibaldo had
other illegitimate children, and number among them a Giulio and a
Claudia, the latter of whom married into the family of the
Ravaschieri.
The children were instructed by Paolo Panza, a man of many
literary acquirements, who trained them in liberal studies.
The ardent spirit of Gianluigi imbibed less from the gentle
instructions of Panza than from the masculine promptings of Maria
della Rovere, who, in the fashion of Spartan mothers, exhorted him
not to forget the paths by which his ancestors reached fame,
contending as Guelphs for the rights of the people. Influenced by
such counsels, he grew up into youth, and acquired strength both of
body and mind in rough exercises of arms and in the chase. He was
so skilful in these arts and in swimming, that the most robust of his
rivals could not excel him. His mother taught him to hate the rule of
strangers; and he must very early have become an enemy to the
Dorias, whom he saw grasping the destinies of the Republic.
When he was eighteen years of age he took charge of his
patrimony, which the prudence of his mother and the address of his
guardian, Paolo Pansa, had so much improved that it is said to have
yielded two hundred thousand crowns of rent. On the fourth of June,
1535, Charles V. confirmed his title to the domains of his ancestors,
and continued in him the titles of Vicar-general in Italy, Prince of the
empire, Count of the sacred palace, and imperial councillor. Perhaps
it was on that occasion that he also received from Cæsar the two
thousand gold crowns mentioned by some writers.
On coming to the city from Montobbio, he was honoured with
festive receptions by all the nobility; his manners and his gentle
courtesy acquired him the love of the best among the people.
Bonfadio[24] describes him as beautiful of countenance, skilful in the
use of arms and the management of horses, remarkable for the
beauty and strength of his body, manly in speech, grateful, obliging
and winning to others: in fine his sweetness of character and vivacity
of temper completes the picture of an Alcibiades, formed for
captivating all hearts. In fact he was called an Alcibiades, and
perhaps he was one, the vices included; it is certain that in
patriotism he deserved the name. It is said that when, mounted
upon a bay saddle-horse, caparisoned with orange-coloured velvet
trappings laced in vermillion, and poitrel of silver, he rode through
the narrow and crowded streets of Genoa followed by his valets and
equerries, the people gathered from every side to do him honour,
and he repaid them all with a salute full of winning courtesy. He
dressed with the luxury which had come down to him from his
illustrious ancestry. A picture, which many believe to be that of
Gianluigi, represents him in a black velvet morning gown having the
sleeves slashed, as was the fashion of the time; there is a collar
about his neck with cannon shaped points, and a chain from which
hangs a medallion bearing the motto Gatto. His head is covered with
a cap, also of black velvet, surmounted on the left side by a white
plume. The limbs are comely and chaste, the air brave and
courteous, the hair of a mulberry tint, the hands white with fingers
long and clean as those of a virgin, the eyes black and brilliant.
Leandro Alberti describes him as a prudent, brave and eloquent
young man. Porzio[25] writes that he served not without honour in
the wars of Lombardy under the standards of the marquis Vasto. But
though fond of glory and successful in arms, he scorned to seek
fame in other enterprises while the times forbade him to use his
sword for national liberty.
Endowed with such gifts, there was no illustrious family which did
not seek his hand for a daughter. Among the beautiful damsels who
in every part of Italy were ambitious of the title of Countess of
Lavagna, he fixed his eyes upon Ginetta, daughter of Prince Adamo
Centurione. In every maidenly grace she was unrivalled. The prince
and his wife Oriettina, who loved Gianluigi, were delighted to
expouse Gianetta to the most virtuous knight in Genoa. However,
difficulties arose which overthrew the project; and as the
misfortunes of Fieschi begin from this disappointment, we deem it of
importance to touch upon some circumstances which were unknown
to, or have been ignored by historians.
The Prince Centurione was a firm supporter of the Austro-
Spanish rule, and was united to the Dorias. He had fought, as a
volunteer and at his own expense, in the wars of Charles in
Germany; and his vast wealth procured him favours from the
principal monarchs. When the emperor passed through Genoa, his
minister asked Doria to lend the royal visitor two hundred thousand
crowns, for his enterprise against Algiers. The Genoese responded
that he would immediately supply his sovereign with all the money
he might need. He presented the money to the emperor and with it
a receipt for its payment. The emperor, not wishing to be outdone in
generosity, tore the receipt in pieces. Prince Adorno also lent two
hundred thousand crowns of gold at one time to Duke Cosimo. He
paid eight hundred thousand pieces for the marquisate of Steppa
and Pedrera, in Spain, and a large sum to marquis Antonio
Malaspina for the estates of Monte di Vai, Bibola and Laula. He
bought other castles in the Langhe; and the Venitian ambassadors
reported that his rents amounted to a million of ducats.
Memoirs worthy of credit relate that Centurione one day informed
Andrea that he had contracted Gianetta in marriage to the first
gentleman in Genoa, and named Fieschi; to which Doria answered
that no gentleman in Genoa could rank higher than Gianettino, his
successor in the admiralty and heir of all his possessions, adding
that Centurione ought to renounce Fieschi and give the hand of his
daughter to the prince’s nephew. Centurione did not at first consent
to break his faith; but the solicitations of Andrea, with whom he did
not wish to be at enmity, at length triumphed over his scruples and
he espoused Gianetta to Gianettino giving her a dower of seventy
thousand gold crowns of the sun.
This violation of plighted faith deeply wounded Gianetta who had
set her affections on Gianluigi; and the Princess Oriettina took it so
much to heart that she fell sick, and finding herself near death, as a
last proof of her devotion to the Fieschi family had that life of St.
Catherine written which is still preserved in manuscript in the library
of the Genoese studio. This broken contract of marriage was the first
spark of that great fire which blazed up between Fieschi and Doria.
[26]

The count was gifted with great powers of dissimulation and he

did not permit Doria to perceive that he felt the insult. He carried an
open face and silently matured his vengeance. He contracted greater
familiarity with the new nobles, the old being devoted partisans of
Andrea.
The haughty arrogance of Gianettino added new fuel to the fire.
This youth forgetful of the humble place from which he had risen,
adopted an insolence of tone and a luxury of life which gave general
offence. The natural insolence of his character had been greatly
increased by a military life and the habit of command.
The control of twenty galleys, the succession as admiral and the
proofs of personal courage which he had given raised him above the
mass of the citizens;[27] but instead of knightly courtesy he had a
scornful and imperious look, and he never entered the city without
being attended by a cortège of officers and armed men. He affected
in a free land the sumptuous customs of princes.
The people, whom he thrust aside, hated him; the nobles
caressed him as a means of getting privileges and honours, but they
secretly despised him because he, not content to be their equal,
regarded them as subjects. The plebeians murmured; “why such
arrogant assumption in a land whose laws forbid despotism! He who
refuses to treat you as an equal wishes to make you his slave.[28]
See how bravely he drives it towards princely powers?”
Thus the people abhorred Gianettino as its future tyrant, and
longed for a favourable moment to strike down the Spanish power
and restore the rule of the citizens. The old prince either encouraged
or regarded without displeasure, the insolent habits of his heir which
were bringing odium upon his house. Gianettino became
unboundedly arrogant after his victory over the Corsair Dragut, or
Torghud Rais, once governor of Montesche. The annals of Liguria
give us but few particulars of this fight, and some modern writers
believe that no such battle was ever fought. We have found in old
chronicles the materials for correcting the errors and supplying the
defects of those who have written upon the subject. This will not
lead us beyond the range of our subject; since the honours
showered upon Gianettino for this victory stimulated Gianluigi to
illustrate his own name by deeds not less worthy of fame, while the
pride of the young Admiral grew so high that he insolently treated
the count as his inferior.
In the spring of 1539, Prince Doria was with the army in Sicily,
and Torghud took advantage of his absence to make a piratical
cruise in the Ligurian sea. Andrea, as soon as he received notice of
the movement, sent his nephew to oppose the Corsair. The latter
had already began his depredations along the coast, and had
desolated Capraia, carrying off seven hundred prisoners and a large
Genoese galleon. Gianettino, having a fleet of twenty galleys and a
frigate commanded by a certain Fra Marco, acted upon his
knowledge of the Corsair’s habit of beating up against the wind, and
pursued him by the use of his oars. At the same time he sent his
lieutenant, Giorgio Doria, with six galleys and the frigate to the bay
of Giralatte where he believed the pirate to have run for shelter. His
calculations proved to be accurate. Torghud, believing these galleys
to be the principal fleet of the Genoese, left two vessels to guard his
booty, and sailed to attack Giorgio Doria with nine ships, two of
which he had captured from the Venitians at Prevesa.
Hearing the sound of the engagement, Gianettino, who was not
far distant, sailed into the waters of Giralatte and joined his
lieutenant. The Corsair seeing himself outnumbered, retired from the
contest and endeavoured to escape; but Gianettino pursued him so
closely that he soon saw flight to be impossible and resolved to sell
his life as dearly as possible.
He raised his oars to the sound of trumpet and tymbal, according
to Barbary customs and accepted the battle. The numbers and
weight of vessels were equal, and both parties had equal
enthusiasm, courage and obstinacy. But a cannon ball from a
Genoese galley opened the side of the corsair’s flag-ship, and a
tempest of fire battered the rest into shapeless wrecks. Some of the
pirates flung themselves desperately into the waves, and others
turned the prows of their shattered vessels and attempted a new
retreat. Among the latter was the terrible pirate Mami Rais de’
Monasteri, in Africa who had once before been a prisoner of Antonio
Doria and had been liberated on payment of a ransom. Giorgio
pursued him now without success; but with this exception the whole
fleet was captured including the two vessels left by Torghud to guard
his booty. These last were captured by Count Anguillara who was
fighting under Doria’s flag.
The losses of Doria were small, but that of the enemy was
terrible, since every one of them who swam to shore was mercilessly
put to the sword by the Sicilians. Torghud was made prisoner and
the chronicles say that “after having been well flogged he was put in
chains.” He offered without avail fifteen thousand ducats for his
ransom.
On the 22nd of June 1539, at vespers, Gianettino entered the
port of Genoa with the galleys captured from the corsair. The citizens
flocked in crowds to welcome the victors and two thousand
christians who had been delivered from captivity, and to see the
humbled lord of the main.
Torghud managed with such tact that he obtained admission to
the presence of the Princess Peretta, and addressed her in proud
and threatening terms of reproach for the harsh treatment which he
had suffered; but he soon adopted a humbler tone and begged to be
sent to Messina, where Andrea Doria still remained with his army.
This favour he obtained, and he renewed to Andrea his offer of a
heavy ransom, but still without success. A few years after, his
countrymen, who valued him highly as a commander, offered new
terms, and this time Andrea yielded to the temptation. The
commission had not a sufficient sum to pay the ransom, and
borrowed it in Genoa from the noble family Sopranis, giving as
security the island of Tabarca. Thus Torghud, conquered by Genoese
arms and ransomed by Genoese gold, recovered his liberty and
renewed his piracies on the seas to the detriment of all Christendom.
It is needless to say that the success of Gianettino aroused a
spirit of emulation in Count Lavagna. But he saw that the Dorias,
accusing him to Cæsar of revolutionary opinions, had shut him out
from honours and official position; and, not wishing to employ his
talents in strengthening the Spanish power in Italy, he sought repose
for his active spirit in domestic enjoyments.
He married Eleonora, of the family of Prince Cybo, though his
mother at first strongly opposed the alliance, preferring for her son a
more wealthy and illustrious bride. By this marriage Fieschi came
into a certain relationship to Catherine de’ Medici, wife of Henry II.,
—Catherine Cybo, duchess of Camerino and aunt of Eleonora, being
of the blood of the Medici, and therefore of the queen of France.
The marriage contract was prepared on the 15th of September,
1542 in Milan by Galeazzo Visconti and Gerolamo Bertobio, notaries,
in the presence of Francesco Guiducci and Giuseppe Girlandoni,
representative of Cardinal Innocent Cybo (the same to whom Philip
Strozzi bequeathed his blood to be made into a pudding) and of
Lorenzo and Ricciarda Cybo, on the one side, and Paolo Pansa the
attorney of Count Fieschi on the other. The dower amounted to
hardly nine thousand gold crowns of the sun and two thousand more
for the wedding outfit. The Strozzi papers contain an act under date
of January 18th 1543 written by Bernardo Usodimare-Granello,
scribe of the archepiscopal court of Genoa, by which Count Gianluigi
acknowledges that Rev. Ambrogio Calvi, attorney and agent of Cybo,
had paid four thousand gold crowns of the sun and deposited five
thousand more with the brothers Giuliano and Agostino Salvaghi
who had become securities for the dowry. The act further
acknowledged the payment of one thousand crowns for jewellery
and ornaments and provides that the other should be furnished by
Cybo in silver, gold and gems. In the same act, Count Fieschi
pledged as security for the dowry the castle of Cariseto and its
appurtenances, which he had obtained by purchase, and he
promised to obtain the consent of Cæsar to the transfer of the
estate within one year from the date of the instrument.
The preparations for the wedding and the festivities connected
with the espousals were on a splendid scale. The flower of the
Genoese nobility came to congratulate the spouses at their residence
in Vialata.
Two powerful families possessed the magnificent hill of
Carignano, the Fieschi, and the Sauli. Each family had there a
splendid palace. During the minority of Gianluigi, silence had reigned
in his, while that of the Sauli had been greatly enlarged and
embellished.
The Sauli were new nobles belonging to the popular party, like
the Fieschi, Farnari, Promontori and Giustiniani; yet few of the
nobility, old or new, equalled them in wealth and gentility of blood.
Marcantonio Sauli, a grave priest, whose life Soprani wrote, had
splendidly adorned his palace, and there the Genoese ladies were
wont to meet for pleasure, and the elders of the city to debate on
the affairs of the Republic.
At the marriage of Gianluigi, his palace resumed its ancient
gaiety, and the Sauli, surpassed by the Fieschi in magnificence, were
filled with envy; and this was the first cause of those differences and
rivalries which separated these distinguished families.
Louis XII., who had been the guest of the count’s grandfather,
speaking of the sumptuousness of the palace in Vialata, said that it
surpassed that of his own. And the palace of Fieschi was in fact a
kingly residence. The annalists tell us that the hill of Carignano,[29]
on which it stood, was adorned with fifty villas, houses and gardens.
The principal of these were the palace of Madonna Marisla, the
mother of Cardinal Sauli, those of Nicolò, Giovanni Battista and
Giuliano Sauli, and the houses of Pietro Negrone and Rolando
Ferrari.
From the summit of this hill you have a commanding view of the
city, and of the port crowded with a forest of masts; the villas of
Albaro are spread out before you; gardens and palaces cover the
slopes of gentle declivities, or are scattered along the sides of the
mountains which, swelling skyward, make at once a rampart and a
diadem for Genoa. Valleys and slopes of marvellous beauty attract
the eye towards the shore line, fringed with orange gardens, of
Nervi and Recco, until Portofino, with its wave-washed rocks, closes
on that side the charming basin of the gulf; while westward lie the
bewitching shores of Voltri, Albissola and Savona, closed in the long
prospective by Cape Noli standing boldly in the face of the sea; and
throughout the wide horizon the waving surface is white with cities,
castles and villages, which are garlanded round with orchards and
olive groves, reflecting their verdure in the crystal mirror of the
Mediterranean.
In the centre of this smiling scene, roofed with a sky yet more
bewitching than the landscape, rose the palace of Count Fieschi,
faced with alternate slabs of white and black marble, crowned with
two grand towers, and decorated with emblems and statues on its
front and sides.
In the Fogliazzi Notarili, which are preserved in the city library,
there is an instrument dated March 30th, 1468 executed by Luca
and Matteo Fieschi, sons of Daniel and Ginevrina Fieschi, from which
we learn that in front of the palace there lay an open lawn extending
towards the sea, that the villas and orchards of the estate covered
the whole space as far as San Giacomo. On the east, west and south
the grounds were bounded by public streets, and on the north lay
the farms of Francesco del Monte and of the heir of Oberto Della
Rovere. Subsequently to the date of this instrument, Bartolomeo
Fieschi added villas and fields to this estate; but on the southern
side it suffered some detriment from the opening of stone quarries
by the government for which the Doge Battista Fregoso paid
damages in 1479.
We also learn, from the records of Bailia della Moneta in the bank
of St. George, that sixty citizens having, on the 21st of March, 1484
engaged, to extend the mole of the harbour twenty-five or thirty goe
(a goe was ten palms or nine feet) the Doge and the elders
authorized the rectors of the commune to quarry stone on private
property, and for this purpose some lands were ceded by the same
Bartolomeo Fieschi, thus decreasing the extent of his estate
southward, though it did not reach the sea before this cession.
Behind the palace, lay a botanical garden which Sinibaldo had
enriched with rare species of plants and beautified with little lakes
and fountains making it, according to Spotorno, among the first of
its kind in Italy.
Sinibaldo employed excellent architects and builders, whose
names have not come down to us, to decorate and enrich his home,
some time before Paul III., on his return from Nice, lodged here as
Fieschi’s guest. The wrath of man, rather than the hand of time, has
so completely destroyed these monuments that not even the ruins
remain for our admiration. The reader will therefore receive with
favour the results of our researches into the true position and
boundaries of the Fieschi palace and gardens, which in their time
were famed for their outward magnificence and for the sculptures,
carved work and pictures within the palace. Of these works of art all
but one have perished from the memory of man. This was a painting
in the vestibule which treated the fable of the giants hurling
thunderbolts at Jupiter and some enterprises of the Fieschi family.
We think it just to inform our readers of its origin and character.
The wealthy citizens of Genoa were accustomed, like those of
every part of Italy, to adorn their mansions with paintings allusive to
the exploits of themselves or their families. For example, history has
preserved the memory of an allegory given to Gerolamo Adorno by
Paolo Giovio, which was sketched in colours by Titian, and wrought
into a rich embroidery by Agnolo di Madonna, a Venitian
embroiderer. Giovio, in his brief dialogue, speaks of three emblems
which were painted in many places in the Fieschi palace. The bishop
of Nocera writes that Sinibaldo and Ottobuono, with whom he was
on familiar terms, asked him to execute an allegorical picture,
representing the vengeance they had taken for the death of their
brother, Count Gerolamo, whom the Fregosi had cruelly murdered.
This revenge had removed from among the living the instruments of
the deed, Zaccaria Fregoso, Signors Fregosino, Lodovico and Guido
Fregosi. With this bloody reprisal the Fieschi satisfied their anger,
saying that no Fregoso lived to boast that he had spilled the blood of
a Fieschi.
Giovio represented this tragic vengeance by an elephant attacked
by a dragon. The latter attempts to wind himself about the legs of
his antagonist, so as to pierce his bowels and insert his deadly
poison. But the elephant, knowing by instinct the danger to which he
is exposed, turns himself round and round until he places a rock or a
tree between himself and his enemy. Then he beats the dragon to
death. This allegory was interesting, from the fine contrast of the
two animals, and the Spanish motto, No vos allabareis—by which
Fieschi would say to the Fregosi, “You cannot boast of your crime
against our blood.”
Sinibaldo had another allegory executed in the palace of Vialata.
He and Ottobuono were forming an alliance with the Adorni and
many of their partisans urged them to protract the negotiations,
since the army of the king of France was near at hand and Ottaviano
Fregoso, supported by his party, had a very firm hold on the
government and would be able to make a spirited defence if assailed
at that moment.
To this the Fieschi replied that they well knew the time for action,
and on this incident they asked Giovio to execute an allegory. The
artist remembering what Pliny says of the halcyons who await the
spring solstice to make their nests and lay their eggs when the
waves are tranquil, painted a calm sea and a serene sky with a nest
extending from the prow to the poop of a vessel with the heads of
the halcyons raised over the prow and a motto in French—nous
savons bien le temps—meaning to say we well know when to make
war on our adversaries; and the chronicler adds, they thus
foreshadowed their triumph over their rivals.
The Fieschi palace had other allegorical paintings treating various
subjects. Some of them described tender love passages in the lives
of the Fieschi. In one was told the story of a gentlewoman loved by
Sinibaldo. It would seem that she grew jealous and reproached him
with want of fidelity, because he mingled much in the company of
other dames. Sinibaldo, in order to excuse and justify himself with
his mistress, demanded of Giovio an appropriate representation in
allegory. The artist represented a mariner’s compass lying on a chart
with the needle fixed; overhead a blue sky spangled with golden
stars, and underneath the motto, aspicit unam. The sense of this
allegory being that, though the heaven is full of beautiful stars, the
needle points to one alone, that is, the North star. The offended
dame was cured of her jealousy. The allegory was much praised,
says Giovio, by many persons, including Fieschi’s secretary, Paolo
Panza. We have already said that the elect of the city came to
congratulate Gianluigi on his return to Carignano, and that the luxury
displayed by him on the occasion of his marriage surpassed all
bounds. Some conception of this luxury may be formed when we
remember that Genoa was at that time the richest city in Italy, and
that its wealth found expression in a prodigality of money so
excessive, that Partenopeo in an assembly, at the time Giovanni
Battista Sauli entered upon the magistracy, prayed the government
to impose restrictions on the waste of the national wealth. In fact,
on the 16th of December, 1500, the elders issued a proclamation
forbidding wives to spend on their personal attire more than a third
part of their dowers, and ordained other sumptuary prohibitions.
The flower of the Genoese youth frequented the Fieschi palace,
not merely for amusement and pastime, but they cultivated there
letters and polite studies. Liguria had at that period some erudite
scholars, who employed themselves in teaching youth the sciences
and eloquence. The Fieschi did not rank last in these pursuits; and it
had become a family tradition for the sons to cultivate letters, and
acquire the doctorate in law. Gianluigi was versed in every branch of
learning, and, though it has been written that he never had other
books in his hands than the life of Nero and the conspiracy of
Catiline, it is certain that he studied the Latin and Italian masters,
especially Tacitus and Machiavelli.
Paolo Panza, who wrote the lives of the pontiffs of the Fieschi
family, and graceful Latin and Italian verses of such merit that
Ariosto compared them to those of Trissino and Molza, lived in the
house of Gianluigi, and aided him in his literary pursuits. Through his
instructions the young count acquired a love for learning, and was
led to open his doors to the most cultivated men of his time. And
these were more numerous than might be expected in a city
immersed in commerce and maritime enterprises. Braccelli and
Antonio Gallo had acquired repute as historians: Giacobo de’ Fornari,
as a Greek scholar: Geronimo Palmaro, Bartolomeo Guistiniano,
Nicolò da Brignali and Bartolomeo were men of great learning, and
Grimaldi Rosso, who reached the dogate in 1535, was equally
master of medicine, mathematics, and philosophy.
These noble examples were followed by Nicolò Senarega Gentile,
a renowned lawyer, Marcantonio Sauli, and P. Ilarione, who wrote
learnedly on the subject of exchanges. We omit Ansaldo Ceba, who
was both a warrior and a poet, because he lived somewhat later; but
we must mention Emanuele Grimaldi, whose pleasing rhymes were
published in 1549; Captain Alessandro Spinola, whose literary merits
were eclipsed by his fame in the field, and particularly that obtained
at Golletta, where he was the first to mount the hostile ramparts.
Among our warrior poets we should not pass by the brave Cesare
Fregoso, though he had been killed a few years earlier by the
Spaniards. He wrote Latin songs which were highly praised, but have
unfortunately been lost. He was a man truly great in everything.
Matteo Bandello, who took shelter in his palace, and received from
him both protection and honour, bears testimony which is alike
honourable to both protector and protected. But it would be beyond
our province to enumerate all the learned men of that period.
Perhaps the reader will be pleased to know something of the
famous women who surrounded the countess Eleonora. She was
herself, instructed in letters, as well as in all those accomplishments
which became a lady of her time.
Among her friends were Arcangela di Negra, and also the
venerable Battista Vernazza, daughter of the great Ettore, from
whose pen we have treatises, songs and epistles.
Among the latter her answer to Doctor Tomaso dal Moro, who
had endeavoured to win her to the doctrines of Luther, then being
secretly diffused through Liguria, is singularly charming. Bandello
mentions with praise an Antonia Scarampi,[30] and we may add
Peretta Scarpa-Negrone, whom her contemporaries commend for
her skill in poetry, calling her a new Corinna. Livia Spinola has left us
good rhymes; Maddalena Pallavicini, wife of the marquis of Ceva,
wrote verses which are not without merit, and Placida Pallavicini won
the encomiums of Paolo Foglietta. The first rank in the Pallavicini
sisterhood is due to Argentina, who became the wife of Guido
Rangone, and whose literary accomplishments were the theme of
the wisest men of that period.
Gerolamo Ruscelli da Viterbo, a literary man of high repute
among his contemporaries, tells us that the greater part of the
Genoese gentlewomen cultivated belles-lettres; and in an epistle
which he published in 1552, he enumerates among the most rare
women of Italy twenty-three of Genoa and six of Savona. He
mentions among the first of Genoese ladies, Pellegrina, Lercari, “a
virgin not less virtuous than beautiful,” and Nicoletta Centurione-
Grimaldi, on whom he lavishes every sort of praise. Among those of
Savona he speaks of Leonora Falletti, countess of Melazzo, as one
whose happy compositions had stimulated the ambition of many
learned men. Among the poetesses of Liguria, are also to be
numbered Benedetta Spinola, daughter of Alfonso marquis of
Garessio, and wife of Giovanni Battista, prince of the blood of Savoy
and lord of Racconigi; Claudia della Rovere, countess of Vinovo in
Piedmont; and Caterina Gastodenghi, who enjoyed the praises of
Dolce, Parabasco, and many others.
The gentle consort of Count Fieschi held the central place in this
circle of cultivated gentlewomen; but unfortunately the rhymes of
Eleonora, which gave her so much credit with her contemporaries,
are no longer in existence. The few specimens of her talent which
remain to us give ample proof of her genius. They were published in
Turin in 1573, with the verses of Faustino Tasso, a Venitian, and of
three other poetesses, of whom one belonged to her husband’s
house, that is, Ortensia Lomellina de’ Fieschi. The others were
Nicoletta Celsa and Laura Gabrielli degli Alciati, Eleonora was not
inferior to her aunt Caterina, duchess of Camerino, who knew
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and who found comfort when Paul III.
deprived her husband of his possessions, in the friendship of wise
men and in philosophical studies.
But the genial studies, the love and charms of his wife, did not
enervate the manly spirit of the count. At every step his mother’s
voice reproached him for attempting no daring enterprises. From the
towers of his palace he saw Genoa lying at his feet and seeming to
call him to deliver her. He looked out upon the sea and saw it
whitened with the sails of Gianettino, his rival and the expected
despot of his native land. A sense of magnanimous indignation
warmed his bosom. The son of Sinibaldo, the heir of such an
illustrious house, could not endure the sight of his country sitting
under the shadow of a foreign power, if not enslaved, certainly not
free.
 CHAPTER V.

THE PLOTS OF FIESCHI.

The political ideas of the sixteenth century—The advice of Donato Gianotto to the
Italians—Generous aims of Gianluigi Fieschi—His reported plots with Cesare
Fregoso disproved—The conspiracy with Pietro Strozzi a fable—Fieschi has
secret conferences with Barnaba Adorno, lord of Silvano—Pier Luca Fieschi
and his part in the conspiracy of Gianluigi—The Count sends Cagnino Gonzaga
to treat with France—The purchase of the Farnesian galleys—Francesco
Burlamacchi.

According to our belief, a single idea directed the movements of the

Peninsula in the first part of the sixteenth century—the thought
common to all the people of emancipating the country from that
foreign power which was corrupting the national character, literature,
and art. Classic and courtly history has found in these stormy years
only local and isolated conspiracies; few writers, we might almost
say none, have heard, in these risings of peoples crushed under the
ambitions of the great, the mighty groan of a dying nation not yet
resigned to her terrible fate.
The national Guelph tradition refused to yield place to the new
imperial system which was slowly destroying the old charters of the
communes. There were generous throbs which showed that the old
body politic, though sore wounded, still contained the breath of life;
every city of Italy on the verge of the grave rose up with the last
strength of an expiring man, protested with blood, and died.
 Palermo protested in her hero Giovanni Squarcialupo whose
death consecrated her cause; she renewed her life in the patriotism
of the Abbattelli, who could not turn back her destiny. Naples was lit
up with insurrection. Milan, always foremost in magnanimous
enterprises, raised her head, when Morone incited the marquis of
Pescara against the emperor, and that nobleman first promised to
lead the revolution and then betrayed it to the tyrant. Perugia in vain
set up the banner of the Republic; Florence fought, Siena renewed
the memory of Saguntum, and Lucca burned audacious fires of civil
and religious liberty. There was scarcely a city or village which did
not recall its Latin traditions, and combat the monarchical power
which was descending like a tempest on the whole nation.
The blood which was poured out like water did not profit our
cause. Some died in battle, some lost their heads on the block, and
others preferred banishment to being witnesses of the national
degradation. Hospitable Venice, who alone was clean from the
Spanish leprosy, opened her doors to the fugitive patriots, and they,
having broken their swords, continued to protest with their pens.
Italian statesmen had good reason to struggle against the growing
importance of the house of Hapsburgh, whose only enemy was
France then barely escaped out of her contests with feudalism and
with the English.
Donato Gianotti, the successor of Machiavelli, as secretary of the
Florentine Republic, wrote a wonderful address to Paul III., in which
he urged that Genoa should be redeemed from the hands of the
Dorias and Spaniards, and the republic and principalities bound in
alliance with France, as necessary measures for the defence of
national liberty. The object of this discourse, so rich in political
wisdom, was to warn the Italians of the danger of neglecting their
own interests.
“They cannot,” he says, “secure their safety except by making
preparations to take up arms against that power which can only
secure itself in its possessions by enslaving all Italy.”[31] Gianotti
urged the importance of tempting the confederates of the emperor,
and, if possible, enlisting them in the national cause, and adds: “The
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