Musica Toscana, Inc., was a nonprofit cultural, educational, and musicological organization located in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

, that promoted the musical heritage of the Tuscan region of

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It was founded in 1999 under the leadership of the

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

Robert L. Weaver, a retired faculty member of the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public university, public research university in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. Chartered in 1798 as the Jefferson Seminary, it became in the 19t ...

. Musica Toscana was headed by Margaret M. Guarnieri after 2007. As of 2012, the organization ceased operations. It maintained a reciprocal membership with the

period instrument In the historically informed performance movement, musicians perform classical music using restored or replicated versions of the instruments for which it was originally written. Often performances by such musicians are said to be "on authentic ...

ensemble

Auser Musici Auser Musici is a period instrument ensemble centered in Pisa that specializes in early music repertory from the Tuscan region of Italy. History, Mission, and Activities The ensemble was founded in 1997 by the flautist Carlo Ipata and has performe ...

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

, Italy. One of the principal reasons for the creation of Musica Toscana was the acquisition in 1984 of the private music library of the Italian Ricasoli family by the Dwight Anderson Music Library of the University of Louisville. At the time, the Ricasoli collection was one of the largest private collections of eighteenth-century music remaining in the world. The collection originated with Baron Pietro Leopoldo Ricasoli in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

and was once in the possession of Baron

Bettino Ricasoli Bettino Ricasoli, 1st Count of Brolio, 2nd Baron Ricasoli (; 9 March 180923 October 1880) was an Italian statesman. He was a central figure in the politics of Italy during and after the unification of Italy. He led the Moderate Party. Biograph ...

, a founding father of the modern Italian state and one of its first

prime ministers A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but rat ...

.An overview of the musical patronage of the Ricasoli family and a catalog of the holdings of their music collection is provided in ''The Music Library of a Florentine Noble Family'' (Sterling Heights, Mich: Harmonie Park Press, 2012), . The principal goal of Musica Toscana was to promote music written in Tuscany, performed in Tuscany, or written by Tuscan composers active outside of Tuscany that originated from the period 1590–1850, an era of political, culture, and economic decline in the region, but one of continued musical importance that saw the birth of

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

in the 1590s and the invention of the

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

a century later. Musica Toscana oversaw the publication of a series of scholarly and performing editions, the ''Monuments of Tuscan Music'', and sponsored concerts and lectures devoted to its repertory of interest, sometimes in collaboration with Bourbon Baroque. Only four of many planned volumes of the ''Monuments of Tuscan Music'' series appeared before the dissolution of the organization. {{Reflist

External links

Barone Ricasoli
Ricasoli history Arts organizations based in Louisville, Kentucky Culture of Tuscany Culture in Florence Music organizations based in the United States Non-profit organizations based in Louisville, Kentucky Organizations established in 1999 Educational organizations disestablished in 2012 1999 establishments in Kentucky 2012 disestablishments in Kentucky

See also

External links