ABSTRACT
A stimulating and wide-ranging article, the late Moore described the special relationship Venice cultivated with the Virgin in its liturgy, art and music. Moore brought numerous kinds of evidence to bear on his thesis about the Selva morale and additionally offered performance suggestions regarding the use of the trombe or trombe squarciate mentioned in two contemporaneous descriptions of the performance of the 'Mass of Thanksgiving'. The choir for the 'Mass of Thanksgiving' was somewhat larger than the normal choir of St Mark's. Moore reports that 14 extra singers were hired. Mass composition was not as rare an activity for Claudio Monteverdi as his two published Venetian Masses would suggest. In sum, Monteverdi's Selva morale contains a group of Mass compositions that have been linked through contemporaneous descriptions with the 'Mass of Thanksgiving' celebrating the official end •of the Venetian plague of 1630—31, although not without some difficulties of interpretation.
