ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of music in overcoming national borders during festivities and ceremonies linked to national churches in Rome in the early modern era. The space occupied by the nations, both real and symbolic, gave rise to the creation of fictitious boundaries, turning the city into a stage for competition among the nations, with the immaterial nature of music playing a prominent role in the contest. The presence of the musicians of the papal chapel in a national church was a confirmation of the importance of the ceremony; in fact, it often happened that some of them participated individually to extraordinary musical performances organized for special events. “The Musical Chapel of the Church of S. Luigi,” the opening of the procession was entrusted to general “drums and trumpets,” which one may easily assume to be those of the Campidoglio, already present in S. Ivo dei Bretoni for the celebration of the Patron Saint.
