ABSTRACT
The golden age of Venetian polychorality may be clearly dated to the last decades of the sixteenth century and the early years of the seventeenth. The zenith in the history of its Roman equivalent was reached much later, around 1650, a flourishing that persisted, albeit with a gradual decrease in popularity, until the 1730s. In Rome, the phenomenon is linked to names such as Antonio Maria Abbatini, Paolo Agostini, Orazio Benevoli, Francesco Berretta, Stefano Fabri, Francesco Foggia, Virgilio Mazzocchi and Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni, among many others whose works have not survived. Remarkably, most of these names and the outstanding compositions associated with them fell into oblivion after only a few decades – as did the highly refined skills of polychoral composition.
