The presence of a glorious past

The extant Rome-related polychoral works in real parts only in very rare cases go beyond a four-choir texture. Apparently, compositions for up to six real choirs were written by composers such as Abbatini, Agostini, Benevoli, Berretta, Fabri and Mazzocchi; ¹ however, only a handful of twenty- or twenty-four-part works survive, some of them in fragmentary form. These represent examples of extraordinary combinatorial skill and outstanding artistic achievement. The extant large-scale polychoral works and the written testimonies referring to lost ones point to a high point in the history of seventeenth-century Roman music. ²