Today the biggest pop stars in the world are women. Beyoncé, of course, and above all Taylor Swift, Adele, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and, in Germany, Shirin David and Helene Fischer. They don’t just inspire the masses musically with their songs; they also influence politics and society. Why is it so different in the world of classical music and so-called high culture?
The origin of the myth surrounding the mass dates back to 1607, when the musician and theorist Agostino Agazzari, in his treatise on the basso continuo, directly relates the composition of the Papae Marcelli to the issue of the intelligibility of the text in polyphonic works. Although it was then taken up even more decisively by Adriano Banchieri and Ludovico Cresolli, this cause-and-effect relationship has, however, no historical foundation, except for the temporal coincidence between its composition and the events relating to the Council of Trent.
