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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: YAK-ZYM |
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ZARLINO, GIOSEFFO (1517-1590) , Italian musical theorist, surnamed from his birthplace ZARLINUUs CLODIENSIS, was born at Chioggia, Venetia, in 1517 (not 1540, as Burney and Hawkins say). Studying in his youth for the Church, he was admitted to the minor orders in 1539 and ordained deacon in 1541 at Venice; but he soon devoted himself entirely to the study of music under the guidance of Adrian Willaert, then choirmaster at St Mark's. Willaert, dying in 1562, was succeeded by Cipriano di Rore, on whose removal to Parma in 1565 Zarlino was elected choirmaster. Though now remembered chiefly for invaluable contributions to the theory of music, it is evident that he must have been famous both as a practical
Henry
example we possess of Zarlino's compositions on a grand scale is a MS. mass for four voices, in the library of the Philharmonic Lyceum at Bologna. He died at Venice on the 14th, or according to some the 4th, of February 159o. Zarlino's first theoretical work
Tract
The Istitutioni and Dimostrationi Armoniche deal, like most other theoretical works of the period, with the whole science of music as it was understood in the 16th century. The earlier chapters, treating chiefly of the arithmetical foundations of the science, differ but little in their line of argument from the principles laid down by Pietro Aron, Zacconi, and other early writers of the Boeotian school; but in bk. ii. of the Institutioni Zarlino boldly attacks the false system of tonality to which the proportions of the Pythagorean tetrachord, if strictly carried out in practice, must inevitably lead. The fact that, so far as can now be ascertained, they never were strictly carried out in the Italian medieval schools, at least after the invention of counterpoint, in no wise diminishes the force of the reformer's argument. The point at issue was, that neither in the polyphonic school, in which Zarlino was educated, nor in the later monodic school, of which his recalcitrant pupil, Vincenzo Galilei, was the most redoubtable champion, could those proportions be tolerated in practice, however attractive they might be to the theorist in their mathematical aspect. So persistently does the human ear rebel against the division of the tetrachord into two greater tones and a Ieimma or hemitone, as represented by the fractions g, y, it ",l, that, centuries before the possibility of reconciling the demands of the ear with those of exact science was satisfactorily demonstrated, the Aristoxenian school advocated the use of an empirical scale, sounding pleasant to the sense, in preference to an unpleasing tonality founded upon immutable pro-portions. Didymus, writing in the year 6o, made the first step towards establishing this pleasant-sounding scale upon a mathematical basis, by the discovery of the lesser tone; but unhappily he placed it in a false position below the greater tone. Claudius
Ptolemy
Ptolemy
instruments
instruments
Again, Zarlino was in advance of his age in his classification of the ecclesiastical modes. These scales were not, as is vulgarly supposed, wholly abolished in favour of our modern tonality in the 17th century. .Eight of them, it is true, fell into disuse; but the medieval Ionian and Hypo-ionian modes are absolutely identical with the modern natural scale of C; and the Aeolian and Hypoaeolian modes differ from our minor scale, not in constitution, but in treatment only. Medieval composers, however, regarded the Ionian mode as the least perfect of the series and placed it last in order. Zarlino thought differently and made it the first mode, changing all the others to accord with it. His numerical table, therefore, differs from all others made before or since, prophetically assigning the place of honour to the one ancient scale now recognized as the foundation of the modern tonal system.These innovations were violently opposed by the apostles of the monodic school. Vincenzo Galilei led the attack in a tract
Ambros mentions an edition of the Istitutioni dated 1557, and one of the Dimostrationi dated 1562. The present writer has never met with either. 2 We have given the fractions in the order in which they occur in the modern system. Ptolemy, following the invariable Greek method, placed them thus--Ii, , ?D. This, however, made no difference in the actual proportions. 3 It was first used in France, for the organ, in 1835; in England, for the pianoforte in 1846 and for the organ in 1854. Bach had advocated it in Germany a century earlier; but it was not gene-rally adopted. End of Article: ZARLINO, GIOSEFFO (1517-1590) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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