Investigations Into the Zarlino-Galilei Dispute

WHERE NATURE AND ART ADJOIN: INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE ZARLINO- GALILEI DISPUTE, INCLUDING AN ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF VINCENZO GALILEI’S DISCORSO INTORNO ALL’OPERE DI MESSER GIOSEFFO ZARLINO Randall E. Goldberg Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Jacobs School of Music Indiana University February 2011 UMI Number: 3449553 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI 3449553 Copyright 2011 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee ____________________________ Thomas J. Mathiesen ____________________________ Massimo Ossi ____________________________ Ayana Smith ____________________________ Domenico Bertoloni Meli February 8, 2011 ii Copyright © 2011 Randall E. Goldberg iii Dedication For encouraging me to follow my dreams and helping me “be the ball,” this dissertation is dedicated with love to my parents Barry and Sherry Goldberg iv Acknowledgments There are many people and institutions that aided me in the completion of this project. First of all, I would like thank the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. In addition to providing excellent faculty, facilities, and research materials, a three-year assistantship allowed me to focus on my studies and gain valuable experience in the classroom. The musicology department’s Dissertation Fellowship and travel funds also gave me time to complete my research and present papers at major conferences. A generous fellowship from the Newberry Library in Chicago made it possible for me to examine many primary sources, including a manuscript copy of Galilei’s 1589 Discorso, which is allegedly in the hand of a descendent of Gioseffo Zarlino. I am grateful to the staff of the library’s reading rooms, who were patient with me and fulfilled my every request. It is difficult to see how I could have completed this dissertation without the help of my adviser Thomas Mathiesen. Professor Mathiesen has provided continued encouragement and friendship since our first encounters in his seminar on Greek and Latin music theory, and I cherish our many conversations on topics from ancient philosophy to the Golden Age of Hollywood. The road to completing a dissertation is filled with little bumps, detours, and major traffic jams, and I am thankful to have been able to rely on him to keep me grounded and focused on my task (even when I occasionally took a wrong turn). In addition, my work at the Center for the History of Music Theory and Literature, which Prof. Mathiesen founded, allowed me to develop my skills in transcribing manuscripts and editing documents. I also want to thank Peter Slemon and Andreas Giger, who supervised my work at the Center. v I am grateful to my committee members Massimo Ossi, Ayana Smith, and Domenico Bertoloni Meli for reading my work and offering many suggestions along the way. Professor Ossi, through my exam topic on sacred music in the Renaissance and his many colloquia, helped me refine my knowledge of late-sixteenth-century music and culture. Many scholars were kind enough to share unpublished writings or other items from their personal collections, direct me to new sources, encourage my work, and entertain my questions at conferences or via email. I am especially indebted to Benito Rivera, Philippe Canguilhem, Cristle Collins Judd, and Rainer Bayreuther, who all showed me rare documents, conference papers, or in-progress articles, and Charles Atkinson who read and commented on a portion of chapter 2. Many friends in the musicology department at IU have provided stimulating conversation and critical eyes over the years. In particular, I wish to thank Christopher Holmes, who read several drafts of chapters 1 and 2 and offered many suggestions during our weekly burrito lunches, and Sherri Bishop who read and commented on the entire translation of Galilei’s Discorso. I am also beholden to Professor Giovanni Zanovello for helping me navigate Galilei’s idiosyncratic treatment of the Italian language. My new colleagues and students at Youngstown State University have shown great enthusiasm as my dissertation defense approached. Their great spirit and energy remind me every day why I chose to be a musicologist. I am blessed to have grown up in a family with two talented older siblings, Julie and Danny, who have guided me in my endeavors, taken great interest in my work, and played lots of music with me. My parents have loved me, taught me, and provided me vi with the opportunity to reach my greatest potential; for their incredible support throughout my life, I dedicate this dissertation to them. Finally, I am happy to thank my wife Bethany who has shared in the drama and joy of completing my degree. We met as fellow musicology students during my first semester at IU and have been inseparable ever since. Bethany read several sections of the dissertation, applied her impeccable copy-editing skills, and encouraged me throughout the entire process. Her contributions to my thesis, however, are miniscule compared to the many other ways that she makes my life so wonderful. Last but not least, I owe a debt to my “little beast” Guido who serves as my canine alarm clock and makes sure that I take a break once in a while to enjoy life. vii Randall E. Goldberg WHERE NATURE AND ART ADJOIN: INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE ZARLINO- GALILEI DISPUTE, INCLUDING AN ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF VINCENZO GALILEI’S DISCORSO INTORNO ALL’OPERE DI MESSER GIOSEFFO ZARLINO The late sixteenth century was a remarkable era for Western music history. Contentious arguments over the relative merits of sacred vocal and secular instrumental music, the interpretation of ancient Greek and Latin writings about music, and the rise of experimentation as an alternative to scholasticism fueled lively debates among music theorists and performers. The most noteworthy of these quarrels involved Gioseffo Zarlino (1517-1590), a Franciscan priest and chapel master of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, and Vincenzo Galilei (1520 -1591), a Florentine lutenist and father to the mathematician Galileo Galilei. Many facets of the debate between Zarlino and Galilei remain unexplored. For example, each theorist wrote in distinct intellectual climates and catered to unique audiences: Zarlino collaborated with other intellects in the Accademia Venetiana della Fama and dedicated his treatises to powerful political figures. Galilei, on the other hand, sought patronage with noblemen in Florence, many of whom were anti-authoritarian and also interested in instrumental music and experimentation. Galilei’s Discorso intorno all’opere di Messer Gioseffo Zarlino (Florence, 1589) contains his most virulent and original attack on Zarlino’s great synthesis of music theory, mathematics, Neoplatonic philosophy, and Aristotelian metaphysics. This dissertation includes the first English translation of the Discorso, complete with annotations and corrections of the original printed text. viii CONTENTS Introduction 1 Historical Background 2 Galilei’s 1589 Discorso 5 Perspectives on the Debate 7 Chapter Synopses 13 Chapter 1. A Context for the Dispute 18 Prelude: Theoretical Disputes from Antiquity to 1600 18 Musical Authority in Antiquity 19 Describing Consonant Polyphony 30 Letters in the Spataro Collection 33 The Vicentino-Lusitano Debate 35 Zarlino, Venice, and the Perfect Synthesis 41 Gioseffo Zarlino and Venice 43 Zarlino’s Dimostrationi and the “Myth of Venice” 48 Zarlino’s Approach to Proportions and Tuning 53 Zarlino’s Syntonic Diatonic Tuning 57 Vincenzo Galilei and the Florentine Tradition 64 Galilei and the Florentine Academies 69 Galilei’s “Practical” Demonstration of 4/7 Comma Temperament 78 Galilei and Authority 83 Chapter 2. Heretics and Music Theory in the Sopplimenti musicali 90 Purpose and Design 90 The Dedication 93 An Ancient Model for the Sopplimenti 95 Book I: First Principles 98 Book IV: On the Genera 118 Presentation of the Genera 122 Zarlino’s Syntonic Tuning and the Tripartite Scale 129 Zarlino’s Disputatio against Galilei 132 Conclusion 149 ix Chapter 3. Modality in Sixteenth-Century Music Theory 151 Introduction 151 Constructing the Renaissance Octave in Glarean’s Dodecachordon 154 The Nexus of Theory and Practice: Gioseffo Zarlino’s Le istitutioni harmoniche 167 Interlude: Nicola Vicentino’s L’antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica 171 Expanding the Middle Ages: Mode in Galilei’s Dialogo 173 Ptolemy Reclaimed in the Sopplimenti 198 The “Natural” Modal System 209 Conclusion 216 Chapter 4: Introduction to Galilei’s Discorso intorno all’opere di messer Gioseffo Zarlino 218 Sixteenth-Century Culture Wars 218 “Late” Galilei 220 The Search for a New Patron 222 Theoretical Goals 223 Galilei and the Medicinal Arts 232 Music, Art, and Theater 238 The Discorso as Object 241 The Structure of the Discorso 243 Chapter 5: The Final Word on Tuning 247 Conclusion 251 Chapter 5: Annotated Translation of Vincenzo Galilei, Discorso intorno all’opere di messer Gioseffo Zarlino 257 Notes on the Translation 257 Discorso intorno all’opere di messer Gioseffo Zarlino 260 Chapter 6: Conclusion 392 Bibliography 397 x Introduction Music theory purports to define and explain the principles of its subject, but this activity is not hermetically sealed from the cultural context of the writers who produced treatises, discourses, and dialogues on music in the cinquecento. On the contrary, late Renaissance writers were influenced by a number of oppositions—ancient authority versus contemporary experimentation, sacred versus secular, theory versus practice—and these tensions are reflected in the musical polemics of the era.

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