Theories of Chromatic and Enharmonic Music in Italy in The
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THEORIES OF CHROMATIC AND ENHARMONIC MUSIC IN ITALY IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School o f Yale University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Karol Berger December 1975 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT THEORIES OF CHROMATIC AND ENHARMONIC MUSIC IN ITALY IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY Karol Berger Yale U n iv ersity , 1975 This dissertation aims to discover the technical and aesthetic principles governing Italian chromatic music of the second half of the sixteenth century through examination and interpretation of theoretical treatises contemporary with the repertory in question. The works or th e following theorists are examined: Nicola Vicentino, Vicente Lasitano, Ghiselin Danckerts, Gioseffo Zarlino, Francisco Salinas, Girolamo Mel, Giovanni de' Bardi, Vicenzo G alilei, Ercole Bottrf'.%iri, Gandclfo Sigonio, Giovanni Maria Artusi, Claudio Monteverdi, and Giulio Cesare Monteverdi. Concerning each of these theorists the same three questions are posed: 1) What is the nature of chromatic musical structures, and how does what is chromatic differ from what is not chromatic? This question demands an examination of the tonal system and the methods cf its reali zation by means of notation, tuning system, and special instruments pro posed by each theorist. 2) How may chromatic music be applied in practice? 3) Why so? I have endeavored not only to reconstruct the conscious thought about chromatic music and the beliefs which motivated sixteenth-century musicians to cultivate chromaticism, but also to uncover their unconscious modes of hearing and experiencing this music, for they did not always manage fully to conceptualize them. Finally, I have set the motivating beliefs in the context of aesthetic, cultural, and philosophical trends with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 1 s i I V ? ; of the era. $ \ Late Renaissance theorists discuss chromatic techniques primarily in the context of the tonal systems which they describe. These systems Involve the sets of all steps and intervals available to a musician and \ the way these sets are organized in generic and modal series. Such organi- | zation subordinates certain intervals (dissonances) to others (consonances); | and similarly; it subordinates diatonic steps to the final of a mode and the fifth step above it, and subordinates chromatic steps to diatonic ones. t The coherence of any particular composition is grounded in such differen t i a t i o n among in te rv a ls and among s te p s . W ithin a s e c tio n governed by a single mode certain steps function as tonal centers to which other steps are subordinated. Sections based on different modes and transpositions are organized in such a way that one mode is most important; others are subordinated to it; still others to these, etc. A limited use of chromatic steps was allowed by all theorists of the era, since it was recognized that chromatic steps enriched tonal re sources and made smooth contrapuntal writing easier. Conservative theorists, however, banned the use of chromatic steps when this usage introduced a modulation or transposition. Some theorists justified such innovative usage by the example of antiquity. The revival of the non-diatonic genera was part of the humanistically inspired aspiration to restore the arts to their ancient excellence. Particularly significant was the association of non-diatonic genera with the miraculous ethical and emotional power of ancient music. As a result of humanistic influence and also of the gradual weakening of the prestige of the concept of universal harmony brought about by the emerging modern science, the ideal of music as an art able to imitate Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and transmit emotions was gradually gaining ascendancy over the older ideal of music as sensuous embodiment of universal intelligible harmony. Musicians sought to realize the new ideal by reviving what they thought were the technical and stylistic features of Greek practice, such as the non-diatorfic genera and monody. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I should like to express my deep gratitude to Professor Claude V. Palisca, the adviser for this dissertation, who In addition to his sober and informed guidance generously put at my disposal many of his microfilms and transcriptions of documents. I received helpful suggestions from Professor Allen Forte and a transcription of Ghiselin Danckert's treatise from Miss Heather G. Anderson; their help is gratefully acknowledged. My appreciation for technical assistance goes to the staffs of the John Herrick Jackson Music Library, Sterling Memorial Library, and Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, and for financial assistance to Yale University. i l l v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I TABLE OF CONTENTS r i f p a g e INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................... 1 I CHAFFER I : NICOLA VICENTINO AND GHISELIN DANCKERTS............................... 8 CHAPTER I I : GIOSEFFO ZARLINO AND VINCENZO GALILEI.................................. 83 { CHAPTER I I I : ERCOLE BOTTRIGARI AND GIOVANNI MARIA ARTUSI.........................168 I CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION.............................................................................................. 197 r : BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................................231 Iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Italian chromaticism of the second half of the sixteenth century continues to be an object of vital interest for modern musicologists at least since the publication of Theodor Kroyer's pioneering study, Die AnfSnge der Chromatik im italienischen Madrigal des XVI. Jahrhunderts The great expansion of musicological research since Kroyer's time has considerably increased our fam iliarity with the chromatic repertory and with the late sixteenth-century Italian music in general, as well as our insight into the technical and aesthetic principles governing this music. Yet, in spite of these great advances, or perhaps because of them, musico logists have not been dble to create a commonly acceptable theory explain ing the late Renaissance chromaticism and even a cursory glance at recent literature dealing with the problem reveals that the repertory in question is at least as controversial and baffling today as it was at the time 2 of its creation. ^Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hgrtel, 1902. 2 Cf. especially Edward E. Lowinsky, Tonality and Atonality in Sixteenth- Century Music (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1961); the review of the above by Claude V. Palisca, Journal of the Amer ican Musicological Society. XVI (1963), 82-86; Carl Dahlhaus, "Zur chromatischen Technik Carlo Gesualdos," Analecta Mu3icologica, IV (1967), 77-96; Lowinsky, "The Musical Avant-Garde of the Renaissance or: The. Peril and Profit of Foresight," in Charles S. Singleton, ed., Art. Science, and History in the Renaissance (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1967), IL Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 Let it be said at once that the present study does not undertake to resolve these controversies. Its much more modest aim is to gain an insight into the nature of late Renaissance Italian chromaticism through careful reading and interpretation of theoretical treatises written at approximately the same time and at the same places where the repertory which interests us was created. Each theorist will be asked the same | basic questions: a) what is the nature of chromatic musical structures, | how does what is chromatic differ from what is not chromatic; b) in what | ways chromatic music is, should be, or should not be practiced; and af | c) why it is, should, or should not be practiced in these ways. Thus I I we shall learn the opinions of some sixteenth-century theorists on what L l is chromatic music, how is it made, and why. I i I It can be reasonably expected that knowledge of such opinions will I | help us to understand the artistic and intellectual climate in which I chromatic pieces were written, to reconstruct the aesthetic and possibly t \ even philosophical beliefs which motivated their creation. It is not i at all clear, however, in what sense sixteenth-century theorists may help t ; us to understand the music itself, to grasp its technical principles, I i especially if what we are aiming at is more than just a reconstruction ► \ of the m-jnner in which musicians themselves consciously thought about i | their music. It is not necessary, after all, that they understood music i | written at their time any better than tventieth-century musicologists | might. It is possible that the theorists shared the unconscious ways \ of experiencing this music with other musicians and cultivated listeners pp. 111-162; William J. M itchell, "The Prologue to Orlando di Lasso's Prophetiae Sibyllarum," The Music ^orum. II (1970), 264-273; Ludwig Finscher, "Gesualdos