MUSIC AND SCIENCE FROM LEONARDO TO GALILEO International Conference 13-15 November 2020 Organized by Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini, Lucca Keynote Speakers: VICTOR COELHO (Boston University) RUDOLF RASCH (Utrecht University) The present conference has been made possibile with the friendly support of the CENTRO STUDI OPERA OMNIA LUIGI BOCCHERINI www.luigiboccherini.org INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE MUSIC AND SCIENCE FROM LEONARDO TO GALILEO Organized by Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini, Lucca Virtual conference 13-15 November 2020 Programme Committee: VICTOR COELHO (Boston University) ROBERTO ILLIANO (Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini) FULVIA MORABITO (Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini) RUDOLF RASCH (Utrecht University) MASSIMILIANO SALA (Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini) ef Keynote Speakers: VICTOR COELHO (Boston University) RUDOLF RASCH (Utrecht University) FRIDAY 13 NOVEMBER 14.45-15.00 Opening • FULVIA MORABITO (Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini) 15.00-16.00 Keynote Speaker 1: • VICTOR COELHO (Boston University), In the Name of the Father: Vincenzo Galilei as Historian and Critic ef 16.15-18.15 The Galileo Family (Chair: Victor Coelho, Boston University) • ADAM FIX (University of Minnesota), «Esperienza», Teacher of All Things: Vincenzo Galilei’s Music as Artisanal Epistemology • ROBERTA VIDIC (Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg), Galilei and the ‘Radicalization’ of the Italian and German Music Theory • DANIEL MARTÍN SÁEZ (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), The Galileo Affair through Opera: Ten ‘Galilean Operas’ from 1614 to 1638 • GALLIANO CILIBERTI (Conservatorio ‘Nino Rota’, Monopoli), La «Missa La luna piena» (1657-1658) di Giuseppe Corsi e le teorie galileiane SATURDAY 14 NOVEMBER 10.00-10.30 The Impact of Science on Musical Oeuvre (Chair: Fulvia Morabito, Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini) • JASON STOESSEL (University of New England, Australia) – DENIS COLLINS (The University of Queensland), «Sonorous Number-Objects»: The Relationship between Canonic Techniques, Combinatorics and Early Modern Scientific thought in Rome 10.30-12.00 The Ear, the Instrument and Musical Acoustics • THÉODORA PSYCHOYOU (Sorbonne Université), Musical Acoustics in Early 17th-century France, between Naturalism, Mechanism and the Authorities of the Past • LEENDERT VAN DER MIESEN (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science / Humboldt University), «The Ear Needs Certain Rules»: Marin Mersenne and the Role of Listening in Early Modern Science • JURIJ DOBRAVEC (Društvo Jarina Bohinj), Musically and Geometrically Informed Depiction of Portative Organ from the Late 15th Century ef 15.00-16.00 Keynote Speaker 2: • RUDOLF RASCH (Utrecht University), Descartes and Beeckman on Music: The Philosopher and the Schoolmaster 16.15-18.15 Music, Science and Philosophy (Chair: Rudolf Rasch, Utrecht University) • TIAGO DE LIMA CASTRO (São Paulo State University-Unesp, Institute of Arts), Music as a Problem in Descartes Writings • CARLO BOSI (Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg), «Intra quaternarii limites musicam intelligunt omnem consonantiam»: la musica nel pensiero di Giordano Bruno • ALEXANDER JAKOBIDZE-GITMAN (Universität Witten/Herdecke, Zentrum Studium Fundamentale), «Fato Physico Musicus»: The Opposition Between Natural and Mechanical Motion in Philipp Melanchton’s Reference to Josquin Depréz • GIOIA FILOCAMO (Istituto superiore di Studi musicali ‘G. Briccialdi’ di Terni / Università di Parma), Music for Anatomical Dissections at University SUNDAY 15 NOVEMBER 15.00-16.00 The Impact of Science on Musical Oeuvre (Chair: Rudolf Rasch, Utrecht University) • CARLOS C. IAFELICE (São Paulo State University-Unesp, Institute of Arts) Giovanni Battista Doni and his Speculative Perspectives on Tonal Space Concerning Chromatic Music: The Case of Gesualdo’s «Tu m’uccidi crudele» • NICHOLAS TILL (University of Sussex), «Orpheus, or Philosophy»: Early Opera and Early Modern Science 16.15-17.45 Musical Theory and Science (Chair: Victor Coelho, Boston University) • DAVID E. COHEN (Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main), «…acutum latet propter velocitatem»: Gaffurio’s Acoustical Explanation of Quasi-Consonant Fourths • MICHAEL DODDS (University of North Carolina, School of the Arts), Circular Diagrams in Early Modern Books on Music and Science: Conceptual Parallels & Biographical Intersections • PAOLO ALBERTO RISMONDO (Independent Researcher, Venice), Music Theory, Nobility, and Musical Patronage in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Venice KEYNOTE SPEAKERS • VICTOR COELHO (Boston University), In the Name of the Father: Vincenzo Galilei as Historian and Critic This paper examines Vincenzo Galilei as historian and critic, focusing on the last few chapters in his Dialogo della musica antica, e della moderna of 1581, which contain his theories about the origins of instruments, the scientific and mathematical properties of sound, and his often bitter, candid, and amusing opinions about contemporary musicians and the aesthetics of performance. While most studies of the Dialogo have focused on Vincenzo’s theoretical discussions of ancient music and his confrontation with Zarlino, few have looked closely at the fascinating and often subjective discussions at the conclusion of the treatise., which suggest the modes of discourse later adopted so successfully by Galileo. • RUDOLF RASCH (Utrecht University), Descartes and Beeckman on Music: The Philosopher and the Schoolmaster In 1618, while in Breda, in the Netherlands, Descartes wrote his Compendium musicae for his recent friend Isaac Beeckman (1588-1637), later schoolmaster in Utrecht, Rotterdam and Dordrecht. In doing so Descrates created a bond between them that could never be unbound. Twelve years later Descartes complained in letters to Beeckman and Mersenne that Beeckman was apparently claiming the contents of the Compendium musicae for himself, as if Descartes just had written down Beeckman’s views. Beeckman has left an extensive journal of his observations and ideas about a great many topics, from 1612 to 1634. In it music takes an important place. A comparison of Beeckman’s notes on music from the years 1614-1618 with Descartes’s Compendium musicae indeed reveals Descartes’s tribute to Beeckman regarding certain aspects of the Compendium musicae. It also reveals a fundamentally different approach to music by both men: for Descartes, the philosophical insights gained from studying music were the main focus; for Beeckman, understanding musical phenomena. This shows that the study of music by non-musicians, let us say the scientific study of music, can have many different faces, depending on the goal that the scholar in question is aiming at. Contributors The Galileo Family • ADAM FIX (University of Minnesota), «Esperienza», Teacher of All Things: Vincenzo Galilei’s Music as Artisanal Epistemology Remembered by most as Galileo’s father, Vincenzo is known to scholars as an accomplished lutenist and innovative music theorist. Historians of both science and music, however, have wondered if he also deserves the title of «experimental scientist». In 1589, Vincenzo recounted observations, taken from sonorous objects like lute strings and organ pipes, that seemed to contradict classical laws of consonance. Musical intervals, he claimed, were not fixed by simple number ratios, as Pythagorean dogma dictated, but varied based on the instruments sounding them. More generally, he claimed to have obtained his results from «the teacher of all things»: esperienza, delle cose maestra. Intriguingly, esperienza figured prominently in both Vincenzo’s practical- artistic writings and his theoretical-scientific writings. Where previous scholars have questioned the veracity of Vincenzo’s experiments and debated how indebted he remained to Pythagorean theory, I unpack how Vincenzo himself understood and utilized esperienza. I aim to show how mathematics, natural philosophy, and practice met on the common ground of Vincenzo’s music; clarify the importance of esperienza to his art and science; and situate him within current discussions on early modern artisanal epistemology and experimental sciences. Arguing against Cohen and Prins especially, I assert that Vincenzo’s esperienza functioned as a rational and empirical way of studying music’s nature. I then explore how this term played analogous roles in his science and practice. By treating his music as artisanal epistemology, I portray Vincenzo’s musical composition, like his experimentalism, as a form of natural knowledge-making. This talk explores Renaissance music at the nexus of mathematical theory and empirical and instrumental practice while reinterpreting the early modern concept of esperienza. • ROBERTA VIDIC (Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg), Galilei and the ‘Radicalization’ of the Italian and German Music Theory For centuries, Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics has served as a model for divergent approaches to scientific and musical knowledge. In the history of music theory, they range from rationalism to ‘radical empiricism’. This paper examines the question of how empirical ‘turns’ in music theory can be traced back to the influence of Vincenzo and Galileo Galilei. The two-part talk will evidence that German and Italian discourses are more closely interrelated than generally known. The first part is concerned with Galileo Galilei’s (1564- 1642) development of scientific methodology and musical acoustics. Previous research on Galileo’s ‘coincidence theory’ (Barbieri 2001) and Galileo’s