Girolamo Diruta (c. 1546 – 1624 or 1625) was an Italian organist, music theorist, and composer. He was famous as a teacher, for his treatise ''Il Transilvano'' (Venice, 1st part 1593; 2nd part 1609-10) on

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

, and for his part in the development of keyboard technique, particularly on the

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

. He was born in

Deruta Deruta is a hill town and ''comune'' in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region of central Italy. Long known as a center of refined maiolica manufacture, Deruta remains known for its ceramics, which are exported worldwide. History Probab ...

, near

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

Biography

Diruta was born in

in 1546 c. He became a friar minor conventual in the convent

in 1566; later, from 1569 to 1574, he was in the convent of

Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...

. Around 1578 he moved to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, where he met

Claudio Merulo Claudio Merulo (; 8 April 1533 – 4 May 1604) was an Italian composer, publisher and organist of the late Renaissance period, most famous for his innovative keyboard music and his ensemble music composed in the Venetian polychoral style. He w ...

Gioseffo Zarlino Gioseffo Zarlino (31 January or 22 March 1517 – 4 February 1590) was an Italian music theorist and composer of the Renaissance. He made a large contribution to the theory of counterpoint as well as to musical tuning. Life and career Zarlino w ...

and

Costanzo Porta Costanzo Porta (1528 or 1529 – 19 May 1601) was an Italian composer of the Renaissance, and a representative of what is known today as the Venetian School. He was highly praised throughout his life both as a composer and a teacher, and had ...

(who was also a friar minor conventual), and he probably studied with each of them. Merulo mentioned Diruta in a prefatory letter to the ''Transilvano'' (1593), as one of his finest students.
From 1580 until 1585 he was organist at the

Gubbio Gubbio () is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the far northeastern part of the Italian province of Perugia (Umbria). It is located on the lowest slope of Mt. Ingino, a small mountain of the Apennines. History The city's origins are very ancient. ...

cathedral. He returned in Venice at the

Frari The Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, usually just called the Frari, is a church located in the Campo dei Frari at the heart of the San Polo district of Venice, Italy. The largest church in the city, it has the status of a minor basil ...

convent, where he was organist from 1586 until 1589. By 1593 he was organist at

Chioggia cathedral Chioggia Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Chioggia, ''Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta'') is the main place of worship in Chioggia, Italy, in the south of the Venetian Lagoon. It dates from 1627. The interior contains many interesting works of art. Hist ...

. In these year he dedicated the first part of his treatise Il Transilvano to Sigismund Bathory, prince of

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

.
Later he returned to live in

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

. He was again organist at the

cathedral from 1604 to 1610.
In 1610 from Gubbio he dedicated the second part of his treatise ''Il Transilvano'' to Leonora Orsini Sforza, niece of Grand Duke

Ferdinand I of Tuscany Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (30 July 1549 – 3 February 1609) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587 to 1609, having succeeded his older brother Francesco I. Early life Ferdinando was the fifth son (the third surviving at t ...

.
He died in Deruta in 1624 or 1625. His nephew Agostino Diruta (c. 1595 – c. 1647) was also a composer, and his pupil.See the German Wikipedia entry on Agostino Diruta; dates from Grove 6 as quoted by

RISM RISM may refer to: * Répertoire International des Sources Musicales * Directive 2008/96/EC on road infrastructure safety management {{disambig ...

online.

Works

Diruta's major work is a treatise in two parts on organ playing, counterpoint, and composition, entitled ''Il Transilvano'' (The Transylvanian) published for the first time in 1593; it is in the form of a dialog with Istvan de Josíka, a diplomat from

whom Diruta met during one of Josíka's missions to Italy. It is one of the first practical discussions of organ technique which differentiates organ technique from keyboard technique on other instruments. His fingerings largely follow the usual ones of his times: for example, his fingering for a C major scale never includes the thumb, and crosses the middle finger over the ring finger: his work is one of the earliest attempts in Italy to establish consistency in keyboard fingering. As a contrapuntist, Diruta anticipates Fux in describing the different "

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

" of counterpoint: note against note, two notes against one,

suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Suspension (topology), in mathematics * Suspension (dynamical systems), in mathematics * Suspension of a ring, in mathematics * Suspension (chemistry), small solid particles suspend ...

s, four notes against one, and so forth. Unlike Fux, he defines a less-rigorous kind of counterpoint that was adequate for improvisation; for example it neither requires contrary motion nor prohibits successive perfect consonances. It describes contemporary keyboard practice well, as can be observed from the contemporary

toccata Toccata (from Italian ''toccare'', literally, "to touch", with "toccata" being the action of touching) is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuo ...

s and

canzona The canzona is an Italian musical form derived from the Franco-Flemish and Parisian chansons, and during Giovanni Gabrieli's lifetime was frequently spelled canzona, though both earlier and later the singular was spelled either canzon or canzone ...

s of composers such as Merulo. Diruta included many of his own compositions in ''Il Transilvano'', and they are mostly didactic in nature, showing different kinds of figuration, and presenting different kinds of performance problems. These four ''toccate'' are among the earliest examples of the etude. The ''Prima parte'' also includes toccatas by other composers of the time, chosen for their musical and didactic value:

Andrea Gabrieli Andrea Gabrieli (1532/1533Bryant, Grove online – August 30, 1585) was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance. The uncle of the somewhat more famous Giovanni Gabrieli, he was the first internationally renowned member of the Ven ...

Giovanni Gabrieli Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557 – 12 August 1612) was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift f ...

Luzzasco Luzzaschi Luzzasco Luzzaschi (c. 1545 – 10 September 1607) was an Italian composer, organist, and teacher of the late Renaissance. He was born and died in Ferrara, and despite evidence of travels to Rome it is assumed that Luzzaschi spent the majority o ...

Antonio Romanini Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

Paolo Quagliati Paolo Quagliati (c. 1555 – 16 November 1628) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque era and a member of the Roman School of composers. He was a transitional figure between the late Renaissance style and the earliest Baroque and was o ...

Vincenzo Bellavere Vincenzo Bellavere (also Bell'haver, Bell'aver, Belaver) (c.1540-1541 – 29 August 1587) was an Italian composer of the Venetian School. While a fairly minor figure in the Venetian School, he was a competent composer of madrigals and wrote a ...

and

Gioseffo Guami Gioseffo Guami (27 January 1542 – 1611) (Gioseffo Giuseppe Guami or Gioseffo da Lucca) was an Italian composer, organist, violinist and singer of the late Renaissance Venetian School. He was a prolific composer of madrigals and instrumental mu ...

. The ''Seconda parte'' includes ricercares by Luzzaschi, Gabriele Fattorini and

Adriano Banchieri Adriano Banchieri (Bologna, 3 September 1568 – Bologna, 1634) was an Italian composer, music theorist, organist and poet of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He founded the Accademia dei Floridi in Bologna. Biography He wa ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Diruta, Girolamo 1550s births 17th-century deaths Cathedral organists Conventual Friars Minor Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Italian classical organists German music theorists Male classical organists People from Deruta Renaissance composers Venetian School (music) composers

Biography

Works

Further reading

References

External links