![Gioseffo Zarlino](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Gioseffo_Zarlino.jpg)
Gioseffo Zarlino (31 January or 22 March 1517 – 4 February 1590) was an Italian
music theorist
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the " rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (k ...
and
composer of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
. He made a large contribution to the theory of
counterpoint as well as to
musical tuning.
Life and career
Zarlino was born in
Chioggia
Chioggia (; vec, Cióxa , locally ; la, Clodia) is a coastal town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Venice in the Veneto region of northern Italy.
Geography
The town is situated on a small island at the southern entrance to the L ...
, near
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
. His early education was with the
Franciscan
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
s, and he later joined the order himself. In 1536 he was a singer at
Chioggia Cathedral, and by 1539 he not only became a deacon, but also principal organist. In 1540 he was ordained, and in 1541 went to Venice to study with the famous contrapuntist and ''maestro di cappella'' of
Saint Mark's,
Adrian Willaert
Adrian Willaert ( – 7 December 1562) was a Flemish composer of High Renaissance music. Mainly active in Italy, he was the founder of the Venetian School. He was one of the most representative members of the generation of northern composers ...
.
In 1565, on the resignation of
Cipriano de Rore
Cipriano de Rore (occasionally Cypriano) (1515 or 1516 – between 11 and 20 September 1565) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in Italy. Not only was he a central representative of the generation of Franco-Flemish compose ...
, Zarlino took over the post of ''maestro di cappella'' of St. Mark's, one of the most prestigious musical positions in Italy, and held it until his death. While ''maestro di cappella'' he taught some of the principal figures of the
Venetian school of composers, including
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 wa ...
,
Girolamo Diruta
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, and for his part in t ...
, and
Giovanni Croce
Giovanni Croce (; also Ioanne a Cruce Clodiensis, Zuanne Chiozotto; 1557 – 15 May 1609) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance, of the Venetian School. He was particularly prominent as a madrigalist, one of the few among the Venetian ...
, as well as
Vincenzo Galilei
Vincenzo Galilei (born 3 April 1520, Santa Maria a Monte, Italy died 2 July 1591, Florence, Italy) was an Italian lutenist, composer, and music theorist. His children included the astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei and the lute virtuoso and ...
, the father of the astronomer, and the famous reactionary polemicist
Giovanni Artusi
Giovanni Maria Artusi (c. 154018 August 1613) was an Italian theorist, composer, and writer.
Artusi fiercely condemned the new musical innovations that defined the early Baroque style developing around 1600 in his treatise ''L'Artusi, overo Dell ...
.
Works and influence
![Zarlinocembalo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Zarlinocembalo.png)
While he was a moderately prolific composer, and his
motets are polished and display a mastery of canonic
counterpoint, his principal claim to fame was his work as a theorist. While
Pietro Aaron
Pietro Aron, also known as Pietro (or Piero) Aaron (c. 1480 – after 1545), was an Italian music theorist and composer. He was born in Florence and probably died in Bergamo (other sources state Florence or Venice).
Biography
Very little is know ...
may have been the first theorist to describe a version of
meantone
Meantone temperament is a musical temperament, that is a tuning system, obtained by narrowing the fifths so that their ratio is slightly less than 3:2 (making them ''narrower'' than a perfect fifth), in order to push the thirds closer to pure. Me ...
, Zarlino seems to have been the first to do so with exactitude, describing 2/7-comma meantone in his ''Le istitutioni harmoniche'' in 1558. Zarlino also described the 1/4-comma meantone and 1/3-comma meantone, considering all three temperaments to be usable. These are the precursors to the 50- 31- and 19-tone
equal temperaments, respectively. In his ''Dimostrationi harmoniche'' of 1571, he revised the numbering of modes to make the finales of the mode conform to the notes of the natural hexachord.
[Atcherson, Walter. “Key and Mode in Seventeenth- Century Music Theory Books.” Journal of Music Theory 17, no. 2 (1973): 210.]
Zarlino was the first to theorize the primacy of
triad over
interval as a means of structuring harmony. His exposition of
just intonation based on proportions within the "Senario" (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and 8 is a departure from the previously established
Pythagorean
Pythagorean, meaning of or pertaining to the ancient Ionian mathematician, philosopher, and music theorist Pythagoras, may refer to:
Philosophy
* Pythagoreanism, the esoteric and metaphysical beliefs purported to have been held by Pythagoras
* Ne ...
diatonic system as passed on by
Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, ''magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the tr ...
. See:
Ptolemy's intense diatonic scale
Ptolemy's intense diatonic scale, also known as the Ptolemaic sequence,
justly tuned major scale,
Ptolemy's tense diatonic scale, or the syntonous (or syntonic) diatonic scale, is a tuning for the diatonic scale proposed by Ptolemy, and corresp ...
. He was also one of the first theorists to offer an explanation for the prohibition of parallel fifths and octaves in counterpoint, and to study the effect and harmonic implications of the false relation.
Zarlino's writings, primarily published by
Francesco Franceschi
Francesco Franceschi (died c. 1599) was a printer in the Italian Renaissance. His roots were in Siena, though the bulk of his work was done in Venice.
Franceschi was known for the high quality of his engravings, which were done using metal plat ...
, spread throughout Europe at the end of the 16th century. Translations and annotated versions were common in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, as well as in the
Netherlands
)
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, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
among students of
Sweelinck, thus influencing the next generation of musicians who represented the early
Baroque style.
Zarlino's compositions are more conservative in idiom than those of many of his contemporaries. His madrigals avoid the homophonic textures commonly used by other composers, remaining polyphonic throughout, in the manner of his motets. His works were published between 1549 and 1567, and include 41 motets, mostly for five and six voices, and 13 secular works, mostly madrigals, for four and five voices. His 10 motets on the
Song of Songs used the text of
Isidoro Chiari
Isidoro Chiari, or Isidoro Clario or Isidoro da Chiari, perhaps better known by his Latin name Isidorus Clarius and sometimes called Brixianus after the land of his birth, was a founding father of the Council of Trent and an editor of an edition ...
's translation of the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...
.
Recordings
* Gioseffo Zarlino, ''Canticum Canticorum Salomonis''. Michael Noone, Ensemble Plus Ultra. GCD921406
* "Zarlino: Modulationes sex vocum", Singer Pur, OEHMS CLASSICS 873 (2013)
References
Sources
* Article "Gioseffo Zarlino", in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980.
*
* Gioseffo Zarlino, ''Istituzioni armoniche'', tr. Oliver Strunk, in Source Readings in Music History. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1950.
External links
Le istituzioni armoniche(IMSLP)
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zarlino, Gioseffo
1517 births
1590 deaths
16th-century Italian composers
Italian male classical composers
16th-century classical composers
16th-century Venetian people
Italian classical composers
Italian music theorists
Italian Franciscans
Renaissance composers
Venetian School (music) composers
People from Chioggia
Pupils of Adrian Willaert
Josquin scholars