Giovanni de' Bardi (5 February 1534 – September 1612), Count of Vernio, was an Italian literary critic, writer, composer and soldier.

Biography

Giovanni de' Bardi was born in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. While he received a deep classical education, becoming proficient in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

as well as learning the craft of music composition, his early years were largely spent as a soldier. Under Grand Duke Cosimo I of Tuscany he fought against

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

, and later he fought at the Siege of

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

(1565) against the Turks. After Malta, and now a captain, he assisted Maximilian II in defeating the Turks in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. But when he was not away on military campaigns, he was busy in Florence and elsewhere as a patron of music and the arts. Bardi is mainly famous for being host, patron, and inspiration to the group of composers, music theorists and scholars who made up the Florentine Camerata, the group which attempted to restore the aesthetic effect of

ancient Greek music Music was almost universally present in ancient Greek society, from marriages, funerals, and religious ceremonies to theatre, folk music, and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry. This played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greeks. ...

to contemporary practice. The group included

Vincenzo Galilei Vincenzo Galilei (3 April 1520 – 2 July 1591) was an Italian lutenist, composer, and music theory, music theorist. His children included the astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei and the lute virtuoso and composer Michelagnolo Galilei. Vinc ...

(father of the astronomer

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

), Giulio Caccini, and Pietro Strozzi (composer), and derived its inspiration from a correspondence with Girolamo Mei, the foremost scholar of ancient Greek drama and music at the time. The result of the association was the invention of

monody In music, monody refers to a solo vocal style distinguished by having a single melody, melodic line and instrumental accompaniment. Although such music is found in various cultures throughout history, the term is specifically applied to Italy, ...

, and shortly thereafter,

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

; in addition, the innovations brought to music by the Camerata under the guidance of Bardi were one of the defining characteristics of what we now know as

Baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Classical music, Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance music, Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Class ...

. Although he was also a composer, relatively few of his works survive: only a handful of madrigals. Curiously, he seems not to have tried his hand at the new monody himself. He also either organized or wrote parts for various '' intermedi'' in Florence, the popular court entertainments which took place between the acts of spoken dramas (and which included acting, singing, dancing, and mime — thus being another important precursor to opera). He also wrote plays, including some of the plays for which he also provided the ''intermedi''.

thought highly of Bardi, and dedicated his famous ''Dialogo della musica antica et della moderna'' to him. In the ''Dialogo'', Galilei condemns

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...

, praises

, and expresses the wish that the musical practice of the ancient Greeks would be restored; corrupt and incomprehensible contemporary music would be replaced with an idealized version of the supposed music of the ancient time. The

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...

Council of Trent The Council of Trent (), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the "most ...

had just finished condemning polyphonic practice, for the same supposed fault (it was too hard to understand the sung text), but for spiritual rather than secular reasons.

Works

''Discorso sopra 'l giuoco del calcio Fiorentino'' (1580)

References and further reading

* "Camerata", "Giovanni de Bardi" in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. *

Gustave Reese Gustave Reese ( ; November 29, 1899 – September 7, 1977) was an American musicologist and teacher. Reese is known mainly for his work on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly with his two publications ''Music in the Middle Ages'' (1940 ...

, ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. * Clair, Colin. ''A Chronology of Printing''. Great Britain: Frederick A. Praeger., 1969., p. 64

External links

* * Francesca Chiarelli a
goldsmiths.ac.uk
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