All Topics  
Gioseffo Zarlino

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Gioseffo Zarlino
 
 
  Topics Gioseffo Zarlino Topic Home

Gioseffo Zarlino (January 31 or March 22, 1517 – February 4, 1590), was an Italian
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 music theorist
Music theory

Music theory is the field of study that deals with how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It identifies patterns that govern composer techniques....
 and composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
 of the Renaissance
Renaissance music

Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600. Dates of classical music eras, given the lack of abrupt shifts in musical thinking during the 15th century....
. He was possibly the most famous music theorist between Aristoxenus
Aristoxenus

Aristoxenus of Taranto was a Greek peripatetic philosopher, and writer on music and rhythm.He was taught first by his father Spintharus , a pupil of Socrates and also a musician, and later by the Pythagoras, Lamprus of Erythrae and Xenophilus, from whom he learned the theory of music....
 and Rameau, and made a large contribution to the theory of counterpoint
Counterpoint

In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more Register that are independent in contour and rhythm, and interdependent in harmony....
 as well as to musical tuning.

ino was born in Chioggia
Chioggia

Chioggia is a coastal town and comune of the province of Venice in the Veneto region of northern Italy, situated on a small island at the southern entrance to the Lagoon of Venice about 25 km south of Venice ; causeways connect it to the mainland and to its frazione of Sottomarina....
, near Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
. His early education was with the Franciscan
Franciscan

The term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St....
s, and he later joined the order himself.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Gioseffo Zarlino'
Start a new discussion about 'Gioseffo Zarlino'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Gioseffo Zarlino (January 31 or March 22, 1517 – February 4, 1590), was an Italian
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 music theorist
Music theory

Music theory is the field of study that deals with how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It identifies patterns that govern composer techniques....
 and composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
 of the Renaissance
Renaissance music

Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600. Dates of classical music eras, given the lack of abrupt shifts in musical thinking during the 15th century....
. He was possibly the most famous music theorist between Aristoxenus
Aristoxenus

Aristoxenus of Taranto was a Greek peripatetic philosopher, and writer on music and rhythm.He was taught first by his father Spintharus , a pupil of Socrates and also a musician, and later by the Pythagoras, Lamprus of Erythrae and Xenophilus, from whom he learned the theory of music....
 and Rameau, and made a large contribution to the theory of counterpoint
Counterpoint

In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more Register that are independent in contour and rhythm, and interdependent in harmony....
 as well as to musical tuning.

Life

Zarlino was born in Chioggia
Chioggia

Chioggia is a coastal town and comune of the province of Venice in the Veneto region of northern Italy, situated on a small island at the southern entrance to the Lagoon of Venice about 25 km south of Venice ; causeways connect it to the mainland and to its frazione of Sottomarina....
, near Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
. His early education was with the Franciscan
Franciscan

The term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St....
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 became 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

Adrian Willaert was a Flanders composer of the Renaissance music and founder of the Venetian School. He was one of the most representative members of the generation of northern composers who moved to Italy and transplanted the polyphonic Franco-Flemish School style there....
.

In 1565, on the resignation of Cipriano de Rore
Cipriano de Rore

Cipriano de Rore was a Franco-Flemish school composer of the Renaissance music, active in Italy. Not only was he central representative of the generation of Franco-Flemish composers after Josquin des Prez who went to live and work in Italy, but he was one of the most prominent composers of madrigals in the middle of the 16th century....
, 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
Venetian School

In music history, the Venetian School is a term used to describe the composers working in Venice from about 1550 to around 1610; it also describes the music they produced....
 of composers, including Claudio Merulo
Claudio Merulo

Claudio Merulo was an Italy composer, publisher and organist of the late Renaissance music period, most famous for his innovative keyboard music and his ensemble music composed in the Venetian polychoral style....
, Girolamo Diruta
Girolamo Diruta

Girolamo Diruta was an Italy organist, music theorist, and composer. He was famous as a teacher, for his treatise on counterpoint, and for his part in the development of keyboard technique, particularly on the organ ....
, and Giovanni Croce
Giovanni Croce

Giovanni Croce was an Italy composer of the late Renaissance music, of the Venetian School. He was particularly prominent as a madrigal , one of the few among the Venetians other than Claudio Monteverdi....
, as well as Vincenzo Galilei
Vincenzo Galilei

Vincenzo Galilei was an Italy lute, composer, and music theory, and the father of the famous astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei. He was a seminal figure in the musical life of the late Renaissance, and contributed significantly to the musical revolution which demarcates the beginning of the Baroque music era....
, the father of the astronomer, and the famous reactionary polemicist Giovanni Artusi
Giovanni Artusi

Giovanni Maria Artusi was an Italy music theory, composer, and writer.Artusi was one of the most famous reactionaries in musical history, fiercely condemning the new style developing around 1600, the innovations of which defined the early Baroque music era....
.

Works and influence

While he was a moderately prolific composer, and his motet
Motet

In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choir musical compositions.The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is "motectum", and the Italian mottetto was also used....
s are polished and display a mastery of canonic counterpoint
Counterpoint

In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more Register that are independent in contour and rhythm, and interdependent in harmony....
, his principal claim to fame was his work as a theorist. While Pietro Aaron
Pietro Aron

Pietro Aron, also known as Pietro Aaron , was an Italy music theorist and composer. He was born in Florence and probably died in Bergamo ....
 may have been the first theorist to describe a version of meantone
Meantone temperament

Meantone temperament is a musical temperament, which is a system of musical tuning. In general, a meantone is constructed the same way as Pythagorean tuning, as a chain of perfect fifths, but in a meantone, each fifth is narrowed by the same amount in order to make the other intervals, like the major third, closer to their ideal just intonat...
, 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
Equal temperament

Equal temperament is a musical temperament, or a system of Musical tuning in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratios....
, respectively. In his Dimonstrationi harmoniche of 1571, he revised the numbering of modes to emphasize C and the Ionian mode, thereby drawing closer to the harmonic and melodic system basing itself on tonality and the major and minor scales.

Zarlino was the first to recognize the primacy of the triad
Triad (music)

In music and music theory, a triad is a three-note chord that can be stacked in thirds. Its members, when actually stacked in thirds, from lowest pitched tone to highest, are called:...
 over the interval
Interval (music)

In music theory, the term interval describes the relationship between the pitch of two notes.Intervals may be described as:*vertical if the two notes sound simultaneously...
 as a means of harmonic thinking. His development of just intonation
Just intonation

In music, just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequency of notes are related by ratios of whole numbers. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval; in other words, the two notes are members of the same harmonic series ....
 came from a realization of the imperfection of the intervals in the Pythagorean
Pythagorean

Pythagorean means of or pertaining to the ancient Ionian mathematician, philosopher, and music theorist Pythagoras. See:...
 system, and a desire to retain as much purity as possible using a limited number of tones. He was also the first to attempt an explanation of the old prohibition of parallel fifths and octaves as a rule of counterpoint, and the first to study the effect and harmonic implications of the false relation.

Zarlino's writings, primarily published by Francesco Franceschi
Francesco Franceschi

Francesco Franceschi 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 plates rather than wooden, a common inexpensive alternative in the period....
, spread throughout Europe at the end of the 16th century. Translations and annotated versions were common in France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, as well as in the Netherlands
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
 among the students of Sweelinck
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was a Netherlands composer, organist, and pedagogue whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance music and beginning of the Baroque music eras....
, thus influencing the next generation of musicians who represented the early Baroque
Baroque music

Baroque music describes a period or style of European classical music approximately extending from Dates of classical music eras. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance music and was followed by the Classical music era....
 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.

Recordings


Gioseffo Zarlino, Canticum Canticorum Salomonis. Michael Noone, Ensemble Plus Ultra. GCD921406

External links