Le Istitutioni harmonicheÉNelle quali; oltra le materie appartenenti alla musica; si trovano dichiarati molti luoghi di poeti, dÕhistorici, & di filosofi; si come nel leggerle si potrˆ chiaramente vedere

by ZARLINO, Gioseffo

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Book Description

Venice: [Francesco de i Franceschi], 1558. First edition, first issue (reissued in 1562 by Francesco deÕ Francheschi Senese, with a new title-page and preliminaries). Folio (12 1/16 x 8 7/16 inches; 307 x 215 mm.). [12], 347, [1, blank] pp. Numerous woodcut diagrams and typographical musical examples. Historiated woodcut initials. Large woodcut printerÕs device on title (St. PeterÕs cock with motto: Excubo ac viligio).Contemporary vellum over boards (covers later renewed with old vellum). Spine with raised bands and manuscript lettering. Small stain on title from removed stamp and some light marginal soiling. A few worm punctures in blank margin of title and first and last few leaves. Paper flaw to upper blank corner of D2 (pp. 211/212). Otherwise an excellent copy, clean and fresh. From the library of the monastery of Discalced Carmelites in Venice, with their manuscript ex libris and oval stamp on title.ÒZarlino [1517-1590] enjoyed a long and successful career as a composer, becoming in 1565 choirmaster of St MarkÕs at Venice, where he spent all his life. Most of his major musical compositions have disappeared, but his fame rests on his theoretical works, which remain, and of these ÔThe Rules of HarmonyÕ is the chief. The first book, which deals mainly with the arithmetical foundations of musical science, differs little from the traditional view, but in the second Zarlino attacks the false system of tonality to which the exact mathematical proportions of the Pythagorean tetrachord must, if strictly observed, inevitably lead. Ancient and medieval theory had always maintained the validity of mathematical proportion, and despite the fact that practice, at least after the invention of counterpoint, did not strictly follow it, for the simple reason that the ear automatically rebels against the mathematical analogy, it required ZarlinoÕs pioneering work and some consequent controversy to establish it. His contention that the diatonic scale was the only form of progression which could reasonably be sung is now universally accepted, and is termed Ôjust intonationÕ. Keyed and fretted instruments, which are mechanically tuned, cannot follow the free intonation of the voice, but for them Zarlino proposed a compromise by which the octave is divided into twelve equal semitones, and this has been finally adopted for them also. Altogether, ZarlinoÕs treatise had the most far-reaching effects in musical theory, in the practice of composition, and in the construction of musical instruments. ÔThe Rules of HarmonyÕ opened the way for the new tonality which has governed music from the seventeenth century to the present dayÓ (Printing and the Mind of Man).Brunet V, col. 1528. Graesse VII, p. 508. Gregory, p. 296. Printing and the Mind of Man 81. Riccardi I (2), col. 661. STC Italian, p. 742.

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