Download Zarlino

Name
Dates
Biography:
Personal details including geography and personal connection of importance, a picture is nice.
Education especially as it influences theoretical thought.
Occupation(s) and achievements in other fields, musical and other.
Theory:
The nature of this theorist's contribution to music theory.
Impact of the theorist's work on contemporaries and on the development of theory generally.
Title(s) of important works by, and about, the theorist.
Name Gioseffo Zarlino
Dates (January 31 or March 22, 1517 – February 4, 1590), was an Italian music theorist and
composer of the Renaissance. He was possibly the most famous music theorist between Aristoxenus
and Rameau, and made a large contribution to the theory of counterpoint as well as to musical
tuning.
Biography:
Personal details including geography and personal connection of importance, a picture is nice.
Zarlino was born in Chioggia, near Venice. His early education was with the Franciscans, 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.
Education especially as it influences theoretical thought.
Occupation(s) and achievements in other fields, musical and other.
Zarlino's compositions are more conservative in idiom than those of many of his contemporaries.
His madrigals even avoid the homophonic textures which were commonly used by other composers,
remaining polyphonic throughout, in the manner of his motets. His works published between 1549
and 1567, include 41 motets, mostly for five and six voices, and 13 secular works, mostly madrigals,
for four and five voices.
In 1565, on the resignation of Cipriano de Rore, 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, Girolamo Diruta, and Giovanni Croce, as well as Vincenzo Galilei, the
father of the astronomer, and the famous reactionary polemicist Giovanni Artusi.
The nature of this theorist's contribution to music theory.
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
may have been the first theorist to describe a version of meantone, 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
temperments, 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 over the interval as a means of harmonic
thinking. His development of just intonation came from a realization of the imperfection of the
intervals in the Pythagorean 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.
Impact of the theorist's work on contemporaries and on the development of theory generally.
Zarlino's writings, primarily published by Francesco Franceschi, spread throughout Europe at the
end of the 16th century. Translations and annotated versions were common in France, Germany, as
well as in the Netherlands among the students of Sweelinck, thus influencing the next generation of
musicians who represented the early Baroque style.
Title(s) of important works by, and about, the theorist.
Gioseffe Zarlino

Article "Gioseffo Zarlino", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed.
Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2

Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN
0-393-09530-4

Gioseffo Zarlino, Istituzioni armoniche, tr. Oliver Strunk, in Source Readings in Music
History. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1950.
Gioseffo Zarlino (January 31 or March 22, 1517 – February 4, 1590), was an Italian music theorist
and composer of the Renaissance. He was possibly the most famous music theorist between
Aristoxenus and Rameau, and made a large contribution to the theory of counterpoint as well as to
musical tuning.
Life
Zarlino was born in Chioggia, near Venice. His early education was with the Franciscans, 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.
In 1565, on the resignation of Cipriano de Rore, 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, Girolamo Diruta, and Giovanni Croce, as well as Vincenzo Galilei, the
father of the astronomer, and the famous reactionary polemicist Giovanni Artusi.
Works and influence
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
may have been the first theorist to describe a version of meantone, 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
temperments, 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 over the interval as a means of harmonic
thinking. His development of just intonation came from a realization of the imperfection of the
intervals in the Pythagorean 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, spread throughout Europe at the
end of the 16th century. Translations and annotated versions were common in France, Germany, as
well as in the Netherlands among the 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 even avoid the homophonic textures which were commonly used by other composers,
remaining polyphonic throughout, in the manner of his motets. His works published between 1549
and 1567, include 41 motets, mostly for five and six voices, and 13 secular works, mostly madrigals,
for four and five voices.
References
http://www.answers.com/main/Record2?a=NR&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcommons.wikimedia.org%2Fwiki%2FI
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"
Wikisource has an original article from the 1913
Catholic Encyclopedia about: Gioseffe Zarlino

Article "Gioseffo Zarlino", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed.
Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2

Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN
0-393-09530-4

Gioseffo Zarlino, Istituzioni armoniche, tr. Oliver Strunk, in Source Readings in Music
History. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1950.
External links