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Vincenzo Galilei ( 1520- 1591) was an Italian lutenist, composer, and music theorist, and the father of the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei. He was born around 1520 in Santa Maria a Monte (near Florence) and died in Florence, July 2, 1591. 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 era.Galilei was a skilled player of the lute, and early in life attracted the attention of powerful, well-connected patrons. He met Gioseffo Zarlino, the most important music theorist of the sixteenth century, in Venice, and began studying with him. Somewhat later he became interested in the attempts to revive ancient Greek music and drama, by way of his association with the Florentine Camerata (a group of poets, musicians and intellectuals led by Count Giovanni de' Bardi) as well as his contacts with Girolamo MeiGirolamo Mei ( May 27, 1519 July, 1594) was an Italian historian and humanist, famous in music history for providing the intellectual impetus to the Florentine Camerata, which attempted to revive ancient Greek music drama. He was born Florence, and died i, the foremost scholar of the time of ancient Greek music . Sometime in the 1570sCenturies: 15th century 16th century 17th century Decades: 1520s 1530s 1540s 1550s 1560s 1570s 1580s 1590s 1600s 1610s 1620s Years: 1570 1571 1572 1573 1574 1575 1576 1577 1578 1579 Significant Events and Trends Transition from the Muromachi to the Azuchi his interests in music theory, as well as his composition, began to move in this direction. Some of Galilei's most important theoretical contributions involve the treatment of dissonanceIn poetry, dissonance is the deliberate avoidance of patterns of repeated vowel sounds (see assonance). In music, dissonance is the quality of sounds which seem "unstable", and have an aural "need" to " resolve" to a "stable" consonance. Both consonance a: he had a largely modern conception, allowing passing dissonance "if the voices flow smoothly" as well as on-the-beat dissonance, such as suspensionsIn music theory, a suspension is a nonchord tone that occurs when the harmony shifts from one chord to another, but one or more notes of the first chord are held over, suspended, into the second but then resolved to a chord tone. See also: suspended chord, which he called "essential dissonance." This describes Baroque practice, especially as he defines rules for resolution of suspensions by a preliminary leap away followed by a return to the expected note of resolution. In addition he made some substantial discoveries in acousticsAcoustics is a branch of physics and is study of sound, mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician . The application of acoustics in technology is called acoustical engineering. There, particularly involving the physics of vibrating strings and columns of air.
Galilei composed two books of madrigalsA madrigal is a setting for 4 6 voices of a secular text, often in Italian. The madrigal has its origins in the frottola, and was also influenced by the motet and the French chanson of the Renaissance. It is related mostly by name alone to the Italian tre, as well as music for lute, and a considerable quantity of music for voice and lute; this latter category is considered to be his most important contribution as it anticipated in many ways the style of the early Baroque. Many scholars credit him with directing the activity of his son away from pure, abstract mathematics and towards experimentation, a direction which was of utmost importance for the history of science.
Sources
- Article Vincenzo Galilei, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. BooksEnthsiast.com
- The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed. Revised by Nicolas Slonimsky. New York, Schirmer Books, 1993. BooksEnthsiast.com
Galilei, Vincenzo
Galilei, Vincenzo
Galilei, Vincenzo
Galilei, Vincenzo
Galilei, Vincenzo
