Author: Doni, Giovanni Battista - manuscripts of italian music theory ...

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diaireseon to idion ekphainein ei me tis eis ton touton syntonoteron spondeisomn; blepon auto touto diatonon einai apeikase; delon d'hoti kai pseudos kai ekmeles thesei ho toiouto ditheis; pseudos men hoti diesei elatton esti tonou tou peri ton egemona keimenou; ekmeles de hoti kai eitis en te tou toniaou dynamei tithesi to tou syntonoterou spondeiasmou idion sumbanoi anduo exes tithesthai diatona to men asyntheon to de syntheton; to gar en tais mesais enarmonion pyknon ho nyn khrontai ou dokei tou poietou einai. rhadion d'esti synidein ean tis archaikos tinos aulountos akouse; asyntheton gar bouletai einai to en tais mesais hemitonion; ta men oun prota [--] ton enarmonion toiauta; hysteron de to hemitonion dierethe en te tois Lydiois kai en tois Phrygiois; phainetai d'olympos auxesas mousiken to agenneton ti kai agnoumenon hypo ton emprosthen eisagogein kai archegos genesthai tes Ellenikes kai kales mousikes]. This is the translation: “In fact he did not practice what is specific of the Diatonic or what is specific of the Enharmonic, since these are the foundations o the Enharmonic. Firstly, they place the Spondaeus among these intervals, in which none of the Divisions demonstrates its own being. If then someone looked at higher Spondiasmus and did not judge that that is Diatonic, it is clear, however, that whoever will harbour this opinion, will judge it as the false and unsingable one. I say the false one, because said interval will be found to be smaller than a Diesis than the tone placed in the first and main place, and unsingable, because, albeit someone will place the highest Spondiasmus in the interval and proportion of the Tone, what will happen is that two diatonic intervals, one uncompounded and one compounded, will happen to be placed one next to the other. Therefore, it does not seem to me that the Enharmonic Thick practised today can be attributed to said Inventor, and it will be easy to understand this if one listens someone who plays the flute in the antique style, because that semitone of the Mese wants to be uncompounded. Therefore, these were the beginnings and the foundations of the Enharmonic. It appears, therefore, that Olympus enlarged music and introduced elements which were not known and did not exist earlier, was the first author of the Greek and beautiful music.” Since all these facts are very notable and interesting, as all of those that Plutarch teaches us, it is right that we should explain them as well as it shall be possible, [--] because they provide us with much information about ancient music in a few words. Firstly, one has to know that Spondaeus and Spondiasmus in this passage do not mean the foot or the Rhythm of the Spondaeus, which contains two long ones, but an harmonic interval of three dieses, or three quarters of a Tone. Aristides is the only one who teaches us this, to my knowledge, as, without him, we would be unaware of something very essential in ancient Music. However, since Zarlino did not observe this, he was convinced with great probability that Rhythm was part of the essence of the ancient Tones or Modes, but we shall show elsewhere that this is false. Therefore, one must know that said term has various interpretations and meanings related to each other, since, not only it means the metric commonly called Spondaeus by the Grammarians, but also the Rhythm which uses that foot and also the song or the air which was used in the sacrifices. In that case, it is accompanied, as an adjective, to the word [melos]. This was not only slow and solemnly measured as to its Rhythm, but it adopted also slow intervals and difficult to pitch, such as those of three dieses. Therefore, that interval as well was called Spondaeus and its use was called Spondaismus. So, Aristoxenus says that Olympus did not have any knowledge of the proper and well ordered disposition of the genera which artists established later on, which have their tetrachords ordered and laid out as we have seen above, but that the foundations of his Enharmonic [--] appeared to be as we shall endeavour to show with this illustration, since they can be deduced
either from the tablatures of those airs which were used in the sacrifices or from the practice of the performers which had been handed down to that age. [Doni, de' generi e de' Modi, 111; text: a, G, F, E, D, C, [sqb] Tetracordo della Mese, Hypate, settima minore, Disdiatessaron,Tuono, Semiuono, 3 Diesi, Diesis, Mese, Lichanos, Meson, Parhypate Meson, [[Mesé]], Lichanos, Hypaton, Parhypate, Hypate] Firstly, he says that they place the Sponadeus (between [sqb] and c) from which one cannot deduce the division of any genus, because this interval is not expressly Diatonic, Chromatic or Enharmonic, although one can see that then it was accepted within that species of the Diatonic which was called soft according to Aristoxenus and forms its fourth with two dieses, or semitone, three dieses and five dieses. In fact, if anyone ascribes the proportion of the tone to the highest Spondaeus, namely, the second one between C and D, one can see that this is false and that it destroys this Harmony or modulation. It is called false, because one will realise in the end that said interval is a diesis smaller than a tone placed near the principal note (this is what this word [hegemon] means) which has to be understood as the middle one, namely, Hypate meson, which is the Toe between D and E. However, it will destroy [--] this harmony and throw it into disarray, because, if the second and highest spodaeus will be made into a Tone, it will place two Diatonic intervals one next to the other, one uncompounded which is the upper tone between D and E, and the other compounded between C and D. One might say: “What inconvenience shall be born of these?” Such drawback will be that the interval between C and D shall have a Tone divided into three dieses and one (this is what it means to be compounded) and shall measure three dieses from C to D, as musicians will pitch it, and four dieses, as these maintain. This could not be, not so much because an extra hole was needed in the flute, as one could do without this with the appropriate fingering, but rather because an extra note was needed and such interval compounded and uncompounded was in contrast with the melody and the airs of Olympus, since Plutarch says further on that they were built on very few intervals but the beauty of the melody and the artful quality of the Rhythm were so attractive that modern composers who were much more expert than him considered them incomparable. Moreover, he says that the Thick of the middle ones (namely, the semitone between E and F divided into two dieses) could not have been invented by Olympus but by others after him, and that this could be understood easily if one could hear someone playing according to the ancient style and Diatonically, because he would have realised that that Semitone was not divided as it was divided later on [--] [[From this we can also gather that, since the opinions they had about the intervals of the story of Olympus]] in the flutes and in the Phrygian and Lydian Tones. This, in my opinion, is the meaning and the interpretation of this beautiful but obscure passage of Plutarch, although I refer myself to the judgment of those who are more learned and able to understand it. One can also deduce from the various opinion that were held about the intervals of Olympus’ Airs, and from the judgment that later musicians made on them (in contrast to what happens nowadays when what is ancient is despised, and what is new is always sought after, especially in music) and which Plutarch mentions further on, that the Melodies of Olympus, Terpander and other similar composers, which were [trikhorda], which
Page 1 and 2: Author: Doni, Giovanni Battista Tit
Page 3 and 4: the head, or the arm of a man, and,
Page 5 and 6: quarter of a Tone, which the ancien
Page 7 and 8: notes in marg.] he does not deviate
Page 9 and 10: [second part of the Institutioni ch
Page 11 and 12: last ones); the fourth and last of
Page 13 and 14: ather than because the ancients did
Page 15 and 16: of a good mathematician if, in orde
Page 17 and 18: heard as being consonant, but not t
Page 19 and 20: word ourselves as well) that part o
Page 21 and 22: many strange intervals [[like here]
Page 23 and 24: [[But the Enharmonic procedes natur
Page 25 and 26: Enharmonic to black and the sparsen
Page 27 and 28: [-] That the Ditone and the Semidit
Page 29 and 30: which derives from changing the dis
Page 31 and 32: middle notes of the Tetrachords. On
Page 33 and 34: composed of several compounded inte
Page 35 and 36: having contravened his own laws by
Page 37 and 38: for this reason it is suited to exp
Page 39 and 40: Therefore Timotheus is considered c
Page 41: Although it appears, as I said, tha
Page 45 and 46: It seems very clear that there can
Page 47 and 48: palin monen tauten di'hes pasin art
Page 49 and 50: second Solitario, because the tone
Page 51 and 52: which is the most subtle and adorne
Page 53 and 54: The comparison of the three genera
Page 55 and 56: of the soft and delicate. Therefore
Page 57 and 58: [[terza specie Diatonico di Didimo]
Page 59 and 60: d'Aristosseno secondo Tolomeo, 15,
Page 61 and 62: two superparticular intervals in a
Page 63 and 64: As we continue in our explanation,
Page 65 and 66: Sesuidecima quinta Semitono maggior
Page 67 and 68: limma to produce two dieses in the
Page 69 and 70: meets two men engaged in a furious
Page 71 and 72: Syntonic of Aristoxenus was not use
Page 73 and 74: in his work, sometimes they showed
Page 75 and 76: first, now in the second, not in th
Page 77 and 78: same length, thickness, density and
Page 79 and 80: one placed between 3 and 2, namely,
Page 81 and 82: epresents two commas. It can be div
Page 83 and 84: [Doni, On the Genera and the Modes,
Page 85 and 86: part of the number six [--] because
Page 87 and 88: consonant interval, as two diapente

Author: Doni, Giovanni Battista - manuscripts of italian music theory ...

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