Two-part didactic music in printed Italian collections of the ...

Chapter 1 3
Other evidence about the didactic purpose of Romano’s collection is given in several
manuscript additions that we find in the unicum of this book surviving in the Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. Brown and Lowinsky underline the fact that ‘the copy seems to
have been used in teaching’ because of the manuscript additions that it contains. 6 These
manuscript additions throw light on the general didactic praxis of the Renaissance, though they
imply a German cultural milieu. We find some notes that explain difficult passages of musical
notation and indications of the mode in which the duo was composed:
These indications of mode were supplemented, it would seem, by a pupil, who marked
several compositions with bold numerals running from 1 to 8, in accordance with the
classic theory of eight church modes. 7
The fact that the writer of these indications of mode was a pupil rather than a teacher is
proved by several wrong attributions, subsequently amended.
This particular attention towards the modes – of which we shall talk more extensively in
chapter 4.1, ‘The Musical Fabric’ – links together several of the early duo collections and it is
one of the clues which allow us to include the madrigalian collections by the publisher and
composer Girolamo Scotto in the didactic tradition. According to Jane Bernstein, in his Primo
libro dei madrigali a due voci (Venice, 1541) Scotto ‘organized and labelled the pieces
according to genre and mode’ 8 using for this purpose the Latin version of the names (‘Primi
toni’ etc.). In fact, though, Scotto did not organize his madrigals systematically by mode: we do
not find this type of organization until the collection by Agostino Licino, Il primo e il secondo
libro di duo cromatici (Venice: Antonio Gardane, 1545/46). The didactic purpose of this latter
collection is underlined by the modal organization of its 45 canons, from the first to the eighth
mode. Furthermore, the opus is specifically dedicated to young people and the study of both
solmization and instrumental practice, as we read in the dedication:
Potranno M. Lodovico e Leone, figlioli di quella con M. Muzio, figliolo dello strenuo
capitano Andrea e con M. Domizio, figliolo del Magnifico Signor Tommaso di
Vostra Signoria degno fratello, in questi lieti giorni prendere sollazzo e gioco e di
questo usare come di alfabeto di musica, che poi forse gli sarà non poco aiuto ad imparar
a sonare gli strumenti da arco, come sono viole, violoni e altri strumenti simili.
It is no coincidence that this opus caught Einstein’s attention:
The sub-heading ‘da cantare e sonare’ is not as in the case of many other works of
the time, a mere convention here, but an essential indication, for these duos were
intended to serve beginners as material for the purpose of solfeggio as well as that of
learning an instrument. 9
6 Brown & Lowinsky, Romano, p. 139.
7 Idem, p. 141.
8 Cf. Jane A. Bernstein, ‘Scotto: (3) Girolamo’ in The New Grove II, XXIII, pp. 8-9 (p. 9).
9 ‘Galilei’, p. 363.