Recercare 2007 - Patrizio Barbieri

74 PATRIZIO BARBIERI
Greek tonoi, albeit a failure, provided a positive stimulus to the ‘modulatory style’
already set going by Carlo Gesualdo and others at the end of the Cinquecento,
concerning which, in 1650, Athanasius Kircher actually coined the term “stylus
metabolicus”. This style was then improperly known as “enharmonic” owing to
the fact that the said ‘metabolic’ notes were located on the superior rows of harpsichords
provided with split enharmonic keys, which were capable of intervals such
as G8-A7, E8-F, G-A77, &c. As late as 1768, the same “enharmonique” is mentioned
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau as the style of which “les Italiens” made “un usage
admirable” (§ 6.1-2). Also in this connexion, § 6.3 presents historical testimony
on the much-debated problem concerning terminology relating to so-called
“chromatic” and “enharmonic” harpsichords.
Abbreviations used:
ADV = Città del Vaticano, Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Archivio Della Valle-Del Bufalo, vol.
ASR = Rome, Archivio di Stato
Doc. = Document cited in the Appendix (§ 7)
S = ANGELO SOLERTI, “Lettere inedite sulla musica di Pietro Della Valle a G.B. Doni”, Rivista
Musicale Italiana, XII, 1905, pp. 271-338.
1. The compositions (1629-1649)
1.1. “La valle rinverdita” and “Esthèr”. Having had the misfortune of killing a servant
of the powerful Barberini family, Della Valle had to leave Rome and — from
April 1636 to March 1638 — took refuge at Paliano, Naples and Gaeta. During
this period, he kept in contact by letter with Doni, then living in Rome; in the
absence of any earlier documentation in this connexion, their acquaintance was
deemed to date to around 1635, i.e. immediately after Della Valle’s departure for
exile. In actual fact, it goes back to 1627, since in March of that year — for the ceremony
of transferring to the church of Aracoeli the remains of his first wife, who
had died during their travels in the East (1621) — Della Valle received from Doni a
long composition of Latin verses, by way of sharing in his mourning. 1
In December 1629 — to celebrate the birth of Romibera, his first daughter —
Della Valle staged a ‘veglia drammatica’ in three acts, the verses of which he com-
1. ADV 86 (Carte varie), fasc. 23, p. 294. This composition bears the title “Ad C.V. Petrum de
Valle in obitum uxoris” and is signed “Io. Bapt. Donius observantiae et amoris ergo D.”. Doni had
moved to Rome in 1624, while Della Valle had left the city on 12 April 1614, returning on 28
March 1626 (ADV 92, fasc. 1). The latter must have been greatly esteemed by the erudite Florentine,
who submitted almost all his writings to him prior to publication, starting from the Compendio del
trattato de’ generi e de’ modi della musica, published in Rome in 1635 (Doc. III.2).