L'ombra lunga di Zarlino

"The long shadow of Zarlino" · The first part is devoted to high¬lighting the special relevance modes have in Zarlino’s writings, where they are considered as “the forms of the compositions”. Zarlino reconsid¬ers, revises, and reorganizes modes from book to book. A crucial point is in the Dimostrationi Harmoniche (1571), with the proposal of a new modal order that no longer begins with D but rather with C. Zarlino wants to convince his readers that this new order is more rational and coherent than the previous one, since all the species of the perfect intervals (diapa¬son, diapente, diatessaron) now start from the same note, C. Moreover, the sequence of the finales finally coincides with the exhacord. To support the new modal order Zarlino places Willaert among the interlocutors of the Dimostrationi and makes him say that the new order is useful and necessary. The second part outlines how Zarlino relates to his fellow disciples Vi¬centino and Cipriano (they had all been pupils of Willaert) and Glarean. Vicentino is addressed very polemically in the Institutioni Harmoniche, where he is mentioned not by his own name but as “Chromatist”. His attitude towards Cipriano is a little ambiguous : Zarlino quotes him just twice in the Institutioni and once in the Dimostrationi, that is not much for such an important master. As far as Glarean is concerned, Zarlino was indebted to his Dodekachordon for the twelve-mode system, but he avoids mentioning him until he feels compelled by Galilei’s writings to recall his name in the Sopplimenti. The last part contains short discussions of each of the contributions collected in this volume.