YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION

66 KATELIJNE SCHILTZ
can be said that some leading music theorists of that time, namely Giovanni Del
Lago, Nicola Vicentino and Gioseffo Zarlino were equally dealing with subjects such
as the pronunciation and the sonic qualities of a text. 10 Their observations thus form
a stable background against which we can situate our analytical research.
Near the end of his letter to Fra Seraphin, Giovanni Del Lago offers a succinct
analysis of the smallest building blocks of language. 11 He not only discusses the letters
of the alphabet according to their traditional classification into vowels and consonants,
but he also elaborates on the pronunciation of syllables. Quoting a passage
from Johannes Sulpicius’ treatise De arte grammatica (Rome, 1490), he states that
each syllable has a certain pitch (regulated by one of the following accents: acuto,
grave or circunflesso), breath (aspero or lene), duration (breve, lungo or comune)
and number of letters (varying from one to six). 12
Finally, in his monumental Le istitutioni harmoniche (Venice, 1558), Gioseffo
Zarlino dedicates several remarks to the sonic characteristics and pronunciation of a
text. In book 1, chapter 2 he praises the way classical authors like Virgil were able
to intensify the content of the words by using the appropriate sounds: 13
[L]i poeti hanno usato grandissima diligenza, & maraviglioso artificio
nell’accomodare ne i versi le parole, & dispor li piedi secondo la convenienza
del parlare; si come per tutto il suo poema hà osservato Virgilio: percioche a
tutti tre le sorti del suo parlare accomoda la propia [sic] sonorità del verso
con tale artificio, che propriamente pare, che col suono delle parole ponga
davanti a gli occhi le cose, delle quali egli viene a trattare; di modo che dove
parla d’amore, si vede artificiosamente haver scielto alcune parole soavi,
dolci, piacevoli & all’udito sommamente grate; & dove gli stato dibisogno
cantare un fatto d’arme, descrivere una pugna navale, una fortuna di mare,
o simil cose, over entrano spargimenti di sangue, ire, sdegni, dispiaceri
d’animo, & ogni cosa odiosa, hà fatto scielta di parole dure, aspre & dispiacevoli:
di modo che nell’udirle & proferirle areccano spavento.
10 A general discussion of these principles is offered in K. SCHILTZ, Adriaan Willaert en de Venetiaanse
motetpraktijk. Een onderzoek naar stijlbepaling, Ph.D. diss., Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 2001,
pp. 100–103. See also K. SCHILTZ, Vulgari orecchie, purgate orecchie: de relatie tussen publiek en
muziek in het Venetiaanse motetoeuvre van Adriaan Willaert, (Symbolae Facultatis litterarum Lovaniensis,
B/31), Leuven, 2003.
11 Published in B.J. BLACKBURN, E.E. LOWINSKY and C.A. MILLER eds., A Correspondence of
Renaissance Musicians, Oxford, 1991, pp. 875–887. See also D. HARRÁN, The Theorist Giovanni
Del Lago: A View of the Man and His Writings, in Musica Disciplina, 27 (1973), pp. 107–151. Although
the letter is dated 26 August 1541, research has pointed out that this date is fictitious. B.J. BLACK-
BURN et al., A Correspondence, pp. 139–142, offers a hypothetical reconstruction of the genesis of
this letter.
12 On Del Lago’s quotation from Sulpicius, see BLACKBURN, A Correspondence, p. 883, n. 25.
13 G. ZARLINO, Le istitutioni harmoniche, (Monuments of Music and Music Literature, 2/1, facsimile
of the 1558 Venice edition), New York, 1965, p. 5 (my translation).