1 The 1606 Venetian reprint of Agazzari's Sacrae cantiones… liber quartus and subsequent title-pages of works give him as ‘Armonico Intronato'. He is included under this name in an index entitled ‘I sopranomi, co'nomi propri, e cognomi degl'Accademici Intronati, menzionati nelle presente carte’ in La Descrittione del nuovo riprimento dell'Accademia Intronata: L'Oratione in lode di quella: e l'imprese di suoi Accademici nuovamente stampate (Siena, 1611), 611. We learn from the entry relating to Agazzari that his insignia as a member of the Accademia bore a small organ and the motto ‘Multisonum melos'. He was also skilled in writing Latin heroic verse (pp.578–79).Google Scholar

2 The Emperor Matthias was not crowned until 1612; Agazzari must have served at his court before this since he was back in Italy by 1602, taking up appointment at the German College in Rome by March 25 of that year. See Culley, T.D., A Study of the Musicians connected with the German College in Rome during the 17th Century and of their Activities in Northern Europe, Jesuits and Music, i (Rome, 1970), 113–16.Google Scholar

3 Agazzari mentioned this instrument in his Del sonare sopra ‘l basso… (Siena, 1607), 4.Google Scholar

4 His extant works are listed in RISM A/I: Einzeldrucke vor 1800 (Kassel, 1971), A 330–91.Google Scholar

5 His last publication dates from 1640. Fétis gives this as the year of his death but provides no documentary evidence for this. G. Barblan, ‘Contributo a una biografia critica di Agostino Agazzari', Collectanae historiae musicae, 2 (1957), 37–38 makes mention of his time in Siena.Google Scholar

6 I. Ugurgieri Azzolini, Le Pompe Sanesi o'vero relazione delli huomini, e donne illustri di Siena, 2 vols (Pistoia, 1649), ii, 10. Quoted in R. Morrocchi, La Musica in Siena (Siena, 1886), 94–6.Google Scholar

7 Epitome della musica raccolta da Antimo Liberati da Foligno musico delta Cappella Pontificia alla Santità di NS Alessandro VII, I-Rvat, MS Chigi F.IV.72, f.68.Google Scholar

8 Del sonare sopra ‘l basso con tutti li stromenti e dell'uso loro nel conserto (Siena, 1607) was reprinted in Sacrarum cantionum … liber II, opus V. motectorum, cum basso ad organum (Venice, 1608). Facsimile editions have been issued (Milan, 1933 and Bologna, 1969), and an English translation is given in O. Strunk, Source Readings in Music History (New York, 1950), 424–31.Google Scholar

9 La musica ecclesiastica, dove il contiene la vera diffinitione della musica come scienza, non piu veduta, e sua nobiltà, di Agostino Agazzari (Siena, 1638).Google Scholar

10 It is mentioned in RISM, B/VI/1: F. Lesure, Ecrits imprimés concernant la musique (Munich, Duisburg, 1971), 69, and by G. Barblan, op.cit., 58. J.N. Forkel includes it in Allgemeine Litteratur der Musik (Leipzig, 1792), 350.Google Scholar

11 None of the group of theorists associated with Florence is mentioned, but the sample of their writings printed in Strunk, op. cit., 290–322 provides an interesting comparison with the approach adopted by Agazzari.Google Scholar

12 Many other distinguished persons of that surname are included in Ugurgieri Azzolini, op. cit.Google Scholar

13 On this period of his career See Culley, T.D., op. cit., 113–18 and 161–5. His appointment to the Jesuit German College could well have been due to the influence of Alfonso Agazzari, who enjoyed an important position in the Jesuit order. This was very probably a relation of Agostino, who greets one Alfonso in a letter to Rome dated March 11 1602. Alfonso Agazzari was well connected with the College since he had been Rector there from 1591 to 1593 (see Culley, op. cit., 115).Google Scholar

14 Agazzari could have left Rome at this point because his music had been banned by the Cappella Sistina. It was probably his advanced musical style which led to the initial decree against him. In the Libro dei punti of the cappella for May 24 1625 we find that Lorenzo Marubino, a pupil of Agazzari, requested that Agazzari be returned to favour. I am grateful to Jean Lionnet for this information; his article, ‘Una svolta nella storia del Collegio dei Cantanti Pontifici: il decreto del 22 giugno 1665 contro Orazio Benevoli', Nuova rivista musicale italiana, 17 (1983), 72–103 deals with a similar decree.Google Scholar

15 The change in attitude and its effect on music has been discussed in G. Dixon, ‘The Origins of the Roman “Colossal Baroque”’, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 106 (1979–80), 119–20.Google Scholar

16 See below, 41.Google Scholar

17 Reprinted in Strunk, op. cit., 405–12. Monteverdi also cites Plato in Ficino's translation.Google Scholar

18 Republic, 398^c–398^d.Google Scholar

19 In the following year, 1639, the Congregation of the Sacra Visita issued a decree in an attempt to reform church music (see Appendix, document I). This was not Urban VIII's first effort to deal with the problem; in 1628 a decree was issued which contains some of the same directives, but not the severe penalties (document II). The secular parody mass, a genre which had never really died out, was increasingly popular at this time; examples by Antonio Cifra, Marco Scacchi and Gregorio Allegri make little attempt to veil the nature of the model, either musically or by verbal subterfuge on title-pages.Google Scholar

20 This follows the prescriptions of the Council of Trent cited in his 1638 treatise. An English translation of the relevant section of the Trent documents is found in L. Lockwood, G. P. da Palestrina, Pope Marcellus Mass: an authoritative score, backgrounds and sources, history and analysis, views and comments (New York, 1975), 19.Google Scholar

21 The preface of Viadana's Cento concerti ecclesiastici… (Venice, 1602) states that the concerti were performed in Rome five or six years previously. It is reprinted in Strunk, op. cit., 419–23.Google Scholar

22 Liberati, op. cit., f.68.Google Scholar

23 The other two are his Sacrarum cantionum quae quinis, senis, septenis, octonisque vocibus concinuntur, liber primus (Rome, 1602) and Sacrarum cantionum quae quinis, senis, septenis, octonisque vocibus concinuntur, liber tertius (Rome, 1603).Google Scholar

24 Cantiones, motecta vulgo appellatae, quae IV, V, VI, VII, & VIII, vocibus concinuntur, & instrument apprimè adplicantur; nunc primum in Germania excusae & publicatae (Frankfurt, 1607).Google Scholar

25 Agostino Pisa found the subject of ‘battuta’ important enough to devote an entire book to it: Breve dichiarazione della battuta musicale (Rome, 1611).Google Scholar

26 The ‘third volume’ is the 1603 publication, of which details are given in note 23. The concertini are the publication of 1606, Sacrae cantiones, binis, ternisque vocibus concinendae, liber quart us, cum basso ad organum (Rome, 1606). Barblan, op. cit., 45–6 mentions the possible existence of three books of Agazzari's motets for two and three voices dating from 1604 to 1605; only Fétis makes reference to these, and no copies are known.Google Scholar

27 This work is discussed in M.F. Johnson, ‘Agazzari's Eumelio, a “dramma pastorale” ‘. The Musical Quarterly, 57 (1971), 491.Google Scholar

28 This is an extension of Aristotle's thought in his Rhetorica, 1389^b.Google Scholar

29 His Sacrae cantiones… liber quartus (Rome, 1606) gives his position as maestro at the Seminario Romano; it is dedicated ‘Nobiliss.mis Adolescentibus Seminarii Romani'.Google Scholar

30 For instance, Mercury's part is restricted to five melodies which are repeated with various texts.Google Scholar

31 Agazzari is making the point that the Homeric epics are too long to be sung in a continuous musical setting; something nearer to recitation was clearly the intention.Google Scholar

32 The term is found in G.B. Stefanini's Motetti concertati all'uso di Roma a otto e nove voci con le letanie délia B. Vergine nel fine … Libro quarto. Opera sesta (Venice, 1618) and A. Diruta's Compieta concertata, con l'antifone della Beata Vergine, e con un Miserere a versetti concertati alla romana a cinque voci, con il basso continua … opera quinta (Venice, 1623). It denotes the division of a piece into short sections, each with a particular scoring.Google Scholar

33 Compline would have taken place on stational days during Lent. A large-scale musical setting was required since these were important occasions when a church would welcome dignitaries as well as visitors from other institutions.Google Scholar

34 On the use of instruments in the Roman churches at this time See Dixon, G., ‘Roman Church Music: The Place of Instruments after 1600', The Galpin Society Journal, 34 (1981), 51–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 Two years later the five-part psalms appeared as Psalmi, ac Magnificat, qui in vesperis solemnioribus decantantur, quinis simplicibus vocibus, cum organo … opus decimum tertium (Venice, 1611), and those for eight voices as Psalmorum ac Magnificat quorum usus in vesperis frequentior est octo vocibus… opus decimum quintum (Venice, 1611).Google Scholar

36 The declamatory recitative style was virtually unknown in Roman liturgical music of the early seicento. Composers who did use it, such as Ottavio Durante and Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger, were employed in the households of ecclesiastical dignitaries rather than as maestri in churches.Google Scholar

37 The dedication of this volume was signed in Siena on 1 December 1610 and that of the eight-part psalms (mentioned in note 35) on 8 November 1611.Google Scholar

38 The style of these Roman publications is discussed in G. Dixon, ‘Progressive Tendencies in the Roman Motet during the Early Seventeenth Century', Acta musicologica, 53 (1981), 118–19.Google Scholar

39 Johnvi. 32–36, 41–43, 52, 55, 58.Google Scholar

40 Psalm 8.Google Scholar

41 Republic, 398^d. This principle is also enunciated in the writings of Zarlino, by whom Agazzari was strongly influenced (See Zarlino, G., Le istitutioni harmoniche (Venice, 1558), 80: ‘La onde poi da tutte quests tre cose aggiunte insieme, cioè dall'Harmonia propria, dal Rithmo, & dall'Oratione, nasce (come vuol Platone) la Melodia.').Google Scholar

42 Agazzari could here be alluding to Zarlino's Dimostrationi harmoniche (Venice, 1571), in which he sets out his theoretical basis for the study of music as a science. Comparing it with architecture, he states in the preface (unpaginated): ‘Perche se ben Vitruvio dice, che l'Architettura è Scienza ornata di molte discipline & varie eruditioni: non è però Scienza: ma Arte fattiva, la quai tiene il terzo luogo tra le Arte: & la Musica, oltra che ella non si può trattare (secondo'l parer di Platone) senza la Universal disciplina: è Scienza: per il Soggetto, & per la certezza della Dimostratione, senza dubio alcuno, dell'Architettura assai piu nobile & piu eccelente'. Zarlino's reasons for applying this method to music and for his use of the term ‘scienza’ appear in the same volume, pp.8–11. Euclid's Elementa forms the basis of his reasoning. Zarlino explains the use of the word ‘scienza', basing his argument on the Pythagorean notion of music as a branch of the study of numbers, in Le istitutioni harmoniche, 4: ‘poi che mathematica è detta da μαθημα parola greca, che in Latino significa Disciplina, & della Italiana nostra lingua importa Scienza, o Sapienza; la quale (si come dice Boecio) altro non è che una intelligenza … Resta adunque che la Musica sia & nobile & certissima, essendo parte delle scienza mathematiche'.Google Scholar

43 Agazzari's statement (the ‘vera diffinitione’ mentioned in the title) is a synthesis of Pythagorean and Platonic musical theory. The emphasis on number is Pythagorean, while the idea of combining the music with the text is derived from Plato. The way in which the definition is presented with a Latin translation makes it seem like a quotation, but so far my efforts to locate it have been unsuccessful. It is my contention that this is Agazzari's own definition since he announces that the treatise contains ‘the true definition of music as a science’ on the title-page. The Latin translation may be seen as his means of adding more weight to the dictum. Furthermore, he seems to relate the pronouncement to himself and to take responsibility for it in saying ‘I proclaim boldly'. Again Agazzari shows the influence of Zarlino in his phraseology (see Zarlino, ibid., 21: ‘Ma perche di sopra si è detto, che la Musica è scienza, che considera li Numeri, & le proportioni; però parmi che hora sia tempo di cominciare a ragionar di tal cose, massimamente che dalla prime origine del mωdo … tutte le cose create da Dio furno da lui col Numero ordinate.'; and 29: ‘Havemo adunque da sapere, che alcuni, volendo dar notitia di questo numero, hanno detto, che il Numero sonoro non è altro, che il numero delle parti d'un Corpo sonoro …').Google Scholar

44 Here Agazzari is following the traditional division into genus and differentia. The genus is the property of music that it shares with the other sciences, mathematics, astronomy and geometry: it is a science dealing with number. The differentia is the fact that these numbers relate to sound. The four elements referred to here for the first time influence the structure of his discourse and are derived from the four causes of Aristotle (see Metaphysics, 983^a).Google Scholar

45 Agazzari has made the error of quoting from Ficino's translation of Plato's Republic (399^e–400^d) and not from Ficino's commentary on the work as he states he is doing.Google Scholar

46 C. Plini Secundi, Naturalis Historiae, xvi, 66: ‘Caedi solebant tempestivae usque ad Antigeniden tibicinem, cum adhuc simplici musica uterentur, sub arcturo'. He continues by describing the customs regarding the cutting of reeds and the way this was influenced by changes in musical style.Google Scholar

47 This incident was frequently cited by Zarlino (op. cit., 7, 71, 76, 303), who claims Basil the Great as his source. See Basil, St, Opera omnia … 2 vols (Paris, 1618), i, 578–9; he mentions the Timotheus story while speaking on the power of music in Homelia XXIV: ‘Ad Adolescentes quomodo ex gentilium doctrinis proficiant'.Google Scholar

48 This is another example of an instance derived from Zarlino, op. cit., 70: ‘Non si ode ancora, che col canto loro [the ancients] habbiano fatto divenire alcun furioso mansueto, come mostra Ammonio di un giovane Tauromintano, che dallo accorgimento di Pitagora, & dalla virtù del Musico, di furioso che era, diventò humano & piacevole'.Google Scholar

49 1 Samuel xvi. 23.Google Scholar

50 Ficino, M., op. cit., 612–15, 650–1, 1453 [misnumbered 1417]–8 are the passages in his writings which deal with the effects of music.Google Scholar

51 Republic, 398^e.Google Scholar

52 This is a second mention of Agazzari's crucial passage: Plato, Republic, 398^d (see note 41).Google Scholar

53 The spagnoletta is a triple-metre dance on a defined harmonic scheme (see The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London, 1980) under ‘Spagnoletta').Google Scholar

54 Here two of the Aristotelian four causes are cited, form and aim. The material cause has already been dealt with (sonorous numbers), and after treating form and aim Agazzari moves on to the efficient cause, the singer (see note 44). This analytical method is summed up in the final section of the treatise with slight modifications.Google Scholar

55 Psalm 149; that which follows is the final psalm, Laudate Dominum in Sanctis eius.Google Scholar

56 Revelation xix. 2. There is a textual discrepancy here in the Vulgate; some versions give ‘salus’ for ‘laus'.Google Scholar

57 Revelation xix. 5.Google Scholar

58 1 Chronicles xv. 16–24, 28–9.Google Scholar

59 2 Chronicles vii. 6.Google Scholar

60 1 Chronicles xv. 16.Google Scholar

61 I am unable to locate this reference in the works of Prato Fiorito. Dr Christopher Page kindly directed me towards an early source of the story in Caesarii Heisterbacensis Monachi Ordinis Cisterciencis Dialogus, ed. J. Strange, 2 vols (Cologne, 1851), i, p.181: ‘De clericis superbe cantantibus, quorum voces diabolus in saccum misit'.Google Scholar

62 The documents in the Appendix shed some light on the current state of musical practice, as does J. Drexel, Rhetorica caelestis seu attente precandi scientia (Antwerp, 1636), i, 66, translated in K.G. Fellerer, ‘Church Music and the Council of Trent', The Musical Quarterly, 39 (1953), 589, note 60: ‘Without offense to you let me say, ye musicians, that now a new species of singing is dominant in the temples, but it is showy, curtailed, very little religious, indeed, but more suitable for theatre or dances than for the temple…. I beg you, let at least some of the old religiosity of sacred music be revived…'. Publications dating from the time when Agazzari was writing which show distinct secular tendencies and the introduction of the chaconne style are L. Agnelli, Salmi e messa… (1637), A. Grandi, Motetti… con sinfonie… libro terzo (1629), T. Merula, Pegaso musicale … libro terzo (c1633–37), 2/1640) and Arpa Davidica… (1640), C. Milanuzzi, Hortus sacer deliciarum … liber tertius (1636), G.A. Rigatti, Messa, e salmi… libro secondo (1640) and G. Rovetta, Messa, e salmi concertati… (1639), all published in Venice. On this repertory, See Roche, J., North Italian Liturgical Music in the Early Seventeenth Century: Its evolution around 1600 and its development until the death of Monteverdi (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1967), 126–7, 153, 162, 228–32, 267–72, 278–9.Google Scholar

63 St Augustine, Confessions, 10, 33. Augustine considers it sinful to be moved more by the singing than the truth it expresses.Google Scholar

64 From the sequence for Corpus Christi, Lauda Sion salvatorem, verse 5.Google Scholar

65 St Robert Bellarmino, Opera omnia… 7 vols (Cologne, 1617–20), 4, columns 1193–4: De bonis operibus in particulari, qui est de oratione, Liber Primus, Caput XVI: Defenditur cantus, qui in officio divino adhiberi solet contains this statement: ‘Altera utilitas in eo posita est, quod facilius & libentius Deo laudes persoluuntur, quando officium divinum, alioque prolixum & grave, quadam cantus iucunditate conditur'.Google Scholar

66 Canones, et decreta sacrosancti oecumenici, et generalis concilii Tridentini sub Paulo III, Iulio III, Pio IIII pontificibus max. (Rome, 1564), 146: ‘Ab ecclesiis vero musicas eas, ubi sive organo, sive cantu lascivum, aut impurū aliquid miscetur, itē saeculares omnes actiones, vana, atque adeo profana colloquia, deambulationes, strepitus, clamores arceant; ut domus Dei, vere domus orationis esse videatur, ac dici possit'.Google Scholar

67 M. de Azpilceuta, Enchiridion sive Manuale de oratione et horis canonicis … (Rome, 1578). Agazzari has made an error with the reference; the appropriate passage occurs at page 255, beginning at line 10: Chapter XVI. de Impedimento attentionis tangit […] Item 42. Canere profana, & benedicere scommatis in divinis malum: ‘Peccare etiam eos, qui eo die [Christmas Day], aut alijs canunt cantiones vulgares, & profanas, licet de se non sint inhonestae, aut vanae, durante officio Divino, o1a enim haec distrahunt ab attentione, & devotione officio Divino debita, ut de se patet, & determinavit Concilium Basiliense'.Google Scholar

68 St Jerome, Omnia opera ac studio Mariani Victorii Reatini…, 9 vols (Cologne, 1616), 6, 188. On verse 19 of the fifth chapter of the epistle he comments: ‘Audiant haec adolescentuli: audiant hi quibus psallendi in ecclesia officium est, Deo non voce sed corde cantandum: nec in Tragoedorum modū guttur & fauces dulci med carmine colliniendas: ut in ecclesia theatrales moduli audiantur & cantica, sed timore in opere, in scientia scripturarum. Quamvis sit aliquis, ut solent illi appellare , si bona habuerit, dulcis Deum cantor est: Sic cantet servus Christi, ut nω vox canentis, sed verba placeant quae leguntur…'.Google Scholar

69 St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, xxxix, edited by K.D. O'Rourke (London, New York, 1964), 246–51. The complete Summa was published by Bartolomeo Zannetti in Rome in 1619; this could well have been the edition with which Agazzari was familiar.Google Scholar

70 Acta Ecclesia Mediolanensis tribus paribus distincta. Quibus concilia provincialia, condones synodales, synodi dioecesanae, instructiones, litterae pastorales, edicta, regulae confratriarum, formulae, et alla denique continentur, quae CAROLUS S.R.E. Cardinalis tit. S. Praxedis, Archiepiscopus egit (Milan, 1582), f.75. The reference to chapter 13 is obscure and can be taken as another of Agazzari's bibliographical errors. The document De vita et honestate clericorum contains the following statement: ‘Sacerdotem, clericumq. cuiusvis ordinis, in canticis, hymnis, psalmis, ceterisq. ecclesiastici cultus officijs, religiosa modulatione concelebrandis, divinisq. laudibus sancte concinendis, ita versari convenit, ut voce sua, sacris dicata, abuti non debeat ad prophanas cantiones, et modulationes, atque ad voluptarias, delitiosasq, laicorum oblectiones'.Google Scholar

71 An ‘extravagant’ decree is one originally excluded from the decretals. Although later added to the main body of decrees, they retained the rather curious designation. Extravagantes omnes communes. Sumarijs glossis multijugisq … apostollis: nove lima a F. Joanne Thierry minimo illustrate. Quibus ordinatissimus index elementatius additus est. (Paris, 1532), f.xviii, contains the relevant document. Part of the decree is printed in H.E. Wooldridge, The Oxford History of Music (Oxford, 1905), ii, 89–91.Google Scholar

72 Agazzari now turns to the musician, the agent, in his fundamentally Aristotelian analysis of musical practice.Google Scholar

73 See preface of Sacrae laudes… liber secundus Rome. 1603), above, 41.Google Scholar

74 Roche, op. cit., 279 gives an example of this type of verbal distortion in a setting of the Confitebor tibi for soprano, tenor and two violins from Monteverdi's posthumous collection of 1651 (C. Monteverdi, Tutte le opere, ed. G.F. Malipiero (Asolo, 1926–42, rev. 2/1954), 16, 144).Google Scholar

75 The singing of the ‘Gloria Patri’ over a chaconne is also found in Monteverdi's setting of Confitebor tibi mentioned in note 75.Google Scholar

76 This probably alludes to the fact that it was difficult to see the structure of a work or the treatment of words when music was presented in partbook format.Google Scholar

77 Compare Agazzari, Del sonare sopra ‘l basso, 5, translated in Strunk, op. cit., 426.Google Scholar

78 Agazzari seems to have been mistaken in his belief that this matter was dealt with by the Congregation of Rites. A decree to this effect does however occur in Caeremoniale Episcoporum… (Rome, 1600), 135 in the section (Cap. XXVIII) De Organo, Organista, et musicis seu cantoribus, & norma per eos servanda in divinis; it states, ‘Sed cum dicitur Symbolū in Missa, non est intermiscendum organū, sed ea per chorum cantu intelligibili proferantur'. Other decrees on this subject, including one from the third synod of Milan, are found in Caeremoniale Episcoporum…, ed. J. Catalani, 2 vols (Paris, 1860), i, 529–30.Google Scholar

79 On the notion of principle and the four causes, see Aristotle, Metaphysics, 983^a. Zarlino, op. cit., 54 applies Aristotle's four causes to music, but in a more secular context. He states that the aim is to play with harmony and derive benefit and pleasure, the agent is the musician, the material is the consonances, and the form is the proportions. This indicates that the analytical method was not new to Agazzari among music theorists.Google Scholar

80 Agazzari could well have had in mind Aristotle's discussion of science in the Ethics, 1139^b; this work had been published in both Greek and Latin versions by the time Agazzari was writing.Google Scholar

81 This argument closely relates to Aristotle's demonstration that theology is the highest of the sciences (see Aristotle, Metaphysics, 983^a, 1026^a).Google Scholar

82 Revelation iv. 8. The same reference is cited by Zarlino, op. cit., 5–6.Google Scholar

83 Psalm 88.1.Google Scholar

84 See Aristotle, De caelo, 304^b–305^a.Google Scholar

85 This obscure phrase presumably relates to the right to participate in the decision-making of the order. The distinction of active and passive is not clear.Google Scholar