Vincenzo Galilei (3 April 1520 – 2 July 1591) was an Italianlutenist,composer, andmusic theorist. His children included theastronomer and physicistGalileo Galilei and the lute virtuoso and composerMichelagnolo Galilei. Vincenzo was a figure in the musical life of the lateRenaissance and contributed significantly to the musical revolution that demarcates the beginning of theBaroque era.
In his study of pitch and string tension, Galilei produced perhaps the first non-linear mathematical description of a natural phenomenon known to history.[1] Some credit him with directing the activity of his son away from pure, abstract mathematics and towards experimentation using mathematical quantitative description of the results, a direction of importance for the history ofphysics andnatural science.
He was born in 1520 inSanta Maria a Monte, nearPisa,Republic of Florence,[2] and began studying the lute at an early age. His mother was fromSan Vincenzo nearLivorno.[3] Sometime before 1562 he moved to Pisa, where on 5 July he marriedGiulia Ammannati of a noble family. Galileo Galilei was the oldest of six or seven children; another son,Michelagnolo, born in 1575,[4] became an accomplished lutenist and composer.
Galilei was a skilled player of thelute who early in life attracted the attention of powerful patrons. In 1563, he metGioseffo Zarlino, the most important music theorist of the sixteenth century, inVenice, and began studying with him.[5][6] Somewhat later he became interested in the attempts to reviveancient Greek music and drama, by way of his association with theFlorentine Camerata,[7] a group of poets, musicians and intellectuals led by CountGiovanni de' Bardi, as well as his contacts withGirolamo Mei,[8] the foremost scholar of the time of ancient Greek music. Galilei composed two books ofmadrigals, as well as music for lute, and a considerable quantity of music for voice and lute; this latter category is considered to be his most important contribution as it anticipated in many ways the style of the early Baroque.
The use ofrecitative inopera is widely attributed to Galilei, since he was one of the inventors ofmonody, the musical style closest to recitative.
Galilei died on 2 July 1591.[9]
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Galilei promotedequal temperament.[10] In his exploration of tuning and keys, he composed 24 groups of dances, "clearly related to 12 major and 12 minor keys" (1584).[citation needed]
Some of Galilei's most important theoretical contributions involve the treatment ofdissonance: he had a largely modern conception, allowing passing dissonance "if the voices flow smoothly" as well as on-the-beat dissonance, such assuspensions, which he called "essential dissonance".[citation needed] This describes Baroque practice, especially as he defines rules for resolution of suspensions by a preliminary leap away from, followed by a return to, the expected note of resolution.[citation needed]
Vincenzo Galilei was one of the pioneers in the systematic study ofacoustics, mainly in his research (assisted by his son Galileo) in the mathematical formula of stretched strings. Galileo told his biographer that Vincenzo introduced him to the idea of systematic testing and measurement through their Pisa house basement, which was strung with lengths of lute string materials, each of different lengths, with different weights attached.[citation needed]
Galilei made discoveries in acoustics, particularly involving the physics ofvibrating strings and columns of air. He discovered that while the ratio of an interval is proportional to string lengths — for example, aperfect fifth has the proportions of 3:2 — it varied with thesquare root of the tension applied (and the cube root of concave volumes of air). Weights suspended from strings of equal length need to be in a ratio of 9:4 to produce the 3:2 perfect fifth.[citation needed]
This work was taken further byMarin Mersenne, who formulated the current law of vibrating strings. Mersenne was only three years old when Vincenzo died, but he would later maintain a regular link to Galileo (and many other scientists). He treated Galileo as a prized member of his scientific network. He communicated Galileo's ideas for a pendulum clock toChristiaan Huygens (who improved on it).[citation needed]
Despite being a priest, Mersenne defended Galileo when he came under attack by the church in 1633, but he also questioned Galileo's claims and disputed the accuracy of some of Galileo's findings. He conducted his own duplicate experiments, which improved on their accuracy.[11]
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