Girolamo Diruta

Girolamo Diruta. Venetian School composer, organist, music theorist; famous as a teacher and for his treatises on counterpoint and keyboard technique.

His major work is a treatise in two parts on organ playing, counterpoint and composition; entitled Il Transilvano (The Transylvanian) and published in 1593 and 1610. It is one of the first practical discussions of organ technique, which differentiated organ technique from keyboard technique on other instruments. It is one of the earliest attempts in Italy, to establish consistency in keyboard fingering.

Organists, such as Girolamo Diruta and Claudio Merulo, began to define an instrumental style and technique which moved to northern Europe in the succeeding generations; culminating in the works of Sweelinck, Buxtehude, and eventually J.S. Bach.

Life

Music

Links (internal-external)

Girolamo Diruta – LIFE

Girolamo Diruta was born in Deruta, near Perugia in the region of Umbria; known for its production of ceramics. He became a friar minor conventual (a Catholic branch of the Franciscans who were founded by Francis of Assisi in 1209), in the convent Perugia in 1566. Later, from 1569 to 1574; he was in the convent of Correggio in the region of Emilia-Romagna.

Around 1578 he moved to Venice, where he met Claudio Merulo, Gioseffo Zarlino and Costanzo Porta (who was also a friar minor conventual) and he probably studied with each of them. In fact, Merulo mentioned Diruta, in a prefatory letter to the Transilvano (1593); as one of his finest students.

From 1580 until 1585, he was organist at the Gubbio cathedral in N.E. Perugia. He returned in Venice at the Frari convent, where he was organist from 1586 until 1589. By 1593, he was organist at Chioggia cathedral.

In these year (photo left), he dedicated the first part of his treatise Il Transilvano to Sigismund Bathory, prince of Transylvania.

Later he returned to live in Umbria. He was again organist at the Gubbio cathedral from 1604 to 1610. In 1610 from Gubbio, he dedicated the second part of his treatise Il Transilvano to Leonora Orsini Sforza; niece of Grand Duke Ferdinand I of Tuscany.

He died in Deruta in 1624 or 1625. His nephew Agostino Diruta (c. 1595 – c. 1647), was also his pupil and a composer.

MUSIC

Girolamo Diruta’s major work, is a treatise in two parts on organ playing, counterpoint and composition; entitled Il Transilvano (The Transylvanian) published for the first time in 1593 and the second part in 1609-10. It is in the form of a dialog with Istvan de Josíka, a diplomat from Transylvania; whom Diruta met during one of Josíka’s missions to Italy. It is one of the first practical discussions of organ technique, which differentiates organ technique from keyboard technique on other instruments. His fingerings largely follow the usual ones of his times – for example, his fingering for a C major scale never includes the thumb and crosses the middle finger over the ring finger: his work is one of the earliest attempts in Italy to establish consistency in keyboard fingering.

As a contrapuntist, Diruta anticipates Johann Fux (late baroque theorist), in describing the different “species” of counterpoint: note against note, two notes against one, suspensions, four notes against one and so forth. Unlike Fux, he defines a less-rigorous kind of counterpoint that was adequate for improvisation; for example it neither requires contrary motion, nor prohibits successive perfect consonances. It describes contemporary keyboard practice well, as can be observed from the contemporary toccatas and canzonas of composers such as Merulo.

Diruta included many of his own compositions in Il Transilvano and they are mostly didactic in nature; showing different kinds of figuration and presenting different kinds of performance problems. These four toccatas are among the earliest examples of the etude (normally instrumental and a practice study for perfecting a particular musical skill).

The “Prima parte” also includes toccatas by other composers of the time, chosen for their musical and didactic value – Claudio Merulo, Andrea Gabrieli, Giovanni Gabrieli, Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Antonio Romanini, Paolo Quagliati, Vincenzo Bellavere and Gioseffo Guami. The “Seconda parte” includes ricercares by Luzzaschi, Gabriele Fattorini and Adriano Banchieri.

Organists, such as Claudio Merulo and Girolamo Diruta, began to define an instrumental style and technique which moved to northern Europe in the succeeding generations; culminating in the works of Sweelinck, Buxtehude, and eventually J.S. Bach.

Links (internal–external)

The Venetian School of Music

Major members of the Venetian School of Music.

Adrian Willaert (c.1490-1562)

Jacques Buus (c.1500-1565)

Andrea Gabrieli (c.1532-1585)

Nicola Vicentino (1511-c.1576)

Cipriano de Rore (c.1515-1565)

Gioseffo Zarlino (1517–1590)

Baldassare Donato (1525–1603)

Annibale Padovano (1527–1575)

Costanzo Porta (c.1529-1601)