ARTUSI, GIOVANNI MARIA

Music theorist of the Roman conservative circle; b. Bologna, Italy, 1540 (1545?); d. Bologna, 1613. By 1562 he was a canon of the Congregation of the Saviour. Though his polemics against monteverdi put him in the early Italian baroque, it is difficult not to classify him with the Renaissance. He took exception not only to the seconda prattica of Monteverdi, but also wrote against Gesualdo, Vincentino, Rore, and A. Gabrieli, showing how they had strayed from classical Renaissance traditions. In L'Arte del contrapunto (1586–89; microprint, Rochester, N.Y. 1954) he showed himself a conservative student of Zarlino, but later attacked even him. Other writings were L'Artusi, overo delle imperfettioni della moderna musica (1600) and Considerazioni musicali (1603). He remained a defender of the old styles until the end, but in later life he softened with regard to Monteverdi's music, which he even professed to admire. Of his compositions a book of four-voiced Canzonette is well known (1598).

Bibliography: o. strunk, ed., Source Readings in Music History (New York 1950). r. h. f. redlich, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. f. blume (Kassel-Basel 1949–) 1:747–749. g. reese, Music in the Renaissance (rev. ed. New York 1959). r. l. schrade, Monteverdi: Creator of Modern Music (New York 1950). g. gaspari, Dei musicisti bolognesi al XVI secolo (Bologna 1876). g. b. martini, Esemplare ossia saggio fondamentale di contrapunto, 2 v. (Bologna 1774–75). g. m. artusi, "Of the Imperfections of Modern Music" in Strunk's Source Readings in Music History, vol. 4: The Baroque Era, rev. ed. l. treitler, (New York 1998). d. m. randel, ed., The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music 28 (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1996). p. p. scattolin, "Giovanni Maria Artusi" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, v.1, ed. s. sadie (New York 1980) 646–648. n. slonimsky, ed. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Eighth Edition (New York 1992).

[f. j. smith]