Time and kind criteria for the choice of our sources
It is well known to scholars and researchers that almost all treatises of musical theory do not contain an index of names: in rare and most fortunate cases, they include just a list of "noteworthy items" or "subjects". The bibliographic descriptions should give, where possible, the author, title and the library source. Please keep in mind that we are indexing both manuscripts and printed sources of the treatises. Whoever works in this area must read, very often, an entire treatise in order to find those references to some treatiser, composer or musical piece [s]he is interested in. For particularly large treatises (e.g., some by Zarlino, Zacconi, Cerone), the situation becomes very complex and, in many aspects, discouraging. This fact constitutes a real impediment for the scholar, who is forced to scan whole treatises just looking for a single reference that would be immediately reachable if one could consult an index, but even anastatic reprints of original works lack such a facility.
With the purpose of overcoming this real difficulty, the ITMI project (Indici della Trattatistica Musicale Italiana), started in 2000, is aimed to produce a systematic index of theorists, treatises, composers and musical works cited within all the Italian treatises (more than 1200, printed and handwritten) of musical theory dating from 1300 to 1799. This innovative project will fill a wide gap in the realm of musicological texts, where such consulting facilities are almost completely missing (but for the partial coverage by the bibliographic material within RISM), in spite of the large number of specialists and scholars working in the field.
The result of the project will be a comprehensive collection of reading and reference sources for the authors within its scope: a well ordered database of theorists, works, composers, musical pieces that will endow the user with the ability to get rapid answers and with a complete map of references to the ancient sources.
Time and kind criteria for the choice of our sources
By an evaluation of the gradual consolidation process of musical theory (from the point of view of the project), we have chosen a time range spanning from the beginning of the XIV century to the end of the XVIII, and we decided to focus our attention on treatises by Italian authors (written in any language).
We are still considering whether to include the XIX century, where the peculiar matter of study (e.g. harmony and orchestration methods and musical grammar manuals) would be of lesser theoretical importance with respect to the speculative and practical evolution of the preceding centuries. In the focus of this research, the nearest to the sources under investigation, lie treatises of musical theory, acknowledged as such because of their content, topics, qualification of their authors (when the latter is defined as "theorist" or "theorist and composer" in the bibliography) and historiographic checking.
Collections of letters, poems, memoirs, statutes are not included within the scope of our research, in accord with its primary interest in treatises; we included, however, the quotations enclosed in single letters and memorials, so as the quotations in those works of various scholars (even those with exclusive or limited sections were musical matters are treated), that must be considered as fundamental for the history of theoretical research, where it lies in strict relation with the history of musical ages, of styles and, therefore, of authors, both theorists and composers.
Also works by authors of different qualification (poets, literary figures, philosophers, writers of comedies, dramatists from the Alessandrian, Greek and Latin civilizations; more over - from the origins to the XVIIIth century - theologians, mathematicians, physicians, historic figures, geographers, astronomers, medicians, friars, saints; essayists of the musical theater, actors; painters, sculptors, architects) are historians of musical theatres, actors, physicians, astronomers, mathematicians) are indexed in our project. However, it is not excluded that an apposite section of ITMI might be extended to cover this kind of sources, when they contain references and quotations of preminent interest in the framework of the ITMI repertory, as specific reference-sources for the musical treatises.
After the assignment to each contributor of her/his
own time range within the total span covered by ITMI, the
project will be carried out in two phases:
a) A complete list of theorists and
treatises to be investigated (work in progress)
Such a systematic list prepares the track to the
primary goal of ITMI. The starting bibliographic
source is, obviously, Rism B/VI 1-2
(Écrits imprimés concernant la musique, 2
voll.,
München-Duisburg, Henle Verlag, 1971), that
lists all the theorists, italian and foreign, in alphabetical
order, listing their treatises chronogically. A final chronogical
index of treatises and theorists (but incomplete or limited)
closes both volumes of RISM.
Other
sources: B/III/2 (P.Fischer, The Theory of Music from the
Carolingian Era up to 1400. Volume II: Italy, 1968); B/III/6 (C. Meyer/G. Di Bacco/P. Ernstbrunner/A.
Rausch/ C. Ruini, The Theory of Music. Munuscripts from the Carolingian Era up to c.
1500. Addenda, Corrigenda. Descriptive Catalogue, 2003.
In order to obtain a well-ordered archive of data, a software
has been created, to produce a better homogeneity of the items
inserted in each list and to allow connections between the data
tables ( theorists and treatises; composers and musical works).
b) Scanning of the treatises and
archiving of the quotations therein
This constitutes the kernel, the very heart of
this research. Each treatise has to be read
completely, in order to recognize every
occurrence of one of the four kinds of quotations:
theorists, composers, treatises, musical works,
taking constantly into account the matter of each quotations. To facilitate a correct insertion of
the data, we considered setting up a further software, to collect
quotations, with a subject
index (over 1200 terms), as a basic container where key-words and
related terms will be stored (it would give to the contributors
a valuable basis for an efficient insertion of new items, while it
would grant the user more ease and speed in searching the
quotations of interest, with immediate understanding of their
subject) and a list of musical and poetic-musical forms (almost
300) vocal, instrumental, sacred, secular, polyphonic, monodic,
solo pieces, chamber, symphonic and theatral music, each
classifiable by repertoire and genre.
© ITMI 2001