Not long after the publication of these works, Vincenzo Galilei—who had formerly been Zarlino's pupil—printed, at Florence, a tract, entitled 'Discorso intorno alle opere di messer Gioseffe Zarlino di Chioggia,' in which he violently attacked his former master's principles; and, in 1581, he followed up the subject, in his famous 'Dialogo della musica antica et della moderna,' in the second edition of which (Fiorenza, 1602), the title-page bore the words, 'in sua difesa contra Joseffo Zarlino.' Galilei attacked, in very uncourteous terms, the division of the Scale advocated by Zarlino; and proposed to substitute for it the Ditonic Diatonic Tetrachord, consisting of two Greater Tones and a Limma;[1] as set forth by Pythagoras—a division which all modern theorists agree in utterly rejecting. While accusing Zarlino of innovation, he inconsistently complained that the Syntonous Diatonic was advocated by Lodovico Fogliano, half a century before his time. This is perfectly true[2]: and in all probability, it was this division of the Scale that the Aristoxenians unconsciously sang by ear. But Galilei was not satisfied with an empirical scale; and his admiration for the Greeks blinded him to the fact that his theory, reduced to practice, would have been intolerable. His favourite instrument, the Lute, imperatively demanded some reasonable power of Temperament: and Zarlino, who was, in every respect, in advance of his age, actually proposed, that, for the Lute, the Octave should be divided into twelve equal Semitones—that is to say, he advocated in the 16th century the practice that we, in the 19th, have only seen universally adopted within the last thirty-five years. That he extended the system to the Organ, is sufficiently proved by the fact that his Organ, at S. Mark's, remained in the condition in which it was left by Monteverde.[3] It is evident, therefore, that he advocated Equal Temperament for keyed instruments, and Just Intonation for unaccompanied Vocal Music, and instruments of the Violin tribe a system which has been successfully practised by the most accomplished vocalists and violinists of the present century.
In defence of his principles, and in answer to Galilei's caustic diatribes, Zarlino published, in 1588, his 'Sopplimenti musicali,' containing 33 pages of valuable and interesting matter, much of which is devoted to the reinforcement of the principles laid down in the 'Istitutioni,' and the 'Dimostrationi.' The system of Equal Temperament, as applied to the Lute, is set forth in detail in Lib. IV. Cap. xxvii. et seq. In Lib. VI. the author recapitulates much of what he has previously said concerning the Modes; and in Lib. VIII. he concludes the volume with a dissertation on the organ; illustrating his subject, at p. 291, by an engraving of the soundboard of a very early Organ removed from a Church at Grado; and giving many particulars concerning Organs of very early date.
In 1589, Zarlino reprinted the 'Sopplimenti,' preceded by the 'Istitutioni,' and the 'Dimostrationi,' in the complete edition of his works already mentioned, together with a fourth volume, containing a 'Trattato della pazienzia,' a 'Discourse on the true date of the Crucifixion of Our Lord,' a treatise on 'The Origin of the Capuchins,' and the 'Resolution of some doubts concerning the correctness of the Julian Calendar.' He survived the issue of the four volumes but a very short time: but his death, in 1590, was far from terminating the controversy concerning his opinions; for Galilei published the second edition of his 'Dialogo' as late as 1602; and, in 1704, Giovanni Maria Artusi published an equally bitter attack, at Bologna, entitled 'Impresa del R. P. Gio. Zarlino di Chioggia, etc.' In truth, Zarlino was too far in advance of his age to meet with fair treatment from his opponents, though we of the 19th century can agree with every word of his arguments.
The works of Zarlino are now very scarce and costly. Perfect and complete copies will be found at the British Museum and the Royal College of Music.
ZAUBERFLOTE, DIE, i.e. The Magic flute. Mozart's last opera, in two acts. The book was by Schikaneder and was first proposed to Mozart early in 1791; the music was written partly in a 'garden pavilion' close to the theatre, and partly in the Casino at Josephsdorf on the Kahlenberg. It was produced at the Theatre auf der Wieden, Vienna, Sept. 30 of the same year (by which time the Requiem was begun), and had not at first a great success; but this soon altered, and by Oct. 12, 1795, it had been performed at the one theatre 200 times. The overture was as usual written last—with the march. Mozart was a great Freemason, and the work is said to abound with Masonic indications, especially in the noble trombone chords which should not be 'tied'; and elsewhere throughout the opera.[4] A likeness has been discovered between the subject of the Allegro and that of a sonata of Clementi's once played by Clementi to the emperor in Mozart's presence; and it has certainly a curious resemblance to an overture by Collo of 1779.[5] The air 'Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen' is taken from the two last lines of the chorale 'Nun lob mein Seel den Herren.' The melody sung by the men in armour is that of another much older chorale, 'Ach Gott vom Himmel sieh darein,' with a closing phrase added by Mozart. [See Appendix, Ach Gott.]
In Paris, 'arrangé par Lachnitch,' as 'Les Mystères d'Isis,' Aug. 20, 1801. [See Lachnith.] In London, in Italian, as 'Il Flauto Magico,' at the King's Theatre, for Naldi's benefit, June 6, 1811; in German, at Covent Garden, May 27, 1833; in English, as 'The Magic Flute,' Drury Lane, Mar. 10, 1838.
- ↑ The Limma, or remaining portion of a Perfect Fourth, after two Greater Tones have been subtracted from it, is less than a Diatonic Semitone by one comma.
- ↑ See Fogliano's 'Musica teorica' (Venice, 1529), Sect. II. De militate toni majoris et minoris.'
- ↑ Bontempi, Hist. Mus. Parte 1ma, Coroll. IV.
- ↑ Jahn's Mozart, Eng. transl., iii. 309, 310, 315, 317, 320.
- ↑ Ibid. iii. 315, 316.
