A Study of the Theories of Giuseppe Tartini

Abstract

Before beginning a systematic study of the theories of Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770), it is necessary to examine briefly his positionand his goals as a theorist and to give a summary of the contents of the works to be discussed. Of all the theorists of his time no one was more singlemindedly concerned with throwing light upon the most basic principles of harmony; in consequence, anything that in his opinion did not serve this purpose was not brought into consideration [T, cf. letter to Count Decio Agostino Trento, without page number, at the beginning of the book]. Thus we find little or nothing said about practical rules for chord progression or about the structural or affective uses of harmony. To him, the basic principles of harmony are an exact science, derived from nature to be sure, but from a nature rigidly ruled by mathematical proportions in a Cartesian sense. In his work, mathematical relation and proportion take priority, and he derides those who think that the principles of harmony may depend upon feeling or artistry. He is quite aware of the difficulties into which other theorists have been led in attempting to explain consonant minor harmony and dissonance, and he tries throughout his work to relate the three apparently different foundations of major, minor, and dissonant harmony to an a priori principle which will account for all three. This universal principle, he believes, is to be found in the relationship of the circumference of a circle to its diameter projected as the side of a circumscribed square (Figure 1).