Quid non ebrietas dissignat? Willaert’s didactic demonstration of Syntonic tuning

Abstract


 “Quid non ebrietas dissignat? Operta recludit, 
 Spes iubet esse 
 ratas, ad proelia trudit inertem, 
 Sollicitis animis onus eximit, addocet artes, 
 
 Fecundi calices quem non fecere disertum?” 
 (Horace, Epistles I, V, 16–19) [What 
 cannot be accomplished through drinking? It reveals secrets, 
 Fulfils hopes, 
 encourages the unarmed into battle, 
 Removes the burden from worried minds, 
 teaches new skills, 
 Whom has the wine-cup not made more skilful?]
 Willaert’s 
 musical setting of the above portion of Horace’s Epistle begins with a 
 rhetorical question: “What cannot be accomplished through drinking?” The 
 rhetoric is reaffirmed by the remaining lines that merely give a list of 
 positive attainments that can (as opposed to ones that cannot) be achieved 
 through the wine cup. Ever since this composition was first discussed by Spataro 
 and Aron in 1524, then subsequently by Artusi in 1600, and in more recent years 
 by Levitan, Lowinsky, Bent and others, one question seems to remain essentially 
 rhetorical: why did Willaert compose this piece, and what was he trying to 
 demonstrate? Explanations as to how his notation should be read and interpreted 
 have been advanced, but none of these stems directly from a clearly-perceived 
 compositional objective. The piece has thus been viewed more as an interesting 
 curiosity than as a creation that asserts its own objective agenda through which 
 the curiosities identified could be explained. That, as suggested by the text, 
 the composition “reveals secrets”, “fulfils hopes”, “removes the burden from 
 worried minds” and “teaches new skills” will become clear. This essay will 
 assert, through analysis and theory, that the question “why did Willaert compose 
 this piece?” is by no means a rhetorical one, but one that requires an answer. 
 In providing an answer the essay will reveal the technical means through which 
 the objective was achieved. The understanding of that objective—and its 
 technical attainment—will lead to a more wide-ranging reappraisal of 
 Willaert’s compositional processes and his unique sound world.