Guido of Arezzo
Guido of Arezzo (Italian: Guido d'Arezzo;[n 1] c. 991–992 – after 1033) was an Italian music theorist and pedagogue of High medieval music. A Benedictine monk, he is regarded as the inventor—or by some, developer—of the modern staff notation that had a massive influence on the development of Western musical notation and practice.[1][2] Perhaps the most significant European writer on music between Boethius and Johannes Tinctoris,[3] after the former's De institutione musica, Guido's Micrologus was the most widely distributed medieval treatise on music.[4]
Biographical information on Guido is only available from two contemporary documents; though they give limited background, a basic understanding of his life can be unravelled. By around 1013 he began teaching at Pomposa Abbey, but his antiphonary Prologus in antiphonarium and novel teaching methods based on staff notation brought considerable resentment from his colleagues. He thus moved to Arezzo in 1025 and under the patronage of Bishop Tedald of Arezzo he taught singers at the Arezzo Cathedral. Using staff notation, he was able to teach large amounts of music quickly and he wrote the multifaceted Micrologus, attracting attention from around Italy. Interested in his innovations, Pope John XIX called him to Rome. After arriving and beginning to explain his methods to the clergy, sickness sent him away in the summer. The rest of his life is largely unknown, but he settled in a monastery near Arezzo, probably one of the Avellana of the Camaldolese order.
Context and sources[edit]
Information on Guido's life is scarce; the music historian Charles Burney asserted that the paucity of records was because Guido was a monk.[5] Burney furthered that, in the words of musicologist Samuel D. Miller, "Guido's modesty, selfless abandon from material gain life, and obedience to authority tended to obscure his moves, work, and motivations".[2] The scholarly outline of Guido's life has been subject to much mythologization and misunderstandings.[6] These dubious claims include that he spent much of life in France (recorded as early as Johannes Trithemius's 1494 De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis); that he trained in the Saint-Maur-des-Fossés near Paris;[6] and unsupported rumours that he was imprisoned because of plots from those hostile to his innovations.[2]
The primary surviving documents associated with Guido are two undated letters; a dedicatory letter to Bishop Tedald of Arezzo and a letter to his colleague Michael of Pomposa, known as the Epistola ad Michaelem.[7][n 2] These letters provide enough information and context to map of the main events and chronology of Guido's life,[7] though Miller notes that they do "not permit a detailed, authoritative sketch".[2]
Life and career[edit]
Early life[edit]
Guido was born sometime between 990 and 999.[7] This birthdate range was conjectured from a now lost and undated manuscript of the Micrologus, where he stated that he was age 34 while John XIX was pope (1024–1033).[7] Swiss musicologist Hans Oesch's dating of the manuscript to 1025–1026 is agreed by scholars Claude V. Palisca, Dolores Pesce and Angelo Mafucci, with Mafucci noting that it is "now unanimously accepted".[10][11][n 3] This would suggest a birthdate of c. 991–992.[10][n 4]
Guido's birthplace is even less certain, and has been the subject of much disagreement between scholars,[13] with music historian Cesarino Ruini noting that due to Guido's pivotal significance "It is understandable that several locations in Italy claim the honor of having given birth to G[uido]".[6][n 5] There are two principal candidates: Arezzo, Tuscany or the Pomposa Abbey on the Adriatic coast near Ferrara.[14][n 6] Musicologist Jos. Smits van Waesberghe asserted that he was born in Pomposa due to his strong connection with the Abbey from c. 1013–1025; according to Van Waesberghe, Guido's epitaph 'of Arezzo' is because of his stay of about a dozen years there later in life.[11] Disagreeing with Van Waesberghe's conclusions, Mafucci argued that were Guido born in Pomposa, he would have spent nearly 35 years there and would thus more likely be known as 'of Pomposa'.[11] Mafucci cites the account of the near-contemporary historian Sigebert of Gembloux (c. 1030–1112) who referred to Guido as "Guido Aretinus" (Guido of Arezzo), suggesting that the early use of such a designation means Guido's birthplace was Arezzo.[16] Citing recently unearthed documents in 2003, Mafucci identified Guido with a Guido clerico filius Roze of the Arezzo Cathedral.[17] If Mafucci is correct, Guido would have received early musical education at the Arezzo Cathedral from a deacon named Sigizo and was ordained as a subdeacon and active as a cantor.[18][n 7]