Sethus Calvisius. Melopoeia (the first part)

Sergey N. Lebedev
Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (Moscow, Russia)
0000-0002-0745-6700
olorulus@mail.ru
Arina M. Saltykova
Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (Moscow, Russia)
arishasalt@gmail.com
Abstract

Sethus Calvisius’ Melopoeia (1592) is modestly presented by the author as a brief textbook of musical — mainly polyphonic — composition. In fact, the Melopoeia with its 21 chapters  and extensive Prologue is a monument of 16th-century German culture set up by a Renaissance humanist for whom history, classical philology, mathematics, rhetoric, and other sciences were as much components of musica poetica as they were ‘mere precepts’ for composing music. This publication includes a complete edition of the original text of the Melopoeia and its translation into Russian, with modern transcriptions of more than 150 original illustrations. The edition is introduced by the article Melopoeia by Sethus Calvisius in the History of Musicology by Sergey N. Lebedev and Arina M. Saltykova, which presents a systematic overview of the scholar and didactic matters in the treatise, describes the author’s background and features of his style, identifies the main advantages and shortcomings of his doctrine.

Edited by Sergey N. Lebedev,
translated with commentaries by Sergey N. Lebedev  and Arina M. Saltykova

Acknowledgements
The authors express their sincere gratitude to Vyacheslav G. Tsypin (Doctor Habil., Fine Arts) — for consulting them on Calvisius’ Greek lexis, especially in the context of 
Ancient music theory; Aleksey Yu. Zubov (Ph.D., Mathematics) — for explanations of Calvisius’ “musical” mathematics; Nina A. Almazova (Associate Professor at the Department of Philology, St. Petersburg State University) — for help in interpretation of several obscurities in the Latin text.

References

 To the Article

  1. Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus. 2019. Osnovy muzyki [Fundamentals of Music]. Text preparation, trans. from Latin, and comment. by Sergey N. Lebedev. 2nd ed., corrected and enlarged. Moscow: Moscow Conservatory Press. (In Russian).
  2. Dvoskina, Elena M. 2004. Ot modulatio k modulyatsii: V poiskakh obshchego znamenatelya [From modulatio to modulation: in search of a common denominator]. Muzykal’naya akademiya [Music academy] no. 3/2004, 164–166. (In Russian).
  3. Lebedev, Sergey N. 2011. O metode i stile rannego Boetsiya [On Method and Style of Early Boethius]. Nauchnyy vestnik Moskovskoy konservatorii / Journal of Moscow Conservatory, no. 3/2011, 24–39. (In Russian).
  4. Kholopov, Yury. N. 2003. Garmoniya. Teoreticheskiy kurs [Harmony. Theory course]. Saint Petersburg: Lan’. (In Russian).
  5. Kholopov, Yury. N., Larissa V. Kirillina, Tatyana S. Kyuregyan, Grigory I. Lyzhov, Rimma L. Pospelova, and Valeria S. Tsenova. 2006. Muzykal’no-teoreticheskie sistemy: uchebnik dlya istoriko-teoreticheskikh i kompozitorskikh fakul’tetov muzykal’nykh vuzov [Music Theorу Systems: Textbook for Historical-Theoretical and Composing Faculties of Music Universities]. Moscow: Moscow Conservatory Press. (In Russian).
  6. Besseler, Heinrich. 1959. Das musikalische Hören der Neuzeit. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. 
  7. Calvisius, Sethus. 1602. Compendium musicae pro incipientibus conscriptum. [Ed. secunda]. Leipzig: Bartholomaeus Voigt.
  8. Calvisius, Sethus. 1611. Exercitatio musica tertia de praecipuis quibusdam in arte musica quaestionibus <...>. Leipzig: Thomas Schürer. 
  9. Calvisius, Sethus. 1600. Exercitationes musicae duae. Quarum prior est, de modis musicis <...> Posterior, de initio et progressu musices <...>. Leipzig: Jacob Apel. 
  10. Calvisius, Sethus. 1592. ΜΕΛΟΠΟIΙΑ sive melodiae condendae ratio <...>. Erfurt: Georg Baumann, 1592.
  11. Calvisius, Sethus. 1630. ΜΕΛΟΠΟIΙΑ sive melodiae condendae ratio <...>. Magdeburg: haeredes Johann. Franc.
  12. Calvisius, Sethus. 2021. Melopoiia (cap. 19–21). Transkription und Übersetzung v. M. Heffter. [s. l.], 2018. Available at: http://moritz-heffter.com/pdf/Calvisius-Melopoiia-Fuga.pdf (accessed December 15, 2021).
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  15. Dahlhaus, Carl. 1968. Untersuchungen über die Entstehung der harmonischen Tonalität. Kassel: Bärenreiter. 
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To the Edition

  1. Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus. 2019. Osnovy muzyki [Fundamentals of Music]. Text preparation, trans. from Latin, and comment. by Sergey N. Lebedev. 2nd ed., corrected and enlarged. Moscow: Moscow Conservatory Press. (In Russian).
  2. Van der Waerden, Bartel L. 1959. “Pifagoreyskoe uchenie o garmonii [The Pythagorean Doctrine of Harmony].” In Van der Waerden, Bartel L.Probuzhdayushchayasya nauka:Matematika drevnego Egipta, Vavilona i Gretsii [Science Awakening: Geometry and Algebra in Ancient Civilizations]. Moscow: GIFML. (In Russian).
  3. Lebedev, Sergey N. 2011. “O metode i stile rannego Boetsiya [On Method and Style of Early Boethius].” Nauchnyy vestnik Moskovskoy konservatorii / Journal of Moscow Conservatory], no. 3/2011, 24–39. (In Russian).
  4. Tsypin, Vyacheslav G., ed. and trans. 2019. Muzykal’nye pisateli antichnoy Gretsii [Ancient Greek Writers on Musik]. Moscow: Moscow Conservatory Press. (In Russian).
  5. Tsypin, Vyacheslav G., ed. and trans. 2013. Ptolemy, Claudius. Garmonika v trekh knigakh [Harmonics in 3 Books]. Porphyry. Kommentariy k “Garmonike” Ptolemeya [Commentary on Ptolemy’s Harmonics]. Moscow: Moscow Conservatory Press. (In Russian).
  6. Calvisius, Sethus. 1602. Compendium musicae pro incipientibus conscriptum. [Ed. secunda]. Leipzig: Bartholomaeus Voigt. 
  7. Calvisius, Sethus. 1611. Exercitatio musica tertia de praecipuis quibusdam in arte musica quaestionibus <...>. Leipzig: Thomas Schürer. 
  8. Calvisius, Sethus. 1600. Exercitationes musicae duae. Quarum prior est, de modis musicis <...> Posterior, de initio et progressu musices <...>. Leipzig: Jacob Apel. 
  9. Calvisius, Sethus. 1592. ΜΕΛΟΠΟIΙΑ sive melodiae condendae ratio <...>. Erfurt: Georg Baumann, 1592. 
  10. Calvisius, Sethus. 1630. ΜΕΛΟΠΟIΙΑ sive melodiae condendae ratio <...>. Magdeburg: haeredes Johann. Franc.
  11. Dahlhaus, Carl. 1956. “Musiktheoretisches aus dem Nachlaß des Sethus Calvisius.” Musikforschung 9,  no. 2: 129–39.
  12. Johnson, Charles W. L. 1904. “The Accentus of the Latin Ancient Grammarians.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 35, 65–76.
  13.  Meier, Bernhard. 1978. “Zur Modalität der ‘ad aequales’ disponierten Werke klassischer Vokalpolyphonie.” Festschrift Georg von Dadelsen: Zum 60. Geburtstag, edited by Thomas Kohlhase, 230–39. Neuhausen; Stuttgart: Hänssler. 
  14. Zarlino, Gioseffo. 1558. Le istitutioni harmoniche. Venezia: [s.n.]. 
  15. Zarlino, Gioseffo. 1589. Le istitutioni harmoniche. [Ed. tertia]. Venezia: Francesco de’Franceschi. 
  16. Zarlino, Gioseffo. 1588. Sopplimenti musicali. Venezia: Francesco de’ Franceschi.