The chapel master, composer and music theorist Pietro Pontio (1532-1596), who worked in northern Italy, published two textbooks in dialogue form that built on each other, the "Ragionamento di musica" (1588) and the "Dialogo ove si tratta della theorica e prattica di musica" (1595). Both publications are key works from the period around 1600 and show how music was taught and learnt in the transition between the Renaissance and Baroque.
The project is being carried out in cooperation between the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (FHNW), the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg and the Centre for Philology and Digitality there and is based on three pillars:
- 1. Digital edition and translation (German/English) of the two dialogues with their musical examples on a customised online infrastructure (open access). Commentaries and a glossary place Pontio in the musical, music-theoretical, aesthetic and cultural context of his time.
- 2. Pontio's musical examples are analysed using digital methods of corpus research. Two corpora are defined for this purpose: A) Pontio's numerous but only verbally indicated examples of compositions from the 16th century and B) Pontio's own innovative musical examples in comparison to later treatises that show a similar approach.
- 3. A practical aspect of today's reception is the source-based development of innovative didactics for teaching music theory (counterpoint, analysis, improvisation) at conservatoires and universities. Through interactive formats and media dissemination, the potential of Pontio's dialogues is made accessible to a wider circle of users.
The aim of the "Musico Pratico" project is to provide contemporary access to the sources, which can thus be used for today's research, music practice and teaching. The complementary expertise of the participating institutions in Basel and Würzburg should work together productively and provide impetus for digital music research and artistic-pedagogical practice.