Original scientific paper

Some Musical-Philosophical Themes in Miho Monaldi's Work

Stanislav Tuksar ; Muzička akademija, Zagreb, Hrvatska

Abstract

Irene, ovvero della bellezza (Irene, or On Beauty) by Miho Monaldi from Dubrovnik (ca. 1540-1592), a poet, mathematician, and philosopher, was the first muslical-theoretical and muslical-philosophical system created on the Croatian side of the Adriatic Sea. The eight dialog' of the work is completely devoted to discussing music, and the main issues are: the beautiful in music, the types of classification of music, aesthetical analysis of polyphony and monody, the relation between music and mathematics, the educational, ethical, and cognitive values of music (axiology), the relation between poetry, rhetorics, and music, the theory of meaning in music, and the relation between music and politics. From the history of philosophy standpoint, Monaldi's thought on music is mainly an eclectic combination of certain Medieval doctrines and Renaissance neo-Platnosim and Aristotelianism, but it also shows some specific qualities; among these, his concept of meaning in music may be considered as quite original. On the whole, however, Monaldi's philosophy of music does not follow Gioseff Zarlino's innovative path of understanding music as an independent art; rather, more conservatively, it maintains the idea of the heteronomous quality of music.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

68068

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/68068

Publication date:

5.12.2005.

Article data in other languages: croatian

Visits: 881 *