While he was a moderately prolific composer, and his
motets are polished and display a mastery of canonic
counterpoint, his principal claim to fame was his work as a theorist. While
Pietro Aaron may have been the first theorist to describe a version of
meantone, Zarlino seems to have been the first to do so with exactitude, describing 2/7-comma meantone in his
Le istitutioni harmoniche in 1558. Zarlino also described the 1/4-comma meantone and 1/3-comma meantone, considering all three temperaments to be usable. In more recent times, these have been approximated by the 50- 31- and 19-tone
equal temperaments, respectively. In his
Dimostrationi harmoniche of 1571, he revised the numbering of modes to make the finales of the mode conform to the notes of the natural hexachord. He also wrote a treatise by the name of
Sopplimenti Musicali, published in 1588, dedicated to
Pope Sixtus V . Zarlino was the first to theorize the primacy of
triad over
interval as a means of structuring harmony. His exposition of
just intonation based on proportions within the "Senario" (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and 8 is a departure from the previously established
Pythagorean diatonic system as passed on by
Boethius. See:
Ptolemy's intense diatonic scale. He was also one of the first theorists to offer an explanation for the prohibition of parallel fifths and octaves in counterpoint, and to study the effect and harmonic implications of the false relation. Zarlino's writings, primarily published by
Francesco Franceschi, spread throughout Europe at the end of the 16th century. Translations and annotated versions were common in
France,
Germany, as well as in the
Netherlands among students of
Sweelinck, thus influencing the next generation of musicians who represented the early
Baroque style. Zarlino's compositions are more conservative in idiom than those of many of his contemporaries. His madrigals avoid the homophonic textures commonly used by other composers, remaining polyphonic throughout, in the manner of his motets. His works were published between 1549 and 1567, and include 41 motets, mostly for five and six voices, and 13 secular works, mostly madrigals, for four and five voices. His 10 motets on the
Song of Songs used the text of
Isidoro Chiari's translation of the
Bible. ==Recordings==