Guido of Arezzo
first part of the 11th century · Italian
Biography
Guido of Arezzo was born in the town of Arezzo toward the end of the 10th century and was sent to a monastery to study for the clergy. More interested in music than scripture, he devised a revolutionary new system of musical notation, so unconventional that the monks drove him from the monastery. His system proved so effective that a student could gain in five months what previously required ten years of study, and his fame eventually led to his recall so he could instruct the Pope himself in the new method. He died as prior of Avellano on May 17, 1050. The author notes that Guido's reputation was so towering that later historians attributed to him virtually every musical advance of his era, including, in some accounts, the invention of the movable bridge on the monochord, the keyboard, and even the clavichord, though the text treats these broader attributions with some skepticism. Dolge calls Guido of Arezzo "that great musical genius" and notes that whether he actually invented the keyboard for a polychord instrument, or was merely the first to apply an existing keyboard to one, cannot be proven from surviving records. What is established, in Dolge's telling, is that the keyboard was applied to stringed instruments during Guido's lifetime, in the early eleventh century. Guido's diatonic scale, consisting of eight full tones with seven intervals, two of which were semitones, was used in the earliest clavichords, which had twenty keys. Guido is thus presented as a pivotal, if imperfectly documented, figure in the transition of the keyboard from organs to stringed keyboard instruments, the ancestral line leading toward the piano. Guido of Arezzo is described as the inventor, about 100 A.D., of the movable bridge placed under the string of the monochord. This innovation was intended to assure quicker and more correct intonation when the monochord was used, such as in Roman churches, to sound the keynote for chorus singing. The text presents his invention as a step in the chain of improvements to the monochord that preceded the development of keyed instruments.
Highlights
- Invented the movable bridge under the string of the monochord, about 100 A.D., to improve the accuracy of intonation
- Called "that great musical genius" by Dolge
- Associated with the first application of the keyboard to stringed instruments, early 11th century
- His diatonic scale of eight tones and seven intervals was used in the first clavichords
- Established the principle and system of musical notation, letting a scholar learn in five months what previously took ten years.
- Was expelled from his monastery for his revolutionary musical ideas, then later recalled to instruct the Pope in his method.
- Died as prior of Avellano on May 17, 1050; also credited by some historians with inventing the movable bridge on the monochord and the keyboard.
Source
Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), pp. 28, 77, 215.
Public domain.