GALILEI, VINCENZO  

The father of the controversial scientist Galileo, Vincenzo Galilei was not only a lutenist, singer and composer but also a prolific music theorist. He wrote several important treatises and was an active member of the Florence Camerata of his patron Giovanni de Bardi, with its aim of reviving the ancient Greek ideals of the union of music and poetry. Galilei studied music theory with Zarlino in Venice, where he published his first major theoretical work Fronimo, with its practical illustrations of expressive lute tablature, in 1568. His published music included collections of madrigals and of lute tablature, while his other writings reveal a modern approach to theoretical questions of his time.