Guido of Arezzo: between mistake And serendipity

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Francisco Castillo García
Pontificie Universidad Javeriana

Keywords

Guido de Arezzo

Abstract

Few ideas have endured and impacted the history of Western music as Guido de Arezzo’s musical notation, which was formulated almost thousand years ago. This article contextualizes the contribution of the Archaean monk from a political perspective, within the framework of early Christianity and its search for unitary dogmas. From here arises a critical observation of those results, relating Guido’s original intentions with the later development of his ideas. The characteristics of his system gave an impetus to the Pythagorean approach to music, which unwittingly paved the way for many of the principles that operate in our musical life today.
With this in mind, we analyze what Guido did not do and how those shortcomings opened the possibility for the distortion his original ideas.

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Published
Sep 19, 2017
DOI https://doi.org/10.17230/ricercare.2017.7.2

Article Details

How to Cite
Castillo García, F. (2017). Guido of Arezzo: between mistake And serendipity. Ricercare, (7), 31–42. https://doi.org/10.17230/ricercare.2017.7.2
Issue
No. 7 (2017)
Section
Artículos
Author Biography

Francisco Castillo García, Pontificie Universidad Javeriana

Master in music and master in Artistic Studies. Professor of Music History at the Francisco José de Caldas District University and at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Colombian nationality. Recent publications: Castillo. F. (academic editor) (2015). Meeting of experiences and perspectives on the history of music. Bogotá: Faculty of Arts ASAB, Francisco José de Caldas District University, ISBN 9789588897240; Salazar, G., Castillo, F., Agudelo, P., and Bernal, M. (2015). The musical audition: proposed conceptions and development practices in the curriculum of musical arts. Bogotá: ASAB Faculty of Arts, Francisco José de Caldas District University; Salazar, G., Castillo, F., Agudelo, P., and Bernal, M. (2016). Conceptions of the practices of musical audition in subjects of interpretation and composition. Bogotá: Faculty of Arts ASAB, Francisco José de Caldas District University.

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