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Giuseppe Michele Stratico's Treatises on Music between Theory and Practice: Edition and Commentary

Giuseppe Michele Stratico (Zadar, July 31st, 1728 – Sanguinetto, January 31st, 1783), Tartini’s student in violin and composition, dealt also with music theory. He started to form his thought in this area already within Tartini’s school, influenced by his teacher but also by Francescantonio Vallotti, another important figure of the 18th-century Paduan musical milieu, which afterwards resulted in developing of his own ideas on the subject. In the area of music theory Stratico wrote three treatises, all preserved as manuscripts in Biblioteca Marciana in Venice: Trattato di musica (in 10 versions) ; Nuovo sistema musicale (1 version) ; Lo spirito Tartiniano (1 version). Lo spirito Tartiniano, written after Tartini’s death in 1770, reflects Stratico's standpoint on his teacher’s musical system, expressed as a presentation and a critique of Tartini's treatise De' principj dell'armonia musicale contenuta nel diatonico genere. On the other hand, both the Nuovo sistema musicale, and Trattato di musica are presentations of Stratico's own musical system, with the first treatise intended for practical musicians and the second for more learned readers. The main task of this thesis was to make a transcription of Stratico’s manuscripts, which would enable further analysis and research of Stratico’s music theory. The next task was to make a study and critical analysis of Stratico’s treatises in order to determine more precisely their content and to specify Stratico’s interests and orientations in the field of music theory. Following this line, it was necessary to identify and single out which subjects were of particular interest to Stratico, the way in which he approached specific topics and how deep he elaborated the issue/s. Furthermore, on the basis of the current knowledge on the subject and the conducted analysis, the comparative method was used to identify some potential relations to Stratico’s predecessors and contemporaries, focusing in particular on possible sources of his writings, and the influences to which he was exposed. The analyses of Stratico’s theoretical writings offered us the possibility to consider it in the context of other writings on music in the 18th century. It is firstly done by examining the relationship between Stratico and his teacher Tartini. It was possible to determine two directions of that relationship: to consider Stratico as a critic of Tartini’s system (comparing Stratico’s standpoint with the comments on Tartini’s theoretical works written by Euler, d’Alembert, Serre, Blainville, Rousseau, Eximeno and Riccati), as well as to consider Tartini as a starting point of Stratico’s theoretical system (since Tartini’s work gave Stratico an impetus in several subjects, for example in the forming of the nine-tone scale, in the inclusion of the term 1/7 into the consonant system, etc.). At the end of the text, some possibilities of comparison of Stratico’s texts with other theorists of his time were offered based on several key aspects of Stratico’s theory: the basis of the system, the issue of temperament ; the openness to the seventh harmonic ; the origin of the major scale ; and the origin of the minor scale. In addition to relying on the North-Italian theoretical school, we were able to find some connections of Stratico’s thought with Euler’s theory and with some ideas of French music theorists (Rameau, Serre, Blainville), reading Stratico’s writings as a contribution to the defence of music as science. Altogether, Stratico formed his theoretical music system somewhat outside of the framework of the theoretical authorities of his time. His efforts certainly were not isolated and unique as such, but one of many approaches to music theory and practice of the time, with some original contributions. Thus, Stratico’s musical system can be considered as an interesting and valuable contribution to theoretical discussions of his time.

Giuseppe Michele Stratico ; treatises on music ; music theory ; 18th century ; Trattato di musica ; Lo spirito Tartiniano ; Nuovo sistema musicale ; Giuseppe Tartini

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