Contrapuntal and keyboard idioms in the Artificioso Collection (1641) of Giovanni Pietro Del Buono

Music in the early seventeenth century is marked by important stylistic changes. The co-existence of the art of 'strict' counterpoint and of the evolvement of the traits of the stile moderno and the experimentation resulting from Vicentino's theories constitutes a composite phenomenon in regard to music in southern Italy. Giovanni Pietro Del Buono is one ofthe composers who incorporates and merges all the above elements in a very artful and fascinating collection of seventy-two canons; twelve oblighi and fourteen sonatas, all based on the hymn Ave Maris Stella which is used as a cantllsfirmlls. The concept of artificioso compositions, which depicts music as an art with an important intellectual side, reflects the scientific development and supremacy of intellectual culture in the seventeenth century. Many collections containing pieces composed with particularly complex compositional techniques appeared at that time. In the present thesis a collection so far overlooked is examined and conclusions are drawn concerning Del Buono's particular compositional idiom. An analytical account of the canons and oblighi proves that they are not only products ofthe stile antico and ofthe Roman school, but have influences from both the traits ofthe stile moderno and the Neapolitan musical idiom. A detailed account is provided of some of the sonatas, revealing techniques related to hexachordal theory and Vicentino's theories concerning chromaticism. Also proved is the fact that the manuscript containing the resolutions ofthe canons and oblighi is not an original manuscript by Del Buono, as scholars have previously stated, but is, in fact, from a later date, written by an unknown scribe.In the second part ofthe thesis an edition is included of the whole collection in modern transcription.