VINCENZO GALILEI. — Theoretical musician, father of Galileo, born in Florence around 1533, died there at the end of June 1591. A skilled viol and lute player, he championed monodic style and was one of the first and most important members of the Camerata de' Bardi.
He set to music the Dante episode of Count Ugolino and the Lamentations of Jeremiah, composed 2 books of Madrigals for 4 and 5 voices (Venice 1574 and 1587) and Intavolature del lutto (Rome 1563), studied Greek music, and, having discovered the Mass Hymns, published the Dialogo della musica antica e della moderna (Florence 1581). He engaged in a polemical work against his music theory teacher, Gioffredo Zarlino, with a Discorso di V. G. intorno all'opera di messer G. Zarlino ecc. (ibid. 1589) and with a 2nd ed. of the Dialogo (1602). Of notable importance for the history of music is also his Forumnio, a dialogue containing the true and necessary rules of intabulation for lute music (Venice 1568, expanded in 1584), with transcriptions of famous 16th-century compositions; 3 of his Ricercari (1584) are in Orgel und Klavier by O. Kinkeledy (Leipzig 1910, p. 283); 9 pieces for use are in Lautenspieler des 16. Jahrhunderts by O. Chilesotti (ibid. 1891).