Chiti, Martini e gli albori della storia della musica

Girolamo Chiti (1679-1759), maestro di cappella of San Giovanni in Laterano and epigone of the so-called ‘Roman school’, was one of the most assiduous correspondents of Father Giambattista Martini. Over fourteen years, between 1745 and 1759, in fact, the two exchanged over four hundred letters. Thanks to this correspondence, the article scrutinizes the fundamental help offered by Chiti to Martini in preparing his Storia della musica, on the one hand, with the finding and continuous sending of precious materials, such as treatises on musical theory, and ancient and modern compositions; on the other, with the fruitful exchange of ideas on music, especially sacred. Even if both were convinced that the foundation of composition should be understood in counterpoint treatises and sixteenth-century polyphony, in the light of their ideas and work, Chiti and Martini reveal themself not as conservatives, opponents of modernity, but as two personalities participating in an authentic eighteenth-century spirit.