Della Valle, Pietro (EN)

Della Valle Pietro, known as Il Pellegrino, *11 April 1586 Rome, †21 April 1652 Rome, Italian music theorist, composer, and writer. He came from the Roman aristocracy; from an early age he studied music (harpsichord, viola da gamba) with prominent Roman musicians: S. Tavolaccia, Q. Solini, M. Fraticelli, and P. Quagliati. In his youth he spent some time in Naples and Sicily. In the years 1614–26 he travelled in the countries of the East, reaching as far as India; from his journeys he brought back numerous transcriptions of Oriental melodies. Della Valle was actively involved in the artistic life of Rome, participating among others in the Accademia degli Umoristi (where he was known as Il Fantastico). He organized theatrical and musical events, for which he often wrote texts or music. The first of these was Carro di fedeltà d’Amore (with music by P. Quagliati), a dramatized serenade performed during the 1606 carnival on a carriage in the streets of Rome. Della Valle was also deeply interested in new trends in sacred music, especially the so-called dialogues, dramatic devotional performances staged in several Roman oratories (Della Vallicella, Della Morte, Del Santissimo Crocefisso). He himself wrote music for a number of them, performed in oratories and in the Palazzo della Valle. It is believed that he was the first to transfer the term oratorio to the form of the musical work itself. 

Only one composition by Della Valle has survived; the others are known from references in his letters to G.B. Doni from the years 1640–47, so the list presented above is certainly fragmentary. In his compositions, Della Valle primarily realized the principles of ancient Greek theory of ethos and scale structure (based on interpretations by G.B. Doni), introducing several transposed Greek modes, for example, in the dialogue Per la festa della Santissima Purificazione he used five modes: Dorian, Phrygian, Aeolian, Lydian, and Hypolydian. For the proper realization of vocal accompaniment, he designed specially tuned instruments: the violone panarmonico and the cembalo triarmonico (enharmonic keyboard) with three manuals, each tuned for a different system. In his treatise Discorso della musica dell’età nostra, Della Valle summarized the principles of the new 17th-century musical style, identifying clarity of texture and the expressive function of musical means, as well as their close connection with the text, as fundamental. He also included a large number of observations on contemporary performance practice, especially vocal technique. The text constitutes one of the most extensive sources for the history of musical life in Rome during this period.

Literature: A. Solerti Le origini del melodramma, Turin 1903; D. Alaleona Studi sulla storia dell’oratorio musicale in Italia, Turin 1908, 2nd ed. Milan 1945; A. Ziino P. Della Valle e la musica erudita, “Analecta Musicologica” 1967; H.E. Smither A History of the Oratorio, vol. 1, Chapell Hill 1977; E. Gross Music Manuscripts in the Library of St. Bonifaz, Munich. A Preliminary Catalogue, «Miscellanea Musicologica» VIII, Adelaide 1975; R. Giazotto Il grande viaggio di P. Della Valle il „Pellegrino” (1612–1626), Rome 1988; R.R. Holzer „Sono d’altro garbo… Le canzonette ehe si cantano oggi”. P. Della Valle on Music and Modernity in the Seventeenth Century, “Studi musicali” XXI, 1992; Z.M. Szweykowski Między kunsztem a ekspresją, vol. 2: Rzym, Polish trans. Discorso sulla musica dell’età nostra, Krakow 1994; S. Leopold and J. Steinheuer Al modo d’Orfeo. Dichtung und Musik im italienischen Sologesang des frühen 17. Jahrhunderts, “Analecta Musicologica” XXIX, 1995.