Ramos de Pareja, Bartolomé (EN)

Ramos de Pareja, Ramis de Pareia, Ramus, Bartolomé, Bartolomeo, Bartolomeus, *ca. 1440 Baeza (Andalusia), †after 1490 Rome (?), Spanish theorist and composer active mainly in Italy. Little is known about his biography, the only information comes from his will and later writings. He was probably a lecturer of uncertain status at the university in Salamanca, where he wrote in Spanish the treatise Introductorium seu Isagogicon and composed a mass (both now lost). From around 1470 he stayed in Italy; it is known that he taught music in Bologna and had private pupils, including Giovanni Spataro, whose writings provide most of the information about the composer’s life. In 1482, two editions of Ramos de Pareja’s treatise Musica practica were published; the second part, titled Musica theorica, was not published.

Ramos de Pareja disregarded classical treatises, including those of Guido of Arezzo, emphasizing empirical methods, which was uncommon in his time. He did not share the views of Boethius, recognizing as consonant the major third (5:4) and minor third (6:5), instead of the Pythagorean ratios 81:64 and 32:27 respectively, an extension of an observation by William of Odington. Spataro emphasized that these intervals were indeed used in contemporary practice. Ramos de Pareja also argued that there is no essential acoustic difference between the tritone and the diminished fifth; this, along with his frequent references to practice and use of sound examples, may indicate early tendencies toward the adoption of meantone temperament, which undoubtedly influenced later theorists of this tuning system. Ramos de Pareja also proposed replacing Guido of Arezzo’s system of solmization with an earlier octave-based syllabic system using the text psal-li-tur per vo-ces is-tas (“it is sung with these syllables”); however, he later abandoned this idea and returned to traditional solmization.

Ramos de Pareja also disputed with his contemporaries over the relationship between tempus perfectum and tempus imperfectum: he considered the value of the brevis to be equal in both, whereas Tinctoris and Gaffurius regarded the minim as equal, with the brevis in tempus perfectum being twice as long as in tempus imperfectum. Ramos de Pareja’s views did not gain followers; perhaps for this reason (as well as the polemical tone of his treatise) he did not obtain a position at the university in Bologna, which he left before 1484 to go to Rome.

Apart from the lost mass, Ramos de Pareja composed a Magnificat, a Requiem, and the motet Tu lumen, tu splendor Patris. It is known that the Kyrie and Gloria from the Mass, as well as a canzonetta, were sent to Ercole I d’Este, duke of Ferrara. A round canon by Ramos de Pareja, Mundus et musica et totus concentus, has also been preserved in a Flemish songbook.

Literature: G. Spataro Honesta defensio in Nicolai Burtii parmensis Opusculum, Bologna 1491 and Errori di Franchino Gafurio, Bologna 1521; F. Gaffurius Practica musicae, Milan 1496; C. Terni Commentary, „Musica practica” de B. Ramos de Pareja, Madrid 1983; A.M. Busse Berger Mensuration and Proportion Signs, Oxford 1993.