Valentini, Pier Francesco (EN)

Valentini, Valentino, Valentinus, Pier Francesco, *baptized 1 November 1586, Rome, †probably 21 March 1654, Rome, Italian composer, theorist, and writer. He studied under G.B. Nanino; he came from an aristocratic family, did not practice music professionally, and published little. Most of his collections were published posthumously, and a significant part of them has been lost. Valentini was renowned as the most outstanding master of counterpoint in the early Baroque period.

Valentini’s fairly extensive musical output has not yet been studied. His most famous works include the canons Illos tuos for 2–5 voices and Canone nel Nodo di Salomone for 96 voices (with many possible realizations). They have been published many times and cited as examples of contrapuntal artistry in the writings of A. Kircher (Musurgia universalis, 1650) and F.W. Marpurg (Kritische Briefe über die Tonkunst, 1760–64). Valentini’s polyphonic canons, motets, and masses, intended for two or five choirs of homogenous vocal registers, are examples of the monumental Roman style; they are dominated by polyphonic texture without instrumental accompaniment. Sacred concertos with basso continuo refer to similar works by L. Viadana and G.F. Anerio. In his secular works, Valentini used his own poetic texts. Valentini was a very active theorist, interested in temperament, counterpoint, tactus, proportions, and other metrical and agogic issues. One of his most original theories is the proposal of a new tonal system comprising 24 modes, presented in Duplitonio.

Literature: L. Kunz Die Tonartenlehre des römischen Theoretikers und Komponisten Pier Francesco Valentini, Kassel 1937; M. Casini-Cortesi, Pier Francesco Valentini. Profilo di un musicista barocco, “Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana” XVII, 1983; M. Murata Pier Francesco Valentini on Tactus and Proportion, in: Frescobaldi Studies, ed. A. Silbiger, Durham 1987; G. Gerbino Canoni edenigmi. Pier Francesco Valentini e l’artificio canonico nella prima metà del Seicento, Rome 1995; M. Lamla Pier Francesco Valentini, Romano Micheli, Sante Naldini und der Grabstein der päpstlichen Sänger, “Analecta Musicologica” XXX, 1998; L. Wuidar Pier Francesco Valentini Romano, théories musico-astronomiques, jeu d’astrologie et énigmes musicales dans la Rome du XVIIème siècle, “Bulletin de l’Institut Historique Belge de Rome” LXXIV, 2004; L. Wuidar Musique et démonologie au XVIIème siècle de Jean Bodin à Pier Francesco Valentini, “Studi musicali” XXXVI, 2007; P. Barbieri On the linear approximation of equal temperament: P.F. Valentini (c1640) vs G.B. De Lorenzi (1870), with a possible application to Nicola Vicentino’s ETS 31 in: Tuning and temperament: Practice vs science, 1450–2020, ed. P. Barbieri, Rome 2023; J. Stoessel Pier Francesco Valentini and musical canons in the visual culture of early modern Rome in: Belonging, detachment and the representation of musical identities in visual culture, eds. A. Baldassarre, A. Teniswood-Harvey, Vienna 2023.