Guida e conseguente: Padre Martini and Francesco Galeazzi on fugue

This is a tale of two theorists. When Padre Giambattista Martini died in August 1784, he was hailed as «the God of Music of our times»; he had taught the young Mozart, Johann Christian Bach, and countless other aspiring contrapuntists. He had traveled little – the talented composers had come to him. Thirty-five years later, one of his admirers, Francesco Galeazzi, died unheralded, in abject poverty, following his release from jail as a political prisoner. Galeazzi had conducted operas in Rome, played the violin, composed numerous pieces, taught mathematics, invented a metronome and musical instruments, and left unpublished tracts on algebra, geometry, calculus, trigonometry, chemistry, alchemy and electricity in addition to his published two-volume treatise on music, Elementi Teorico-Pratici di Musica (1791 and 1796).

(L'articolo contiene una sintesi in lingua italiana preparata da Mario Baroni)