Musical Offerings, Fall 2016

Musical Offerings

⦁

2016

⦁

Volume 7

⦁

Number 2

Musical Offerings

, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 67–81.

ISSN 2330-8206 (print); ISSN 2167-3799 (online);

Casting the Bigger Shadow: The Methods and

Business of Petrucci vs. Attaingnant

Sean A. Kisch

Cedarville University

he music printing of Ottaviano Petrucci has been largely

regarded by historians to be the most elegant and advanced form

of music publishing in the Renaissance, while other printers,

such as Pierre Attaingnant, are given only an obligatory nod. While

Petrucci’s triple impression method produced cleaner and more

connected staves, it resulted in a significant number of problems,

including loss of pitch accuracy and decreased cost efficiency.

Attaingnant’s single impression method solved most of these difficulties,

while only sacrificing a small amount of visual aesthetic. Despite

Attaingnant’s advancements, he achieved success to a lesser degree

while Petrucci managed to become the most prolific and widespread

music publisher during his lifetime. How did Petrucci manage to gain a

twenty-year legal monopoly in Venice, and how did he stay in tune with

his clients’ needs and music demands? While the single impression

method of Attaingnant outlasted Petrucci’s triple impression method due

to more efficient and accurate technology, Petrucci was more ultimately

more successful during his time because of his business skills.

Petrucci has often been recognized as the father of music printing, and

with good reason. However, he was not the first to publish music with a

printing press. His first volume appeared in 1501, but other published

music in varying forms serves as a precursor to his first great work.

For

instance, liturgical chant had been printed from type during the last

decades of the fifteenth century; wood-block carvings and metal cuts

Stanley Boorman,

Studies in the Printing, Publishing and Performance of

Music in the Sixteenth Century

(Burlington: Ashgate, 2005), 303.