Girolamo Diruta

Girolamo Diruta was an Italian organist, music theorist, and composer. He was famous as a teacher, for his treatise Il Transilvano on counterpoint, and for his part in the development of keyboard technique, particularly on the organ. He was born in Deruta, near Perugia.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Girolamo Diruta.

From the period sources

Girolamo Diruta, a Franciscan friar, was known for his significant pedagogical work, Il Transilvano, Dialogo sopra il vero modo di sonar Organi ed Istromenti da penna. This treatise, which he published in Venice in folio, with the first part appearing in 1593 and a second part in 1609 (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900), was designed to instruct on playing the organ and harpsichord. Diruta, who styled himself “Organista del Duomo di Chioggia” (A General History, 1875), distinguished between instruments, noting that the organ should be played “gravely, and at the same time elegantly,” while other instruments for concerts and dancing required “spirit and vivacity.” He even suggested that the “profane and lascivious music” forbidden by the Council of Trent included dance-tunes like ‘Passemezzi’ (A General History, 1875). His work included toccatas by himself and contemporaries such as Claudio Merulo and Andrea Gabrieli, whom he mentioned “in terms of the highest respect” (A General History, 1875). Diruta was a pupil of Claudio Merulo in Venice, a fact Merulo “mentions… with pride” in his own 1598 publication (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900).