The Role of Music in Tasso’s Reflections on the Value of Poetry

AMONG ITALIAN RENAISSANCE WRITERS , Torquato Tasso has received particular attention with respect to the relationship between poetry and music, and understandably so. He was an illustrious poet whose verse was often set to music, both during and after his lifetime, and whose theoretical reflections contain numerous considerations on the connection between these two arts. Critics have focused primarily on the relationship between Tasso andmusical practice, that is, actual compositions that use Tasso’s verse as lyrics, or various aspects of contemporary composition vis-à-vis the poetic, stylistic, and rhetorical norms that Tasso articulates in his writings. Others have studied the connection between Tasso and music within discussions of his Neoplatonism and the concept of music as divine harmony. There is, however, another facet that has been overlooked: the conspicuous role that music (a term I will use in this article to refer to compositions and performance) and musicality (which I will use to indicate the “musical” qualities of poetry, such as verse and rhyme) play in Tasso’s crucial reflections on the definition of poetry, as well as on its specific value: what can be accomplished only by poetry, and what distinguishes poetry from other forms of expression. Tasso asks whether music is necessary for poetry’s perfection, and if a poem’s musicality is a defining element of poetry. Is poetry distinguished from other fields of human learning