Notes about the analytical categories of Joachim Burmeister (1564-1629)

Abstract

Joachim Burmeister’s analytical categories are considered one of the first attempts in the History of Western Music to promote the knowledge of a piece of music. However, the amount of references that situates them at the root of a succession of a musical-analytical practice is directly proportional to their incomprehension and undervaluation as an effective tool to know the repertoire they were conceived for. Maybe, it is because they do not respond to the questions made by many modern critics and analysts who, unlike Burmeister, seem to ignore their contribution to identify the compositional crafts and to constitute models for imitation. Considering that these categories used to respond to questions that were relevant for Sixteenth-Century musicians, this article aims to bring notes that contribute to the comprehension of these categories in their own terms, recovering references of their horizon of meaning, articulating them and resignifying them in our own time.