Adrian Willaert and the Theory of Interval Affect: The Musica nova Madrigals and the Novel Theories of Zarlino and Vicentino (Hardcover)

In the writings of Nicola Vicentino (1555) and Gioseffo Zarlino (1558) is found, for the first time, a systematic means of explaining music's expressive power based upon the specific melodic and harmonic intervals from which it is constructed.

This 'theory of interval affect' originates not with these theorists, however, but with their teacher, influential Venetian composer Adrian Willaert (1490-1562).

Because Willaert left no theoretical writings of his own, Timothy McKinney uses Willaert's music to reconstruct his innovative theories concerning how music might communicate extramusical ideas.

For Willaert, the appellations 'major' and 'minor' no longer signified merely the larger and smaller of a pair of like-numbered intervals; rather, they became categories of sonic character, the members of which are related by a shared sounding property of 'majorness' or 'minorness' that could be manipulated for expressive purposes.