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Page 1
View in PDF(opens in a new window)DALE ADKıns,C-
Chepter VIIT
I OVS SES CU TUE POTCCHORD
ALL
The exnleyment of the monochord for symbolic and
religious purposes is encountered net infrequently throughout its veriod of sreetest use
(up to about 1700).
In
|
its role as a symbolic device the moncchord is only a
part of a wicesprecd utilization ef music to renresent or
exnlain the intanzible esvects of Mants envircment.
Two of the intangible asnects of the environment
that were exrlainel by means of music are the nsy;chology
cfPa) behavior, and Cisecse.
The Greeks, in attemnting to
undlerstani and exnlain human bahavior, develonedc theories
of the emcticnal and moral irfiuence of
the mcdes.
In
later eras a siniler influence of music was also thought
to be particulerly efficacious in the treatment anc cure
of disease.
Both of these applications survived the Creek
and medieval eres,
sc that one sees the sunposed emoticnal
connotations cf the modes culminating in the doctrine of
affecticns in the eishteenth century.
Tne exployrent of
music to treet Gisease still survives in music therany.
R
that was frequently explained
tirouch music was the universe.
Trusic was use
Fu
x
A third intancible
in this
instance not necesszrily te explain the workings of
Page 2
View in PDF(opens in a new window)te relate tre universe
that wes alrescv uncerstecd:
te
sonethins
LS +
univers: se much ac
4
such e relation could be
The efention ef music es a war
to exzlain the
nainown eririnstei in the nurber symbolisms cP
corcans,
In the ecrly Christien Church,
ühe
mrber
Pythasymbolisn,
an. consecuentiy musienl sy..belicem, vas used to represent
the perfection or unity thet existed in Ged.
monechord, as an esrpect of
The symbolic
this nunber symbolism, vas
Geveloneéd in the leter Viddle Aces as a simnle means of
5} music, ef man's enviroment
the unity, threush
shoving
Men's environment was always renres.nte® unon the
monceïrcre by planetaiy syrbols snd the unity
the sinrle strinzt.
u
+]
re
wae
el
2
.
+
5
ty
ct
n
a
M
?
ct
5
53
\H
In sars rerresentations (Plate 55)
Got, presenting
Tran tne clouds, was shown
et
the hand c
ct
a
of God by
Terture was aceed'to insure that
everyone would rececnize tie unifyiny power of God exSreserd in the single siphac.
this Crovins,
wien cre
The plonetary sribols tn
of Greg:
orlcin,
2re a manifesteation of Pythrsorean number sysbelism br the har:ony of
Lie sineres;
tre expression of the unite of Get is Mike-
“ice a result of Fyhhecorsan muibor svubolien, mmiifisd
AS
NAG aRy AND PRINT
TWAS
MOCRO
Page 3
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Plete 33.
A symbolic illustration
of the monochord.l
mn
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Page 5
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Elements of Pythagorean Symboli
The originality of the Pythasoreans came fron the
develorment of two fundamental principles:
the decad,
which contained all numbers and therefore all thinzs; and
the seonetric conception of mathematics.
Tne Pythagoreans
observed that all their surroundinzs were based on nunerical relationships.
They found number mtterns in such
diverse elements as the growt of plants and animals,
the
daily movement of the sun and the changes cf the seasons,
musicel intervals, and the relationships of the
Fran these
planets.
they derived täsir interpretation of the cosmos
anû a connection between number and being.
music to rerresent many of
nartly because
The use of
these observations came about,
of the general knowledce cf music, and
partly because it apvealed to the senses of sicht and hearing as well as provicing stimulus to the mind.
tionsntino of muste to the nunbers ef
The relathe decad has been
mentioned earlier in this study in the discussions cf
Pythagorean tuning.
the
Its connection with the universe cam
about through its numerical similarity to the Tytnagorsan
conception of sec:ctrical mathematical relaticnships.
Ey
means of the philoscphicnl avnlication of tne decad and
the geonetrical concenticn of mathematics,
tne Pythasoreans
Page 6
View in PDF(opens in a new window)and tieir successora develened tic Internretations cr the
universe.
Tas earliest cf these,
mself,
said to have originated
is ronresente by the harzony of
the spheres and may be said to ba the more popular,
crete expression cf the universe.
The
conother interpretation,
best represented by the universe of Flato's Timaeus, is a
more abstrect expression of the Pythagorean philosophies.
Tre Hamıony of
A
the Spheres
The harmony of the spheres,
the more popular representation of the Pythasorean universe,
is mentioned by
many writers alter Plato, appesring most prominently in
the works of the neo-Pythagorean and neo-Platonic writers.
One cf its earliest detractors was Aristotle, who, in the
treatise De caclo, laughingly derlded the hamnony of the
svaeres as "Harmony, Heavenly He mony ."?
of
course,
Aristotle vas,
not overly syupa the the with the Pythagoreans;
besides ridiculing their concent of celestial music, he
also criticized their fundamental teachings.
In his
conciusion on the relationships cf nunbers and things in
tne Fetarhysics he wrote:
2.
Henry G. Farmer, iMstovrical Facts fer the Arabian
Tnfluence (Zonion:
w. Reeves, 1950), 107.
Page 7
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Many troubles witch these men have with the
reneration of maibers and their inability
to bring then tosether in any coherent way
soems to inticate that matnematical entities
are net senarate ron sensible things, as
core woule neve them to be, and that they
are not the first principles.
Aristotle's comments were often cited by writers of the
iiegcle Ages as Goed reascns for not believing in the
On the
otner hend, favorable references
to the
le
theory wore made by Aristotle's
contemporary, Plato, who
used
the narzony of
the scheres as part of a representaticn
of the universe in his "Myth of Er."
Cicero, in the second
+
century, 3.0., also relied heavily on the idea of heavenly
music
in
the
Dream of Scipio,
than Plate had.
deseribing it more
in detail
In one passage, when Scipio asked:
"What
is this great and pleasinz sound that fills my ears?,"
‘he was answered:
"That is a concord of tones separated
by unecual but nevertheless caverully proportioned intervals,
caused by the rarid motion cf the svheres thenselves."*
Cicerc's comment 2ocut the "unegusl but nevertheless
carefully vrenertionsd tnterveals," is indicative of the
5.
Aristotle,
fristetlets Metaphysics,
A.
l'acrobius,
Commentary on
(New Yorks
tr. by
Richard Hone
Colirnbin University Press, 1952), 318.
the Dream of Scipio,
Willtam 3. Stahl (Sew York:
tr. by
Columbia University Fress,
Page 8
View in PDF(opens in a new window)direction taken by the writers of the early Christian era,
in whose works the discussion of the harmony of the
spheres usually centered around the intervals produced by
the planets rather than the symbolic aspects of the
From the works of the neo-Pythagoreans Nicomachus,
theory.
|
|
Facrobius, Pliny, end Porphyry, Sir Thomas Stanley collected the following quaint account of the harmony of the
spheres.
The names of sounds in all probability
were derived from the seven stars which move
circularly in the heavens and compass the
earth. The circwı-agitation of these bodies
must of necessity cause a sound; for air
being struck, from the intervention of the
blow, sends fortha noise.
Nature herself
constraining that the violent collision of
twc bodies should end in sound.
Now, say the Pythagoreans,
all bodies
which are carried round with noise, one
yielöing and gently receding from the other,
must necessarily cause sounds different from
each otner, in the magnitude and swiftness
of voice and in plece, which are either more
fluctuating, or, on the contrary, more reluctant.
macnitude,
But these three differences of
celerity and local distance, are
manifestly existent in the planets, which are
constantly witı scund, circum-egitated
throush the aetherial diffusion. .. .
Moroover the sound which is made by
striling the air, induceth Into the ear something sweet and musical, or harsh and discordant; for if @ certain observation of
numbers moderated the blow, it effects a
harmony consonant to itself; but if it be
tenerarious, not soverned by measures, there
proceeds a troubled unpleasant noise, which
offends the ear.
Low in heaven nothing is
Page 9
View in PDF(opens in a new window)produced casually,
notiing toricrarinous;
all things there proceed according to divine
rules anc settled .roportion;
whence irrefragably is inferred, that sounds which proceed [rem the conversion of the celestial
snhcres are musical.
Tor sound necessarily
nroceeds fron moticn, end the proportion which
is in ell divine ting‚s causeth the harmony
ef this sound. This Pythacoras, first of all
the Creexs, conceived in his mind; and understood that the spheres sounded something concordant, because of the necessity cf proportion, weich never forsakes celestial beings.
The Fythasoreans thoucht that the musicel interval
formed by the Earth end the Moon was that of a tone; Moon
and Mercury, a semitone; l'ercury and Venus, a semitone;
Venus and Sun, a minor third; Sun and Mars, a
tone; Mars
and Jupiter, e semitone; Jupiter end Seturn,
2 semitone;
Saturnani the sphore of fixed stars (or the Suprene
Neaven), a minor third.
isC D
E-flat
E
G
The resulting Pythecorean scale
A
B-flat
B
D, althoush accounts
given by different writers vary somewhat.
tne scale nassed on by Censcrinus has a
ton instead of a minor third.)°
(For example,
semitone at the
These pseudo-scientific
accounts of une neo-Pythecoreans provided the basis of the
erriy medieval concertion cf the harmony of the spheres.
5.
SirThomas Stanley, History of Phi losorhy (1701),
S25 - 536, reprinted in Sir denn Tawkins, À General
Hist ory of tre Science and Practice of wusie,
e&., © vols. (Loncon:
6.
“Novello, 1853), T,
Hawkins, op. cit., I, 65.
Page 10
View in PDF(opens in a new window)When this was combined with the number symbolism of the
early Christian church it appears that, for at least
several centuries, it was generally believed that the
planets actually did make music -- music that was, however,
inaudible.
According to tradition, Pythagoras alone had the
gift of actually hearing the music of the spheres.
Ordinary mortals lecked this gift, either because they were,
from the moment of birth, unknowingly but constantly bathed
in the celestial humming; or because -- as Lorenzo explains
in the Merchant of Venice -- they were too grossly constituted:
. + « soft stillness and the night
Becane the touches of sweet harmony...
Loox how the floor of heaven
is thick inlaid with patines of bricht gold;
There's not the suallest orb which thou behold'st
Bat in his motion like an angel sings...
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But, wailst this muddy vesture of decay
7
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.
The literature of the Renaissance is rich in references both to the harmony of the spheres and to the reasons
for ite inaudibility.
These reasons, based on centuries
of Pythagorean tradition, appear even in the musical treatises of this era.
7.
For instance, Wolfgang Figulus (1565)
Williem Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (London,
1600), new edition (New York: French, 1860), Act V,
Scene I.
Page 11
View in PDF(opens in a new window)attributes beth the
invention of music and
the discovery
tie harmony ct the spneres to Pychasoras, conenting
that
the cosmic music "ts inandible by men on account of
the custan of neglect."
In addition te references to
spneres in literary sources,
tne harmon; of the
the basic concepts cf
the
Pythasorean nimser thecries are evident in all areas of
medieval and nenaissante endeavor, resulting in applicstiens
that
at
se
N
ct
es
m to center around tho following idee.
fmong many tensts of the Pythacorcans,
one was that there is a goneral and universal
concent or harnony in the parts of the universe,
an! that tre arineiples of wusic rervece the
inole material world; for which reason they
say that the whele world 13 enharmonic.
And
in cemvarison they assert that these proporticns into which the corsonances in music are
resolvable, 2re also to be found in those
material ferms, 3 waich from the symmetry of
their
s exc
excite pleasure in the beholder.
fot ais ~rinci ple is in nothing so
the works cf the architects
in which the proportions of
the diapason, of 3:2, or
‚ C° sesquitertia, are per: a conparison between
tude cf whole cr con:
s perticos, pediments,
Ss, vestibule
and apertures of all kines,
every resuler eaifice.?
S
8
o
Welf-enc Ficulus, De musice practica (Noribergae:
lonteni, 1555), a2.
Page 12
View in PDF(opens in a new window)ach nos of
Greeks, made available through Latin translations cf
early Renaissance.
the
7
pe
thoucht, an influence that ceme fram the
on fcnaissance
5
that the Pythaccrean symbolisms exerteâ
5
ence
[en
Hawkäns!s comments are but a synopsis of the creat influthe
Thrcughcut this era, as in the Greek
period,
these symboliens were most frequently anplied to
music.
Before Plato's cenception of the universe is dealt
with, a cross-section of writers reflecting the Renaissance
concept cf musical and numerical relationships will be
-
cited.
Robert of York, in kis Correctoriw: alchimee
(1248), suscested that both the elements with vhich the
alchemist worked ang the projecting rays of the planets,
wnich the astrologer believed cominated the lives of ren,
;
misht be arranged eccorcing to musicel proncrtion.
10
These
same ideas were still bein: re-Ciscovered a hundred years
later, undoubtedly owing to the renewed interest in classical studies.
In 1450 the architect Alberti wrote:
"ie
shall therefcre borrow all our rules from tre musicians,
who are the createst masters cf this sort of numbers."
10.
Di ECcussed in Lynn T
ew Yorks Wecmillen,
3
( lev
11.
Leone Alberti, Ten Eccks on Areni tec ture
History of Macic, 8 vols.
25), “TIT, 114.
ay
> Leone
Tertcli
ene
-
wottists Alterti Grensiatea into Italian By cosine
Tei Arc lish oy vaner
ArchTiect 11755 ), €Su. by
7
2 TTrerti, 19 553, 197.
Leoni,
CO
COSEDL
Rykwert
Vene
(Londo
Page 13
View in PDF(opens in a new window)A reference
te the use cf musical sronertions to construct
visually attractive structwes thrcughcut the Renaissance
is made by the architect Falladio, who,
tura ci Ancree
in his L'architet-
Pallecio divisa in quattro libri (1562)
stated that music vroviced the foundations
of an artistts
sanetimes referred to the idea cf the harmony
rnilesorher,
Marsilio Ficino, a mid-fifteenth-century
training.
cf the spheres in order to symbolize the supra-physical
crigins of music, in relation to which he wrote, "Through
the ears
the soul perceives certain sweet harmonies and
rhrtims, and tkrouch these images it is exhorted and excited to consider divine music witha more ardent and
:
a
15
int
itimate sense 0of mind.
tnd."
The
Flatonic Concert of the
Universe
The concept cf the harmony cf the spheres, stenning
frem the simple relisticnshins of numbers, results ina
comnaretively sinple representeticn
ef the universe.
à
In
12.
ri (Vonetes
jt. A, Srogiollo,
erence to tne extensive
use of
n Renzissence architecture, see
,
chitectural Principles in the
en, Ond ed. London:
15.
À, Tiranti, 1952).
Paul O. Hristeller, The Philcsonhy of Marsilio Ficino
(New York:
Colwabia University Fress, 1945), 308.
Page 14
View in PDF(opens in a new window)contrast to this simplicity,
the universe presented by
Plato in his Timaeus relies en an abstrect formulation,
and,
therefore,
is quite complex.
Plato's universe, based
on the geanetric concept cf mathematics mentioned earlier,
culminetes, as does the harinony of the spheres,
in a series
of musical intervals; but it has as its main objective the
creatton of unity from chaos,
rather than merely a representation cf the principles of number syzbolism.
The Pvthegoreans based their gemetrical interpretation of mathematics on the numbers 1-4.
ne evolution
of a solid secretrical figure frem the numeral one was
done in the fcllowing manner.
sented as a point.
The numeral one Was repre-
A line joining two points and thereby
providing extension of the point represented the mmeral
two.
Netther cf these two,
the point nor tne line, was
considerec to be a tangible cbject.
The triensle, the
first plane figure,
to the senses and
was perceivable
therefore represented the first real number,
three,
Three as
which was
the first rerresentative of plane surfaces
was capable cf being extended into a solid by placing a
point over the center cf the
triangle and extending lines
from this point te the three points of the
resulting figure,
triansle.
the tetrahedron, was the first solid
Page 15
View in PDF(opens in a new window)figure and renrosentel the nwiter four.
the
same manner,
solids,
cube,
all
o
the
ompose
ey
the octehecren,
Pythstoreans
of triangles:
156
Centinuing in
eventually Cerived five
the tetrahedron, the
the dodeecahedron,
These solic firures were -iven
cf the Greek writers.
ie)
and the fcosahedron.
tanrcibility by many
Plate, fer example, related the
irst four to the fcur elements
-- fire, air,
water, and
earth--wnile the fifth was regarded as the master of the
other four.
15
After constructing the body of the world
fran the fcur solids,
world-soul
tence,
Plato sets forth the structure cf the
(which is again unity)
smieness,
.
and difference.
16
compounded frem exis-
_
,
Fram
A
these simple stateecorean symbolism Plato develored his concept
cf the universe.
tte
It is interesting that of all of the
deas evolved by
Plato anc his centenvoraries only the
Ÿ
simbclisms
of tne four elements anpear in rerresentations
=
of tre monccherd, although the fundamental unity cf Flato's
universe is represented, in its Christien interpretation,
in
tne form
ef God and
the
sincle
Le]
strin‘wo?
el
it
n his concluding
Ibie., 35.
16.
Francis F. Corrfcra
Iiberel Arts
15.
Vincent Honrer, l’edievel Timber Sybolism (“New York:
Columbia University Press, 1588), 55.
14.
Cosmolocy (Yew
York:
Page 16
View in PDF(opens in a new window)canments about the structure cf the universe,
Plato points
out thet the four elements are really qualities of being
:
|
17
and are not to be consicered es having a constant nature.
In the Timaeus Flato sets forth a universe in which
all sriritual and mundane things ere the product cf a single
entity,
the Gemiurze.
Tais demlurge, cr maker, the creator
of order from chaos, satisfies the philosophic necessity
of unity.
After determining the shape of the world-scul,
he then divides it into harmonic intervals, the end result
of which is a Pythagorean scale.
The Timaeus Coes not
relete this hermonic structure of the world soul to the
| harmony of the spheres es its writer does in the "Kyth of
Er" from The Republic.
That is, the harmony of the worldsoul is neither audible nor dependent upen the imasined
cyrations of the planets, but is instead an innate harmony
that characterizes the structure of the soul.
17.
Cornford (Ibic., 35, 163), like most philosophers,
is adamant in his opinion that the demiurse is not
to be confused with God as an object of worship,
esnecteliy in reference
respect he states;
"It
or tc the Kew Testament
teristic revelations of
to a pegan polytheist."
to Christianity.
In this
is not fair either to Flato
to ascribe the most characthe founder of Christienity
Yet this is the very thing
that seems to heve ceen Gone by
the users cf the
monochord, for the moncchord as a symbolic unity
inveriebly combines the speculaticns
of a volytheistic philosophy with ideas about a menotheistic
Page 17
View in PDF(opens in a new window)This ynilesophy, weile having little te do with
the symoclic use cf the monochord,
endurin~ of the
vroved
twe Greek internretations
to be the more
of
the
universe.
Both Flato's universe and the herm:eny of the spheres are
secn to exist in the writings cf the neo-Prthasoreans and
rec-Platonists, but these schocls acded little of value
either of the basic schenes.
to
In ceneraì they were content
to interpret Platonic and Pytharorean philosorhy in the
Light of their own rarticular needs,
and rerhans their most
imzvortant function was tho nerretuetion of these
io
thecries
for leter eras.
Tre
Infusion of
Pyvthsroreanitsm
into
En
the Christian
Era ane the Barly licdle Ares
At the beginning of the Christian era, most cf the
nec-Pletonic phileserhtes were firnly entrenched in the
in the enhowever, being connected to religicus dorma.
-- without,
minds cf Western scientists and ~hilosorhers
suins 500 years the influx of Uastern “mystertes" inte the
a
Reman Empire rrovided & link between religion and science.
The Zastern mysteries were the result cf the astrelosical
aprlication of nımbers "not as subiects for vhilosorhteel
{ue
nquiry, but as Divine Reveletfen, and were accordingly
.
:
…
invested with all the mystery ani roves cf Holy Secrets."
Page 18
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Page 19
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Augustine,
number symbolism had became an accepted practice.
Thus Augustine himself was able to say:
"We must not
despise the science cf numbers, which,
in many passages
of Holy Scripture,
is found to
be
of eminent service
to
the careful interpreter.“
Because of the misinterpretatiorsof the abovementioned Roman men of letters who were busily chronicling
tne centuries of Greek culture for posterity, the doctrine
of the harmony of tne spheres was transmitted to the medi-eval period less as a part of the Christian tradition than
as a literal description of fact. Asa result the doctrine
was, for a time, shorn of its symbolic meaning end it was
not until after the ninth century that it began to reassumo
its former significance as a representative idea of Pythagoreanism.
Because of this change of symbolic status, many
disbelievers in the harmony cf the spheres in the early
medieval period actually seem to be saying that the planets
do not make music -- but this in no way implies that they
are simultaneously refuting nunber synbolism.
The retention of the numbers of the Pythagorean tuning is sufficient
evidence of the influences of Pythagorean symbolism on
early Christian scholars.
Ibid., 78.
The reconciliation of the
Page 20
View in PDF(opens in a new window)doetrine
the harmony cl the svheres with
sribolice meanines,
tating nlace over a voriol ef several
centuries,
eventually culminested In the cm:b'nation cf the
symbolisms
of
celestial music
Tie Harmony of tre
of
and the monochord.
ores in the Musical writings
the viddle | Ares and che Renais sance
Reforences te the existence of the harmony cf the
ssheres in musical worlis of
the
‘if ddle Aces is due larcely
to the influence of Boethius.
encvclonecists, among them
end Isicore,
Althouch the other late Tatin
he musical writers Casstodorus
referred te the
successive senerstions in the
theory, none of them Impressed
same way es Foethlus.
In his
snius civiced music into three parts:
musica
rundana, musica huaana, and musica instruscntalis.
jusica
eLenents.
Dosthlus certned musica hungna as the hamıony
between the spiritual and the shysical parts
of man,
and
he sravolized it muertcally in much the seme way that he
determined intervals on a string.
was music as sound,
ments,
aren:
Yusica instrimentealis
tneinudinsm=) sene references
then the monechord.
te instru-
Page 21
View in PDF(opens in a new window)The most imrvortant
cf these
Boethius was mus’.ca rrindana,
three divisions to
for Soethtus, 2
true Pythasoresn, was not so much interested in the enjoyment of
‘
>
music or the nature of its sound as he was in the precept
that musical proportion was tne basis of all understanding.
Tais is borne out by Seethius's conplete neglect of vocal
music, and his mention,
in the classification of musica
instrumentalis, of instrunents that eppear to be more
useful for scientific investication than for performance .”
Althoush Eoethlus!s explanation cf music dominated
the thoucht of many medieval musical writers, Pythagorsanism in a more mystical form was evident
in the works of
others.
This mystical version,
easily identifiable because of its astrolosical implications, appeared early in
the medieval period in tre De divisicne naturee of Johannes
Sceotus (ca. 815-877), who presented many analogies between
music and cosnic harnenies.
Tne influence of Eastern
troucht in the teachinss cf Scotus,
who is
considered by
meny to be tne source cf Turorean mysticism, culninated in
the early seventeenth century in the writinzs of Robert
21.
Boethius,
De instituticno musica, ed.
Friedlein (rinsiae:
Cap. II, 187-189.
Yeubneri, 1867), Bk. I,
Page 22
View in PDF(opens in a new window)In the sr4:501ic uses
Nenaliasanee,
form of
of the monocherd in the
the influence of the occultists annears in
the zodiac.
keny of the early medicval theorists were content
5
uw
enplification, and
=
ct
to parrot Boethius's trinle division of music with little
evidently not until the late
ninth century that the doctrine of the harmony of the
sreres vegan to resune sone of the symbolic significance
that haë been shorn from it by the late Latin writers.
Rezino of Prin (d. 915)appears to have been one of the
first mecieval writers after 5cethlus to explain earthly
harmonv as an imitation of celestial music.
that the planets produces real sounds.
He states
In one passage he
says that the Eyrate Meson is derived from the sound made
by the planet Saturn.
23
Regino's contemporary, Aurelian
of R6emé, also helped to reconcile the idea of the music
ef the spheres with Christian doctrines by interpreting
Q
the sounds of the ecclesiastical modes to be dunlication
f tne sounds created by planetary motion.
22,
Cf. J.
B. Craven, Doctor
Robert llucd
He further
(Kirkwall,
1902);anc Jacques ranüschin,
1, Tote |Pusikanschauy
Ses Johannes Scotus (Ertcona),
Teutsche viortel-~
denreschrift für Literaturwisse nsenoft und Geistes-
Sechlchte, v (1927), 316-340.
25.
Pegtno of Frits, Pe harmonica institutione, GS I,
255.
~~
En
Sludd.
Page 23
View in PDF(opens in a new window)stated that in singins the praises of God, man imitated
the chorus ef the anrels.*
the harmony of
References to the doctrine of
the srheres wore also frequent in the
Arabic dociments of this period, especially in the form
cf answers to those who refused te adiit
such music.
In the
the existence of
early tenth century the theory was
denovnced by Al-Farabi, who ebanäoned the Eosthian triple
division and postulated an alternate division into only
theoretical and practical music. >
In spite of Al-Farabi,
however, many Arabians still clung te their beliefs in
celestial music.
The physician Al-rindi 1s said to have
worked out elaborate charts in order to clarify the intervallic relationship between cosmic-hunan and musical
elenents.
©
The influence of Al-Farabi's dual division of
nusic, mace available to the later Middle Ases by the
early thirteenth-century writor Imown as psewäo-Aristotle,
nouncins the music
of the svheres,
icnore it; notable
ancnz these works is the Introductio mustce of Johannes
:
ls musioue
Al-Parabi. Trani
Treité de la
25.
Aurelian of Réoné, :'usica diseinlina, GS I, 32.
24,
26.
tadolvh c'irlanger (Faris, 1930), 28.
tr. by
George I. Parner, on. cit., 99.
Page 24
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Ge Garlandia, written about 1240, in which Garlandia does
not renounce fis faith in the principles of Pytmcoreanisn,
but merely reflects scenticism about
the hamony of the
sphores.
In refusing to admit the existence of celestial
music, the early fourteenth-century musician Johennes de
Srocheo says,
with angelic
in his Theoria,
songs.
À
that his work will not deal
walter Odington likerise rejects
the physical existence of the har:ony cf the spheres in
his Be sneculatione musica.”
For every writer who decried
the existence ef cosmic harmony, however, there were one
or two others who professed sone belief in cither the
music of the spheres or nuiber symbolism.
In the early
fourteenth century the author of the anonymous Suma
musicae discussed the Boethlan triple division of music,
30
as dif jiarchettus de Padua in his Lucidarium musicae plane
of 1274.
Naerchettus's explanatien of
the supernarticular
pronerticns leaüs eventually into a comrerison of these
27.
Johannes de Carlandia, Introcuctio musice, CS I,
157-175.
25.
Johannes “olf,
“Die Husiklehre des Johannes de
Grecheo,” Ssinzelbinde der Internationalen Kusikgesellschaft, I (1555), 82.
29.
Walter Câington,
39.
Anonymous,
Te sneculatione musice, CS I, 182.
Simin musicae, GS TIT, 194.
Page 25
View in PDF(opens in a new window)numbers
the world eni te tne four hunors.
51
At about
the same time Gil Ce Zamora presented an extensive account
of thie emotional connotations of the modes.
32
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
the revival of interest in many of the Greek writers, whose works
were nov available in Latin translations, provided some
impetus to the notion of the hemmony cf the spheres.
This
renewed interest is reflected in ths namin: of sections
cf
treatises,
or even of whole treatises, in a manner thet
4mvlies subscrirtion to the theory of celestial music.
examples,
As
tne first book of Georgio Anselmi's De musica
.
ts entitled "De celesti harmonia,"
33
.
.
and the whole of the
early seventeenth-century encyclopedias of Mersenne
4
LJ
of
.
|
34
and
+
OO
4 rcher
ara respectivelr entitled Hermonie universelle
and j'usurcia universalis.
rchottus ce Padua,
III, 85 f.
Zucidaríu: susicee plense,
32.
Gil
de Zamora, Ars musica, GS IT,
33.
Georgio Anselmi, Te musica, ed. by Ciuseppe Messera
(EF
34.
:
586-88.
OlschiT, 19 511, "65-106.
Narin Lerseme,
Hamıonls universelle
(Paris:
Cramoisy, 1636-37).
35.
Athenasius !ircher, Vusursia wniversalis, 2 vols.
(Pome,
Page 26
View in PDF(opens in a new window)In these later works,
treatises,
tre
in conparison to earlier
even the space allotted
discussions
of
harnony of the srheres is greatly expanded, as is
the
breadth of
to
the discussions themselves.
the
Zamos de
Parela,
in his Musica rractica of 1452, ciscusses in detail the
e.ctional asvects of the modes, making the assertion that
the stars actually determine the character cf each of the
modes.
According to Ramos,
acter of the Dorian mode.
Corian.
the char-
The mcon influences the Eypo-
Mars gives the Phrysian en emotional connotation
cf anger.
gives
the sun influences
Kercury influences the
Evpophrysian, Jupiter
the Lydien mode the character cf joy.
Venus affects
the Hypolydian, and Saturn influences the melancholy
aspects cf the Hixelydten. ©
Remos later unified all of
ct
these elements by including thon in his linear revresenation cf the monochord.
lienos ce Farefa, tiusica rractice,
Wolf (Leipzig;
ey
36.
37
u
nn
H
e
ot
qe
1
ag
IP,
loc
le)
Robert Stevenson,
|P,
ed. oy Johannes
Zreit:cnf und “Ertel, 1501), 57-60.
in his
ne Hague:
ani sn vusic in the Are
=; Kerr, 1960),
7, 61, points
cut Inst names reflects tie mrerclo. deal tendencies
2 this era in the division cf the
usica practice
into threo parts, cf whieh the fi nst vert is subdivided into three tractates.
Hach. of ee first two
tractates contains eight parts, and the
third
tractate contains three.
Ioté., 61.
Page 27
View in PDF(opens in a new window)The Spaniards were evidently steeved in the
Boethian tradition, because the division of music into
parts called mundana, humane, and instrvmentalis is encountered frequently in Spanish treatises throughout the
next two hundred and fifty years.
In 1495, Guillermo
Despuig used this division in his Ars musicoriu,°° as did
9
Be mudo®
.
in 1555, and Fablo Ne ssarre+0 in 1724.
Hassarre,
like Remos, discusses tre emotional effects of music, including its beneficial effect on disease and its ability
te excite the passions.
The influence of Arabic end Aristetelian thought
on the writings of Johannes Tinctoris
is particularly
evident in the following remarks taken from his läber de
arte contrapuncti of 1477.
‘I cannot pass over in silence the opinion
of numerous philosophers, ameng them Plato and
Pythagoras and their successors Cicero, Kacrobius,
Boethius and our Isidore,
that the spheres of
the stars revolve under the guidance of harmonic moduletion, that is, by the consonance of
various concords.
But when as Boethius relates,
.
38.
Guillermo Despuls, Ars musicorum (Valencia, 1495),
39.
Juen Bermudo, Declaraci
ón de Instrimentos musicales
(Cssuna, 1555), facsimile ed. (Fassel:
Erenreiter,
40.
Bk. I, Cap. vit.
Pablo Nessarre, Escuela musica, 2 vols. (Zeragoza:
Larunbe, 1724), Bf, 65-69.
Page 28
View in PDF(opens in a new window)some declare that Saturn moves with the doepest
sovnd and that, as we pass by stages through
the remaining planets, the moon moves with the
highest, while others, cenversely, ascribe the
deerest sound to the moon and the highest to
the sphere of the fixed sters, I put faith in
neither opinion.
Rather T unshakeably credit
Aristotle and his connentator, along with our
more recent philosormiers, whe most manifestly
prove that in the neavens there is neither
actual nor potential sound.
For this reason
it will never be vossible to persuade me that
musical concerds, which cannot be produced
without sound, can result from the motion of
the heavenly bocies.
Concords of sounds and melodies, from
vacse sweetness the pleasure cf the ear is derived, are produced, then, not by heavenly
bodies, but by earthly instriments with the
co-operation of nature.4
Tinctoris,
like many others, in attempting to deny the
objective reality cf musical sound produced by the spheres,
cverlooked
the continued existence
of this belief as
mainly a symbolic figure
of the relationships of music
end the spiritual and physical world.
In the sixteenth century many of the references
to the music of the spheres were still based on the
Bcethian concept.
41,
42.
4
In Itely, Fietro Aaron (1523) end
Trans. in Oliver Strunk, Source Rendines in Music
History (New York:
wv. We Norton,
Pietro Aeron, Zoscanello in musica (Venice:
Venente, 1523), Cap. III.
Page 29
View in PDF(opens in a new window)$8 Sasfication
Flain om. Zsey
Introtuction to Practical Muste of 1507.77
In the 1£50's
Sieg French Academy cf EREL and the Cenemia cf Bardi acecented the ideas cf comic harmony
masques stased by Aartits
rreun
Tt is recorded that
as well as Däif!s hed subjects based en speculative music,
even to the extent cf a
mosque entitled The Terneny cf the Sracres,
the concerts
which expressed
of worid harmony in the gemetrical and mathematical relationships cf its Cances.
these surorfictal references te the ideas of cosmic
ant Gs
nearauiiin
tcenth-century
“orean syvmbelisns and
deever invelvenent cr
The
trend toward
recenciiia ticn
hagoreanis
cf
and
Christianity had started carly in the tenth century in
tre remarks ef Aurelian that carthly choirs emulated th
:
Aas
..
46
music cf the spheres.
63.
Giovanni Verin Artus
(Venice:
AL,
3
u
the
In
AE del contrarmanto
j
no, 1450),
1.
Thence LORIE
Frac tieel
sa
Le
u
sixteenth century these
Insvy „ntrotfuction to
1
Ny 16€ ZEraon
Thorens
s,
1552),
106.
LS.
un Yollrmter, The Unturins of the Sin (Frinceton:
Frinceten Vntverslty Pross, 1261),
16-37.
46.
Aurelian,
Page 30
View in PDF(opens in a new window)ideas snread rapidly,
that, as may be seen in the following citations, by the early seventeenth century many
musicians spoke freely about the relationships of Cod,
Man,
and the musical proportions.
Richard liuleaster,
writing in the prefatory verses
to Eyrd's anc Tallis's Cantiones gure ab armimento sacrae
vocantur of 1575,
stated;
How valueble a thins music is, is
shewn by those who teach that numbers con-
The canposer Robert Jones, in 1608,
illustrated the common
opinion that "thore is musicke in all thinses," when he
enrhesized in the decication of his Vltimun Vale the need
for harmony in both music and the
Politie,
state,
or the subject thereof, a
commonwealth, is but a well-tunde song
where all partes doe asree, and meete tocether, with full consent and harmony,
ene serving the other, and everyone themselves in the sane labor.4&
Kore direct references to celestial music are &pparent in such staterents as Byrd's in the dedication of
his Graduslia cf 1610, where he writes that for the praise
47.
William Byrd anc Thomas Tallis,
armmento sacrae
voces:
Cantiones quae ab
or \Loncen:
Tautroilerius,
1575).
48.
Robert Jones, Ultirne Vale (Londen:
John windet,
Page 31
View in PDF(opens in a new window)of God "nene but some celestial harmony will be nroper."
That earthly music must resemole the celestial music in
its verfecticn
was alse stated by Charles Butler, who
wrote in his Principles of Music
arcmise cf celestial joyz
.
.
(163¢€)
that "Nustec gave
« which it doeth resemble. „50
In his Tennlu: musicw of 1511, Jonenn Alsted
writes at great length avout the relaticn of music and the
universe.
Eesices his innuneraole comments on the unity
that exists in God and rusic, he also extensively ciscusses
the emotional aspects of the modes and the affections.
Alstedts observations conclude with his Ciscussicn of th
menochord, about which he says:
The canon, motner, and radix cf all instruments is the moncchord; which is an instriment most simple anc intire , . . and we
way observe fully in this Instrument, all the
proporticns of all musical numbers.?
To Alsted,
tne nerfection of music is determined by the
purpose for which it is used.
49.
OF the modes he writes:
William Byrc, Gradvalia (Londen:
Eumpnrey Lownes,
1610).
50.
Charles
vr
Ea vil
51.
Eutler,
Principles
cf fusic
and, 16365, 1:
(Londcer:
John
Johann Alsted, Templun musicum (1611), tr. by John
Birchensha (London:
P. Dring, 16€4), 90,
Page 32
View in PDF(opens in a new window)There is a certain imitation of Celestial Fear onyr, by which as beaa sweet and
nolsciue Mecicine, the Diseases of the mind
arc cured, Vices are dissipated, Cares are
lessened: and tne Dew of Divine "Grace is
leisuvely, and by little and little distilled.s
In 16917 Robert Tludd, whose symbolic use of the
monochord will be discussed tn the finel section of this
chapter, represented his ideas about the relationships cf
tx
”
£
oO
a
fos
fo
“
rar
53
Utriusaue comi
ct
5
a
a
5
je
‘3
®
a
©
(Plate 34),
D
ps
5
ce
©
ct
pe
ct
tw
©
ke,
D
fü)
©
©
Le)
je)
ee
Ü
where the planetary symbols
on staff lines revresent the cosmic harmonies.
The implications cf Fludd's mystical beltefs, derived from his
essoctetions with the Rosicrucians, may be seen in the
use of the astrolccic symbols which are connected to the
verious parts cf the Vitruvian figure.
The whole is connected to Coc by the cord wiich is drawn by the winced
figure with hoeves.
This fisure, sealing the clouds
toward a union with tne infinite,
represents time.
On his
head stands an hoursless, whien is surmounted by an abbrevinted exolem rf the solar wheel in the form
53
of 4
swast!ka.
52.
an
Tbic., 78.
8.
Robert Fluid,
Utriusaue cosml
(Coperhemii:
Calleri,
1617), title pare.
Page 33
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Plate 34.
Title page from Robert Fludd's
Utriusaue coml.
pt.
.'Ütr
iüsqu
e
Col
”
|
GL
‚ MALORIS fedlicet ct MINORIS METATYSI
, PHYSIC
CA
A FE
ATQVE
rood
|
\
4
&
TECHNICA
In duo Volumina fecundum COSMI differentiam diuisa.
AVTHORE ROST RTO FLUD alas de Flultius, Areigero,
er am
k
\
Linda Deötare Oronunfi.
. Tomus Primus
\
De Maczroccfsi Hid teria in duos traftatus diuefa
.
Ate belan
Mec
i
leo MM
acrocofmi;
rane lus Ofna.
à 5 Vu
ve,
.
N
4a
“
amies À
es td
Page 34
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Athanasius Kircher published several works thet
derict, thoucth not so boldly as Fludd, the mystical asseciations
of man anc the universe.
The frontispiece
ef Kircher's lusurcte universalis of 1650 illustrates,
ameng other things cf allegorical significance, the singing of the svheres, by means of a heavenly choir (Flate
35).°4
Thomas Mace,
the last writer to be mentioned in
this saction, exerplifies
the prevalent ideas about the
uses music to
Fert" of his Lusick's Monument, where he
"Contemplative
relations of music to God and man in the
+
relate himself to God and eternity.
GREAT COD
Mysterious Center of All Hysterie:
All Things Originate Tneuselves in Thee;
And in Their Revolution,
wholly tend
Po Thee, Their Octave, Their Most Happy End.
All Things (what e're) in Nature, are Thus Rounded,
Thus ysticelly Limited, and Bounded;
—
Some Haracnize in Diapasons Deep,
Cthers esain, more Lofty Circles Keep.
But Thou, the Moving Cause in every Thing;
Tne Mystick Life, from whence All Life doth Spring.
That Tittle Spark of Life, which I call Mine
It cone fro: Thees (a Precious Gift of Thine}
54.
<Athenasius Wircher,
on.
cit.,
frontispiece.
See
also the frentisniece
of Tircheris Phenurcia nova
(Carpidonae;
NDudolphun Drehur, 1673), and Kircher'!s
allegory of music and the seven days of the creation
in the Wusurzia, II,
Page 35
View in PDF(opens in a new window)*SITESAOATUU ETrAnEsny Ss, TOI
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Page 36
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Page 37
View in PDF(opens in a new window)vut these planetary sn.ools do not appear in nis
diagram.
Diasra 80 shows both of the illustrations presented ov Ptolemy.
a
In Picure 1 the
zodiac is related to
linear representation cf the menochord.
In Ficure 2,
all the notes c: the Greater Perfect System are assigned
places within tre celestial sphere.
The latter kind of
representation often appears in Renaissance illustrations
cf
the monochord.
…-
Jecgues “rnäschin,
in an
article in
?
waft
(1926),
the Zeitschrift
nn
5
u
Gescribes a medieval manuserint thet contains 2 composition about the harmony of
the soheres.
shows,
A facstitle cf the manuscrint
(Plate 36)
cn the richt site, a linear representation of a
3 the notes cl the Greater Perfect
System and the names of the rlanets.
Hanischin says that
put that the poen,
because cf its style,
is probably fran
tie tenth century.
There is a strittine
similarity between
this renresentation and tne monochord shown in Plate 33,
even to the nen-nroport*’
onal placenent of the notes on
zur
Kusiimissens chaft,
er:Zet tsch:
Page 38
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Diasren 90.
Ftoleny's representations cf tne universe.
Mese
Proslambanomenos
L_
Nete H ypetbalaion
YVBISAME=U rte
Y
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Neta Hyperbelaion
Y [Preslambanomenos
the string; this aspect of the drawing is a common feature
of many of the monochord drawings of later centuries.
After Ptolemy, all of the early moncchord diagrams
are used mainly to relate the planets te definite pitches,
with little accompanying symbolism of the land found in
the late Renaissance.
This way of usins the monochord
Page 39
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Plate 36.
be Emir: wend.
ar
’
A.
.
Ct. re
ape
:
.
Md
.
rr
er.
:
u
NE
Lo J
A
a.
te,
:
runam da tung qu fereur proves verg |
...
Ma yn, amen merci Alan da,
M
:
fy
En
.
“
N .
.
OF Î
f
NEK:
..
«
.
.
.
.
Bi
ale dureflaren onp
a
N
Te
a
.
.
‘
1
:
r
.
.
emrur afd Drum mg Sien dlp.
t
t
r .
-
LE
2
te
[pire Zine fan treue p
Le
A
Dagen A
.
de rh. r
eA f
rune parse fund.
Page 40
View in PDF(opens in a new window)A symbolic monochord of the eleventh century.
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Page 41
View in PDF(opens in a new window)continued until the early sixteenth century.
The Greek
influence is often anparent in the use cf the Greek note
names, the nine muses, and other pagan symbols.
Such an
.
illustration enpears in the Harmonie
mustcorim instruvee
mentorum (1514) of Franchinus Grffurius, where a threeheaded serpent renresents the sinsle string. °°
Bech of
the accompanying muses in this illustration is related
to one of the pitches of the one-octeve scale, as are
various planets.
In this
instance,
the
the serpent may also
represent time -- past, present, and futuro,
Glareanus's discussion of the harnony of the
spheres and the diagram that he prints in the Dodecachordon
are about the same as those of Gaffurius.
addition to providing the diagram,
Glareanus,
in
explains sane of the
nwaber symbolisms current in nis time, including an explanation of “my the mmber seven occurs so frequently
among writers on muse. 199
The number seven appears in
his monocnord diagram, as it does in Gaffurius!'s, in
there ere
58,
only seven intervals in the
Franchinus
Caf.
scale.
ius, Harmonia musicorum Instmmentorun (lediolani:
59.
that
Gotardzn, 1518), 95.
FEenricus Glareanus, Dotecachordon, tr. by Clement
“filer (Unpublished dissertation, University of
Michigan, 1952), 222ff.
Page 42
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Gaffurius!s symbolic repres
entation
ci the monochord.
ERE
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Tais seme illustration (Flete
33) was used in
Zarlino's explanation of Pythag
oreanism in his
Istttutioni harmonice of. 1558 - but
with one interesting change
in meaning.
Zarlino granted the authority of natu
ral law
Page 43
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Plate 38.
The monochord dlagram of Glareanus.
ee mern mann mener ma ann me erg
'
|
i
4
!
!3
a
3
{t
i
'
j
i
Dn
nn ee a nn
menen
he a
et enen Haverty Ne ade
ma
to the musical ratios of the diagram,
3
stating that they
form the basis of everything -- of the heavens,
N
60
elements, the soul and body of nan.
60,
the four
Although none of
er
7 rlino, Istitutiont harmonice
Gioseffo a2
Senese, 1 26 2), 102.
(Venice:
Page 44
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Zarlino's predecessors had gone so far as to relate
physical and sniritual being to this kind 07 representation, all of the later users of the symbclic monochord,
perhaps influenced by Zerlino's boldness, give
a religious
interpretation to their illustrations.
It may be recalled
that a similar change of attitude in the explanations of
the harmony of the spheres was noted in the preceding
section (pp. 446-47, above).
Abraham Bartolus was evidently the first of the
seventeenth-century musicians to expand the symbolic uses
of the menochord beyond the limits set by Zarlino. 01
Bertolus's monochord (Plate 59), drawn as part of a circle,
actually contains two separate moncchords,
placed so that
the lowest notes are in the center; the waole is designed
so as to present a symmetrical ciagran of the universe.
Although Bartolus describes many practical uses for
the
nonochord, most of the treatise is taken un with explaining
the symbolic interpretations cf the instrument.
Bartolus
‘covers the gemut of Renaissance symbolism, including the
{nterpretations cf the zodiac.
In his comments about the
doctrine of affections, Bartolus states that tho note E,
61.
Abraham Eertolus, "Musica liathematica," printed as
the second part cf Heinrich Zelsing, Theatri
machinarun (Altenburg, 1614), 94-172.
Page 45
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Plete 59.
Abraham Bertolus's symbolic monochord.
SYMMETRIA
Orte
À
.
ÜNIVERSI
(D>
Per
af Y
A,
+
"
key
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te
>,
UT
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Le
ARIEL SOULE ENCE DENK
pe he amant
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PER
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ey AIT
IST HE eus
ee webs ce eA
ae
influenced by Saturn, is sad. Ee further says that the
sound of this note, when it is under the sign of
and fowls.
a
zoäise in the month of November,
2
the
is inimical to fishes
flthoush the fervor cf Eartolusts attempts
to relate the sundry aspects of the universe may seem
Ibid., 102.
Page 46
View in PDF(opens in a new window)extreme to twentieth-century sensibility, such zeal
appears to typify the first half of the seventeenth century, when such discussions were conmonplece, and in
many of which the monochord played a symbolic part.
The most famous use of monochord symbolism appears
in the Jionochordi mundi sympnoniacun of Robert Fludd.
63
Tats treatise, written "In apologien" to Johannes Kepler,
was a general disparagement of Kepler for the philosophical
mistakes
tnat Kepler had made in his interpretation of
tne universe.
Fludd's argunent with Kepler arose over
the latter's asserticn that the universe was composed of
five regular solids (the same ones discussed by Plato).
Fluêd, in showing Kepler how these solids were part of
the earth,
invoked the authority of God, and his whole
argument culminated in a magnificent diagran of the
monochorâ (Plate 40) that ccntains much religious symbolisn.
Recardless of their controversy,
the minds of both
repler end Fludd were cast from the same mold, the main
difference appearing in Kepler's consuning passion for
finding heraonies in nature after the manner of the Pythagoreans,
63.
and Fluddts passion for connecting these harmonies
Robert Fludd, lonochordi mundi synproniacun, issued
as pert of Fludd'ts Anatomiae Ampnithes
(Frankfort,
1623), 258-331.
Page 47
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Sane har
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+
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4
aure
ENE
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ay
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...
a sikpes }
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Maesen
The monochord of Robert Fludd.
gp
A,
Le
-GRAMMATT dunensto va entre oma,
Sanedoruat
TRY RA
Pee
N
“
%
w
Plate 40.
IMmfinttal
LES
onme quod est
ab eu proc edunt ommıa x aterum
in eam revwertuntur
DeVS Est
wt
m4 ve a Pa ro
om hd “
Page 48
View in PDF(opens in a new window)to God.
To Fiuda, Fythacoreanism was only a ladder that
enabled him to approach more closely the marvels of the
Divine Architect.
6
4
Mersenne uses one cf Fludd's monochord diagrams
(Plate
33)
in
the Zemnonfe universelle.
But
instead of attenpting to exvlain the implications of the illustration,
he simply states that ons should interpret it in the lont
of his ow needs. °°
Nersenne, in spite of his reticence
in explaining the syrbolie moncchord, was. nevertheless well
avare of the common practices of his day.
One instance of
his Imowleäge of the subject appears in his discussion of
the moncchord, in which he shows how the astrolosical conJunctions cf the stars are supposed to be ccnsonant to
musical intervals.°®
One of the lest attempts in the seventeenth century
to apply the symbolism cf the monochord to a scientific
64.
end
Kepler's arc
s mundi, written in 1619, is available in a mocern Inzlish translation in Johannes
Kenler, The Earonies of the World, Bk. V,
Charles G. Welleee (Chicago:
tr. by
Encyclopaedia Britannica,
1955), Vol. XVI of Creat Books of the Western World,
1009-1035.
65.
Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle:
Anstrunents a cordes (Yaris:
Br. VIII, Prop. X, 48.
66.
Ibid., Bx. I, Prop. XI, 27.
Traitez des
Cranoisy, 1636-37),
Page 49
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Page 50
View in PDF(opens in a new window)stocther Simrgon's “iscussiton cf the relations cf the
al symbels and
the musicorl consonences.
69
.
Simrson
rs how they sre related but says nothing about their
effects.
Nis own vellefs are seen in the use of
the numbers
three end seven, but, unlixe Fludd and l'affenreffer, he seems
willine te let the reacer make up hts cwm mind.
The followquetation gives Sinpson's summarization ef his exnlanation of the monochord {Plate 41).
The Analogy of Musical Concords to the
Aspects of the Planets, illustrated in
tne followinre scheme.
“here vou hive the seven Gracusl sounds in
orierly rrosression resresenteä cn the
er-iine.
Upon which, is alsc described a
cn with its inclused Corsorsnts, according
Arithmeuiecal division therecf, as exveritall found upon a Yonocheri, er the String
a
fretted incstrment, fran the „ut to the
thereof.
The outmest Cipeie represents
Secteck, and the Aspects cf the Flanets, to
a
zou see the Tiarosen with its Intersecexactly acrecin:; as viz.
The twe Terms
gor, toa Conjunction and Govositicns
The
e Secticn (bien generates a Fifth on one
and & Fourth on the other) toe O
.
A
eng a Sixth conrleetins alse the Compas
ef an Cctave, as 2 À
and a
de 2 Semicircle
c> tre two eprosite rcints cf an Orbe.
To which
adcted, “that a Dianasen is aiviced into
Seat tones
as the Zocjack into Twelve
cf Sections.
69,
Christerher Simrsen, The Division Viol, 2nd ed.
(Lenten:
We Godbid, 1665).
Page 51
View in PDF(opens in a new window)Plate 41.
Christopher Simpson's analogy between
music and astrology.
Crise
D ee se mn
y quete ner
Page 52
View in PDF(opens in a new window)The other Figure shows, that all the
Sounds that cen 2osstbly be joyned together
in Nusicel Concordance, are still but the
reiterated Harmony of Three.
Husicel symbolism survived the seventeenth century
to remain a moving force in the eighteenth century.
Many
of the users of the monochord in this latter era also
dealt with musical symbolism, but not in relation to the
monochord; by this time the moncchord was used only as a
practical instrument.
Ancreas Werclmeister, who comrared
incorrect temperament with felse Christianity, + was one
of the last to mention the symbolic value of the monochord.
His remark that "the nearer a thins is to its origin, the
nearer it is to perfection, "72 perhaps suns up most cf the
reascns why the moncchorä was usec as a symbolic entity --
and why this instrument remained e favored tool among so
many musicians of his time and earlier eras.
70,
Tbid., 24.
71.
Andreas VWerchweister, Kusicalische Parscexel-Disecourse
(Quedlinburg:
Calvisii, 1697), 109.
Ibid., 13.