Universal Music-making (Musurgia Universalis), Volume I

Book I.

...how wise Nature has derived the diversity of sounds and the qualities of voices, appearing both in the collision of solid bodies and in the vocal organs of animals, so that I might come to know them as if from an anatomical source. All of these matters are treated extensively in the First Book, in which we have first explained the exact anatomy—ordained by nature for the production of voices—of both man and animals.

Book II.

But since human industry has, with the passage of time, polished these kinds of disordered and original: "ἀτάκτους" (ataktous) - chaotic or unarranged sounds, reducing them into order and—by way of composition original: "κατὰ τὴν σύνθεσιν" (kata ten synthesin)—distinguishing them into syllables, words, and sentences; just as the origin of languages and idioms in the human Republic flowed from this, so too did the origin of all harmony flow from the qualities of sounding bodies and the intervals of high and low sound. The Second Book pursues all these things at length, treating the first origin of Artificial Music and poetry, and the construction of ancient instruments used by the first men of the world, as well as by the Hebrews and Greeks.

Book III.

Recognizing that sounds of this kind could by no means be conceived without numbers and proportions, I searched the more hidden recesses of the science of numbers. I left nothing undone to place the sources and origins of each before the eyes of the Curious Reader, revealed and fortified by the irrefutable arguments of demonstrations. This the Third Book aptly provides, in which we have treated the various forms of harmonic numbers with the greatest possible diligence.

Book IV.

Furthermore, noting that the science of sounds claims for itself a great part of the science of Geometry, and supported by its aid, I investigated the various qualities of sounding bodies through the sectioning of strings. I have attempted to assign the rational basis for each in theoretical Music through various divisions of the monochord A one-stringed instrument used by ancient and Renaissance theorists to measure musical intervals mathematically.. This the Fourth Book (which we therefore call the Monochord, or Musical Geometry) provides with the greatest variety.

Book V.

It remained for those things which I had contemplated in various ways according to theory original: "κατὰ τὴν θεωρίαν" (kata ten theorian) in the preceding book to be finally reduced into practice. Thus came forth the Fifth Book, which displays the foundations of the entire "Symphoniurgy" original: "symphoniurgiæ" - Kircher’s term for the "craft of making harmony" or composition. or "Melothesia" original: "melothesias" - the art of setting a melody., as well as the ratios and methods for arranging intervals properly, with an innumerable variety of subjects. In this book, you will find whatever is rare, unusual, hidden, new, or ingenious in the art of melody-making, treated through a manifold abundance of exquisite examples.

Book VI.

But since I realized that nothing in the preceding books was so hidden or obscure that it could not be adapted to instruments, I began "Organic Music" Music played on instruments (organs), as opposed to the voice., or the construction of instruments. We have displayed the latent properties of proportions under each, the method for their proper division and arrangement, and countless other entirely curious things attempted by no one until now—if you except Mersenne Marin Mersenne (1588–1648), a French polymath and author of "Harmonie Universelle," whose work Kircher both admired and sought to surpass.—through mechanical invention. All these things the Sixth Book demonstrates.

Book VII.

Because I saw a great controversy being debated among Musicians concerning the primacy of Ancient versus Modern Music, we established the Seventh Book. In it, by a certain parallel comparison, we explain the nature and qualities of both ancient and modern music. We restore "Pathetic Music" The music of the "passions" or "affects," intended to move the listener's emotions. and teach a new method of Chromatic and Enharmonic compositions, previously unseen and unheard. In a word, in this entire book, we display whatever is unusual, rare, and recondite within the scope of all music—not for beginners, but for the Masters of the art, and those the most supreme and skilled. Therefore, I trust that all who drink deeply of the rules prescribed in this book will, in a short time, arrive not only at a perfect knowledge of composing but also at that more hidden part of Music which, by a certain admirable virtue and nearly divine energy, may seize and stir men into whatever emotions they may choose.