Practical Music

The prologue being finished, the treatise begins, where it is first discussed what music is and what harmony is

A decorative initial letter A at the beginning of the text block features stylized floral patterns characteristic of early modern printing.

Harmony and music are believed by many to be the same thing, but we feel quite differently. From the opinions of certain musicians, collected through long investigation, we have concluded that harmony is the mixing of concordant voices; Music, however, is the very reasoning of that concord, or a weighed and subtle investigation conducted with reason.

Music is moreover threefold: for one is worldly original: mundana; referring to the "Music of the Spheres," the mathematical harmony believed to exist between celestial bodies, another is human original: humana; the internal harmony between the human soul and body, and the third is called instrumental. Since worldly and human music are speculative and theoretical, we will treat them in the second and third books. The third kind, which is entirely concerned with instruments, will claim a smaller place for its consideration.

An instrument is twofold: for one exists by nature, the other by art. The natural instrument is the human voice, by which we can naturally raise and lower our tone. The artistic instrument is said to be that which is made by art, not nature, such as the monochord a single-stringed instrument used to teach musical intervals and ratios, the cithara an ancient stringed instrument, similar to a lyre, and others that serve the performance of songs. Concerning the most accurate practical consideration of these, three things occur to us to be examined: namely, the voice (that is, sound) and number (or measure).

"Voice" in this context is used loosely for the sound of both humans and instruments; as Aristotle's opinion is in his book On the Soul original: de anima: voice is the sound of a living thing only, yet "voice" is also used for inanimate things like musical instruments because they possess a similarity in that they produce discrete sounds. "Sound," however, is not taken simply here, but rather for the sound of two or more strings struck together, or of two or more people singing in each other's presence. Number, similarly, is not considered simply, but in relation to the "passions" technical term for the mathematical ratios or the emotional qualities affected by music.

The first consideration is called firm song original: cantus firmus; the foundational, often slow-moving melody of a polyphonic composition by the moderns, while by some it is called plainchant original: cantus planus. The second is counterpoint original: contrapunctus, which is known to have been called "organization" by the ancients. And the third is figured song original: cantus figuratus; music with complex rhythms or ornamentation, which is called "organ song" by many. According to this threefold consideration, therefore, we shall divide this compendium of ours.

In the first consideration, we will primarily provide three things. First, we will demonstrate to the senses the correct divisions of the instrument composed by art for those being instructed, and we will advise them to commit to memory the sound of the strings according to the struck divisions. Second, we will treat the natural organ through arsis and thesis Greek terms for the "lifting" and "setting down" of the voice or a beat, that is, through the raising and lowering, or through the tightening and loosening...