Universal Harmony, Volume I

III. Given a weight supported by two strings, or by two supports, whose position is given, find how much power is required for each string or each support. 21. Wherein one must also see the nine Scholia that follow.

The Fifty-Three Propositions of the Book on the Voice.

The printers have incorrectly placed "of Universal Harmony" in the titles of the pages until the eleventh page. See the Preface.

I. The motive power of the soul is the principal and primary cause of the voice of animals, and has its seat in the tendons. 1.

II. Of all the muscles of the body, those of the chest and the larynxThe hollow muscular organ forming an air passage to the lungs and holding the vocal cords; the voice box. contribute most immediately to the voice. 3.

III. The glottisThe part of the larynx consisting of the vocal cords and the opening between them. is the most proximate cause of the voice. 4.

IV. The muscles and nerves of the larynx serve to form the loworiginal: "grave" and highoriginal: "aiguë" voice. 6.

V. The voice is the sound that an animal makes by means of the vocal arteryoriginal: "artere vocale"; an archaic term for the trachea or windpipe., the larynx, the glottis, and the other parts that contribute to forming it, with the intention of signifying something. 7.

VI. The voices of men are as different as their faces, so that one can distinguish them from each other by the voice; and establish Phthongonomyoriginal: "Phtongonomie"; a term coined from Greek "phthongos" (voice) and "nomos" (law), intended as the study of character through vocal sounds., or Phonoscopyoriginal: "Phoniſcopie"; the examination or "looking at" the voice. for voices, just as physiognomy is for faces. 8.

VII. The voice of animals serves to signify the passions of the soul, but it does not always signify the temperamentIn 17th-century medicine, "temperament" referred to the specific balance of the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) within an individual. of the body. 8.

VIII. The voice of animals is necessary, and that of men is free. 10. Mersenne suggests that animal cries are reflexive instincts, while human speech is a product of free will.

IX. The voice is the material of speech, and it is man alone who speaks. 10.

X. To determine if man could speak or sing if he had never heard words or sounds. 11.

XI. Assuming that children were raised in a place where they heard no speaking, to know what languageoriginal: "idiome" they would use to speak among themselves. 11.

XII. To determine if one can find the best language of all those that can express the thoughts of the mind. 12. See the 47th Proposition of this book.

XIII. How many kinds of sounds man can make with the mouth and the other organs of the voice and speech. 13.

XIV. If nature had not given voices that express the passions, to know if one could invent the same ones she uses, or more suitable ones. 14.

XV. One can sing ChromaticA style of music using many half-steps (semitones) outside the standard scale. and EnharmonicA style of music using microtonal intervals, smaller than a half-step. music, and perform the major and minor tone, and even the CommaA very small musical interval, used here to describe the minute adjustments singers make to stay in tune. in all the places one wishes. 16.

XVI. To explain how the loworiginal: "grave" and highoriginal: "aigu" of the voice is made. Wherein Aristotle's questions on this subject are explained. 17.

XVII. Whether it is easier to lead the voice from a low sound to a high one, than from high to low. 22.

XVIII. To know whether it is easier to sing by conjunct degreesStepwise motion between adjacent notes in a scale. than by separate or disjunct degreesMusical leaps, skipping over notes in the scale.. 27.

XIX. To determine if one can know with certainty which is the low or the high of the sound that one hears. 27.