❦ Prologue ❦

...out of tune, and that they may play the modes in positions that until today have not been played, and
that through the certainty of the beat they may know the true diapason The interval of an octave, or the full range of an instrument of the monochord A single-stringed instrument used for measuring musical intervals, organ,
vihuela A guitar-shaped string instrument popular in Renaissance Spain, harp, and of all instruments, and other great excellencies and secrets
that in the course of the seven books of the aforementioned declaration they shall achieve. And let those
who read this prologue not take me for bold in my promising: for my promise is much smaller
than the work itself. What is given exceeds what was promised by many carats. I supplicate
the Christian reader not to judge until he has read and understood all my books, if he
wishes to be successful; and this I shall ask many times. I recognize that the work exceeds my strengths and
knowledge, both natural and acquired; but I am confident in God, who has inflamed my will
to begin it, that He will enlighten my understanding to finish it with great fruit, and will give
grace with which I may bring it to light in all perfection. I know, and with the certainty of experience,
that I am bound to discontent one class of people and not please another with my
books. True musicians who do not have God in their hearts will be grieved by
this work, and those who are hardened and rancid in the depraved customs of
Music, I shall not satisfy. To the first group I say: I would rather fall into their disgrace than into
God's, because He gave me (without my deserving it) the understanding of said instruments and the
ability to make them understood. And as I received it freely: without the price of human praise,
without the pleas of friends, without the force of a superior, I intend to communicate it. No
small murmurs and persecutions have I received from such people. Some (who should
have served me) have set me at odds with princes who had the will and desire to
grant me favors, and others hold me as an enemy, chiefly because I taught a carpenter
how to build organs; and others have said and done such things that having patience in them
will be a great reward for me before God. To the second group I respond that I do not write for
them, but for the ignorant who newly desire to know, and to quickly come through artifice
to understand infallibly what they sing and play. Thus, for those who desire, want,
and are able to be disciples: I write. I would rather, says original: "Augustino" Saint Augustine, that my disciples
(those who were to learn Music) were totally ignorant in it, than
that they should have some depraved habit. The saint speaks a great truth. A
wise master does not spend as much time in instructing a raw disciple as in removing
the false intonation, the errors learned from the ignorant, and the falsehoods that long habit
or custom without art have sown in his natural ear like tares original: "cizaña" - weeds often mentioned in biblical parables. I supplicate
those who read my books to have a desire to know the truth and foundation of music, and
if after reading them once they do not understand them: do not despair. Devote yourselves to them, for
it is possible to understand musical instruments without another teacher. I have experience
of this: I gave a diagram of a vihuela with a brief explanation to a singer, and he immediately understood it
and varied it through different signs, and began to intabulate original: "cifrar" - to translate vocal polyphony into instrumental notation (tablature) as certainly as a man who
possessed the craft and knew what he was doing. No player can enjoy the excellent music
of this time unless he knows how to understand the instruments and set the music upon them. Commonly...