Author: Doni, Giovanni Battista - manuscripts of italian music theory ...

down to our times a good portion of those which were composed in antiquity in a very
large number on the parts or specialities of it, since it was very well regarded in those
days not less than it is now. But, on the contrary, among all those so noble writers
who wrote works on music [[(one has to say this in order to be impartial)]] a very
small part has survived after so many destructions and fires that destroyed entire cities
and provinces for many centuries. An even smaller part has managed to survive
beyond dark and uncivilised that followed the destruction of the Roman Empire and
to reach our age. But, since this is not overly our concern, I say that the most
important and fundamental part of music, as Aristoxenus explains at the beginning of
his Harmonics, is that is called Harmonic, on which we have only three books (albeit
incomplete) of the Harmonic Elements of Aristoxenus, who is the prince, in my
opinion, of all the musicians that have been and ever will be. However, also the three
most erudite and subtle Harmonics by Ptolemy with Porphyry's most learned and
ample commentary which is in the Vatican Library and in others, and, besides, the
Latin work f Boethius and some [--] other Greek Writers who (from Aristides
Quintilianus onwards, who deals equally of Rhythm and Meter) do not deal with the
other parts very widely, but discuss on Harmonics succinctly, but with good order and
solid doctrine derived from earlier authors who dealt with musical matters more
extensively. But, since these books are buried in libraries for the most part, as it is the
case of Aristides and Porphyry, or since they have been translated very badly, as it has
happened to the Harmonics of Aristoxenus and Ptolemy, hence has happened that the
doctrine of the Genera and the Modes has not been understood fully until now.
[--] What is the Harmonic part of Music and which elements it contains with
particular reference to the Systems
Chapter Two
From what has been said so-far, one can easily gather [[what we were saying in
particular, and, consequently, that, among the parts which constitute Music a very
important one , or rather, the most important of them all is the one which is called
Harmonics, as it deals with Harmony, which is so important in this field]] that
Harmonics are the most important part of Music, [[despite the fact that I said little
about what it is and its whole content, it being almost the fundamental and almost the
content of all of it]] or rather it is absolutely the first and most important, just as the
subject [[on which its]] itself is which it deals with, considering it with all its
properties and relative features. One has to know that Aristoxenus (who weaved his
doctrine with wonderful order and method following in the steps of Aristotle, who
was once his Teacher) at the beginning of the second book divides it into seven parts.
After him Aristides and the others who wrote after him did the same. The first part
deals with the Genera, the second part deals with the intervals, the third one with the
sounds, namely the notes that can be sung, the fourth with the Systems, the fifth with
the Tones, the sixth with the Mutations and, finally, the seventh with the Melopoeia or
art to create [--] a song. Now, it is necessary to say something about what is not
understood usually in this Division, as a form of respect towards persons who are less
expert in this. In Music the distances that are between a note and another one which
differ as to high and low pitch are called Intervals. Some of these are consonant, as
the interval of tow tones, which is called Ditone, the one of one Tone and a half,
which is called Semiditone, the one of three Tones and a half, which is called
Diapente, and so forth. Other intervals are dissonant, such as a semitone, a Tone, a