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

Enharmonic genus and considered it a mere fantasy, since they did not believe that the
Diesis was applicable and useful. However, one must note most of all the argument
adduced by them against the use of the diesis, which is that it could not be found
through any consonance, since it is not the difference between two consonances, as in
the case of the tone, which is the interval by which the fourth exceeds the Ditone.
From this one can notice that the consonances which are called imperfect were known
very well at that time, although it is common believed that the opposite is true.
[--] Why the last two genera were lost, and who set out to restore them Chapter
Apart from the succession of events in human history which renders variable and
changeable all the parts of nature as well the inventions of man, it appears that the
cause of the loss of the two genera may be ascribed principally to those two great
revolutions and falls of the two last Empires, namely, the Greek and the Roman,
which were destroyed and ruined to such an extent by the barbarians together with
what of good and beautiful was contained in them, that even the most necessary arts
were either lost or were very lacking and the world was enveloped for many centuries
in the greatest ignorance, so that both for this reason as well because of the laziness
and sloth of those who could have taken on this discipline, had they wanted to labour
on it, one can believe that, since even their writers on those subjects were lost with the
passing of time and since the world fell into greater disarray than before, even the
memory of them was lost. Hence, just as the Enharmonic came to light later than the
others, thus it also vanished earlier. One can find the main reason for this in its
complexity, because, as we have seen, this genus requires great study and continuous
practice on the part of the singers. Hence, since music was not highly regarded even
by the Romans and since its practitioners were not as well regarded as by the Greeks,
and since singing and playing competitions were as commonplace in public festivals,
as this must have been a great incentive for those aspiring to great glory, it is not
surprising that such a great genus was lost. Besides, we know that it is less pleasing
and more convoluted than the others. In fact, since the first two intervals are so small
that the experts of the art and those endowed with a refined ear are able to distinguish
them with difficulty, [--] it could not, nor it can now please simple people who
are more numerous than the experts. Hence, it seems to the majority that such music
is poorer and composed of fewer intervals, since they take the first two almost as a
single one and hardly distinguishing the second not from the third one. Moreover, that
leap of an uncompounded third, if it used often, will bore inexperienced listeners,
since it will make it look as if the melody lacks the middle note which divides it in the
diatonic. Besides, since everyone appreciates more the type of music which is closer
to its attitude, and, since persons belonging to the lower class and who indulge in
carnal desires, have a lower character, as Aristotle points out
, they will
not appreciate such an interval which has something of the magnificent and of the
Heroic, since the music which employ frequently such large intervals are apt to
express the magnanimous and magnificent character, which, therefore, is suited to
tragedy, as Greek Writers note. Therefore, le it be without question that since [This is
confirmed by Macrobius in his Somnium Schipionis, book 3, Chapter 4, where he
says that “it was abandoned because of its excessive difficulty” in marg.] the
Enharmonic genus had this character, it was lost, and that the Chromatic, albeit it was
sweet and cheerful, nevertheless, since it was harder than the Diatonic and required a
considerable amount of application, was also abandoned many centuries ago. [This is
the reason why it was abandoned, rather than one reported by Ponto da Tiard in his