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

Although it is not our intention to deal with the principles of music and reiterate
things said and repeated many times by the authors, which, apart from the fact that
this i unnecessary to our aim, we have never liked to copy others' doctrine as many do
to thicken their volumes, if not in as much as it is necessary to understand what
follows, nevertheless it will be necessary to say something on the System which the
ancient called large or perfect and of its features and terminology, since one will be
hardly able to understand what follows without any knowledge of these. The most
ancient of the Greeks, who were fathers and inventors of music, did not know but the
seven notes [their lyre had four strings in marg.] which made up the System of two
fourths or diatessaron, namely, of a seventh, to which then, to complete the [[octave
D]] Diapason Terpander added the eighth string or note. This man, just as the
Florentine painter Giotto did, improved and enhanced considerably his profession,
which was not refined and very simple, [--] and reduced to a state of rather
greater perfection. But leaving aside [Albeit Plato in the Timaeus appears to have
enlarged his System to cover four octaves and a sixth, making the number 27 as one
of its extremities, nevertheless, as Aristoxenus quoted by Proclus states, he did not
consider practice in this, but only nature; and, although theorists more modern than
Aristoxenus proposed the Diagram of three octaves and a tone, reaching a total of 23
voices, one cannot say that is was a single System or Diagram, but fifteen, as many as
their tones were in marg,] aside such early starts, and the question of whether the lire
had four or seven strings in the beginning and such other matters which one can learn
as well from Plutarch, from Nichomacus' fragments, from Boethius and others, and
from Gallileo, who deals with this inquisitively among modern writers, I will move on
to discuss the complete and perfect system which was used in those most lucky times
of ancient Greece when this art was treated with such diligence and exquisite taste
that it seems to me that I am able to state that, if in any other professions the Greeks
have surpassed all the nations of the world, in this one they have surpassed
themselves, in a certain sense. Therefore, I say that the system of fifteen notes was
considered and called perfect with good reason, because all the perfection and variety
of music is contained within it, and albeit someone might think together with the
Pythagoreans (who were happy with the proportion of the number six contained in it,
and which constitutes the first of all the simple and uncompounded consonances) that
the system of eight notes would be sufficient and perfect, nevertheless, [[because if
that interval is not sufficient from the action of that interval one finds the
consona]] we do not want to become embroiled in this dispute, nor do we
wanto to abandon the doctrine and [--] fundamental beliefs of those who have
written about this profession better than others in those times when all the arts and the
sciences had already reached their highest point. Someone might be surprised
perhaps, that I do not propose the System of Guido of 21 or 20 notes, namely from
[Gamma] ut to e e la, which is received and practice commonly nowadays, believing
perhaps that, because it is longer and ample it contains a greater level of perfection
and is of greater use in music. However, the brevity and ease of use which the ancient
System carries with itself, the better order which it contains, and the observation that
more modern musicians have added other notes to Guido's System, both above and
below it, or that it is redundant, as it appears to be in the compositions in a single part,
or lacking, as in many compositions for several voices and in those for instruments,
make it such that, leaving aside for now its foundations, I will stick to the most
ancient ones. I will do that all the more willingly since Boethius himself, from whom
Guido has derived all his doctrine, as Boethius was the only author read in those very
uncultured ancient times [moreover, as Gallilei maintains the number itself of its 21