The character of Mersennus as a philosopher and a mathematician is well known in the learned world. To that disposition which led him to the most abstruse studies, he joined a nice and judicious ear, and a passionate love of music; these gave a direction to his pursuits, and were productive of numberless experiments and calculations, tending to demonstrate the principles of harmony, and prove that it is independent of habit or fashion, custom or caprice, and, in short, has its foundation in nature, and in the original frame and constitution of the universe.
In the year 1636, Mersenne published, at Paris, in a large folio volume, his Harmonie Universelle, in which he treats of the nature and properties of sound, of instruments of various kinds, of consonances and dissonances, of composition, of the human voice, of the practice of singing, and a great variety of other matters concerning music.
This work consists of a great number of separate and distinct treatises, with such signatures for the sheets, and numbers of the pages, as to make them independent of each other. The consequence whereof is, that there are hardly any two copies to be met with that contain precisely the same number of tracts, or in which the tracts occur or follow in the same order; so that to cite or refer to the Harmonie Universelle is a matter of some difficulty. Among these are to be found the most minute and satisfactory account of the state of music in France during the reign of Louis XIII. Indeed, Dr. Burney remarks,—his Harmonie Universelle is a work in which, notwithstanding his ‘partiality to his country, want of taste and of method, there are so many curious researches and ingenious and philosophical experiments, which have been of the greatest use to subsequent writers, particularly Kircher, as render the book extremely valuable.’ This work, corrected and enlarged, was translated into Latin, and published by the author in 1648, the year of his death, under the title of De Sonorum Natura, Causis et Effectibus.
In his twenty-third proposition, liv. i., Mersenne explains and describes twelve different kinds of music and movement used in France during his time: namely, motets, songs or airs, passacailles, pavans, allemandes, gaillards, voltes, courantes, sarabands, canaries, branles, and balets; of all which he gives examples in notes. But though most of these movements were the specific names of the dances then in vogue, the minuet, which during the last century was in such general favour all over Europe, is never mentioned.
In the Préface Générale, the author speaks of Galileo’s discoveries in harmonics; and in his liv. ii., Des Consonances, of sympathetic vibrations. In other parts of his work he clearly explains the twelve major keys of practical music; and shows, for the first time perhaps, that there may be seventy-two keys, or six for each note, flat, natural, and sharp, major and minor. There is nothing in this good Father’s book which reflects more honour on his taste and penetration than his partiality for the violin, to which, in liv. iv., Des Instruments, prop. 1, he gives the preference over all other instruments then in use, at a time when it was thought unworthy of being admitted into the concerts of other countries.
One proposition in this book (xxxiv.) is to inquire whether the French method of singing is the best of all possible methods? and he determines in the affirmative, not only with respect to this, but affirms, that of all those he ever heard sing in neighbouring countries, as in Spain, Germany, Flanders, and Italy, he had met with none who sang so agreeably as the French. ‘There may,’ says he, ‘be now and then a miraculous performer in other countries, but I speak here in general.’
He mentions recitative as a thing little practised in France, for want of courage. The Italians, he observes, succeed in this species of singing, which Giacomo Peri had invented at Florence at the beginning of the century. Here he speaks of several musical dramas in Italy, but does not call them operas. (Liv. vi. L’Art de bien chanter.)
ATHANASIUS KIRCHER was born at Fulda in Germany, in 1601. At the age of seventeen he entered the society of Jesuits, and, after going through a regular course of study, during which he distinguished himself by his vast attainments in literature and science, he became a teacher of philosophy, mathematics, and the Hebrew and Syriac languages, in the University of Wurtzburg in Franconia. In 1631, when the Swedes entered Germany under Gustavus Adolphus, he returned to France, and settled in the Jesuits’ college at Avignon, where he remained till 1635. He was then called to Rome to teach mathematics in the Roman college, where he continued during six years. He afterwards became professor of Hebrew in that city, and died there in 1680, having written and published twenty-two volumes in folio, eleven in quarto, and three in octavo. Kircher was more than ordinarily addicted to the study of hieroglyphics, and it is said that certain young scholars caused to be engraved some unmeaning fantastic characters or figures upon a shapeless stone, then buried it in ground which was shortly to be dug up. Upon digging the place, the stone was found, and, by the scholars who had hidden it, carried to Kircher as a most singular antique, who, quite in raptures, applied himself instantly to explain the characters, and, as he perhaps persuaded himself, and certainly attempted to persuade others, made them intelligible.
The chief work of Kircher is his Musurgia Universalis, which is written in Latin, in ten books, occupying two volumes in folio, the first containing seven books, the second three. The subjects on which he treats are principally the following—of the propagation of sound—of the elements of practical music—of harmonics, or the ratios of sounds—geometric and algebraic division of the monochord—new experiments in the construction of musical instruments—of melody, comprehending new secrets for producing every species of melody (!)—a parallel between ancient and modern music, pointing out the dignity of the ecclesiastical canto fermo, and the means of arriving at the pathetic style—of composition, or the combinations of sounds, and the application of air to poetical numbers and rhythms in all languages—musical wonders produced by hidden means, and new experiments of all kinds—and, lastly, of the various derivations of music, and the physical and artificial purposes to which it is, or may be, applied.