Symposium on Seventeenth-Century Music Theory: England

W. T. Atcherson

Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 16, No. 1/2. (Spring - Winter, 1972), pp. 6-15.

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SYMPOSIUM ON

SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY

In this paper I shall take "music theory" to mean discourse

about music in general, s o a s to include both the traditional
disciplines of musica speculativa and musica practica. In s o
doing I am permitting consideration of, for example, the ele-
mentary instruction books of William Bathe and John Playford
a s well a s more strictly theoretical works of such men a s
Thomas Salmon and William Holder. Indeed were not such an
allowance to be made, one would have to say that the English
had virtuallynomusic theory during the f i r s t half of the seven-
teenth century, since the only Englishman of that period to
concern himself extensively with traditional aspects of musica
speculativa was Robert Fludd (in his Utriusque cosmi. . .his-
toria of 1617-1619 and other works).
MUSIC THEORY:

ENGLAND

W.T. ATCHERSON

It can be said that seventeenth-century English music theory

exhibits two orientations, the one practical and pervading the
entire century, the other more purely theoretical and becoming
prominent only in the second half of the century. Both orienta-
tions, despite an occasional backward glance, a r e manifestly
progressive, a s I shall demonstrate by putting seventeenth-
century English music theory in the context of European theory
in general.

Seventeenth-century English theorists were relatively free from

traditional medieval and Renaissance music theory. Discon-
tinuity of the medieval/Renaissance tradition inEngland is sug-
gested by the fact that no Englishman produced an important
theoretical treatise during the interval from John Hothby's
literary activities in the late fifteenth century to the appearance
of Bathe's A Brief Introduction to the true Art of Musicke of
1584. Disregarding short accounts of rudiments appended to
some sixteenth-century psalters, John Dygon's early sixteenth-
century paraphrase of Gaffurius, and two translations of
Le Roy's lute instruction book of 1567, i t can be said that the
English produced only four theory books which we know of dur -
ing the whole sixteenth century. Contrast this with the Ger-
mans, for example: in the category of elementary text books
alone one could cite the works of Ornithoparcus, Listenius,
Heyden, Zanger, and Oridryus, and still not have named m o r e
than a tiny fraction of music theorists active in theory pedagogy.
It may be worth observing in passing that England produced no
summamusicae during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Meanwhile on the continent one encounters Glarean, Zarlino,
Salinas, Cerone, Mersenne , Kircher , Lorente (cribbed from
Cerone, to be s u r e ) , and, in the early eighteenth century,
Nassarre.

In view of the discontinuity of the medieval/Renaissance tradi-

tion in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England we should
not be surprisedif aspects of that tradition should at times show
up garbled in seventeenth-century English sources. Christo-
pher Simpson, for example, included a brief account of the
Guidonian hexachord system in the section of his book having
to do with Greek modal theory, a s though the former had some-
thing to do with the latter. In Ravenscroft, Butler, and Play-
ford the three traditional Guidonian hexachords were trans-
formed s o that the naturalis system had one flat, while the
mollis had two flats. Some years earlier William Bathe had
givenevidence of even greater confusion by placing hexachords
on C, F, and ~b with signatures respectively of no flats, one
flat, and two flats.

This discontinuity of tradition is also evident in what is often

missing from seventeenth-century English treatises. The Gui-
donian hand, for example, appeared in only one seventeenth-
century document originating in the British Isles, namely in
"Forbes' 'Cantus"' of 1 6 6 2 , a publication very conservative in
other respects a s well. Discussions of ancient Greek modes
were sometimes included in theory books, but only out of a
sense of duty, a s when Playford took up the subject s o a s to
avoid being "singular." And the old definitions and classifica-
tions of music, s o dear to medieval and Renaissance theorists,
seem to be absent from English treatises of this century (ex-
cepting that of Fludd), a s a r e , incidentally, newer classifica-
tions such a s those s e t forth by Christoph Bernhard o r Angelo
Berardi.

Professional music making was hardly unknown in seventeenth-

century England, but much of English musical life centered on
amateur activity. Most of the instructional literature of that
century, reckoned in sheer bulk, was intended either for the
musically inclined gentleman o r for the untutored parishioner
who wished to sing psalms by book. Though interest in musica
speculativa waxed strong in the late seventeenth century, it was
not at the expense of practical music. Playford, not Holder,
went through twenty-two editions and reprintings.

This desire to make music accessible to the amateur led to

simplification, and i n t u r n t o innovation. From Bathe's A Brief
Introduction of 1584 to La Fond's A New System of Music of
1725 there were numerous attempts to cull out the old com-
plexities of solmization, clefs, mensural notation, and the
modes, and to find new ways of approaching counterpoint and
composition.

Some of these attempts were successful. Campion, for exam-

ple, anticipated later methods of teaching theory in his A New
Way of Making Foure P a r t s in Counterpoint by advocating the
bass instead of tenor a s point of departure for, and four-part
writing a s an appraoch to, composition. It is true that some
continental authors of the sixteenth century attributed impor -
tance to the bass in one way or another. Zarlino compared the
bass to the earth and asserted that the last note of the bass of
a composition may be the final of the mode; Eucharius Hoffman
elevated Zarlino's pronouncement to the rank of a rule for de-
termining mode. And with respect to four-part writing i t may
perhaps be said that Campion took his inspiration from the
four-part formulae of sixteenth-century continental theorists.
After all, John Dowland's translation of Ornithoparcus - with
i t s prescriptions for four-part writing a t cadences - appeared
in London about four years prior to the publication of Campion's
book. Yet Campion's rules, standing quite apart from the
counterpoint tradition leading from ~ a r l i n othrough Bononcini
to Fux, appear to be the f i r s t to employ the bass a s point of
departure, and four-part writing a s a norm, in counterpoint
instruction.

With solmization, too, the English exhibited independence from

the continental tradition. To be sure, attempts to reform sol-
mization were hardly absent from continental theory books; a s
early a s 1482 Ramos de P a r e j a advocated the use of a seven-
syllable system. In England we find a seven-syllable system
s e t forth, in the 1596 edition of Bathe's A Brief Introduction,
alongside the six-syllable mutating system and, more s u r -
prising, alongside a proposal to abandon solmization altogether
in favor of singing letter names. This latter proposal - which
anticipates Arnbrosius Profe's "innovation" by nearly a half
century - is tempered, though, by Bathe's remark: "Yet for
the common use, i t were not arnisse, that l e a r n e r s should
sometime o r other commit the Gam-ut to memory. "

In a manuscript from c. 1610 Thomas Ravenscroft set forth a

four-syllable systemof solmization and indicated that this sys-
tem was in general use in England. The major scale in this
system was sung to the syllables Fa, Sol, La, Fa, Sol, La,
Mi, Fa. Most seventeenth-century English publications dis-
cussed, sometimes with slight variations, a four-syllable
system.

Bathe's cautious proposal to abandon solmization altogether was

picked up again by e a r l y eighteenth-century theorists. John
Francis de La Fond was the most radical of these, since he
proposed the substitution of numbers for syllables -but num-
b e r s accounting for semitones rather than scale degrees; for
himthe octave, for example, was a 13th, o r in his terminology,
a "tredecime. "

Another a r e a of English progressiveness should be mentioned:

notation. The most famous attempt to reform notation came
from Thomas Salmon, who advocated that music should be no-
tated in a single clef whose second line would be G; register
wouldthen be indicatedwith the letters B (bass), M (for meane),
and T (for treble). According to Lillian Ruff, in The 17th
Century English Music Theorists (Ph.D. thesis, Nottingham,
1962), editions of Playford's Introduction to the Skill of Musick
appearing subsequent to Salmon's Essay (1672) no longer em-
ployed the movable C clef. It may not even be too much to a s -
sume that the English practice of avoiding the movable C clef
is due to Salmon's efforts. La Fond advocated a clef reform
similar to that of Salmon some years later (1725), while in the
meantime the anonymous author of A New and Easie Method to
Learn to Sing by Booke (1686) proposed that only treble and
bass clefs be used.

English theorists of the seventeenth century in general do not

concern themselves a t any length with matters of tuning, in
contrast to continental theorists, o r when they do, they tend to
be conservative - a s in the case of Simpson, who in 1667 still
clung to just intonation. One Englishman, Lord Brouncker,
was remarkably ahead of his time, however. While descrip-
tions of equal temperament go back at least as far as Gaffurius
in the late fifteenth century, and while geometrical approxima-
tions go back at least as far as Salinas (1577), mathematical
calculation by means of logarithms did not become widely knowfl
until the eighteenth century; mention could be made of Christoph
Sinn's Musikalische Temperatura Practica of 1717. Lord
Brouncker anticipated Sinn by more than sixty years, in the
"Animadversions" appended to his English translation of Des-
cartes' Compendium musicae, by advocating (among other sys-
tems) a logarithmically determined equal temperament.

Perhaps the most remarkable innovation of seventeenth-century

English theorists concerns the concept of key. Continental
theorists were busily perpetuating the eight church modes (in
various chant manuals such as those of Tettamanzi and Carlos
de Jesus Maria), or perpetuating Glarean's twelve modes
(Gesius, de Caus, a n d ~ a t t h b )or
, confusing the eightor twelve
church modes with the psalm tones and, in turn, with pitch
keys (Nivers and P r i m e r ) . The English meanwhile perpetuated
a concept of pitch key not unlike that taught young musicians
yet today. When, in Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction,
Philomathes asks if there is anything else wrong with his ex-
ercise, the master replies, "Yes, for you have in closing gone
out of your key, which i s one of the grossest faults which may
be committed. " For Campion, a key "guides and ends the
whole song." And La Fond, writing over a century later, con-
ceived of a composition as a projection of a single focal pitch.

As for duality of modes, the English likewise were in the van-

guard. Zarlino had of course recognized that his twelve modes
were of two main kinds: those with a major third over the
final, and those with a minor third. But Coperario and Cam-
pion appear t o be the first to discern clearly that there were
only two modes. Even when continental theorists did begin to
recognize the duality of modes, the English were still a jump
ahead: late seventeenth-century English theorists (starting
with Thomas Salmon in 1688) observe the relationship of, for
example, C major with a minor, while their continental con-
temporaries, of those who recognized duality at all, paired
C major with d Dorian. One could cite, for example, Jean
Rousseau, L'Affilard, Masson, and Loulik. Even Rameau, in
his ~ r a i t 6de l'harmonie of 1722, continued to pair C major
with d Dorian, though the Supplement to the ~ r a i t e ' ,and in his
subsequent theoretical works, he advanced the modern notion
of major /minor relatives.
Seventeenth-century English music theory, then, exhibits dis-
tinctly progressive tendencies, particularly in such a r e a s a s
composition, solmization, notation, tuning (in the case of Lord
Brouncker, a t least), and major/minor key theory. I should
like to advance an hypothesis to give focus and direction to
further inquiries: though English music theory of the seven-
teenth century was progressive partly because of the need to
simplify theory for amateurs, it was progressive primarily
because of its relative independence of the medieval/Renais-
sance tradition of speculative music theory. A carefully elab-
orated theoretical system, like human institutions, tends to
perpetuate itself, and in s o doing to stifle the growth of new
ideas. Conversely, new ideas tend to evolve more readily if
not blocked by firmly entrenched old ideas. To borrow Herbert
Butterfield's metaphor concerning the evolution of scientific
thought: i t consists, he says, i n "picking up the opposite end
of the stick." It may not be too much of an exaggeration to say
that the English did not even have hold of one end of the stick.
They were poorly schooled in the medieval/Renaissance tradi-
tion and thus free to develop new ideas, particularly within the
context of a lively and progressive musical tradition.
 A CHECKLIST OF SOURCES

The following checklist includes not only theoretical and practical t r e a t i s e s inEng-
lish written by Englishmen, but also translations of continental authors intoEnglish
(Alsted, Descartes, Matteis, and Ornithoparcus), and one book in Latin - by an
Englishman - published on the continent (Fludd). Since English theoretical t r e a -
t i s e s of the seventeenth century a r e not numerous, this list i s relatively complete,
but i t i s nevertheless somewhat selective. No attempt has been made to account
for every seventeenth-century edition of a given book (e. g . , Playford's instruction
book), manuscript sources have been largely omitted, and references to recent
secondary sources have been limited to those offering bibliographical information.

Alsted, Johann Heinrich. Johannis Henrici Alstedii encyclopedia septem tomis

distincta. ..
.Herborn (Nassau), 1630. Book 20, "Musica," translated by
John Birchensha a s Templum Musicum: o r , The Musical Synopsis, of the
learned and famous Johannes Henricus Alstedius. ...
London: William God-
bid, 1664. Facsimile edition, New York: Broude Brothers, 1964.

Bathe, William. A Brief Introduction to the Skill of Song. London: Thomas E s t e ,

n.d. Andrew Deakin (Outlines of Musical Bibliography: A Catalogue of Early
Music and Musical Works Printed o r Otherwise Produced in the British Isles,
Birmingham, 1899, p. 66) gives the y e a r 1596, while Robert Steele (The E a r -
liest English Music Printing, London, 1903, p.52) tentatively suggests 1587,
"very e a r l y in East's c a r e e r , since none of his l a t e r music type appears in
it. "

Bathe, William. A Briefe Introduction to the True Art of Musicke. London, 1584.
Steele l i s t s this among his "ghosts," but also in the section "Some Titles from
Authentic Sources* (op. cit., p. 101). Hawkins must have had a copy a t his
disposal, since he quotes at length from the P r e f a c e (Sir John Hawkins, A
General History of the Science and Practice of Music, New York: Dover,
1963, Vol. 11, p.497). It s e e m s reasonable to conclude that the work i s now
lost - unless i t lives on in A Brief Introduction to the Skill of Song.

Bayne, Alexander. An Introduction to the Knowledge and Practice of the Thoro9-

Bass. Edinburgh, 1717. ( F o r m e r l y attributed to Alexander Baillie. )

Bevin, Elway. A Briefe and Short Instruction of the Art of Musicke. London: R.
Young, 1631.

Blow, John. "Rules for Playing of a Thorough-Bass Upon Organ and Harpsicon"
(MS, c. 1680). Printed in F. T. Arnold, The Art of Accompaniment from a
Thorough-Bass. London: Oxford University P r e s s , 1931. F o r information
relating to this manuscript and to many other manuscripts not listed here,
s e e Louis F r e d Chenette, Music Theory in the British Isles during the En-
lightenment (Ph. D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1967), 399-413.

Butler, Charles. The Principles of Musick. London: John Haviland, 1636.

Campion, Thomas. New ways in making Foure P a r t s in Counterpoint. London:
Thomas Snodham, c. 1613. Reprinted by PercivalVivian i n Campion's Works,
London: OxfordUniversity P r e s s , 1909; and by Walter R. Davis in The Works
of Thomas Campion, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1967. Playford
incorporated Campion's P r e f a c e in the 1654 edition of An Introduction to the
Skill of Musick, and the entire Campion t r e a t i s e in the 1655 edition; subse-
quent editions of An Introduction. .
.omit Campion's treatise.

Coperario, Giovanni. Rules How to Compose (MS, c. 1613). Facsimile edition,

with an introduction by Manfred Bukofzer. Los Angeles. E. E . Gottlieb,
1952.

Davidson, Thomas. Cantus: Songs and Fancies to Three, Foure, o r Five p a r t e s

... .Aberdeen: John Forbes ("Forbes's 'Cantus'"), 1662.

Descartes, R e d . Compendium musicae (1618). Published in Utrecht, 1650. T r a n s -

lated by "a person of honour" (Lord Brouncker) a s Renatus DesCartes Excel-
lent Compendium of Musick. London: T . H a r p e r , 1654. (Also translated by
Walter Robert, "Musicological Studies andDocuments," No. 8. Rome: Amer-
ican Institute of Musicology, 1961. )

Finch, The Hon. Edward. A G r a m m a r of Thorough Bass. MS. c . 1721-1725.

Fludd, Robert. Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet minoris metaphysica, physica

atque technica historia. FrankfurtIMain, 1616 - 1619.

Gorton, William. Catechetical Questions in Musick made Plain to the Meanest

Capacity. London: W. Pearson, 1704.

Holder, William. T r e a t i s e of the Natural Grounds and Principles of Harmony.

London: J . Heptinstall, 1694. Facsimile edition, New York: Broude Broth-
e r s , 1067.

Keller, Godfry. A Compleat Method f o r Attaining to Play a Thorough-Bass upon

either Organ, Harpsichord, o r Theorbo Lute. London: J . Cullen, John Young,
1707.

La Fond, John Francis de. A Sew System of Music, both theoretical and practical,
and yet not mathematical written i n a manner entirely new. London, for ...
the author, 1725.

Locke, llatthew. Melothesia: o r , Certain General Rules for Playing upon a Con-
tinued-Bass. London: J . C a r r , 1673.

Mace, Thomas. Musick's monument. .. .London: printed by T. Radcliffe and S .

Thompson for the author, 1676. Facsimile edition, P a r i s : Editions du Cen-
t r e r a t i o n a l de la Recherche Scientifique, 1958-1966. Vol. I, facsimile; vol.
11, commentary by J e a n Jacquot and transcription by Andr6 Souris.

Malcolm, Alexander. A T r e a t i s e of Musick, Speculative, P r a c t i c a l , and Historical.

Edinburgh, for the author, 1721.

Matteis, Nicola. The False Consonaces of Musick, o r instructions for the playing
a true base upon the guitarre. ...
London: J. C a r r . 1682.

Morley, Thomas. A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practical1 Musicke, Set Downe
in F o r m e of a Dialogue. London: P e t e r Short, 1597. Facsimile edited by
Humphrey Milford. London: Oxford University P r e s s , 1937. Reprint edited
by R. Alec Harman. London: Dent, 1952.

North, F r a n c i s . A Philosophical E s s a y of Musick. London: John Martyn. 1677.

North, Roger. The Musicall Grammarian. MS, c. 1726. Edited by Hilda Andrews,
with foreword by Richard Terry. London: W o r d University P r e s s , 1925.

Omnithoparcus. Andreas. Musice active Micrologus. Leipzig: Valentin Schumann,

1517. Translated by John Dowland a s Andreas Ornithoparcus, his Micrologus,
or Introduction: Concerning the A r t of Singing. London: Thomas Adams,
1609.

Playford, John. An Introduction to the Skill of Musick, in two books. London: John
Playford, 1655. F o r bibliographical information concerning Playford's Intro-
duction, see Ramon E. Meyer, John Playford's An Introduction to the skill of
musick (Ph.D. dissertation. Florida State University, 1961), pp.12-29.

Ravenscroft, Thomas. A Treatise of Musick. MS. ca. 1610.

Ravenscroft, Thomas. A Briefe discovrse of the true (but neglected) use of char-
act'ring the degrees by their perfection, imperfectionanddiminution in meas-
urable musicke. .. .London: Edwin Allde for Thomas Adams, 1614.

Robinson, Thomas. The Schoole of Musicke. London: Thomas Este, 1603.

Salmon, Thomas. An e s s a y to the Advancement of Musick. London: J. Macock,

1672.

Simpson, Christopher. The Principles of Practical Music. London: Wm. Godbid,

1665. The second edition, A Compendium of Practical Music (London: Wm.
Godbid, 1667). has been reprinted, edited and furnished with an introduction
by Phillip Lord. Oxford: Blackwell, 1970.

Sguth, Robert. Musica incantans, sive p w m a exprimens musicae vires. . . .Os-

ford: Leon Lichfield (Thomas Robinson), 1667.

Turner, William. Sound Anatomiz'd. in a Philosophical Essay on Music. ...

London: W. Pearson, 1724.

Wilson, John. A Brief Introduction to the Skill of Musick. London: John Playford,
1660.

Anonymous. A New and Easie Method to Learn to Sing by Book. . . .London: W.

Rogers, 1686.

Anonymous. The Pathway to Musick, contayning sundrie familiar and easie rules
for the readie. .
.understanding of the scale, o r gamma-ut. London: for
William Barley, 1596. (Formerly attributed to Barley. )