Air A La Grecque A Quarter

INFORMATION TO USERS
This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI
films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some
thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while ethers may
be from any type o f computer printer.
The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality o f the

copy subm itted. B roken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality
illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins,
and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction.
In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete
m anuscript and th ere are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if
unauthorized copyright m aterial had to be removed, a note will indicate
the deletion.
Oversize m aterials (e.g_, maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by

sectioning the original, beginning a t the upper left-hand com er and
continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each
original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in
reduced form at die bade of the book.
Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced

xerographically in this copy. H igher quality 6" x 9" black and white
photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations
appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly
to order.
A Bell & Howell Information Company

300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA
313/761-4700 800/521-0600
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
AIR A l a GRECQUE: a QUARTER-TONE p ie c e f o r f l u i e
IN THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE ENHARMONIC GENRE
IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH MUSIC AND THEORY
by
Laura J. Koenig
A thesis subm itted in partial fulfillm ent

of the requirem ents for the Doctor of
Musical Arts degree in the Graduate College
of The University of Iowa
A ugust 1995
Thesis supervisor: Professor Betty Bang M ather
UMI Number: 9603054
Copyright 1995 by
Koenig, Laura Jeanne
All rights reserved.
UMI Microform 9603054

Copyright 1995, by UMI Company. All rights reserved.
This microform edition is protected against unauthorized

copying under Title 17, United States Code.
UMI
300 North Zeeb Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Copyright by
LAURA J. KOENIG
1995
All Rights Reserved
G raduate College
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL
D.M.A. THESIS
This is to certify that the D.M.A. thesis of
Laura J. Koenig
has been approved by the Examining Committee

for the thesis requirem ent for the Doctor of Musical
Arts degree at the August 1995 graduation.
Thesis committee:
Thesis sunervisor
M ember
M ember
M ember
m ber
To my daughter M adeline, w ithout w hom this thesis
w ould have been com pleted m uch sooner
ii
ABSTRACT
L ’A rt de la flute traversiere (c. 1760), a treatise by the French

flutist/com poser De Lusse, concludes w ith "A ir k la grecque," a com position
em ploying several quarter tones. Many m usic historians, perform ers, and
theorists associate pitch experim entation in this era only w ith concerns of
tem peram ent. Q uarter tones, accepted as being part of the recent
com positional trend of m icrotonality, rem ain unrecognized in eighteenth-
century studies. The term quart de ton served a variety of functions in
eighteenth-century theory from a g e n e r a liz a tio n for intervals sm aller than a
sem itone to a m ere change in spelling of the sam e pitch. The quarter tones in
"Air k la grecque," however, are specifically part of a 24-tone equal division of
the octave, as evidenced both in their unique notation and an accompanying
chart offering quarter-tone fingerings for the entire rai.ge of the one-keyed
flute.
The piece is accompanied by explanatory notes tying it to the
realization of the enharm onic genre, an im portant com ponent of ancient
Greek theory believed to have utilized quarter tones. Musical thought in pre
revolutionary France w itnessed a burgeoning m ovem ent to revitalize this
classical genre. Num erous theory texts, journal articles, and non-m usical
literature such as philosophical letters and even novels reference the
enharm onic genre, discussing the audible application of the quarter tone to
melody. This paper explores the use of quarter tones in "Air k la grecque,"
iii
provides background inform ation on De Lusse’s treatise, and places both in
the broader context of m icrotonal experim entation in eighteenth-century
France.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................. v ii
INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................. 1
CHAPTER
I. A HISTORY OF DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING

THE ENHARMONIC GENRE................................................... 15
Ancient Greece..................................................................... 15
From the Fall of Rome through the M iddle Ages 20
The Sixteenth C entury............................................................ 25
The Seventeenth C entury...................................................... 29
C onclusion............................................................................... 31
n. THE ENHARMONIC GENRE AND QUARTER TONE IN

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH THEORY AND
PRACTICE..................................................................................... 33
Ancients vs. M odem s............................................................. 33

Ram eau’s H arm onic Interpretation..................................... 36
O pposition to Rameau's Harmonic Interpretation. 40
Blamville and the M elodic Q uarter Tone............................ 45
Buffardin and Q uarter Tones
on the Transverse Flute................................................ 52
The Q uarter Tone and Instrum entation.............................. 56
C onclusion............................................................................... 60
m. RELATION OF THE ENHARMONIC GENRE AND

QUARTER TONE TO EASTERN MUSIC AND FRENCH
DECLAMATION IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 62
The Influence of Eastern C ultures in France....................... 62

The Perceived Parallels Between Verbal Inflections
and M usical Intervals.................................................... 69
The Role of Eastern Cultures in Studies
on the Origins of Language and Music........................ 75
Conclusion................................................................................ 79
IV. ANALYSIS AND PERFORMANCE CONCERNS OF
AIR 'A LA GRECQUE.............................................................. 81
The Use of Q uarter Tones................................................... 81

The N otation of the Flute P art............................................ 84
The Fingering C hart............................................................. 87
The N otation of the Bass Line............................................ 96
The Instrum entation of the Bass........................................ 99
Conclusion............................................................................. 102
V. UNCERTAINTIES CONCERNING THE COMPOSER

AND PUBLICATION OF AIR 'A LA GRECQUE............... 104
(Charles) De Lusse................................................................ 104

Two Editions of De Lusse’s T reatise.................................. 108
Extant Copies of De Lusse’s Treatise.................................. 114
Inclusion of Air a la grecque in De Lusse's Treatise 116
C onclusion............................................................................ 119
VI. WHY INTEREST IN THE QUARTER TONE DIMINISHED

AND WAS FORGOTTEN................................................ 121
The Influence of the French R evolution......................... 121
The Stigma of Eastern Music.............................................. 129
The U nderrepresentation of Quarter-Tone
Experim entation in Studies of M usic H istory 132
C onclusion............................................................................ 134
BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................. 136
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1. "Explication" preceding "Air k la grecque"........................................... 12
2. "Tablature generale" preceding "Air k la grecque".............................. 13
3. "Air k la grecque"...................................................................................... 14
4. A n excerpt from "De l'enharm onique" transcribed from

BlainvEle’s m anuscript and annotations........................................... 59
5. Two versions of "Chanson Turc".......................................................... 65
6. A transcription of "Air k la grecque" into m odem

notation w ith m easure num bers......................................................... 82
7. "Gamme naturelle” from L'A rt de la flute tranversiere.................... 88
8. "Gamme diez£e" from L'Art de la flute tranversiere......................... 89
9. "Gamme bemoliz6e” from L'A rt de la flute tranversiere................... 90
10. A com parison of the set type in the two editions

of L ’A rt de la flute tranversiere........................................................... 110
11. A com parison of the decorative illustrations from

the tw o editions of L'Art de la flute tranversiere............................... I ll
v ii
1
INTRODUCTION
L'Art de la flute traversiere, a treatise published around 1760 by the

French flutist and composer D e Lusse1, concludes w ith a com position for
flute and bass. Although only one page in length, "A ir h la grecque"
evidences a surprising m elodic device in the flute line: quarter tones. In the
present day, m ost music historians, perform ers, and theorists consider quarter
tones a recent developm ent in music composition and associate pitch
experim entation in the baroque and classical eras only w ith concerns of
tem peram ent. A n "Explication" (Figure 1, p. 12) and fingering chart (Figure 2,
p. 13) preceding "Air h. la grecque" (Figure 3, p. 14), however, confirm the
com poser's intent. The "Explication" discusses how single and triple-slashed
sharps distinguish the quarts de tons ("quarter tones”) from the double
slashes used throughout this period to notate regular sharps. These symbols
are rem arkably sim ilar to m odem quarter-tone notation. The 'T ablature
generale" offers quarter-tone fingerings for the entire range (d' to b-flat'") of
the one-keyed flute and clearly arranges the quarter tones w ithin a 24-note
division of the octave. Furtherm ore, the unusual enharm onic respelling of
consecutive notes in the bass p art (i.e. G-sharp to A-flat) may indicate similar
quarter-tone intervals.
lln eighteenth-century sources, De Lusse is referred to as M. De Lusse

or M. D. L. Only Fetis names him Charles De Lusse.
2
Despite the unequivocal use of quarter tones in "Air h. la grecque/'

m odem music dictionaries and encyclopedias do not make reference to any
quarter-tone compositions in the eighteenth century. In fact, the entries
"Quarter tone" or "Microtone" typically discuss the historical applications of
m icrotonal intervals in Eastern cultures, b u t define W estern origins outside
concerns of tem peram ent in term s of only recent generations. In the entry
"Microtone" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, for
example, M ark Lindley and Paul Griffiths write: "The use of m icrotones in
W estern art music is essentially a 20th-century phenom enon, though Julian
Carrillo had experim ented w ith his 'sonido 13' system (of equal-tem pered
quarter tones) in the 1890s."2 W orks of Carrillo (1875-1965), Charles Ives
(1874-1954), and the Czech composer Alois Hdba (1893-1973) are commonly
nam ed as the earliest quarter-tone compositions. Histories of m icrotonality
also frequently m ention Bela Bartdk's (1881-1945) use of quarter tones
influenced by folk music, H arry Partch’s (1901-1974) experim entation w ith
alternative tunings and scales, and PierTe Boulez’s Le visage nuptial (1946),
the first quarter-tone serial m usic.3
In the music theory literature and commentary of the first half of the
tw entieth century, quarter tones (or "ultrachromaticism," as they are often
called) are described as a new technique. Articles debate w hat role, if any, the
innovation would play in the future of W estern music. In 1926, for example,
^TTze New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v.

"Microtone," by M ark Lindley and Paul Griffiths.
^See The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s. v.

"Microtone," by M ark Lindley and Paul Griffiths; and Dictionary of
Contemporary Music, ed. John Vinton (New York: E. P. D utton & Co., 1974),
"Microtones, " by Ben Johnston.
3
A lbert W ellek authored an artid e denouncing the introduction of quarter

tones into m usic composition. Wellek (1904-1974), a German m usicologist
and music psychologist, view ed quarter-tone experim entation as a m isguided
m ovem ent against the "semitonic system":
They w ould halve the tw elve equal intervals of our octave,

thus doubling the num ber of tones. For a long time this
rem ained m erely a theoretical m atter, o r the subject of a few
insignificant experiments. Since its first emergence the idea
has lost m uch of its attractiveness and in te rest N ot until
quite recently has the young Czech composer Alois Hdba won
notable distinction in its practical realization.4
According to Wellek, however, Hdba’s efforts Tabor under a m arked
psychological defect." W ellek contends that the division of the octave into
tw elve equal intervals already compromises "pure tuning," that the extra
halving only worsens intonation, and that quarter tones can only be heard as
tim ing variances on the established twelve tones.5
In a sim ilar bu t m ore biting tone, the Russian musicologist and
composer Leonidovich Sabaneev (1881-1963) lashed out at quarter tones a few
years la te r
I can confidently assert that my ear has never received this

m usic as som ething 'different,' created on 'different
musical planes,' but as the old music out of tune. In fact,
the new intervals are not accepted as such by our ear, which
has been trained in a definite direction, bu t are brought into
conformity w ith the fam iliar intervals of th e 12-degree or
diatonic scale. An interval less than an octave or greater
4A lbert Wellek, "Quarter-tones and Progress," translated by Theodore

Baker, The Musical Quarterly 12 (1926): 232-233.
$Ibid., p. 234. Wellek believed the system of twelve equal semitones

w as already im pure and w rote that the move "from 12 to 24 is not an
advance, bu t an aberration, a loss” (p. 236).
4
than a seventh sounds to us like an octave or a seventh out

of tune, and not like a new, independent interval.6
Like Wellek, Sabaneev did not accept quarter tones as independent pitches
and repeatedly referred to them only in term s of the tw elve chrom atic tones.
A contrasting opinion is voiced by A rthur H olde in his 1938 article
entitled "Is There a Future for Q uarter-tone Music?" H olde describes the
tw elve-tone system as w rung d ry and contends that while experim entation is
not new to music, it is ever necessary because:
the creative force in m usic seems to have come to a standstill.

To a great extent we have allowed the intellectualizing of
artistic feeling to take the place of resourceful creativeness [...].
Intellectual life is constantly changing. Therefore there is no
reason to accept as perm anent a tonal system that has been in
use only for a few generations. W ho, after all, w ould dispute
the fact th at it is possible to train ears of m usical hum an beings
to hear w ith m ore precision sm aller intervals than those to
which they are accustomed?7
H olde w ould have agreed w ith Sabaneev that quarter tones w ere difficult for
m usicians "trained in a definite direction," bu t H olde believed th at the
perception of sm aller intervals could be learned.
Similar argum ents for and against the adoption of quarter tones in
m usic com position are still voiced in current music circles. Throughout the
second half of the tw entieth century, however, quarter tones have become
increasingly common. In the flute repertoire, for example, it w as standard
only several decades ago to ind u de fingering guides w hen quarter tones were
6 Leonid Sabaneev, "The Possibility of Quarter-tone and O ther New

Scales,” translated by S. W. Pring, The Musical Times 70 (June 1,1929): 503.
Â rthur Holde, "Is There a Future for Q uarter-tone Music?" Musical

Quarterly 24 (1938): 529.
5
used. M any composers have abandoned this practice. W ith quarter-tone

fingerings readily available in num erous different sources, composers expect
perform ers to find and execute them.
A prim ary reason m odem scholars have neglected historical
experim entation w ith quarter tones is th at the term "quarter tone," while
found frequently in eighteenth-century theory, served a variety of functions.
The entry "Quarter-tone" in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, for example, states that "the term was used by some 17th- and
18th-century theorists to denote the distance betw een a sharp and an
enharm onically distinct flat in m ean-tone tem peram ents (e.g. D-sharp to E-
flat)."8 "Quarter tone" is frequently used synonymously w ith "diesis"
("difese" or "comma") as generalizations for intervals sm aller than a sem itone
in eighteenth-century discussions of tem peram ent.9 According to Lukas
Richter in his New Grove article "Diesis":
M any Renaissance and Baroque theorists used ['diesis'] for

intervals of about a quarter-tone w hich were too small to be
used m elodically even though they w ere available on keyboard
instrum ents tuned to some form of m ean-tone tem peram ent
w ith split black keys for G-sharp and A-flat and for D-sharp
and E-flat.10
In system s of equal tem peram ent, such enharm onic respellings would result
in no pitch changes. Thus, the term "quarter tone" in eighteenth-century
&The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Quarter-

tone."
9"Diesis" also commonly means ’’sharp." This definition is in fact

used in the m ain text of De Lusse’s L'Art de la flute traversiere.
^®The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Diesis," by

Lukas Richter.
6
literature could signify slight pitch variances in unequal tem peram ents or
m erely a change in spelling of the same pitch in equal ones.
As this study on "Air &la grecque" reveals, a third definition of
"quarter tone" as one half of a sem itone w as also used in the eighteenth
century. This definition can be applied to both unequal and equal
tem peram ents. Since unequal tem peram ents such as m ean-tone tuning
include tw o different sizes of sem itones (major and m inor), the quarter tones
under such a definition also differ in size. In equal tem peram ent, the tuning
norm in the present day b ut less common in the eighteenth century, all
sem itones, and therefore all quarter tones, are the same size. W hether the
quarter tones in "Air k la grecque" are realized in equal or unequal
tem peram ent, they divide the semitones in half and arrange the octave into
tw enty four segments. Contrary to Richter’s statem ent above, intervals "of
about a quarter tone" in some contexts were not considered "too small” for
m elody.
"Air k la grecque” has received little attention in the scholarly
literatu re.11 To date, the only study specifically exploring the piece is a brief
Among the three facsimile versions of the De Lusse treatise (Ann

Arbor: University of Michigan, Early Music Facsimiles, 1970; Geneva: Minkoff
Reprint, 1973; The Netherlands: Frits Knuf, 1980), only the Frits Knuf Edition
contains an introduction. Here, Greta M oens-Haenen briefly discusses "Air k
la grecque." In the preface to his English translation of De Lusse's treatise,
Robert Lynn does not discuss the piece or its accompanying notes and ch art
(See Robert Lynn, "The A rt of the Transverse Flute by M. De Lusse," in the
January 1983 issue of The Courant 1:1, pp. 2-17). In the transcription and
harm onization of "Air k la grecque" by Rudolph Rasch, the goal is to make
the piece accessible to m odem perform ers. Rasch offers little discussion of the
piece's historical significance. See Delusse, Air a la grecque, edited by
Rudolph Rasch, Corpus M icrotonale Series, no. 22 (U trecht Diapson Press,
1984).
7
article by m usicologist Edw ard R. Reilly and flutist John Solum, appearing in
the Spring, 1992 issue of Historical Performance.12 Reilly and Solum state
that "Air k la grecque" "seems to have rem ained an exotic and isolated
experim ent that neither [De Lusse] nor his successors followed up."13 This
conclusion overlooks the significance of the piece’s explanatory notes that tie
it to the realization of the enharmonique. The enharm onique, or
enharm onic genre, was an im portant com ponent of ancient Greek m usic
theory believed to have utilized quarter tones. The "Explication," for
example, equates quart de ton w ith dieze enharmoniqueM
Eighteenth-century France witnessed a considerable am ount of
experim entation and speculation concerning tim ing system s and scale
divisions. The hundreds of music proposals brought before the Acad^mie
Royale des Sciences attest to the num erous experim ents in instrum ent
construction, scale theory, and music notation.15 W ith this increased
emphasis on issues of tuning and tem peram ent, the num ber of pages devoted
to discussions of the enharm onic genre rose, fueling a heated debate over
12Edw ard R. Reilly and John Solum, "De Lusse, Buffardin, and an
Eighteenth-Century Q uarter Tone Piece," Historical Performance (Spring,
1992): 19-23.
Ibid., p. 21.
14"Difeze" o r "diese" is the French w ord for "diesis."
l^For a detailed history and survey of proposals, see Albert Cohen,

Music in the French Royal Academy of Science: A Study in the Evolution of
Musical Thought (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981).
8
w hether quarter tones and m icrotonal intervals in general could be

incorporated into m usical com positions.
References to experim entation w ith the enharm onic genre abound in a
variety of eighteenth-century sources. Jacques Lacombe’s (1724-1811)
Dictionnaire portatif des Beanx-Arts ou Abrege de ce qui conceme
VArchitecture, la Sculpture, la Peinture, la Gravure, la Poesie & la Musique
(1752), for example, includes an entry on the Enharmonique:
Many authors have w anted to revitalize it am ong us; b u t

these insensible rises of the voice are of so great difficulty, and
m oreover, chords are so m uch subject to becom ing false in this
genre, that its usage is lo s t16
A lthough Lacombe concludes that attem pts to realize the enharm onic genre
are for naught, the allusion to "many authors" reveals that talk about
realizing the genre w as not relegated to a m inor theoretical m ovem ent.
Slightly over a decade later, Jean-Laurant de BEthizy (1709-1781) w rites that
"the enharm onic has only been practiced in France for several years."17
BEthizy's w ords offer no indication of a failed a ttem p t He accepts the
successful em ploym ent of the enharm onic genre in France as a recent and
docum ented developm ent "Air h la grecque" exem plifies a burgeoning
16"Plusieurs A uteurs l’ont voulu renouveller parm is nous; m ais ces

Elevations insensibles de la voix, sont d ’une si grande difficult^, & d'ailleurs
les accords sont tellem ent sujets a devenir faux dans ce genre, que l'usage s'en
est perdu." Jacques Lacombe, Dictionnaire portatif des Beaux-Arts ou Abrege
de ce qui conceme I’Architecture, la Sculpture, la Peinture, la Gravure, la
Poesie & la Musique (Paris, 1752), pp. 239-240.
^'^'en h arm o n iq u e n'est pratiquE en France que depuis quelques

annEes." Jean-Laurant de BEthizy, Exposition de la theorie et de la pratique
de la musique, seconde edition corrigee et augumentee suivante les
nouvelles decouvertes (Paris: F. G. Deschamps, 1764; reprint ed., Geneva:
Minkoff Reprints, 1972), p. 167.
9
m ovem ent in pre-revolutionary France seeking to revitalize this classical

genre.
This paper explores the use of quarter tones in "Air k la grecque" and
places it into the broader context of the enharm onic genre in eighteenth-
century France. References to the enharm onic genre are exam ined in both
m usical and non-m usical texts. All quotations retain the orthography and
punctuation of the editions cited. Translations are m y own unless otherw ise
indicated.
The first tw o chapters establish a historical fram ew ork for the
enharm onic genre. C hapter I discusses the genre in depth, both in term s of
how m odem scholarship views its nature in ancient Greece and how
interpretations have evolved over the course of W estern m usic theory. In
any given period, contem porary w riters have held conflicting opinions
concerning the definition and feasiblity of the enharm onic genre. The very
debate over the genre’s existence provides the only continuity to the history
of enharm onic studies.
C hapter II emphasizes the im portance of the enharm onic genre and
quarter tone specifically to French thought and m usic theory in the m id
eighteenth-century. The chapter focuses on argum ents in France over the
audibility and melodic application of m icrotonal intervals. Especially notable
is the w ork of Charles-Henri de Blainville (c .1710-c .1770), w ho took an active
role in prom oting the enharm onic genre. In his M em oire, "De
I'enharm onique," read before the Acad6mie Royale des Sciences in A ugust
1765, Blainville advocates the quart de ton as a m elodic tool in composition.
C hapter II also explores the role flutist Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin may have
10
played in quarter-tone experimentation- Buffardin, a renow n perform er and

teacher of the eighteenth-century flute, expressed an interest in quarter tones
for the traverso in a September 1764 letter in the Mercure de France.
Chapter IE explores the way in which "Air k la grecque,” w ith its
connection to the enharm onic genre, reflects a m uch broader m ovem ent in
eighteenth-century French tho u gh t References to the enharm onique and
quart de ton extend beyond m usic literature to non-m usical sources such as
philosophical letters and even novels. Connections to the enharm onic genre
are found in the French penchant for exotic and, especially, Turkish themes.
Blainville’s w ritings are again significant in relating contem porary Turkish
culture and ancient Greece. Blainville believed the m usic of the form er had
preserved the theory and practice of the latter—including the quart de ton.
Chapter ID also discusses the im portance of the enharm onic genre in the
eighteenth-century interest in relating the mechanics of declam ation to the
technical aspects of music.
Chapters IV and V focus on "Air k la grecque" and its publication. In
C hapter IV, "Air k la grecque” and its accompanying "Explication" and
fingering chart are specifically examined and com pared to contemporary
perform ance practice. Chapter V addresses the uncertainties in the dating of
De Lusse’s treatise and the authorship of "Air a la grecque.” The chapter also
examines the evidence tying De Lusse to quarter-tone experim entation and
provides background inform ation on the treatise and theories concerning the
publication of the concluding "Air."
Chapter VI explores how events surrounding the French Revolution
brought an end to the experimental environm ent w hich had fueled interest
11
in the quarter tone and enharm onic genre and how their association w ith
Eastern practice w eakened the appeal of applying them to W estern
composition. The chapter also hypothesizes why experim entation and
speculation concerning the enharm onic genre and quarter tone in
eighteenth-century France are neglected in so m uch m odem scholarship.
Although "Air h. la grecque" is the only know n example of a quarter-tone
composition in the eighteenth-century, it counters the belief held by m any
m odem music historians and perform ers that quarter tones are only a recent
concern of W estern m usic.
12
Figure 1. "Explication" preceding "Air k la grecque."
E X P L IC A T IO N des Planckes suivantes .
Z.a Tahitihire o^p'ctons les so/zspossiA/es a. I’instrument.

dane les trois £ cn/'cs dc mztszque,qu ’ort, uppellclDuitonique,
C/zromaliquc,et£nAar/no/zique,c!x-'tizdire,dansuneJcteression
de sons quiprecedepanInte/'ra/lcsdclbns. deDeuii-fons et de j
Ouor'foi/e-tons
\^
d*'*
IcDiszeEn/iarntoniquc ou Oucir't-de-teneyart desiqncp/vs
des notes,par deuce p elites Aorres cn sauioir, d'unep>art, et
de Acactrc.par trees Aarres disposers dc nie/nc.cz la. dj^fet'cnce
dud>ieê CAroinodiquc do?zt /cs Aarres sent deuA/es, au /ecu
que /es cueires sent simp/es et Irtp/es .
L e s Z e r o s e t / e s j o i n t s r o n d > ' p l a c e s • v e r t i c a / c m e n i s o u s /e s
n o t e s / v p /'c s c 7i t e n t / c s i r e u s d e I J ' / u < t 7' u m e / i t ; / c s p o i n t s n o i r e
d c o 'iq n c n l / e s i r o n s A o u c / ie s ; /e s z . e r o s A /j/ic i,I c b 't? 'o u s d e lo a e /ie s ,
e l c c iu t' q u i s o n t m o i f i e A /z tic o c l m o i l i e n e i r s d c s u f n c n t le s tr o u s
a d e m i A o u cA cs . q u a n t iz c c u o ? d e e o 1' s i p n e s q u i s o n t d o u A / c s ,i / s
s e r w e / r l a d j f f c r e n c i c r / e s q r o s i t i o / i s J e s d e u q f s . r c /a tii? c m c n ta u < v
n o t e s s o u s l e s q u c /Z c s i l ) s o n t p / a c e s .
s/qrres cede laA/alure csl unpetitE S S .J 1 dons t csb'otslicnrce.
dedfe/odtc;on-t/-voit lordrc dons/equalma/v/icnt/cDuitoniquc,
le C/zrematique ctprincipaA'/nc/d I JEn/arnioniquc, (l/cnrcqubn
pourroitptirdcu/iercment employerpour re/idrc ees fexpressions
fortes ,piltorcsqucs,quipenelrcnt lame et h /nciteni/io/v'tlcllcmenu}
Omiedoif coJisiderer cetEssaique comma uncsimple- cAouche ,
proprc a. servir de modi/epour dautrcs merccaaac susceptiA/es
dep/us deacfension.
lit dans I execution tar Intcr-callcs </ui fo rm a n t la. succession

EnAarmoniyuc,nc sc rencetilrcntpas lou/ours '’d im s icxacte precision,
iju 'ecCpriment les rapportr num eriptcs cn i'Acon'e,on peul do mains les
rapprosncr da.vantage da ccttc caxztctudc.cn z/ /aisant confriluter autant
t'adrcssc des doigtr que la surcte dc iemlouc/utrc.- tc tout a la id - dun
guulc tnfaiddte.qui cst t'Orcillc. a w is ju lic iiu a .
13
Figure 2. "Tablature generale" preceding "Air k la grecque."
T a b ia t it r e Gen e r a l e
J D d to r u ' le d S o r u i c fc l a F l u t e T r a o e r s ic r e . t / a n j le v
G e i t r e s F L a to /iu ju c . C /ir o m a J iq ite e t E n h a r m o n iq u e .
■fi-------------------------------------------—----------- - i-------- 1--- rH—'---'-----u

^ -■ f j -1!i * *. ; ;
•: •• :"7 : I
* /• , *
, 0 ,
o o o O 0
0
• ♦ # O •
jr « ; „ 1# • • # 1 0 0 0 0 O o 0 0 0 o • • o O •
3* » * o o o • o • * o o • • o o o
3* !• *• p! < 4J o * • o • O • 0 0 O • o o O •
t 't f / - 4* «■ C 0 V o • o o* C O O O0 0 o 0 09 0 09 0
------------T z --------■ nr-kc^'W ---®“ x r i i f p S f . - P - ™ Y :Q*0jr
: ’ :
: ■ '•
O O Oj * • • • • 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
* < o 5 ~ 5• • « • • • 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 O 09 o
o o • •o o
c o o; * • • • • 0 0 Cl G O o o o O*
0 0
O 0 O * 0 ♦ 0 0 o G O 0 C C O • * o* o
O 0 Cl i v 0 4) o O 0 0 O 0 O C G* • n /j 0 9 0
0 0 «o£ iSS-* *’) O • O 0 C) <J0 O O G O o o a o o
o sta'sofeai ^ '‘ • y s i ’l!* ? . ~

= r* = r r .r E = ^ ^
• o o 6 o o o O 0 0 0 0 • • * 0 0 C: O O *J o o#
O 0 0 O 0 0 • 0 0 •0 0 0 0 0 0 O G O O m •
o o O O 0O o • 0 0 -j o o 0 0 o * o O 0 0TJ 0 0 <J
o* o • o • • o O o o o • 0 0 0 0 o n g •v ♦ * 0
o o • o 0 o c O 0 0 0 0 0 * 0 0 0 0 0 «/ # * o
0*0 • 0 0*00 O 0 0 0 c o o o o o o o ^ »> Q
o o o o o * * * * * c * # • o
o
c
o
s.
/■>
1l l o n d e . s ) / D ia ro u itju c . )
L ev B la n c h e s ,• _ J^y^nn ' l i c / i n c i t a u ,r (s E S ^ I lE S L C. h r o i i i a t i c j u c >
ly o lro s ) ( Iin U a rm o iiiq iio .)
14
Figure 3. "Air &la grecque.”
A I U A L A GRECQJJE
I n G - e n e r e i p i i C o ,
C arta,dire, darur l&r &e?zr&S'J)icdonitpic, C/rr,vntditpac et E n fu irn u m ip u .

» ♦ . .? • t *
j __ . t • T T t ?-*■ • •
A-dao-io .
r -r T ’ ■■■• T i * « ■ i . i
■ ?3 T - ' f' ' ' - P 1 1 l.-a , n ra c T r - = r ^ l
p f ■# r'-i
| f { i . -r=5a t . n a - ) 1r#.__________^ r_ J . . . . p - r
J • • • i— = ‘-C J * —
• • •« • • • • • • » » • , *
}^z
D a c ape
15
CHAPTER I
A HISTORY OF DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING
THE ENHARMONIC GENRE
Ancient Greece
Inform ation on ancient Greek music is scant at the very best. The
extant fragm ents of actual music represent only about two dozen pieces and
range in age from the fifth century B.C. through the third century A.D. Many
cannot be accurately dated.18 Scholarly effort, therefore, m ust concentrate on
theoretical sources, which also span nearly a m illennium and frequently offer
contradicting accounts.
Despite this paucity of source m aterial, some consensus regarding
general characteristics of Greek music may be found in recent scholarship.
The music of ancient Greece was m ostly homophonic, a single m elody line
doubled at the unison or octave.19 The available fragm ents are essentially
lines of text w ith m usical notation above. Presumably, Greek m usic was
sung, but theoretical and iconographic sources suggest a significant role for
instrum ents. Vocal lines were often accompanied, but the exact type of
instrum ent use is unclear.
l^For a complete list of sources, see M artin Litchfield West, A ncient

Greek Music (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), pp. 6-8 and pp. 277-283.
l^The New Grove Dictionary o f Music and Musicians, s.v. "Greece: I.

Ancient," by Reginald Pepys W innington-Ingram .
16
Forming the crux of ancient Greek music theory, the diatonic,

chromatic, and enharm onic genres derived from different divisions of the
perfect fourth into tetrachords. Definitions of these genres in the ancient
Greek literature vary among different generations and authors, b u t general
interval characteristics can be draw n. Using the perfect fourth e to a as a
reference point, the diatonic genre consisted of one sem itone and tw o whole
tones (1/2 ,1,1), roughly e-f-g-a, the chromatic divided the fourth into two
semitones and a larger interval dose to a m inor third (1 /2 ,1 /2 ,3 /2 ), or
e-f-ft-a, and the enharm onic was comprised of tw o quarter tones followed by
a leap of two whole tones dose to a major third (1 /4 ,1 /4 ,2 ), or e-e*-f-a.20
These tetrachords were then stacked either conjunctly (two tetrachords
sharing a tone) or disjunctly (two tetrachords separated by one tone).
Eratodes, a theorist from the fifth century B.C., offers the example of two
enharm onic tetrachords, such as B B* c e and e e* f a , placed in series. The
resulting B B* ce e* f a b or Mixolydian series, in the cited example, could be
reset as the Lydian series B* c e e* f a b b*.21 Classifications such as
"Mixolydian” and "Lydian,” however, do not rem ain constant am ong the
various theorists except for the prindple of intervallic reordering.22 This
20rhe asterisk indicates a pitch raised one quarter tone. For concise
inform ation on the enharm onic genre in ancient Greece, two good sources
are The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Greece: I.
A ntient,” by R. P. W innington-Ingram; and Alain Danielou, Introduction to
the Study of Musical Scales (London: India Sodety, 1943; reprint ed., N ew
Delhi: Oriental Books, 1979), p. 170. The following offer m ore expanded
accounts: West, Ancient Greek M usic; and M artin Vogel, Die Enharmonik
der Griechen, 2 vols. (Dusseldorf: Orpheus, 1963).
21West, Ancient Greek Music, pp. 226-227.
17
inconsistency stem s in part from the w ide band of tim e represented by

theoretical sources. Aristoxenus and Aristides Q uintilianus, for example, two
of the m ost w idely quoted theorists, lived in the fourth century B.C. and third
century A.D., respectively.
The term inology used in ancient Greek sources m ay not readily
translate into m odem musical concepts. M uch confusion abounds, for
example, betw een the tonoi of ancient Greek theory and the m odes of
liturgical c h an t Nam es such as Lydian, Dorian, and Phrygian are shared, but
they have entirely different applications, save for the reordering of an
intervallic series.
A dditionally, references to the m odem W estern system of twelve tones
p er octave, such as in the exam ples above, offer convenience, b u t are easily
m isleading. Intervals in the ancient Greek sources are often referred to in
ratios. In order to dem onstrate the discrepancies in the definition of certain
intervals such as tone or quarter tone, M artin West in his Ancient Greek
M usic has converted several examples into cents.23 A quarter-tone step in
22These groupings, them selves independent of a set pitch, could then

be transposed to various tonoi. The term ”Tonoi" is equally am biguous in
the Greek literature, referring at varying times to "pitch," "interval," or "key."
See The New Grove Dictionary o f Music and Musicians, s.v. "Greece: I.
Ancient," by R. P. W innington-Ingram ; and Solon M ichaelides, ’Tonus," in
his The Music of Ancient Greece: An Encyclopedia (London: Faber and Faber,
1978), pp. 335-340. A ndrew Barker’s introduction to his Greek Musical
Writings , vol. 2: Harmonic and Acoustic Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge
U niversity Press, 1989) also clearly presents the often not-so-dear theories of
the tetrachords in an d en t Greek theory.
23ln the cent system developed by A. J. Fllis (1814-1890), an octave is

logarithm ically divided into 1200 cents. Each equal-tem pered chrom atic step
in the m odem twelve-tone system comprises 100 cents. A quarter tone as part
18
the enharm onic genre for A rchytas in the first half of the fourth century B.C.,
for example, was 48 or 63 cents. Aristoxenus offered a range of 50 to 66 cents,
and Ptolemy in the second century A.D. defined a quarter-tone as either 38 or
73 cents.24
The one connecting elem ent in definitions of the enharm onic genre is
that it utilized the sm allest interval of the three genres. Sources also
generally nam e the aulos player Olym pus as its inventor.25 Olympus,
legendary for his technical skills, is believed to have begun dividing the
sem itone of an archaic trichord into an additional tone sometime during the
fifth century B.C. Often term ed difficult to realize, the enharmonic genre
apparently fell from conanon use by the fourth century B.C. when
A ristoxenus notes its unfortunate neglect.26
W hether the enharm onic genre was actually used in perform am ce or
was m erely an abstraction of theoretical discussions is a question of m uch
debate. Some m odem scholars contend that the quarter tone of the
enharm onic genre m eant only expressive inflections of the m elody line.
Com paring ancient Greek practice to that of m odem Eastern folk music,
m usicologist Sam uel Baud-Bovy concludes "that the enharm onic genre is
pure fiction and th at ancient Greek music did not rest on any other principles
of a 24-note equal division of the octave w ould therefore have a value of 50

cents.
24\Vest, Ancient Greek Music, pp. 167-171.
25rhe aulos w as a reed instrum ent often consisting of tw o tubes blown

sim ultaneously.
26West, Ancient Greek Music, pp. 163-166; and Vogel, Die Enharmonik
der Griechen, vol. 2, pp. 9-38.
19
than the m onophonic m usic of the N ear and M iddle East."27 Making a
sim ilar connection but coming to a very different conclusion, A lain
D anidou, a scholar of Eastern history and culture, vehem ently attacks those
who do not accept the enharm onic genre as m ore than a theoretical fable:
On the question of quarter-tones and their use in

the enharm onic genus, the m ost astonishing theories
have been constructed by W estern scholars in which,
needless to say, the poor Greeks are always proved to be
wrong. The intem perance of language and im agination
shown can only be attributed to the fact that the users of
'equal tem peram ent' have lost all notion of the variety
of intervals which are harm onically and melodically
accurate.28
A m ore level-headed opinion is offered by Reginald Pepys W innington-
Ingram :
It w ould be rash, however, to assum e th at the 'quarter-tones'

w ere a m ere embellishment of this style, executed by a kind
of portam ento. The m iddle note of the pyknon is not so
em ployed in the earliest surviving fragm ent (from the Orestes
of Euripides), but approached directly from a note outside
the tetrachord.29
2 7 ”N o u s v o id done amenes a condure que le 'genre enharm onique’

est une pure fiction et que la musique de l'A ntiquit6 grecque ne reposait pas
sur d'autres bases que la m usique m onophonique de tout le Proche et Moyen-
Orient." Samuel Baud-Bovy, "Le 'genre enharm onique’ a-t-il exists?" R evu e
de musicologie 72:1 (1986): 17.
28Alain D anidou, Introduction to the Study of Musical Scales

(London: India Sotiety, 1943; reprint ed., New Delhi: Oriental Books, 1979),
p. 171.
29i7ze New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Greece: I.

Antient," by Reginald Pepys W innington-Ihgram. The pyknon refers to the
low er d u ster of intervals on the tetrachords. The Orestes docum ent is a
m atter of debate in its own right. Scholars who believe the enharm onic genre
was perform ed d te it as definitive proof; scholars who uphold the "theory
20
A lthough m ost current scholarship supports the enharm onic genre as a

perform ance reality, further w ords from W innington-Ingram sum up the
situation: ”In short, there is enough evidence to invite speculation; too little
in m any areas, to establish conclusions."30
From the Fall of Rome through the M iddle Ages

Over the first m illennium A.D., Eastern and W estern culture diverged.
The rise of the Roman church accompanied the rise of the Latin language. As
Albert Seay points out in his Music in the Medieval World, W estern scholars
lost contact w ith many Eastern traditions,
including fam iliarity w ith Greek as a living language; henceforth,

acquaintance w ith Greek philosophical achievements had to be
m ade through Latin interm ediaries [... ]. By the seventh century,
no Greek works w ere directly known to the w est and pitifully few
were available at all, and those that w ere available w ere Latin
translations that often distorted rather than translated.31
One of the m ost im portant of these Latin authors was the Roman
philosopher and theorist Anicius M alius Severinus Boethius
(c. 470-c. 525 A.D.). A prim ary source of Greek theory for his contemporaries
and many subsequent generations, Boethius's works were crucial in
m aintaining some level of knowledge about Greek music. In his De
only" doctrine rem ain skeptical. For m ore inform ation on Euripides’s
Orestes and another fragm ent believed to contain notated enharm onic
intervals (Euripides's Iphigeneia in Aulis) see West, Ancient Greek Music,
pp. 277-278, w ith transcriptions into m odem notation found on pp. 283-287.
3°W irmington-Ingram, p. 660.
31Albert Seay, Music in the Medieval World, Prentice-Hall History of

Music Series (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1975), pp. 16-17.
21
institutione musica, Boethius offers translations and paraphrases “of

num erous Greek sources.
Boethius, how ever, is criticized by m odem scholars for his frequent
m isinterpretation of ancient theory. D raw ing from a variety of different
Classical authors spread out over centuries of Greek civilization, Boethius’s
w ritings are often m uddled w ith contradictions. For exam ple, while Boethius
is generally view ed as a solid Pythagorean, a believer in m usic as sounding
arithm etic, he describes the enharm onic as the m ost desirable of the three
genres. By contrast, Pythagoras, in his De institutione musica, prom oted the
diatonic genre.32 Boethius also erred in calculating some of the intervallic
proportions of the non-diatonic genres in ancient theory.33
D uring the M iddle Ages, the w orks of Boethius, including many of his
sound scholarly translations, w ere tw isted and diluted by Medieval theorists.
The nam es of the ancient G reek tetrachords became confused w ith the
Liturgical m odes w ith little transference of m eaning.34 A lthough the
32see A ndres K arpiti, 'T ranslation or Com pilation? Contributions to

the Analysis of Sources of Boethius' De institutione musica," Studia
Musicologica 29:1-4 (1987): 18. K3rp£ti refers the reader to De institutione
musica, book 1, chapter 21.
33A ndres K&rpiti dem onstrates how Boethius m istakenly derived the
tw o enharm onic dieses as being equal both as intervals and proportions.
Ibid., p. 28.
34ln discussing the profound influence Boethius exerted on W estern

m usical thought, the music historian Calvin M. Bower notes that "Classical
Greek tetrachords becam e nam es only, w hile the functional tetrachords from
the cantus tradition w ere applied to die classical system .” See Calvin M.
Bower, "The Role of Boethius’ De institutione musica in the Speculative
T radition of W estern M usical Thought,” in Boethius and the Liberal Arts: A
Collection o f Essays, edited and introduced by Michael Masis, U tah Studies in
lite ra tu re and Linguistics, no. 18 (Las Vegas: Peter Lang, 1981), pp. 173-174.
22
diatonic, chromatic, and enharm onic genres are referenced in Medieval

theoretical treatises, few connections can be m ade to their identities in Greek
theory. Tracing the enharm onic genre through this period is, therefore,
difficult
For over a century, m odem scholars have debated w hether quarter-
tones w ere p art of litu rg ical ch an t The origin of this argum ent is the
M ontpellier m anuscript discovered in 1847.35 To some, the notation suggests
m icrotonal intervals. To others, this interpretation is ludicrous. Both sides
d te the repeated references to the enharm onic genre in M edieval theoretical
sources. The problem w ith such quotations, how ever, is th at definitions of
the enharm onic genre are variable. In some sources, the genres are
distinguished by their largest and not sm allest interval. The term
"enharm onic” may indicate a m ajor third, or "chromatic" m ay denote a
m inor th ird .36
The names of the three genres w ere also used by some theorists to
designate different types of semitones. M archetto of Padua (c. 1274-1326), for
35rhe battle was instigated in 1860 w ith the publication of A. J. H.

V incent's Emploi des quarts de ton dans le chant gregorien constate sur
VAntiphonaire de Montpellier (Paris, 1854) and F. Raillard's "Emploi des
quarts de tons dans le chant de lTglise," Revue Archeologique 15:2 (1860): pp.
187-192. Raillard believed quarter tones were indicated by the neumatic
notation. For a detailed account of ensuing scholarship concerning this
m atter, see Dom Jacques Froger, "Les pr£tendus quarts de ton dans le chant
Gregorien et les symboles d u MS H. 159 de M ontpellier," Etudes
Gregoriennes 17 (1978): pp. 149-179. Froger argues that quarter tones are not
im plied by the M ontpellier notation and finds no support for their
application in M edieval theory.
^ F ro g er, p. 168.
23
example, divided the m ajor whole tone (the difference betw een the perfect
fourth and perfect fifth) into five equal parts in his treatise Lucidarium in arte
musice plane (c. 1317). H e calls each single division a "diesis." Two of
M archetto’s "dieses" form an enharm onic sem itone, three "dieses" a diatonic
sem itone, and four "dieses" a chromatic sem itone. In this interpretation, the
chrom atic semitone is a larger interval than the diatonic semitone.
Curiously, M archetto w rites th at the enharm onic, or m inor sem itone, is used
in plainchant, bu t the diatonic semitone is not:
The diatonic sem itone contains three dieses; we do not use it

in plainchant because it exceeds all proportions of consonance
because of its large size, thus causing dissonance.37
M archetto was both criticized and copied for his description of the diatonic as
dissonant and inappropriate for plainchant
Conflicting opinions continued in subsequent generations of theorists.
The varying interpretations of the term "diesis" exemplify the wide range of
definitions. In his dictionary of musical term s (c. 1472), for example, Tinctoris
notes that "diesis" is used by some theorists for a m inor semitone and by
others for half a m inor sem itone. According to Tinctoris, a "diesis" m ay be a
division of the w hole tone into five, three, four, or even eight parts.38
37"Pyatonicum vero tres continet dyeses, quo quidem non utim ur in

cantu piano, eo quod propter suam m aioritatem excedat omnes
consonantiarum proprtiones, dissonantiam inde creans." The Lucidarium of
Marchetto of Padua, translated by Jan W. H erlinger (Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, 1985), pp. 144-145. For further inform ation on M archetto,
see also The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "M archetto
da Padova," by F. Alberto Gallo.
^ K aro l Berger, Musica ficta: Theories of Accidental Inflections in

Vocal Polyphony from Marchetto da Padova to Gioseffe Zarlino (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 24.
24
As w ith Greek theory itself, it is difficult to create definitions of the

enharm onic genre w hich transcend the w ork of a single M edieval theorist or
even transfer to different theoretical w ritings by the same individual.39 The
only safe assertion is that several working definitions of the enharm onic
genre w ere concurrently at use.
M odem scholarship may only add to the confusion. A single passage
from a M edieval theorist m ay be taken o u t of context and m anipulated to
support a specific conclusion while raising further speculation. In an article
denying the use of quarter tones in the M ontpellier m anuscript, for example,
Dom Jacques Froger cites an excerpt from the treatise Musica speculativaby
the French theorist Jean (Johannes) de M uris (c. 1300-c. 1350) describing the
enharm onic genre as "unsingable."40 W hile M uris does indeed cast doubt on
the practice of singing quarter tones, the entire passage opens the possibility of
instrum entalists realizing the enharm onic genre:
I know that never or hardly ever has the hum an voice sung in
the [chromatic and enharm onic genres], n or can the voice be
certain; but it is possible w ith instrum ents, although difficult."41
39garker discusses the inconsistencies of Greek theorists in the

introduction to his Greek Musical Writings, vol. 2: Harmonic and Acoustic
Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989). Aristides
Q uintilianus, for example, used the term tonoi to indicate both m ode and key
at varying times (p. 27).
^ F ro g er, p. 168.
41"Sdo nam que quod aut vix aut nunquam vox hum ana in hiis
duobus generibus concordaret, nec um quam de ipsa certa foret; in
instrum entis tam en possibile est m ultum que difficile-’’ Johannes de M uiis,
Musica speculativa, edited by Susan Fast (Ottawa, Canada: Institute of
M edieval Music, 1994), p. 29Z
25
Such qualifying w ords as "hardly ever/’ "uncertain/’ o r "possible" capture the

difficulty in draw ing defintive conclusions about the nature of the
enharm onic genre during this period.
The Sixteenth Century

D uring the Renaissance, Greek art and music w ere central to the
renew ed interest in ancient culture. M any theorists explored ways in w hich
the ancient genres could influence tuning and scale construction. In the
m iddle of the sixteenth century, Nicola Vicentino (1511-C.1576) experim ented
w ith the chrom atic and enharm onic genres. Vicentino, a student of A drian
W illaert w ho w as also interested in the non-diatonic genres, designed the
archicembalo or "enharm onic” keyboard w ith thirty-five keys p er octave.42
Influenced by M archetto, Vincentino divided the w hole tone into five parts.
Vincentino believed th at the enharm onic genre could and should be realized
42The archicembalo consisted of a double keyboard, each divided into

three orders. The first set of each keyboard (the first and fourth orders)
consisted of the diatonic or "white" keys common to m ost keyboards, bu t the
notes of the second keyboard w ere pitched one "diesis" (one fifth of a tone)
higher. The second and fifth orders, or "black" keys, sounded the chrom atic
notes and w ere likewise tuned one "diesis" apart. The second and fifth orders
w ere split to allow for an additional (third and sixth) order of shorter black
keys on each keyboard, offering further m icrotonal possibilities. For m ore
inform ation, see The New Grove Dictionary o f Music and Musicians, s. v.
"Nicola Vincentino,” by H enry W. Kaufmann; The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians, s. v. "Enharmonic Keyboard," by Nicholas Meeus;
Karol Berger, Theories of Chromatic and Enharmonic Music in Late 16th
Century Italy (Ann A rb o r UMI Research Press, 1980). Berger describes the
archicembalo as a "superharpsichord.”
26
in com position in the form of m elodic intervals.43 In his treatise, L'antica

musica ridotta alia moderna pratica (1555), Vincentino w rites that the
enharm onic is in fact superior to the diatonic genre. Like M archetto,
Vincentino interprets the diatonic genre as dissonant. He describes the
diatonic as the harshest {aspro) genre, the chrom atic as soft or sweet (soave),
and the enharm onic as the sw eetest of all three genres.44
Gioseffo Zarlino (1517-1590) discussed a "davocem balo” w ith nineteen
keys per octave m ade for him by Dominico Pesarese in 1548 in Venice.
Zarlino also w rote about the non-diatonic genres and utilized a single-slashed
sharp sign or ”x" in contrast to the double-slashed standard sharp to notate
enharm onic sequences such as B, Bx, C or E, Ex, F.45 The enharm onic genre
to Zarlino, however, did not suggest the use of m icrotones in melody.
Interested in just intonation, Zarlino believed the additional divisions of the
octave w ould purify the harm ony of diatonic composition. He criticized
those w ho explored the non-diatonic genres for any other purpose.46
4^For a detailed discussion, see Henry W. Kaufmann, 'V incentino and

the Greek Genera,” Journal o f he American Musicological Society 16 (1963):
325-346.
^ K aro l Berger, Theories of Chromatic and Enharmonic Music in Late

16th Century Italy, pp. 24-31.
45lbid., p. 51.
4&Ibid., p. 57. In his Le Istitutioni Harmoniche (1558), for example,

Zarlino writes: 'I t is really very difficult to have a clear and perfect knowledge
of the usage of the ancients, because it cannot be dem onstrated in any way,
this usage being so totally extinguished that we cannot find any vestige of i t
We should not be surprised at this time, for tim e consumes everything that is
created. We should rather be surprised at those w ho believe that they can put
into use the chromatic and enharm onic genera, abandoned for so great a span
27
Vincentio Lusitanto (dates unknown, bu t a contem porary to Zarlino)

also explored m ethods for notating nuances in pitch. Lusitanto, for example,
divided the whole tone into nine parts or commas. He used the single
slashed cross for a "diese" or two commas (two ninths of a tone), the standard
double-slashed sharp for a m inor sem itone or four commas, and a triple
slashed cross for a m ajor sem itone or five commas. A whole tone or nine
commas was denoted in Lusitanto's system by a quadruple-slashed sharp.47
Like Zarlino, however, Lusitanto believed the diatonic was superior to the
chromatic and enharm onic genres, and his notation was intended to correct
intonation rather than to designate melodic intervals.48
Two m en extremely im portant to interpretations of ancient Greek
music w ere the lutenist, singer, and theorist Vincenzo Galilei (c.1520-1591)
and the Greek scholar Girolamo Mei (1519-1594). In 1581, Galilei published
the only four pieces of ancient Greek music know n to scholars before the
of time. They do not realize that we do not yet have a full knowledge of the
diatonic genus, and truly they do not know in w hat m anner these modes
were used according to the custom of the ancients. Hence I believe that even
if they persist in examining the m atter, they will find w ithout any doubt,
having racked their brains w ith m uch effort and hardship, that they have
throw n away time, a thing m ore precious than anything else. They w ill find
that they have been deceived in the same way the alchemists have been in
their desire to find w hat they will never be able to find, namely, that which
they call 'quintessence.'" Zarlino, On the Modes: Part Four of Le Istitutioni
Harmoniche, translated by Vered Cohen, edited and introduced by Claude V.
Palisca (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), Chapter 3, p. 17.
47see Johannes Wolf, Handbuch der Notationskund, vol 2.

(Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & H artel, 1919), pp. 361-364,460-461.
l^The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "V incente
Lusitano," by Henry W. Kaufmann.
28
nineteenth century.49 Although Mei was not a m usician by trade, he studied

the Greek w ritings in great detail a t the urging of Galilei. Mei concluded that
ancient Greek music was m onophonic and cleared up confusions betw een the
m odes practice in his day and the perceptions of ancient Greek tonoi. His
scholarship greatly influenced Galilei's treatise Dialogo della musica antica et
della moderna (1581). As Claude Palisca states, Mei convincingly refuted his
contem poraries who "went to the shell rather than the core of Greek art” in
their attem pts to directly transfer Greek theory to m odem harm onic
com position.50 The knowledge th at Greek music was m onophonic formed
the basis of many subsequent attem pts to revitalize the non-diatonic genres.51
Experim entation w ith chromatics, m ostly in Italy, ensued throughout the
sixteenth century.52
49w est, Ancient Greek Music, p. 7.
5°Claude V. Palisca, Girolamo Mei: Letters on Ancient and Modern

Music to Vincenzo Galilei and Giovanni Bardi, Musicological Studies and
Documents Series, no. 3 (Rome: American Institute of Musicology, 1960), p. 2.
^ D esp ite the growing belief that Greek music was monophonic, Karol
Berger does not recognize a significant m ovem ent to apply the enharmonic
genre to m elody in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century: 'The
enharm onic 'genus,' the structure of which was also debated, is of lesser
interest [than chromatic], since it found alm ost no application outside of
theoretical sources. So far as the Renaissance practice is concerned, the term
'enharm onic' m ay be used in the same way in which it is used today, to
signify the enharm onically equivalent forms of notation.” Berger, Theories
of Chromatic and Enharmonic Music in Late 16th Century Italy, p. 101. As we
shall see, the connection betw een the enharm onic genre and melody became
increasingly stronger throughout the baroque era.
Êxperim entation on realizing the ancient genres was not confined to

Italy, as the work of the Spanish sixteenth-century composer and theorist
Francisco Salinas indicates: A rthur Daniels, "Microtonality and Mean-Tone
29
The Seventeenth Century

An im portant developm ent in the seventeenth century was the
association of the term s diatonic, chrom atic, and enharm onic w ith the w ord
"scale" instead of only "genre." The Germ an m usic theorist and theologian
Johannes Lippius (1585-1612) is the first know n to draw such a connection.
The scale in the seventeenth century, as Daniel Taddie notes in his historical
study, became known as a "seven-note, repeatable, and transposable pattern.
Such a definition emerges m ost clearly in French theory, but sim ilar ideas are
evident in German and English theory as well."53 The English theorist
Christopher Simpson (c. 1605-c. 1669), for example, in his A Compendium of
Practical Music in Five Parts (1667) writes:
The diatonic scale is that w hich rises to a 5th by three tones

and a sem itone and from thence proceeds to an 8ve by two
tones and one semitone....
The chromatic scale rises to a 5th by a tone and five
semitones and from thence proceeds to an 8ve by five
Tem peram ent in the Harmonic System of Francisco Salinas," Journal of

Music Theory 9:1 (W inter, 1965): 2-51, and 9:2 (Spring, 1965): 234-280.
A lthough few English m usicians experim ented w ith non-diatonic
composition, the influence of highly chrom atic music can be found in
contem porary accounts and literary sources. See for example H arinder S.
M arjara, "M ilton’s 'Chrom atik jarres’ and T uscan Aire,’" Milton Quarterly
19:1 (March, 1985): pp. 11-13. Of further interest is Edward E. Lowinsky, The
Secret Chromatic Art in the Netherlands Motet (New York, Columbia
University Press, 1946). Lowinsky hypothesizes that a single raised or
flattened note could have signified a "chain reaction" of altered intervals
w ithout the use of further accidentals.
53 See Daniel Lawrence Taddie, "Scale: An Historical Study of Musical

Terminology and Concepts" (Ph. D. dissertation, University of Iowa, 1984),
p. 179.
30
sem itones m ore....

The enharm onic scale rises gradually by dieses or quarter
notes, of w hich 24 m ake up an octave and is so far out of
use that w e scarce know how to give an example of it 54
A lthough Sim pson describes the enharm onic as "far out of use,” he asserts
that it can be thought of as a scale of tw enty-four divisions of the octave and
not the stacked tetrachord of ancient Greek theory.
The concept of the quarter tone as exactly one tw enty-fourth of an
octave is considered by m ost to be a fairly recent developm ent Such a
definition is contingent upon the use of twelve equal sem itones, the tuning
procedure commonly term ed "equal tem peram ent" As w ith m ost m atters
concerning the history of tuning and tem peram ent, m odem scholars disagree
about the extent to which equal tem peram ent was employed before the
nineteenth century. W hether Johann Sebastian Bach preferred equal
tem peram ent, for example, is one area of contention. W hile some scholars
believe works such as Das wohltemperte Clavier m ust be perform ed in equal
tem peram ent to accomm odate the variety of keys, others m aintain that Bach
treats the keys differently and composed the work w ith some non-equal
tem peram ent in m ind.55
Experim entation w ith equal tem peram ent apparently was concurrent
w ith the continued practice of the various tem peram ents em ployed by
^ C h risto p h er Simpson, A Compendium o f Practical Music in Five

Parts (London: William Godbid, 1667; reprint ed., Oxford: Basil Blackwell,
1970), pp. 50-51, cited by Taddie, "Scale: An Historical Study of Musical
Terminology and Concepts," p. 180.
55Mark Lindley, 'T im ing and Intonation," in Performance Practice

Vol. 2: Music after 1600, edited by How ard Mayer Brown and Stanley Sadie
(London: The Macmillan Press, 1989), p. 184.
31
m usicians during the Baroque era. References to tem pering the octave into
twelve equal segments, however, extend m uch further back than this period.
D uring the Renaissance, for example, M artin Agricola and Vincenzo Galilei
m entioned the use of equal sem itones by fretted instrum ents.56 In the early
seventeenth century, the D utch scientist Simon Stevin (1548-1620) upheld
equal sem itones as the proper division of the octave. Stevin believed that the
ancient Greeks could not understand complex ratios as being true intervals
and blam ed Ptolemy for introducing the false concept of m ajor and minor
sem itones. Semitones, according to Stevin, w ere all the sam e.57
This latter question regarding the size of the sem itone is im portant to
the history of the enharm onic genre and quarter tone. Some scholars argue
that theorists explored the enharm onic genre as tw enty-four equal divisions
of the octave as far back as Aristoxenus. Certainly, the connection
C hristopher Simpson m ade in the sixteenth century betw een the enharm onic
genre and tw enty-four equal divisions of the octave is d e ar in the passage
d ted above.
C onclusion
Interpretations of the enharm onic genre vary widely through the
history of W estern music theory. D id the ancient Greeks practice the
Îb id ., p. 173.
^7See Daniel Pickering W alker, Studies in Musical Science in the Late

Renaissance (London; W arburg Institute, University of London, 1978),
pp. 120-122; and H. F. Cohen, Quantifying Music, the Scientific of Music at the
First Stage of the Scientific Revolution, 1580-1650, The U niversity of W estern
O ntario Series in Philosophy of Sdence, no. 23 (Boston; D. Reidel Publishing
Company, 1984), pp. 45-74.
32
enharm onic genre or was it merely relegated to theory? If it was indeed

perform ed, w hat was the role of the quarter tone? Was it a melodic device?
Even in the present day, scholars disagree in w hat way the enharm onic genre
served Greek music. M odem scholars also debate the use of the enharm onic
genre by subsequent generations. The question of quarter-tone use in
Liturgical chant, for example, rem ains unansw ered.
Despite the vagueness of m any w ritings on the enharm onic genre,
several developm ents are significant to establishing a context for "Air & la
grecque." Experim entation w ith the enharm onic genre in sixteenth-century
instrum ental practice is m ore reliably docum ented than in previous
generations. Composers explored the non-diatonic genres by dividing the
octave into sm aller increm ents than tw elve tones and constructed
instrum ents to accomodate them . A lthough m any of these experim ents were
intended to adjust the intonation of harm onic intervals, some individuals
considered the melodic explications of such adjustm ents. The association of
the w ord "genre" w ith the concept of "scale" in the seventeenth century
m ade it possible for the melodic identity of microtonal intervals. The quarter
tone of the enharm onic genre, for example, became the division of the
sem itone rather than only the difference betw een types of sem itones. This
distinction is im portant for constructing the tw enty-four note scale used in
"Air h. la grecque.”
33
CHAPTER H
THE ENHARMONIC GENRE AND QUARTER TONE

IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH THEORY AND PRACTICE
Ancients vs. M odem s

O ver the course of the seventeenth century and early eighteenth
century, m any philosophers and music theorists had polarized into
"Ancient" and "Modem" camps. A battle of w ords broke out betw een those
w ho believed society and the arts had declined and those who were
convinced of a steady progression of culture for the better. Both sides sought
support in Greek w ritings. This quarrel was especially significant in France
where dozens of dissertations on ancient vs. m odem art and music set the
stage for the m id eighteenth-century discussions of the enharm onic genre.
Bernard le Bouvier de Fontenelle (1657-1757) in his Digression sur les
anciens et modernes and Charles Perrault (1628-1703) in his Parallele des
anciens et des modernes, both published in 1688, cham pioned the position of
the "modems." Fontenelle em phasized the superiority of opera and
harm ony to the m onophonic dram a of ancient Greece. Perrault hailed
ancient accomplishments, but he labeled them as the work of hum ans in
their cultural infancy. By contrast, critics of the pro-m odem ist stance believed
the w orld had lost m uch of the achievements of ancient Greek culture.
34
The A ncient vs. M odem cam paign continued into the eighteenth
centuiy.58 In France, the philosophes took great interest in com paring
m odem civilization to its predecessors. The following passage from the
article "Encydop6die" in the Encyclopedic edited by Diderot and d ’Alembert,
for example, suggests th at past ages have pondered the same questions
concerning the enharm onic genre:
All peoples in general, relative to the progress of language and

taste, experience a num ber of slight revolutions, events little
noticed, w hich are not recorded. One can learn of them only by
the tone of contem porary authors, a tone m odified or given
by these passing circumstances. W hat attentive reader,
for exam ple, w ho in encountering in an author the following:
’m elody and counterpoint can be perform ed in m any different
ways, not only the fifth, b u t beginning at the octave and
continuing through the fifth, and fourth, and whole tone, and
sem itone in such a way as they are observed, and the diese
(quarter tone) can be perceived by the senses,' does not say
im m ediately to himself, this is the sam e uncertainty we have
on the possibility or impossibility of intoning the quarter tone.
Did they then not know if the ancients had or did not have
an enharm onic scale? W ere there no longer any authors on
m usic through whom this confusion could be resolved? Have
people debated then, from the tim e of Dionysius of Halicarnassus,59
nearly the sam e questions we debate about melody? And if it
comes to be found elsewhere that the authors were very divided
over the exact enum eration of the sounds of the Greek language;
that this m atter had excited intense disputes, 'w hether these
m atters are concerns of gram m arians o r poets or are pleasing
S^For further inform ation on the A ncient vs. M odem quarrel in

France, see Georgia Cowart, The Origins o f Modem Musical Criticism: French
and Italian Music 1600-1750, Studies in Musicology Series, 38, (Ann Arbor:
UMI Research Press, 1981), pp. 35-48; and Charles William Dill, ’Trench
Theories of Beauty and the Aesthetics of M usic, 1700 to 1750" (M asters thesis,
N orth Texas State University, 1982).
S^Dionysius of Halicarnassus w as a Greek author in the first centuiy

B.C.
35
to philosophers/ w ill he not condude th at it w as the same

among the Romans as it is among us? That-is-to-say, after
having treated the sdence of signs and sounds w ith m uch
flexibility, there was a time w here good m inds recognized that
it was m ore connected to the sdence of things than had first
been suspected, and that one could view this study as being
n ot at all unw orthy of philosophy.60
The debate over the possibility of realizing the enharm onic genre in music
composition served to test w hether m ankind had progressed or regressed in
cultural developm ent since an d en t times.
6°"I1 survient chez tous les peuples en general, rdlativem ent au

progrfes de la langue & du gofit, une infinite de revolutions tegeres,
d ’6venem ens peu rem arques, qui ne se transm ettent point: on ne peut
s'appercevoir qu'ils ont ete, que p ar le ton des auteurs contemporains; ton ou
m odifte ou aonne p ar ces drconstances passageres. Quel est, par exemple, le
lecteur attentif qui, rencontrant dans un auteur ce qui suit, 'cantus autem &
organa pluribus distantiis utuntur, non tantum diapente, sed sumpto initio a
diapason, continnunt per diapente & diatessaron; & unitonum, &
semitonium itd ut & quidem putent in esse & diesin que sensu percipiatur,'
ne se dise sur le cham p h lui-meme, voil& l’incertitude oh nous sommes sur
la possibilite ou l’im possibilite de l’intonation d u quart de ton. On ignoroit
done alors si les andens avoient eu ou non une gamme enharm onique? 11
ne restoit done plus aucun auteur de m usique p ar lequel on pftt resoudre
cette difficult^? On agitoit done, au terns de Denis dH alicam asse, h-peu-prfes
les m em es questions que nous agitons su r la ntelodie? Et s’il vient h.
rencontrer ailleurs que les auteurs etoient trfes-partagfe su r l’6num6ration
exade des sons de la langue grecque; que cette m atiere avoit exdte des
disputes fort vives, 'sed talium rerum considerationem grammatices &
poetices esse; vel etiam, ut quibusdam placet,' philosophise, n’en condura-t-il
pas qu'il en avoit 6te parm i les Romains ainsi que parm is nous? C’est-h-dire
qu'aprfcs avoir traite la sdence des signes & des sons avec assez de teg6rete, il y
eut un terns ou de bons esprits reconnurent, qu’elle avoit avec la sdence des
choses plus liaison qu'ils n 'en avoient d ’abord soupônn^, & qu'on pouvoit
regarder cette speculation comme n ’etant point du-tout indigne de la
philosophie." "Encydopedie," Encyclopedic ou dictionnaire raisonne des
sciences, des arts, et des metiers edited by D iderot et d ’Alembert (Paris:
Brassen et Le Breton, 1769), 5:638.
36
Ram eau’s H arm onic Interpretation

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), a strong believer in the superiority
of m odem French music over all th at had preceded it, prom oted harm ony as
the generating force of all m usic To Rameau, the resonating partials found
in the corps sonore offered a natural guide for harm onic progression. The
corps sonore ("sonorous body”) consisted of a generative fondamentale
("generative fundam ental") w hich served as a harm onic anchor to the chords
form ed from its partials.61 Rameau and his followers, view ing ancient
theory through this naturalist lens, defined the enharm onic genre w ithin the
context of harm ony.62 They interpreted the enharm onic genre m uch like the
m odem concept of enharm onic equivalence, the practice of spelling a specific
pitch w ith tw o different notations (i.e., G-sharp and A-flat; E-sharp and F-
natural).
The quarter tone was im perceptible to Rameau as a m elodic interval.
In a Memoire read before the Acad6mie Royale des Sciences in November,
1749, Rameau states: "If one does not grant the ancients better ears than ours,
they should have had as m uch difficulty in judging exactly a sem itone as we
have, and by consequence, the same impossibility in calculating, w ith either
61"The corps sonore (literally the 'sonorous body' w as Rameau's term

for any vibrating system such as a vibrating string which em itted harm onic
partials above its fundam ental frequency." Thomas Christensen,
"Eighteenth-Century Science and the Corps Sonore. The Scientific
Background to Rameau's Principle of Harmony," The Journal o f Music
Theory 31:1 (Spring, 1987): p. 23.
62Taddie, "Scale: An Historical Study of Musical Terminology and

Concepts," p. 222. See also Thomas Christensen, Rameau and Musical
Thought in the Enlightenment, Cambridge Studies in Music Theory and
Analysis, no. 4 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 199-208.
37
the voice or ear, the quarter tone."63 Like m any of his contem poraries,
Rameau interpreted the quarter tone as the difference betw een major and
m inor sem itones. According to Rameau, the quarter tone m eant the variance
betw een notes such as G-sharp and A-flat or C-sharp and D-flat. This
difference could n ot be discerned as an interval, b u t resulted from unexpected
or "enharmonic" progressions such as those generated from respelling
dim inished seventh chords. 64
Rameau believed the enharm onic genre fell from use because it was
interpreted as a m elodic rather than a harm onic device. In his "Remarques
sur les Pieces de ce Livre, & su r les differens genre de Musique"
accompanying his Nouvelles Suites de Pieces de Clavecin (c. 1728), Rameau
writes:
It is this same quarter tone which forms the difference
betw een the diatonic semitone B and C and betw een
the chrom atic semitone B and B-sharp, as has always been
observed; and it is this same quarter tone that is associated
w ith the enharm onic genre. But the M odem s, having been
unable to elicit additional clarification from the Ancients
63"Si Ton n ’accorde pas aux anciens de m eilleures oreilles que les
ndtres, ils devroient avoir autant de difficulty h appr&der exactement le
sem iton que nous en avons, et par consequent, la m em e impossibility h.
m esurer soit avec la voix, soit avec l’oreille, le quart de ton." Rameau,
"Memoire ou l’on expose les fcndem ents du systeme de m usique th4orique
et practice de M. Rameau," read before the Acad6mie on Novem ber 19 1749,
quoted in Thomas Christensen, "Diderot, Rameau and Resonating Strings:
N ew Evidence of an Early Collaboration," Studies on Voltaire and the
Eighteenth Century 323 (1994): 160.
^R am eau defined tw o hybrid genres: the diatonic Enharmonique,

com prised of tw o conjunct m ajor sem itones such as F-natural to E-natural
and E-natural to D-sharp, and the chromatic Enharmonique, comprised of
consecutive m inor sem itones such as E-flat to E-natural and E-natural to
E-sharp.
38
on this issue, regarded these chrom atic and enharm onic

genres as pure speculation and banished them from our
music, because the quarter tone is no t natural to us The ear,
however, has judged otherw ise in our tim e, and the m usician
has only to understand w hat he practices, in relating
to m odulation w hat has m eant until now only a certain
in terval.65
According to Rameau, the ancient Greeks w ere n ot foolish enough to believe
intervals sm aller than a sem itone could be utilized melodically. Obviously,
believed Rameau, Greek theoretical w ritings on the enharm onic genre w ere
geared to harm onic progressions and not m elodic nuances.
Rameau's views on the enharm onic genre w ere apparently well-
know n to his contem poraries. In Le Neveu de Rameau [Rameau's Nephew]
(1761), for example, Denis D iderot concludes a particular sequence of antics by
the nephew as follows:
In short, you see, said he, in straightening up and wiping

the drops of sw eat w hich w ere running dow n his cheeks,
that we know how to place a tritone or a dim inished fifth and
that the series of dom inants [d rd e of fifths] is fam iliar to us.
These enharm onic passages about w hich the dear u n d e m ade
65"C'est ce meme quart de ton qui fait la difference d u sem iton

Diatonique entre Si et C d'avec le sem iton Chrom atique entre Si et Si Dieze;
comme on l’a rem arqu6 de to u t temps; et c’est cl ce m em e quart de ton q u ’est
attach^ le genre enharmonique: m ais les M odernes n ’ayant pti tirer des
A ndens aucun autre €dairdssem ent sur ce fait, ont regard^ ces genres de
Chromatique et d 'Enharmonique comme de pure speculation, et les ont
bannis notre M usique, su r ce que le quart de ton ne nous est pas naturel:
l'O reille en a cependant jug6 autrem ent de nos jours, e t il ne m anque plus au
M usiden que de connoitre ce qu’il pratique, en rapportant k la m odulation ce
qu’il ne faisoit d6pendre, jusqu'id, que de l'intervalle en particulier."
Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavecin avec des remarques sur les differents
genres de musique, edited by Erwin R. Jacobi (New York: Barenreiter, 1958),
p. 59.
39
m uch fuss are not an endless task; we can m anage.66

Indeed, Rameau and his com patriots discussed the enharm onic genre on
num erous occasions.
Rameau also claim ed to have applied the enharm onic genre in several
of his com positions.67 He frequently referred to the initial drafts of his operas
Hipolyte & Aricie (1733) and Les Indes galantes (1735) to dem onstrate
enharm onic possibilities. The use of the enharm onic genre h ad to be
rem oved from the perform ance versions, according to Rameau, because of
difficulties for musicians unfam iliar w ith the unusual progressions.
A dditionally, Ram eau's Nouvelles Suites de Pieces de Clavecin (c. 1728)
contains a piece entitled T 'Enharm onique.’’ The intended instrum ent was a
standard keyboard w ith twelve keys to the octave. Since the enharm onic
genre w as a product of harm onic function, it need not be realized on specially
designed instrum ents.68
66-Enfin, vous voyez, dit-il, en se redressant et en essuyant les gouttes

de sueur qui descendaient le long de ses joues, que nous savons aussi placer
un triton, une quinte superflue, et que l'enchainem ent des dom inantes nous
est familier. Ces passages enharm oniques dont le cher o n de a fait tant de
train, ce n'est pas la m er k boire, nous nous en tirons." Denis Diderot, Le
Neveu de Rameau, w ith an introduction and notes by Jean-Q aude Bonnet
(Paris: Flammarion, 1983), p. 65.
Ê xam ples by Rameau are in his Generation harmonique ou traite de

musique theorique et pratique (Paris: Prault fils 1737; reprint ed., M onuments
of M usic and Music Literature in Facsimile, N ew York: Broude Brothers,
1966), pp. 154-155, and Demonstration du principe de Vharmonie (Paris:
D urand, 1752; reprint ed., M onuments of Music and Music Literature in
Facsimile, New York: Broude Brothers, 1965), p. 94.
^ F o r a discussion of Rameau's use of the enharm onic genre in

"L’Enharm onique” and his 'T rio des Parques" ('T rio of th e Fates") from
40
Rameau's interpretation of the enharm onic genre as a harm onic entity

greatly influenced his contem poraries. Some, such as Jean-Le Rond
d'A lem bert (1717-1783), directly embraced Rameau's views. D'Alembert, for
example, described only the harm onic applications of the enharm onic genre
in his Elemens de Musique Theorique et Pratique (1752):
Lastly, the enharm onic is the least agreeable of all, because

the fundam ental bass which generates it is not immediately
indicated by nature. The quarter tone w hich constitutes
this genre, and which is indiscernible to the ear by itself, produces
and can produce some effect only through the illusion of
the fundam ental bass which generates it, a bass whose
progression is absolutely unnatural.69
According to d ’Alembert, the enharm onic genre could only be realized under
the guise of harm ony.
O pposition to Rameau's Harmonic Interpretation

In the seventeenth century, M arin M ersenne (1588-1648) w ished to
restore the enharmonic and chromatic genres to music practice. He
illustrated their plausibility by noting the ability of Le Bailley, a singer at the
court of Louis XDT.
We are now not w ithout teachers of music to whom nature
Hipolyte & Aricie (1733), see Christensen, Rameau and Musical Thought in
the Enlightenment, pp. 203-207.
69"Enfin, l'enharm onique est le moins agr6able de tous, parce que la

basse fondam entale qui le donne, n ' est point im m ediatem ent indiqu£e par la
nature. Le quart de ton qui constitue ce genre, & qui est par lui-meme
inappreciable £ l'oreille, ne produit & ne peut produire d'effet qu'autant qu'on
y sous-entend la basse fondam entale qui la donne, basse dont la progression
n 'est nullem ent naturelle.” Jean-Le Rond d'A lem bert. Elemens de musique
theorique et pratique (Paris: 1752; reprint ed., M onuments of Music Literature
in Fadm ile Series, 19, New York: Broude Brothers, 1966), p. 93.
41
has given an exceptional voice, among whom La Bailley is

said to be extraordinary and can bring instrum ents into tune
w ith his voice and can easily divide a tone into four parts,
so that there is no doubt that we possess the enharm onic
genre, perm itted by the quarter tone and proceeding from
quarter tones.70
D uring the eighteenth century, the question of the audibility and execution of
intervals less than a sem itone, w hether major, m inor, or equally tem pered,
became increasingly im portant. N ot all accepted Rameau's interpretation of
the enharm onic genre as solely a harm onic device.
The antithesis to Rameau’s interpretation can be found in Jean-Jacques
Rousseau (1712-1778). The differing opinions of Rameau and Rousseau on
the enharm onic genre illustrate the friction, both personally and
theoretically, betw een the tw o men. Both thought the enharm onic genre to
be plausible, b u t Rousseau did not believe Rameau’s enharm onic passages
w ere appropriate realizations. N ot know n for hum ility, Rousseau offers the
entry "Enharmonique" in his Dictionnaire de Musique as evidence of his
m usical prowess:
The article ’Enharm onic,’ for example, explains this genre

w ith such great clarity that one is surprised by the confusion
in which it had been expressed by all those w ho had
70”N unc autem phonascis non carem us, quos exima voce natura
donaverit, inter quos Ballius insignis esse d id tu r qui voce sua instrum enta ad
concordiam redigit, & tonum in quatuor partes facile dividit, u t iam nullus in
dubium reuocare debeat, num genere harm onico u ti possimus, licet per
diesim , & diesem procedat..." M arin M ersenne, Quaestiones celeberrimae in
Genesim, as quoted by Susan Lee Youens, "Music and Religion in the French
Reform ation and C ounter Reformation’’ (Ph.D. dissertation, H arvard
University, 1975), pp. 44-45.
42
previously w ritten about this m atter.71

A fter offering a brief history of the enharm onic genre in ancient Greece in
this entry, Rousseau reveals th at m odem m usic has a different application:
We have today a type of enharm onic genre entirely

different from th at of the Greeks. It consists, as the two
others, in a particular progression of harm ony.72
Rousseau gives a detailed account of the respelling of dim inished seventh
chords and cites the uses by Rameau. Rousseau, however, criticizes Rameau
for being too obsessed by "useless calculations" to understand the tru e nature
of the enharm onic genre. Convinced that Greek theory referred to m onody,
Rousseau advocated the application of the enharm onic genre to recitative,
believing it could be executed by sensitively trained singers.73
Interpretations of the enharm onic genre in France during this period
are not as easy to classify as Rameau's vs. Rousseau’s or harm onic vs.
melodic. Even some of those espousing the superiority of harm ony d id not
necessarily accept Rameau's interpretation of the enharm onic genre.
Theorist and historian Pierre Joseph Roussier (1716 or 1717-1792), for
71"L’a rtid e Enharmonique, par exemple, explique ce genre avec une si

grande darfe qu’on est 6tonn€ de l'obscurife avec laquelle en avoient parfe
tous ceux qui, jusqu'alors avoient 6crit sur cette matfere.” Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, CEuvres Completes de J. J. Rousseau, vol. 4: Rousseau Juge de Jean-
Jacques (Paris: Fum e, 1835), p. 9.
72"Nous avons aujourd'hui une sorte de Genre enharm onique

entferem ent different de celui des Grecs. H consiste, comme les deux autres,
dans une progression particulfere de lH annonie." Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
"Enharm onique," Dictionnaire de musique (Paris: 1768; facsimile edition,
N ew York: Johnson R eprint Corporation, 1969), p. 193.
73 M v pp. 196-197.
43
example, questioned Rameau's grasp of ancient Greek music. In his M emo ire
sur la musique des anciens, Roussier, though a partisan of Rameau’s theory,
attacks the foundation of Rameau’s conclusions:
all the results that one could deduce from the hypotheses
of Rameau are at an absolute loss, because the Greeks, as
I have already said, did not know the phenom enon of
the corps sonore, at least how w e view it; because this
nation no longer existed w hen w e invented counterpoint.74
Roussier did not, however, contradict Rameau’s definition of the quart de ton
in the context of respelling of dim inished seventh chords. Instead, Roussier
attacked Rameau’s insistence that the enharm onic genre can only exist
w ithin a certain tem peram ent. According to Rameau, Roussier states, pitches
such as B-flat and A-sharp are "the sam e thing, the same tone exactly,
represented only by different notation. On this principle, the enharm onic
genre no longer has any difficulty w ith regard to its execution."75
Addressing Rameau's comm ent in Generation harmonique that the quart de
ton "is not natural” and "the ear cannot perceive it,” Roussier counters:
74"toutes les consequences qu'on a pu deduire de l'hypothese de

Rameau, sont absolument en pure perte, soit parce que les Grecs, comme je
l’ai d6j& dit, ne connoissoient pas le ph&iomfene du corps sonore, du moins
tel que nous l’envisageons; soit parce que cette N ation n ’existoit d£j& plus
lorsque nous avons invents le contrepoint..." Memoire sur la musique des
anciens, oil Von expose le principe des proportions authentiques, dites de
Pythagore, et de divers systemes de musique chez les grecs, les chinois et les
egyptiens, avec un parallele entre le systeme des egyptiens et celui des
modemes (Paris: Lacombe, 1770; reprint ed., New York: Broude Brothers,
1966), p. 9.
75”ia meme chose, le meme son identiquem ent, repr£sent£ seulem ent
par des notes differentes. Sur ce principe, le genre enharm onique n'a plus
aucune difficult^ quant & l’ex6cution." Roussier, Observations sur differens
points d'harmonie. 2nd ed. Geneva: Bailleux, 1775. (title page gives 1755),
p. 167.
44
W hen a voice, for example, is nearly a quarter tone higher

or lower than the pitch it m ust obtain, we no longer call this
false singing, it is o u t of tune; and few m en are m istaken in
applying these term s correctly. Therefore, the quarter tones,
and still sm aller intervals, are not im perceptible for all.76
If the quarter tone cannot be heard as Rameau contends, how can it "revolt"
the ear? Roussier wryly suggests that this negative effect dictated by Rameau
m ust be due to the unexpected harm onic progressions utilized by Rameau
him self.77 A review er of Roussier's Observations sur differens points
d'harm onie w rites that Roussier, in revealing the truth of the enharm onic
quarter tone:
proves th at it is not as impractical as M. Rameau has believed;
[Roussier] m akes some very wise reflections on the m anner in
which one could learn to hear it. If it seems so difficult to us, it
is because it is a language of w hich we do not know the alphabet;
is it surprising that w e cannot succeed at speaking it?78
76"Lorsqu’une voix, par exemple, est de pres d'un quart de ton au-
dessus ou au-dessous du son qu’elle doit former, nous n'appellons plus cela
chanter faux, c'est d6toner; & peu de gens se trom pent dans la juste
application de ces termes. Done le quart de ton, & un m oindre intervalle
encore, ne sont inappr£dables pour tout le m onde.” Ibid., p. 239.
^ ”Ce n ’est pas du quart de ton que l’oreille est revolfae, puisqu'on ne
la lui fait pas entendre; c’est de ce qu'on passe dans des modes qui ne sont pas
relatifs a celui dans lequel on etoit" Ibid., p. 238, note 54.
78”il prouva qu’il n’est pas si impracticable que M. Rameau l’a cru; il
fait des reflexions trfes-judideuses su r la m aniere dont on pourroit s'y prendre
pour la faire entendre. S'il nous paroit si difficile, c'est que c'est une langue
dont nous ignorons meme l'alphabet; est-il etonnant que nous ne pussions
reussir k la parler?" Article XI "Observations sur diffarens points
d'harm onie, p ar M. l'Abbe Roussier,” Janvier, 1766, Journal de Trevoux, vol.
2: pp. 288-298; reprint ed., Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1969, voL 66: pp. 77-79.
45
Blainville and the M elodic Q uarter Tone

Charles-Henri de Blainville (c.1710-c.1770), a composer, theorist, and
cellist, was convinced th at the "language" of the enharm onic genre could be
understood and learned. Strongly believing intervals sm aller than a
sem itone to be not only audible b u t practical, Blainville w as one of the m ost
vocal proponents of incorporating the quarter tone into m usic composition.
Blainville was profoundly interested in experim ental scale systems, and his
theoretical works include tw o Memoires read before the Acad6mie Royale des
Sciences.
Blainville’s first Memo ire, "Essay sur un troisieme m ode” presented in
June 1751, for example, created a significant im pact w ithin the music theory
com m unity.79 His presentation came less than three weeks after the first
perform ance of his Simphonie dans un Troisieme Mode ou le Mode Mixte at
^^Blainville, 'Essay su r un troisifeme mode," Presentation 16 juin 1751,

L'Acad6mie Royale des Sciences, Paris (Reg., T. 70, p. 365); original M em oire
in pochette de seance; Report filed by M airan and Fouchy: 17 juillet 1751
(Reg., T. 70, pp. 441-443); original in pochette de seance. Blainville published
the memoire as Essay sur un troisieme mode presente et aprouve par
Messieurs de VAcademie des sciences, joint a la symphonie executee au
concert du chateau des Thulleries, 30 may 1751 (Paris, 1751). For a complete
survey of the com m entary by Blainville's contem poraries, m ostly published
in Mercure de France, see Albert Cohen, pp. 95-96; and Barry S. Brook, La
Symphonie francaise dans la seconde moitie de XVlIe siecle, w ith a preface by
Jacques Chailley (Paris: Publications de l’institut de musicologie de
l'universite de Paris, 1962), vol. 1: Etude historique, pp. 127-132. This latter
source also indudes a full score to Blainville's Simphonie on pp. 133-144.
Both Roussier and Rameau voiced skepticism of the "Mode mixte." See
Roussier, Memoire sur la musique des anciens (Paris: Lacombe, 1770; reprint
ed., New York: Broude Brothers, 1966), pp. 175-182; and Rameau N ouvelles
reflexions sur sa demonstration du principe de Vharmonie (Paris: 1753;
reprint ed., M onuments of Music and Music Literature in Facsimile, New
York: Broude Brothers, 1969), p. 27.
46
the Concert spirituel in Paris.80 Some applauded the "mode mixte,"

essentially a phrygian scale w ith mixed m ajor and m inor harm onization.
Rousseau praised Blainville’s efforts and tied the "mode m ixte” to the
ancient Greek theory of the tetrachords.81 O thers found Blainville’s efforts
noble, b u t impractical.
The m ost sustained attack came from the Swiss theorist Jean-Adam
Serre (1704-1788) who devoted several letters and the second essay of his
Essais sur les principes de Vharmonie (1753) to refuting Blainville’s proposal.
Serre contended that only tw o m odes w ere natural to harm ony and likened
8°As Blainville him self described: "The mixed m ode that I propose
differs from fee m ajor m ode in that its third is m inor in beginning and m ajor
in ending; & in that fee first sem itone is placed betw een fee first and second
note & and fee second sem itone betw een fee fifth and sixth. It differs from
fee m inor m ode in that its third is m ajor in finishing, & that it does not begin
by a m inor third; fee third of fee m inor m ode in beginning being composed
of a whole tone and a sem itone—& fee third of fee m ixed m ode of a semitone
and a whole tone." "Le m ode m ixte que je propose differe du M ode Majeur
en ce que sa fierce est M ineure en commengant & Majeure en finissant; & en
ee que le prem ier sem i-ton est plac6 de la prem iere note k la seconde & le
second sem i-ton de la rinquidm e k la sixi6me. II differe d u M ode M ineur en
ce que sa fierce est Majeure en finissant, & qu’il ne commence pas par la
meme fierce M ineure; la fierce du M ode M ineur en commengant 6tant
compos6e d 'u n Ton & d ’un Semi-ton—& la fierce d u M ode Mixte d'un Semi
ton & d 'u n Ton." Blainville, Essay sur un troisitme mode presente et
aprouve par Messieurs de VAcademie des sciences, joint la symphonie
executee au concert du chateau des Thulleries, 30 may 1751 (Paris, 1751), p. 2.
81"Lettre de M. Rousseau de Gen&ve, k M. l’Abb6 Raynal, au sujet du

nouveau M ode de M usique, invents par M. Blainville, A Paris, ce 30 Mai, au
sortir du concert Mercure de France 2 (Juin, 1751) pp. 174-178. R eprint pp.
379-380. Blainville thanked Rousseau in "Observation de M. de Blainville,
su r la Lettre M***, inser6e dans le M ercure du mois de Septembre," Mercure
de France (Novembre, 1751): 120-124. R eprint pp. 256-257.
47
Blainville’s "third mode" to creating a th ird sex among hum an beings.82

D espite countering the existence of a "mode m ixte/' Serre’s dissertation
supports the plausibility of the enharm onic genre. A fter noting the
possibility of m elodic sequences such as E to E-sharp to F, Serre writes:
W hat I have just proposed can suffice for illustrating that

the Greek enharm onic was not as bizarre, as detestable to
the basis of the fundam ental bass, as one m ight think. One can,
consequently, conceive th at this ancient genre could furnish
m elody, especially a recitative m elody, some intervals whose
extrem e sm allness w ould lend them selves to expressions of
indolence and languor, to expressions of sentim ents w hich
assum e that there is w ithin the soul and, consequently, w ithin
the voice, a sort of inertia, a penchant for form ing only
the sm allest m elodic intervals, th at harm ony, or a very natural
fundam ental succession, can suggest.83
In concluding his discussion, Serre voices no surprise that the m odem
tem peram ent and theory based upon progressions by fifths does not embrace
the enharm onic genre.84
82jean-Adam Serre, Essais sur les principes de Vharmonie (Paris: Prault

fils, 1753; reprint ed., New York: Broude Brothers, 1966), pp. 26-27.
83”Ce que je viens de proposer peut suffire pour faire com prendre que
lEnharm onique des Grecs n'etoit pas absolum ent aussi bizarre, aussi destitue
de fondem ent dans la Basse fondam entale qu'on pourroit le penser: on peut
en consequence concevoir que cet an d en Genre pouvoit foum ir h la M61odie,
sur-tout h une M elodie r&dtante, des intervalles que leur extrem e petitesse
rendoit trfcs-propres aux expressions de mollesse & de langueur, aux
expressions de sentim ens qui supposent dans l’ame, & en consequence dans
l'organe vocale, une sorte d 'inertie, u n penchant h ne form er que les plus
p etits intervalles m eiodiques, que l'H arm onie, qu’une Succession
fondam entale tr&s-naturelle puisse sUgg6rer.” Ibid., pp. 46-47.
Îb id ., pp. 47-48. Serre later criticized Tartini’s asssertion that a trio of
his em ploying the enharm onic genre was easily playable: "Je crains fort qu’il
ne se trouve qu'un bien petit nom bre de M usidens qui r6ussissent h faire
cette experience avec le meme succfcs." Jean-Adam Serre, Observations sur les
48
Blainville w as w ell-read in ancient m usic theory and history and

connected his "mode mixte" to ancient practice. Acknowledging that he w as
not the inventor, Blainville w rote that the "mode mixte" existed "in ancient
counterpoint under the name Ton du quart ”85 Blainville’s Histoire
generate, critique et philologique de la musique (1767) offers extensive studies
of music in antiquity. Throughout, he devotes considerablel discussion to the
enharm onic genre and its quarter tone, both in m odem applications and use
in ancient Greek theory. In fact, the very last sentence of his concluding
"Supplement” prom otes the quarter tone and the enharm onic genre for
adoption into m odem French music:
I do not see w hat could henceforth prevent us from
adopting, in our m odem system of the octave, the grace
and ancient pow er so praised by the system of the Greeks.86
Blainville's f a m i l i a r i t y w ith ancient sources is also dem onstrated by a
bound assortm ent of m anuscripts housed at the Biblioth&que Nationale:
Traductions de plusieurs auteurs tant Grecs que Latins et extraits d'autres
auteurs qui ont ecrit tant sur la musique andenne que sur la modeme. This
latter collection contains translations and com m entary by Blainville on the
principes de I'harmonie (Geneva: Henri-AIbert Gosse et Jean Gosse, 1763;

reprint ed., New York: Broude Brothers, 1967), p. 150.
85’U 6xistoit dans l'anden contrepoint sous le nom de Ton du quart. "
Blainville, Essay sur un troisieme mode presente et aprouve par Messieurs de
VAcademie des sciences, joint a la symphonie executee au concert du chateau
des Thulleries, 30 may 1751 (Paris, 1751), p. 2.
86"je ne vois pas ce qui pourroit d6sorm ais nous emp^cher d'adopter
dans notre Systeme m odem e de l’octave, la grace & la force antique tant
vant6e du Systeme des Grecs." Blainville, Histoire generale, critique et
philologique de la musique, p. 185.
49
works of Aristoxenus, E udide, Ptolemy, Boethius, and num erous others. In a

passage sim ilar to Rousseau's criticism of Rameau’s num erical obsessions,
Blainville suggests that Pythagoras and his followers, known for their
m athem atical em phasis, had neglected the im portance of the e a r
The Pythagoreans were so obsessed by this m atter of reasoning
by num bers that they no longer listened to the judgm ent
of the ear w hich had first led them to this philosophy;
num bers alone w ere the rule to w hich they tyranically subm itted
the ear.87
Both melodic and harm onic possibilities of the enharm onic genre
continued to fascinate Blainville. In his earliest published theoretical work,
Harmonie theorico-pratique, divisee en six parties appearing first in 1746,
Blainville offered both a harm onic and m elodic definition of the enharm onic
genre.88 According to Blainville, the enharm onic genre could be realized as
the respelling of dim inished seventh chords. This was necessary for pieces to
be played on fixed keyboards. The enharm onic genre could also be introduced
in the form of intervals sm aller than a sem itone, h i his history of music
published in 1767, Blainville writes that the quarter tone, defined as the
87"Les Pithagoridens ont ete si entetes de cette m aniere de raisonner

par les nombres qu’ils n ’6coutoient plus le jugem ent de l'oreille qui les avoit
d ’abord conduits k cette philosophic les seules nombres 6toient la regie k la
qu’elle [laquelle] ils soum etoient tiraniquem ent l’oreille....” Blainville,
Traductions de plusieurs auteurs tant Grecs que Latins et extraits d'autres
auteurs qui ont ecrit tant sur la musique ancienne que sur la modeme (Paris,
Biblioth&que Nationale: Ms., n..a. frangais 6327), p. 95).
88Harmonie theorico-pratique, divisee en six parties: la premiere traite

de la basse-fondamentale; la seconde de la composition a 2 & 3 parties; la
troisieme, a 4 & 5 parties, la quatrieme, de Vharmonie figuree; la cinquieme,
de la modulation; la sixieme, des genres de musique diatonique, cromatique,
enharmonique. (Paris: Ballard, 1746—2nd ed. Paris: l’auteur, 1751), pp. 53-54.
50
difference betw een m ajor and m inor sem itones, m ust be "adm itted as a
reality in m elody” despite the doubt voiced until recently.89
Blainville’s quarter tone d id not designate tw enty-four equal divisions
of the octave. As em phasized by Jean-Laurant de B6thizy (1709-1781) in his
Exposition de la theorie et de la pratique de la musique, seconde edition
corrigee et augumentee suivante les nouvelles decouvertes (1764), the
quarter tone required by those exploring the enharm onic genre was not
necessarily a consistent interval:
The enharm onic is a genre w here the scale proceeds by a

certain quarter tone. I say: "by a certain quarter tone,"
because this interval is not truly the fourth p art of a tone, as
has already been seen.90
W hat sets Blainville's interpretations apart from Rameau’s, how ever, is that
Blainville’s quarter tone is a m elodic reality.
In his second Memoire entitled "De l’enharm onique" read before the
Acad6mie Royale des Sciences in A ugust 1765, Blainville outlined his belief
in the practicality of the enharm onic genre and the im portance of the quarter
tone as a m elodic interval:
The quarter tone, the difference betw een the m inor and
89’Tadm ettre comme reel dans la melodie." Charles Blainville,

Histoire generate, critique et philologique de la musique (Paris: Pissot 1767),
p. 167.
90"L'Enharmonique est un genre ou le chant procfede p ar un certain

quart de ton. Je dis: par un certain quart de ton, parce que cette intervalle
n’est pas v6ritablem ent la quatrifcme partie d ’un ton, comme on l’a vu plus
haut." Jean-Laurant de B6thizy, Exposition de la theorie et de la pratique de
la musique, seconde edition corrigee et augumentee suivante les nouvelles
decouvertes (Paris: F. G. Deschamps, 1764; reprint ed., Geneva: Minkoff
Reprint, 1972), p. 176.
51
m ajor sem itones, exists equally as th e sem itone difference

betw een the m inor and m ajor third; this is indisputable. W ith
this difference of the quarter tone being less than half, if it is
less appreciable for both voice and instrum ents, it is always
true th at this quarter tone does n o t exist less in nature, and
th at our ear asks no b etter than to savor its refinement,
provided that the com poser know s how to enter and leave it,
and that the voice and the instrum ent are accustomed to
expressing it, and that the ear can sense it.91
A report filed by the com m ittee assigned to review Blainville's proposal ruled
favorably:
We agree w ith the author th at it is indisputable that

the quarter tone exists; it is possible that, like he says, the ear
asks for nothing better than to savor its delicacy; w e agree w ith
the author th at it is natural to express this quarter tone both
w ith the voice and on instrum ents w hich can make it heard;
we accord in the end that his sub-dim inished seventh is
appropriate to be introduced into m elody, and that it is used
in the sam e way that the author says.92
91Le quart de ton, la difference d u sem iton m ineur, au sem iton m ajeur
existe egalem ent comme le sem iton la difference de la tierce m ineure a la
tierce m ajeure, cela est incontestable; avec cette difference que le quart de ton
etant m oindre de m oitte; s’il est m oins appreciable et pour la voix et pour les
intrum ents; il est toujours vray que ce q uart de ton n'en existe pas m oins
dans la nature, e t que notre oreille ne dem ande pas mieux que d ’en savouver
la Delicatesse, pourvu que le com positeur scache y entrer et en sortir, et que la
voix et l'instrum ent l'accoutum e a l'exprim er, et l'organe de l’ouie a le
sentir." Blainville, "De renharm onique," Presentation 17 aofit 1765,
L'Acad6mie Royale des Sciences, Paris (Reg., T. 84 f. 352) original Memoire in
■pochette de seance.
92"Nous convenons avec l'A uteur q u ’il est incontestable que le quart
de ton existe; il se peut faire que, comme il dit, l'oreille ne dem ande pas
m ieux que d'en savourer la delicatesse; nous accordons h l'A uteur qu’il est
accoutum e h. exprim er ce quart de ton e- de la voix et sur les instrum ents qui
peuvent le faire entendre; nous convenons enfin que sa septiem e
soudim inuee est tr&s propre a introduire cet intervalle dans la m eiodie, et
q u ’il vient m em e s’y placer comme lui m em e; ainsi que le d it l'A uteur.”
52
Like Rousseau, Blainville believed m elody was the m ost im portant m usical
elem ent.
Buffardin and Q uarter Tones on the Transverse Flute

In a letter published in the Septem ber 1764 issue of the Mercure de
France, the French flutist Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin makes reference to a
"general table of all tones, semitones, and quarter tones, follow ed by an 'A ir a
la grecque,' w here one has also used several quarter tones."93 Pierre-Gabriel
Buffardin (c. 1690-1768) was a highly respected flutist and composer. Principal
flutist at the D resden court from 1715 to 1749, Buffardin is the only teacher
Quantz nam es as his own.94 During his residency in Dresden, Buffardin
retained connections w ith Paris, perform ing at the Concert Spirituel in 1726
and 1737.95 H e returned to France on pension in 1749. Secondary references
to Buffardin repeatedly relate his esteemed technical facility.96 Robert
M airan and Pingrd, Report 4 septem bre 1765, L’Acad&nie Royale des Sciences,
Paris (Reg., T. 84, f. 371v-375v); original in pochette de seance.
93,'j,apprends qu’un Anonyme vient de rSpandre une tablature

generate de tous les tons, demi-tons & quart de tons, suivi d 'u n A ir &la
Grecque, ou l'on fait aussi usage de quelques quart de tons." Mercure de
France (September, 1764): 187.
94£dw ard R. Reilly, Introduction to his translation of On Playing the

Flute by J. J. Quantz (New York: Schirmer Books, 1985), p. xiv.
9$The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v.

"Buffardin," by Edw ard R. Reilly.
^^Quantz, for example, notes Buffardin’s proficiency in playing fast

pieces (Reilly, Introduction to his translation of On Playing the Flute by J. J.
Quantz (New York: Schirmer Books, 1985), p. xiv]. Buffardin is also described
in the memoires of Due de Luynes in July 1749 as playing the German flute
"parfaitm ent bien." N orbert Dufourcq, ed., La musique a la cour de Louis XIV
53
M arshall has proposed that Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita in A Minor m ay

have been composed for Buffardin.97 Buffardin is also noted in M ahaut's
1759 flute treatise as instigating the innovations in flute construction of the
foot register and movable plug in the head piece.98
In his letter in the Mercure de Prance, Buffardin explains that he has
been aware of the flute’s capability to render quarter tones as well as its ability
to produce sem itones and whole tones. Although he acknowledges that a
sim ilar idea can present itself to two m en at the same time, he worries that
others will m istakenly attribute to him w hat he term s as a faulty and
et de Louis X V d ’apres les Memoires de Sourches et Lugnes 1681-1758 (Paris:

Editions A & J Picard, 1970). p. 141. Ancelet also references a flutist nam ed
"Pifardin’’ in his Observations sur la Musique, les Musciens, et les Instrument
(Amsterdam: 1757; reprint ed., Geneva: Miiikoff Reprint, 1984), p. 28: "Parm i
les Estrangers, Pufardin (sic.) a 4te un des m eilleurs que nous ayons
entendus."
^ M a rsh a ll’s argum ents can be found in Robert M arshall, "J. S. Bach's
Compositions for Solo Flute: A Reconsideration of their A uthenticity and
Chronology," Journal of the American Musicological Society 32:3 (Fall, 1979):
463-498. M arshall notes that the original heading of the A-m inor partita is in
French: 'T rench titles or headings are extremely rare in the original—or early—
sources of Bach's intrum ental music" (N.B. 40: p. 478). Additionally, Bach is
docum ented to have known Buffardin personally and probably m et him on
his first known visit to Dresden in 1717. The flute solo was composed around
1718 (p. 496). ’I t is tem pting to think, then, that it was Buffardin who
stim ulated Bach’s interest in the transverse flute, that the unaccom panied
partita was Bach’s first composition for the instrum ent, that it was w ritten
shortly after he had m et the French virtuoso, and that it was inspired by his
having seen or heard, on the same occasion, Pisendel’s unaccom panied
sonata for violin in the same key.” (p. 481). Johann Georg Pisendel
(1687-1755) w as the concertmeister of the Dresden C ourt Chapel at this time.
98Antoine M ahaut, Nouvelle method pour apprendre en peu terns a

jouer de la flute traversiere, translated and edited by Eileen H adidian
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989), p. 1.
54
im practical fingering system. Although Buffardin notes the title of the piece
in question as "Air k la grecque,” he does not m ention De Lusse, the treatise,
or the enharm onic genre. The letter in its entirety reads:
M usic/ Lettre to M. De la Place,
Several years ago, M onsieur, in practicing on the transverse

flute, I perceived that this instrum ent w as as capable to render
quarter tones as it is to express semitones and whole tones.
For making my discovery useful, I applied myself to p u t all
the precision possible into a simple and easy fingering chart:
I shared it w ith skillful m asters and w ell-trained am ateurs,
who approved it and h ad nothing b u t encouragem ent for my
work. A t the m om ent w hen I was preparing to offer it to
the public, I learned th at an anonymous author had just
produced a general fingering chart of all tones, sem itones and
quarter tones, followed by an 'Air k la grecque,' where one has
also used several quarter tones. I dare not say, M onsieur, that
this act w as a theft done to me by someone who heard me;99
the same useful and welcome discovery can present itself to
tw o m en at the same tim e. But I cannot hide that this
fingering chart, as for the quarter tones, seems very faulty to
me, and also im practical w ith the half-holing used by
the anonymous author. A personal interest leads me to protest
" G re ta M oens-Haenen infers a different meaning from this sentence,

stating Buffardin w rote that "a sim ilar fingering chart followed by an 'Air a la
grecque’ had been stolen from him some tim e before..it was published under
the thief's name." G reta Moens-Haenen, "Introduction" to Delusse, L'Art de
la flute traversiere (Paris: De Lusse; reprint ed., The N etherlands: Frits Knuf,
1980), p. IV. Lionel de la Laurencie makes a sim ilar statem ent: "Buffardin se
plaignait d ’u n anonym e qui ltd aurait vole, en la falsifiant, une tablature
perm ettant d’executer des quarts de ton sur la flute.” L'ecole frangaise de
violon de Lully a Viotti: Etudes d'histoire et d ’esthetique, vol. 2 (Paris:
Delagrave, 1922-1924; reprint ed., Geneva: Minkoff Reprint, 1991), p. 265. La
Laurencie references the letter to illustrate that titles such as "Air k la
grecque" w ere not particular to "Duos a la grecque," a set of pieces for violin
by Papavoine. A lthough La Laurencie discusses De Lusse’s innovations for
flute technique in Vol. 1, p. 430, he does not connect De Lusse w ith
Buffardin’s letter, w riting that neither Papavoine's pieces o r the "Air"
Buffardin described have been found (Vol. 2, p. 318).
55
this new m ethod: many people attribute it to m e and insist in

claiming that I am its author. Allow me, M onsieur, that I am
jealous enough of my reputation, to not accept the responsibility
for all the faults w hich have been charged this im perfect attem pt.
I disavow it completely, and I offer here a prom ise to the Public
to give w ithout delay a m ore certain and easier M ethod. I am
going to engrave a scale of all the quarter tones I have derived,
accom panied by an air w ith som e variations, in which
quarter tones will be employed.
Your M ercure, M onsieur, is the general publication for all

discoveries, I request a place there for m ine. One has the same
resource w ith you w hen reclaim ing property one owns; I ask you
also this favor and th at of believing m e.
Buffardin, Pensioner of the C ourt of Saxonny100
l O O ' M u s i q u e / Lettre a M. De la Place " Ily a plusieurs annees, Mr ,
qu’en m ’exergant sur la flute traversifere je m e suis appergu que cet

instrum ent etoit aussi propre a rendre les quarts de tons, qu’il l’est k exprim er
les dem i-tons & les tons entiers. Pour rendre m a d6couverte utile, je me suis
applique k y y (sic) m ettre toute la justesse possible p ar u n doicete aussi sim ple
que facile: je l’ai comm unique k M aitres habiles & k des A m ateurs 6clair6s,
qui l’ont approuve & n ’ont rien om is pour m ’encourager dans m on travail.
Au m om ent ou je m e disposois k en faire p art au Public, j’apprends qu’un
Anonyme vient de r^pandre une tablature generate de tous les tons, demi-
tons & quart de tons, suivi d’xm A ir k la Grecque, ou l’on fait aussi usage de
quelques quart de tons. Je n ’ose dire, M onsieur, que ce soit id u n la rd n qui
m ’ait ete fait p ar quelque personne qui aura pu m ’entendre; une meme
decouverte utile & agreable peut se presenter k deux hommes k la fois: mais je
ne peux dissim uler que cette tablature, quant aux quarts de tons, m e paroit
tr^s-fautive, & meme im pratiquable p ar l’usage des dem i-trous dont
l’Anonyme s’est servi. U n inter£t personnel m e porte k reclam er contre cette
nouvelle m ethode: c’est que plusieurs personnes m e l’attribuent &
s’obstinent k pretendre que j’en suis l’A uteur. Souffre, M onsieur, que je sois
assez jaloux de m a reputation, pour ne pas prendre sur m on com pte tous les
vices dont on a charge cette esquisse informe. Je la desavoue absolum ent, &
je prends id des engagemens avec le Public po ur lui donner incessam ment
une M ethode plus certaine & plus facile. Je vais faire graver une echelle de
tous les quarts de tons telle que je la pratique, accompagnee d ’u n air avec des
variations, dans lesquels les quarts de tons seront employes.
Votre M ercure, M onsieur, est le dep6t general de toutes les decouvertes, je
vous y dem ande une place pour la m ienne. On a de meme recours a vous,
quand on redam e u n bien dont on est proprietaire; je vous dem ande aussi
56
Buffardin's prom ise for a d earer fingering chart and com position using
quarter tones does not m aterialize in subsequent issues of the Mercure de
France. Only two of his compositions, a trio sonata in A m inor for flute,
violin, and continuo and a flute concerto in E m inor, have survived.101
N either contain any quarter tones. H is proposed chart and piece have not
been found.
The Q uarter Tone and Instrum entation

If m icrotonal intervals are to be introduced into m elody, they create a
problem of instrum entation. The standard keyboard of twelve keys per
octave cannot support this practice. In the Renaissance, some m usicians
began to explore alternative keyboard constructions, inventing instrum ents
w ith various perm utations of keys per octave. Experim entation of this
nature continued during the eighteenth century. The problem w ith w riting
music for specific and rare instrum ents, however, is th at the perform ance is
restricted. In the tw entieth century, for example, H arry Partch composed for
the param eters of specifically built one-of-a-kind instrum ents w ith a lim ited
perform ance venue.
Rameau used the instrum entation problem to support his
interpretation of the enharm onic genre as a purely harm onic phenom enon.
In his Nouvelles reflexions sur sa demonstration du principe de Vharmonie
(1752), Rameau discusses how the inaudible difference betw een m ajor and
cette grace & celle de me croire & c. Buffardin, Pensionaire de la Cour de

Saxe" Mercure de France (September, 1764): 186-188.
lOlThe Catalogue Leclerc of 1742 lists a set of sonatas by Buffardin

which are not extant.
57
m inor sem itones can only be applied w ithin the law s of harm ony "since all
semitones are equal, or realized as such on our keyboard instrum ents, and it
is only by means of harm ony, as I have just described, that one can perceive
their difference."102 Such logic was criticized by Roussier:
One can conclude nothing against the existence of

the quarter tone even though keyboard instrum ents
do not express i t Does our scale exist any less, although
tim pani cannot execute it?103
A lthough Roussier believed the enharm onic genre had harm onic
applications, he cautioned that the enharm onic genre's role in harm ony did
not discount its m elodic audibility. Similarly, the theorist l'Abb6 Joseph
Lacassagne (c. 1720-c. 1780), in his Traite general des elements du chant (1766),
treats the quarter tone as an audible reality, but notes that the enharm onic
genre has a different identity w hen perform ed on keyboard instrum ents:
One also calls the enharm onic genre the passage from one
pitch to another of which the interval is m ade up of only
a quarter tone, like D-sharp to E -flat This kind of genre
can be practiced on instrum ents w here the sharps and flats
are perfectly in unison (such as the organ, harpsichord, and
several others) only by the illusion of a harm ony which
lO^’puigque tous les demi-tons sont egaux, ou senses tels sur nos
instrum ens a touches, & que ce n'est jam ais qu’h la faveur de l’Harmonie,
comme je viens de le dire, qu'on s'y appergoit de leur difference.” Jean-
Philippe Rameau, Nouvelles reflexions sur sa demonstration du principe de
I'harmonie (Paris: 1753; reprint ed., M onuments of Music and Music
Literature in Facsimile, New York: Broude Brothers, 1969), pp. 45-46.
103”On ne peut rien condure contre l’existence du quart de ton bien

que les instrum ens h touches ne le donnent pas. N otre gamme n'existe pas
m oins, quoique les Timbales ne puissent l’ex6cuter." Roussier, Observations
sur differens points d'harmonie, pp. 166-167.
58
disguises the rea lity .104

Blainville w as not interested in the "illusion" of the enharm onic
genre. lik e Rameau, Blainville believed the enharmonique could be used to
generate harm onic progressions, b u t to Blainville, the enharm onic genre's
very nature was defined by the quart de ton as a perceivable interval. The
copy of Blainville’s "De renharm onique" preserved in the archives of
L’Academie Royale des Sciences includes musical examples as to how the
enharm onic m ight dictate chord progressions. Figure 4 (p. 59) provides an
excerpt, w ith the quarter-tone interval of E-flat to D-sharp intended as an
audible melodic shift. Blainville did not conceive his examples for keyboard
instrum ents restricted to a set tem peram ent. Speaking m etaphorically about
the differences betw een other instrum ents and keyboards, Blainville asserts:
"If I have a telescope which can view the distance of tw o leagues, it is not my
fault if that of my neighbor can only view one league."105
104"On appelle aussi Genre Enharmonique le Passage d ’un Degre a un

au tre dont l’intervalle n'est com post que d'u n Quart-de-Ton, comme d u Re#
a Mib. Cette espece de Genre ne peut se pratiquer sur les Instrum ents ou les
Diezes et les B6mols sont parfaitm ent h l’unisson, (tels que l’orgue, le
clavecin, et plusieurs autres & c,) que p ar l'enchantem ent d'une harm onie
qui nous d6guise la r£alit6." Joseph Lacassagne, Traite general des elements
du chant (Paris: 1766; reprint ed., Geneva: Minkoff Reprint, 1972), p. 13.
105”Si jay une Lunette de Longue vue qui porte a deux lieues de
distance, ce n ’est pas ma faute a moy si celle de voisin ne porte qu'a une lieue
de distance." Blainville, 'D e renharm onique,” Presentation 17 aout 1765,
L'Acad6mie Royale des Sciences, Paris (Reg., T. 84 f. 352) original Memoire in
pochette de seance.
59
Figure 4. An excerpt from "De renharm onique" transcribed from

Blainville’s m anuscript and handw ritten annotations.
£^vo.<-V <1*-
EnV)»fiKt' ^
™ g ■-
3 fc = t= = F = # = -A1---------
- U ~ = ^
w r - J - J = i -pf — —1
...
•W-i ■ aS-------
«. ”
St JL oo\
+»— ■*— Ifi '*?•" =
I iu * I *
W ith the m icrotonal nuances dem anded by the use of quarter tones in
melodic lines impossible on keyboard instrum ents, Blainville focused on
other instrum entation. In "De renharm onique," for example, Blainville
describes how vocalists could learn to hear and produce quarter tones:
W ith regard to the voice, I began by singing only long phrases of

descending semitones, easier than ascending, and at the end, I
succeeded in inserting the quarter tone; there are similar phrases
of semitones in which the [quarter tone] is not only placed
easily, but it seems necessary to m e.106
106"pour ja voix, jay commence par ne chanter que de longues phrases

par sem itons en descendant comme plus facile qu’en m ontant et a la fin je
suis parvenu a y inserer le quart de ton; il y a meme telle phrase de semitons
60
Blainville also discusses how string players could easily realize precise quarter
tones by placing their fingers betw een their usual chrom atic positions:
The violoncello precisely renders the quarter tone. On

the violin, on w hich the intervals are closer together,
the tw o fingers are nearly on top of one another.107
C onclusion
In the eighteenth century, few authors questioned the practical use of
the diatonic and chrom atic genres in m usic composition. The diatonic and
chrom atic genres, com prised of whole tones and semitones, w ere view ed as
the basis for m ajor and m inor m odes. W hile the existence and m usical
application of the diatonic and chromatic genres w ere generally established,
the enharm onic genre d id not enjoy universal acceptance. This did not
m ean, however, th at the enharm onic genre was neglected. The question of
the audibility and application of the quarter tone in perform ed m usic was not
confined to a few isolated or eccentric m usic theorists. In fact, the m ajor
philosophical and m usical m inds of m id-eighteenth-century France w ere
actively involved in the debate. N um erous individuals either vehem ently
attacked or vigorously defended the possibility of quarter tones in music.
A lthough the term quart de ton did not usually imply an equally
divided sem itone, it w as not viewed by all as merely a respelling of
ou non seulem ent il s’y est plac£ comme de luimeme, mais meme il m ’y a
p aru comme necessaire." Ibid.
107"je violendel fait predsem ent le quart de ton, sur le violon sur
lequel les intervalles sont plus serrez les deux doigts tout presque l'un sur
l’autre." Ibid.
61
dim inished seventh chords under the um brella of harm ony. The quarter
tone was acknowledged by m any as a melodic reality. Buffardin specifically
references his own interest and that of another in realizing quarter tones on
the transverse flute. The use of m icrotonal intervals in m elody during the
eighteenth century, however, is often overshadow ed by the harm onic legacy
of the prolific Rameau. In a translation of Rameau's Nouveau systeme de
musique theorique, Glenn Chandler, commenting on a particularly livid
attack by Rameau on the audibility of quarter tones, calls Rameau’s rem arks
"an overstatem ent; the exploitation of m icrotonal music in recent tim es
attests to Rameau's fallacy.''108 The fact rem ains that "Rameau’s fallacy" of
denying the melodic existence of quarter tones was recognized by some of his
contemporaries. Composed around 1760, "Air h. la grecque" is one example of
such experim entation.
lO^Glen C handler, "Rameau’s Nouveau systeme de musique

theorique: An A nnotated Translation w ith Commentary" (Ph.D. dissertation,
Indiana University, 1975), p. 304.
62
CHAPTER m
RELATION OF THE ENHARMONIC GENRE AND QUARTER TONE TO

EASTERN MUSIC AND FRENCH DECLAMATION
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
The Influences of Eastern C ultures in France

Beginning in the late seventeenth century, France experienced a
considerable influx of Eastern culture. At this time, the O ttom an Empire,
w ith its political center in Turkey, was a m ilitary pow er controlling m ost of
Eastern Europe, the M iddle East, and northern Africa. After failing to
override Vienna in 1683, however, the O ttom an Empire began to lose its
m ilitary bite. W estern Europeans, no longer considering their Eastern
neighbors a serious political threat, took increased interest in exotic culture.
Eastern fabrics and spices affected dress and food. Eastern themes infiltrated
poetry, novels, and plays. U nder Louis XTV, m any musical events included
some m anifestation of Eastern influence. Eastern them es in the plots and
costumes of ballets and operas continued to play a m ajor role in French
entertainm ent throughout the eighteenth century. Rameau's Les Indes
galantes (1735), w ith its four sections set in four different exotic locations,
exemplifies this trend. As musicologist Eve R. M eyer points out, however,
the French w ere "not yet concerned w ith ethnom usicology."109 Most
109Eve Meyer, 'T urquerie and Eighteenth-Century Music,"

Eighteenth-Century Studies 7:4 (Summer, 1974): 483.
63
m usicians sought m erely to incorporate Eastern flavor into the visual and
schematic com ponents of their w ork, such as exotic settings for operas or titles
like "Greek Air" or "Turkish Dance" for instrum ental pieces. Few w ished to
recreate the essence of authentic Eastern music.
The m eager interest in true Eastern music practice stem m ed, in part,
from a lack of source m aterial. W hat little Eastern m usic did m anage to filter
into W estern ears was in the form of tunes transcribed squarely into W estern
pitch and rhythm ic notation. Two of the earliest published w orks to include
transcriptions were by Charles M arquis de Ferriol, the French am bassador to
Turkey from 1699 to 1711. His Recueil de cent Estampes representant
differentes Nations du Levant (1712/13) and Explications de cent Estampes
avec de nouvelles Estampes de Ceremonies Turques (1715) did m uch to
publicize Turkish culture, bu t his transcriptions of Turkish m usic are
designed for W estern perform ance.110
Similarly, the Encyclopedic edited by Diderot and d ’Alembert indudes
plates of airs supposedly of Chinese, Persian, American Indian, and other
origins. As w ith Ferriol’s examples, these times, to quote Beatrice D idier in
La musique des Lumieres, "are transcribed w ithout any care to relating the
exotidsm and the notation: one stave, w ith possibly one key signature... and
m eters in duple or triple time."111 Although the complex rhythm s and
110Thomas Betzwieser, Exotismus und 'Turkenoper' in der

franzdsischen Musik des Ancien Regime, Neue H eidelberger Studien zur
M usikwissenschaft, no. 21 (Heidelberg: Laaber, 1993), pp. 58-60,72-73.
H l"sont transcrits sans aucun so u d d'exotisme au niveau des signes:

une port6e, avec eventuellem ent une arm ure... et la m esure h deux ou trois
temps." Beatrice Didier, La musique des Lumieres (Paris: U niversitaires de
France, 1985), p. 63.
64
m icrotonal inflections w hich so characterize Eastern m usic w ere not

unknow n in the W est, the use of standard W estern m usical notation in such
transcriptions d id not allow for their conveyance.
A possible exception is found in Charles Blainville’s V H istoire
generate, critique et philologique de la musique (1767) w hich contains two
plates of transcribed T urkish m usic. A com parison of Blainville’s "Chanson
Turc" w ith "Chanson Turque," a transcription of the same E astern tune
found in Charles de Fonton's unpublished 'E ssay sur la M usique Orientale
compar6e &la M usique" (1751),112 suggests th at Blainville's choice of
notation m ay be intended to express m icrotonal inflections (Figure 5, p. 65).
Both transcriptions use W estern notation and are m etered w ith tw o quarter
notes per m easure. The placem ent of pitches on the stave also coincide
exactly w ith the starting and ending notes, an A -natural in both versions.
Blainville, however, has added a key signature of two sharps (F-sharp and
C-sharp) and added a sharp to m ost of the A -naturals in the piece. The one
F-natural and num erous C-naturals in Fonton's transcription are thereby
raised one sem itone, resulting in enharm onic shifts in the accidentals. That
H ^Charles de Fonton, 'Essay sur la M usique Orientale compar£e h la

M usique Europ6ene ou L’on tache de donner une id6e Generale de la
M usique des Peuples de l'orient, de leur gout particulier, de leur Regies dans
le Chant, et la Com binaison des Tons, avec une N otion abregde de leurs
Prinripaux Instrum ens" (Constantinople, 1751) Paris, Bibliothfcque
N ationale: Ms. n..a. francais 4023. Fonton’s transcription is also found in
Thomas Betzwieser, Exotismus und 'Tiirkenoper' in der franzosischen Musik
des Ancien Regime, N eue H eidelberger Studien zur M usikwissenschaft, no.
21 (Heidelberg; Laaber, 1993).
65
Figure 5. Two versions of "Chanson Turc."
a. By Fonton
gvel i ■»«.------------- nvo. h e i Ser V%ftVCL-
- TU*«n Ae •’—
Kiac^ oU m JaO W to*. hi^cK
~ ^ fV»»>lc 4« ban—— Ae r>n*»K
%-oo -nC ow — Aour ----------- b e n - *V | De ««** vvo - — c^t'
W) rn.-9* M
m
O ,- _ ----- 1 *e< ^ v«*. «•* ; W s«* ^ ul_ ------- a . -VcK; \
*I i -ic^ rr ro-
b. By BlainviUe
C lia iis o n i
Turaua • r w i --------’— \ j . w ■ ■ i ■
Quel*ju L bei* ah* ?La* ne* m aJiei Sen 'vir& 'va.
tuun* dylaiium , dqerif* me* ieJer hen* cLe*i* m*ah*X*an* nt*ou*
rwul* ma* JCana* ^ la m a Jan* iLaL* ma* dibi* leh* ta*
+ ■ r T .
buhl. *va* nit* dtpcun me* i*et&~ ben* de. z* mah* *-tnc
1L J I lr‘ -y—*■■‘ I —H—y—S—

•— ■»■i ‘I I
naut met* oen* ha* iderttm , Kin che* iaam.■d& Hzr lU eabt.
aph* ia r i, le Jen*yuL a* daL (Cv^ytm -the i ra* no*
66
is to say, both C-sharps and D-flats appear consecutively in Blainville's

"Chanson Turc."
It is conceivable that Blainville is using the enharm onic notation and
increased chromaticism in his transcription to approxim ate the m icrotonal
nuances of the Eastern practice. While Blainville does not specifically discuss
his choice of accidentals in the text, the interpretation of his notation as
melodic inflections is supported by some of his other works. For example, in
his M emoire, "De l’enharm onique," Blainville uses a sim ilar m ixture of
accidentals to denote nuances in pitch. The perform er m ust realize pitch
variances betw een flatted tones and their enharm onically equivalent sharped
counterparts.
A nother reason for W estern disinterest in the actual aural aesthetic of
the East was a lack of understanding of Eastern style. In the eighteenth
century, Eastern scales and m icrotonal inflections, while recognized by many
in the W est, w ere viewed as incompatible w ith W estern technique or taste.
Charles de Fonton, for example, discusses the irregular intervallic divisions
of Eastern music, b u t is careful to set them apart from W estern practice:
It is true that if the interval betw een two tones divides in half,
it will be able to furnish only a semitone, and that if, on the other
hand, this interval divides itself in m ore parts, these w ill no
longer be semitones but third or quarter tones which to us may
have no reality, because they are unused or unknow n to us.113
113'H est vray que si l’interval qui se trouve entre deux tons se divise
par la moiti6, il ne pourra foum ir qu'un dem i-ton, et que si au contraire cet
intervalle se divise en plusieurs parties, ce ne seront plus des demi-tons, mais
des tiers, des quarts de tons qui par raport k nous n’auront peut etre nulle
reality, parce qu’ils nous sont inutiles ou inconnus." Charles de Fonton,
"Essay su r la M usique Orientale" (Constantinople, 1751) Paris, Bibliothfeque
Nationale: Ms. n..a. frangais 4023, pp. 56-57. For a typed transcription, see
67
Similarly, even Blainville, w hile em phasizing the im portant role of

intervals sm aller than a sem itone throughout the description of Turkish
m usic in his Histoire, has difficulty understanding their Eastern context.
Blainville explored Eastern quarter tones in order to expand the intervallic
language of W estern music, not to copy Eastern style:
The tone or rather the ornam ents of their song seem ed to me

nearly im possible to understand. W hatever consideration
I gave, I could no t sense very well the sm all intervals, n o r
the nuances they use for passing from one tone to another.
It seem ed to me, however, that these nuances am ount to in
reality, w ith regard to purpose, our accents coules, ports de voix,
and other ornam ents of the same nature, which w e know how
to use to make o ur intervals m ore flexible and pleasing.114
Like Fonton and others w riting about Eastern music, Blainville can only
characterize the m inute intervals of Eastern melody through comparisons
w ith fam iliar W estern techniques.
Exposure to Turkish practice may have also inspired the flutist
Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin, who expressed an interest in perform ing quarter
tones on the transverse flute. Buffardin reportedly traveled to
Constantinople sometime before Novem ber 1715, w hen he entered the
Betzwieser, Exotismus und 'Tiirkenoper' in der franzdsischen Musik des

Ancien Regime, pp. 371-411.
114"Le ton ou plutot les agr&nens de leur chant m’ont p aru

presqu’impossibles k saisir, & quelque attention que j’aie apportSe, & je n ’ai
pu meme sentir assez juste les petits intervalles, les nuances dont ils se
servent pour passer d ’un ton k une autre: il m ’a paru cependant que ces
nuances reviennent dans le fond, quant a l’intention, k nos accents coul£s,
ports de voix, & autres agremens de meme nature, dont nous saisons usage
[savons 1'usage] que po u r rendre nos intervalles plus lians & plus agreables. ”
Charles Blainville, Histoire generate, critique et philologique de la musique
(Paris: Fissot 1767), p. 63.
68
service of A ugustus II at Dresden. It is uncertain exactly w hen Buffardin was

in Turkey or how long he stayed although he is recorded as teaching Johann
Jacob Bach, the older brother of Johann Sebastian Bach, while in
C onstantinople.115 It is likely that Buffardin w as p art of the French
am bassador Fertiol’s m usical entourage. Ferriol, w ho later published his tw o
volum es on Turkish culture, was renow n for staging French and Italian
spectacles during his service at C onstantinople.116
HSRecent scholarship varies w idely on the dates of Buffardin’s stay.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s. v. "Buffardin,” by
Edw ard R. Reilly, for example, states Buffardin m ust have been in Turkey
before 1712, and the Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegemoart, s. v.
"Buffardin," by D ieter H artw ig nam es 1713. If Buffardin was indeed brought
to Turkey by am bassador Ferriol, Buffardin m ay have returned to France
w hen Ferriol w as recalled in 1711. The dates of J. J. Bach's Turkish visit are
also unclear. The only certainty is th a t Bach w as in Constantinople sometime
betw een late 1709 and September 1714, during the tim e span when the
Swedish king Charles XII sought asylum in the O ttom an Empire. Bach was
p art of the Swedish forces. For further inform ation on J. J. Bach, see
C hristoph W olff, "Introduction," in The New Grove Bach Family (London:
M acmillan London Lim ited, 1983), p . 14. For further inform ation on Charles
XII in Turkey, see Akdes Nim et K urat and John Selwyn Bromley, "The
R etreat of the Turks 1683-1730," in A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730,
edited and introduced by Michael A. Cook (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1976), pp. 202-209.
H ^Ferriol enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle during his service from 1699

to 1711: "II avait une table fort bien servie, une vaisselle superbe, trente-six
valets de pieds et d'autres dom estiques h l’avenant, et des m usidencs h ses
gages. On representait chez lui des spectades frangais et italiens." ["He had an
extremely well served table, superb dinnerw are, thirty-six footsmen and other
servants on the sam e scale, and some m usidans at his service. French and
Italian spectades were produced under him ”]. Frangois-Emmanuel Saint-
Priest, Memoires sur I'Ambassade de France en Turquie et sur le commerce
des franqais dans le levant, Institut national des langues e t dvilisations
orientales (Paris: E. Leroux, 1877), p. 250, Paris, Bibliothfeque Nationale:
m icrofiche m. 631.
69
The Perceived Parallels Between Verbal

Inflections and M usical Intervals
The term s enharmonique and quart de ton appear frequently in the
w orks of eighteenth century French philosophers, w ho believed m usic and
spoken language were closely related. The enharm onic genre w as often
described as the m ost em otionally captivating of the three genres in both
ancient and eighteenth-century sources. In the preface to "Air k la grecque,"
for example, the enharm onique is described as "the genre w hich is used
particularly to convey strong, vivid emotions, w hich penetrate the soul and
place it outside itself."117 Q uarter tones, believed to dosely approxim ate the
pitch nuances of speech, w ere felt to be the source of the enharm onic genre's
expressiveness.
Such interest in com paring language to m usic pervades a variety of
eighteenth-century sources in France. In Paradoxe sur le comedien, for
example, Denis D iderot blends images of oratory and music. One character, in
describing the illusion of em otions created by theatrical dedam ation,
addresses w hether they are generated by actual sentim ent
N ot at all; and the proof is that they are m easured; that they
comprise p art of a system of dedam ation; that if they are
low er or higher by the tw entieth p art of a quarter tone, they
are false; that they are subject to a law of unity; th at they are,
as in harm ony, prepared and preserved; that they satisfy all
required conditions only by long study [... j.118
H ^'G enre qU'on pourroit particulierem ent em ployer po u r rendre ces

Expressions fortes, pittoresques, qui p6n£trent l’ame et la m ettent hors d'elle
m£me." "Explication" preceding "Air k la grecque."
118"Nullement; et la preuve, c’est qu'ils sont mesur^s; qu'ils font

partie d'un sysfeme de dedamation; que plus bas ou plus aigus de la
vingtifeme partie d'un quart de ton, ils sont faux; qu'ils sont soumis k une loi
70
To Diderot, theatrical speech is a learned skill which m ust be rehearsed and

contrived. D iderot’s "tw entieth p art of a quarter-tone" is perhaps an
exaggeration, but it illustrates the association of declam atory inflection w ith
m usical intervals prevalent during this period.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau voiced sim ilar interest in relating m usic to
language. Instead of applying musical term s to oratory, however, Rousseau
w ished to realize the subtleties of spoken language in musical m elody
through the use of the enharm onic genre. Rousseau believed m elody
superior to harm ony, and any harm onic interpretation of the enharm onic
genre obscured its potential expressiveness as a melodic nuance. In the article
"Enharm onique" in his Dictionnaire de Musique, he emphasizes the
connection of the enharm onic genre to verbal language:
W hat then is the true place for the enharmonic?
It is, in my opinion, bound to recitative. It is in a sublime
and moving scene w here the voice m ust increase and
vary the musical inflections to im itate the grammatical
accent of oratory that is often imperceptible; it is, I say, in
such a scene that enharm onic transitions are well placed,
when one knows how to procure great expressions w ith them
and strengthen them , so to speak, by the symphonic strokes
which suspend speech and reinforce expression.119
d'unite; qu’ils sont, comme dans l’harm onie, prepares et sauv£s; qu'ils ne
satisfont h toutes conditions requises que p a r une longue etude [... ]" Denis
Diderot, Paradoxe sur le comedien, w ith a chronology and preface by
Raymond Laubreaux (Paris: Flammarion, 1981), p. 132.
119"Quel est done le vrai lieu de VEnharmonique? C'est, selon moi, le

R edtatif oblige. C’est dans une scene sublime & pathetique ou la Voix doit
m ultiplier & varier les inflexions Musicales k l'im itation de l'accent
gram m atical oratoire & souvent inappreciable; c'est, dis-je, dans une telle
scene que les Transitions Enharmoniques sont bien placees, quand on sait les
m enager pour les grandes expressions, & les affermir, pour ainsi dire, par des
traits de symphonie qui suspendent la parole & renforcent l’expression."
71
Jean-Baptiste Du Bos (1670-1742) was influential to m any of these

com parisons of speech and m usic In Reflexions critiques sur la po'esie et sur
la peinture (1719), D u Bos not only ties language to music, b u t also explores
the possibility of expressing the form er in the notation of the latter:
I asked m any musicians if it w ould be very difficult to
invent some characters w ith w hich one could transcribe
the declam ation used in our theaters. We do not have
enough accents for w riting it in notes w ith accents in
the sam e way that the ancients had for w riting i t These
m usicians responded to m e that the thing was possible, and
th at one could as well w rite dedam ation in notes, using
the scale of our music, provided one gave the notes only
half the ordinary intonation. For example, the notes which
have a sem itone of intonation in music, w ould have only
a quarter tone of intonation in dedam ation. Thus, one w ould
notate the sm allest lowerings and sm allest increases of
the voice which are perceivable, at least to our ears.120
In other w ords, a new m usical notation need not be devised. Traditionally
notated sem itones w ould sound as quarter tones. It is n o t a question of
w hether m icrotonal inflections in both speech and music exist, b u t how to
Rousseau, "Enharm onique," Dictionnaire de musique (Paris: 1768; facsimile

edition, N ew York: Johnson R eprint Corporation, 1969), 197.
120"j'aj dem ande a plusieurs M usitiens, s'il seroit bien difficile

d'inventer des caracferes avec lesquels on pfit ecrire en notes la dedam ation
en usage su r notre theatre. N ous n'avons point assez d'accens pour l'ecrire en
notes avec les accens, ainsi que les A ntiens l'ecrivoient. Ces M usitiens m 'ont
repondu que la chose etoit possible, & meme qu'on pouvoit ecrire la
dedam ation en notes, en se servant de la gamine de notre m usique, pourvu
qu'on ne donnat aux notes que la m oitie de l'intonation ordinaire. Par
exemple, les notes qui ont u n sem iton d'intonation en m usique, n'auroient
qu 'u n quart de ton d'intonation dans la declamation. Ainsi on noteroit les
m oindres abaissemens & les m oindres elevations de voix qui soient bien
sensibles, d u morns h nos oreilles." Jean Baptiste D u Bos, Reflexions critiques
sur la poesie et sur la peinture (Paris: Chez Pissot, 7th ed., 1770; reprint ed.,
Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1967), pp. 331-332 (on pp. 163-164 of original pages).
72
capture them on paper. Additionally, Du Bos believed that perform ing and
notating these nuances of spoken intonation could be learned, especially by
younger people.121
Etienne Bonnet de Condillac (1714-1780) also explored associations
betw een language and m usic According to Condillac, however, the quarter
tone in ancient tim es m ust have only m eant the difference betw een m ajor
and m inor sem itones and that this was m istakenly interpreted by Du Bos and
others as m eaning the Greeks divided their scale into quarter tones.122
Condillac, greatly influenced by Rameau’s Generation harmonique (1737),
concluded that a quarter-tone scale was impossible, because it was not natural
to a fundam ental bass:
It is dem onstrated in [Rameau's] Generation harmonique: 1. that one

can discern a sound only if it is sustained enough for
hearing its harm onics; 2. that the voice cannot intone m any
sounds in sequence, m aking fixed intervals betw een them ,
if it is not guided by a fundam ental bass; 3. that there is no
fundam ental bass which can give a succession by quarter
tones. In our declam ation, however, the sounds, for the most
part, are not very sustained, and they follow each other by
quarter tones o r even sm aller intervals. The task of notating
them is, therefore, im practical.123
121m „ pp. 331-332 (on pp. 164-165 of original pages).
122gtienne Bonnet de Condillac, Essai sur Vorigine des connaissances

hum aines (Paris: 1746; Auvers-sur-Oise: Galilee Editions, 1973), p. 206.
123"n est ddm ontrd dans la Generation harmonique . 1 . qu'on ne peut

appr£der u n son, qu'autant qu’il est assez soutenu pour faire entendre ses
harm oniques; 2. que la voix ne peut entonner plusieurs sons de suite, faisant
entr’eux des intervalles d6term inees, si elle n'est guidee p ar une basse
fondam entale; 3. qu'il n ’y a point de basse fondam entale qui puisse donner
une succession par quart de tons. O r dans notre declam ation, les sons, pour la
plupart, sont fort peu soutenus, et s'y succedent par quart de tons, ou meme
73
While Condillac associates quarter tones w ith verbal inflection, unlike Du

Bos he discourages their transcription into m usical notation.
Rameau him self professed little interest in relating m usic to language
and endorsed a m ore m athem atical approach to m usic.124 H is interpretation
of the enharm onic genre as only a harm onic tool challenged the need for, as
w ell as die very existence of, m usical intervals sm aller than a sem itone.
A brief jum p across the channel reveals some striking sim ilarities of
thought and term inology in the w ork of Joshua Steele (1700-1791), an
Englishm an who w rote several treatises on elocution. In his introduction to
An Essay towards establishing the melody and measure of speech to be
expressed and perpetuated by peculiar symbols (1775), Steele w rites:
I had long entertained opinions concerning the m elody and

rhythm us of m odem languages, and particularly of the English,
w hich m ade me think our theatrical recitals were capable of
being accompanied w ith a bass, as those of the ancient Greeks
an d Romans were, provided a m ethod of notation w ere
contrived to m ark the varying sounds in common speech,
w hich I perceived to ru n through a large extent through acute
and grave; though they seldom o r never coincided, in their
periods, w ith the tones or sem itones of our ordinary music,
w hich is an im perfect m ixture of those tw o genera, called by
the Greeks diatonic and chromatic. I was of opinion th at in
pronunciation, the voice m oved up and dow n by such small
gradations as that, w hether the degrees were by quarters of
a diatonic tone, or by sm aller divisions, they seemed, in
com parison w ith those of our chromatico-diatonic, to be
par des intervalles m oindres. Le projet de la noter est done impractable."

Ibid., p. 206.
124john N eubauer, The Emancipation of Music from Language:

Departure from Mimesis in Eighteenth-Century Aesthetics (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1986), pp. 42-47.
74
im perceptible slides.125
Steele continues by relating how he comm unicated his belief that speech and
music could be linked to "many gentlem en of genius and learning, as well as
capital artists, hoping some of them w ould turn their m inds to the revival of
the ancient chromatic and enharmonic genera of music, and of a proper bass
of accompaniment for the declam ation of the stage."126
Steele’s w ork is especially significant to establishing a context for "Air k
la grecque." Later in his volume, Steele discusses a system of declamatory
notation based on m usical pitch. According to Steele, spoken inflections
could be translated into quarter tones. Using the pitch G-natural as an
example, Steele describes how G -natural plus a quarter-tone would be notated
w ith a simple cross {G X}, G-natural plus a semitone w ith a standard double
slashed sharp {G%}, and G-natural plus three-quarters of a tone G-natural
w ith a triple-slashed cross {G^S}.127 The sam e symbols are employed in "Air k
la grecque." Like Blainville, Steele also nam es string instrum ents as
appropriate for producing quarter tones.128
125joshua Steele, An Essay towards establishing the melody and

measure of speech to be expressed and perpetuated by peculiar symbols
(London: W. Bower and J. Nichols, 1775), pp. 1-2.
126Ibid., pp. 1-2.
^27Ibid., p. 5.
1ISlbid., p. 16.
75
The Role of Eastern C ultures in Studies

on the Origins of Language and Music
In OUivier, a 1763 novel by Jacques Cazotte (1719-1792), one of the
heroines ventures into a Turkish com m unity w here m usic has replaced
verbal language as the prim ary, and indeed only, m ethod of communication.
After casting possible blam e on an evil fairy, one foreign aid, w ith the ability
to speak, explains: "Barely had people succeeded at representing letters by the
means of tones and in form ing some w ords than they p u t themselves to
discussing the m odes which w ould be the m ost suitable to use; it was a
question of the diatonic and enharm onic."129
This passage connects eighteenth-century interests in Eastern culture
and in relating language to music. The inflections in the tonal languages of
m any non-W estem societies fueled comparisons betw een spoken language
and m usic intervals. In addition, the adoption of die enharm onic musical
genre as a speech substitute in Cazotte’s novel was not a recent occurrence for
the Turkish community. The loss of verbal speech in Cazotte's story was an
event of the distant past, perpetuated through generations.130 In the
eighteenth century, Eastern cultures w ere seen as windows to early stages of
hum an developm ent, and m any W estern scholars studied the East in hope of
129"A peine 6toit-on parvenu a representer les lettres par le moyen de

sons, et en form er des mots, qu'on se m it h. disputer sur les m odes qu'il seroit
plus convenable d'em ployer; il fut question de diatonique, enharm onique/"
Jacques Cazotte, CEuvres badines et morales, historiques et philosophiqu.es de
Jacques Cazotte, vol. 1: Ollivier, Poeme (Paris: Jean-Frangois Bastien, 1817), p.
88.
130cazotte, p. 87.
76
gaining a better understanding of the origin and evolution of W estern

languages and culture.
Rousseau, for example, upheld that harm ony was not natural to m an
because m ost Eastern cultures m aintained a m onophonic m usic.131 In other
w ords, early language was believed to be m ore closely linked to raw emotions,
not filtered by contrived theoretical laws. Since m onody still characterized
m ost Eastern music, Rousseau concluded that m elody m ust be the
foundation of all m usical style, and that harm ony signified a separation of
W estern society from true expressiveness. Rousseau attributed w hat he
viewed as a demise in musical sensibility to an apostasy of language from its
origins. In his Essai sur I'origine des langues (1768), Rousseau asserts: "As
language perfected itself, melody, im posed by new rules, gradually lost its
ancient energy, and the calculation of intervals supplanted the finesse of
inflections. It is thus, for example, that the practice of the enharm onic was
abolished little by little."132
In Voyage d'un jeune Anacharsis en Grece by Jean Jacques Barth6lemy
(1716-1795), the enharm onic genre is discussed as som ething m uch changed
in history. The work, first published in its entirety in 1788, includes an
^ B e a tric e Didier, La musique des Lumieres (Paris: U niversitaires de

France, 1985), pp. 64-72.
m esure que la langue se perfectionnoit, la m elodie, en

s'im posant de nouvelles rfcgles, perdoit insensiblem ent de son andenne
6nergie, et le calcul des intervalles fut substitue a la finesse des inflexions.
C’est ainsi, p ar exemple, que la pratique du genre enharm onique s’abolit peu
a peu.” Rousseau, CEvres Completes de /. /. Rousseau, vol. 1: Essai sur
I 'origine des langues (Paris: Librarie Hachette, 1884), p. 405.
77
extensive chapter entitled "Entretien sur la M usique des Grecs.”133 In this

section, the w ords of the young Greek hero, conversing w ith Philotime, a
pupil of Plato, recall Rousseau’s disdain at the m ere "calculation" of
intervals:
A s for the enharm onic, I som etim es saw it in my youth

practiced following the ratios w hich varied in each
kind of harm ony, bu t it seems to m e today to be fixed.
Thus, we adhere to d ie form ulas th at I have just indicated
[the description of the three genres as different divisions of
the mi to la tetrachord], and which, in spite of the protests by
som e musicians, are the m ost w idely adopted.134
The enharm onic genre has apparently lost some of its original qualities and
been absorbed by diatonidsm :
People neglected to assign one letter to each sound of

the voice and to each string of the lyre. Because of this,
the same character, being comm on to the strings which
belong to the diverse tetrachords, cannot specify their
different degrees of increase, and the notes of the diatonic
genre are the sam e as those of the chromatic and
the enharm onic.135
!33xhis section was published earlier by Barthelemy in 1777 w ith the

title Entretiens sur Vetat de la musique grecque au quatrieme siecle. See Peter
Le H uray and James Day, Music and Aesthetics in the 18th and Early-19th
Century (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981): p. 166.
l^ 'Q u a n t k 1'enharm onique, je Tai vu dans ma jeunesse, quelquefois

pratiqu6 suivant des proportions qui variaient dans chaque espkce
d'harm onie; m ais il m e parait aujourd'hui d6fermin£: ainsi nous nous en
tiendrons aux foim ules que je viens de vous indiquer, et qui, m algre les
reclam ations de quelques m usitiens, sont les plus g£neralem ent adopfees."
Jean Jacques Barthelemy, CEuvres de J. J. Barthelemy, Vol.l: Voyage d'un
jeune Anacharsis en Grece (Paris: A. Belin, 1821), p. 489.
135"Qn a n6glig£ d'approprier une lettre k chaque son de la voix, k

chaque corde de la lyre. II arrive de lk que le meme caractere, 6tant commun a
des cordes qui appartiennent k divers fetracordes, ne saurait specifier leurs
78
W ith quarter tones observed in contem porary Eastern m usic and

especially that of Turkey, it was hoped that the study of Eastern culture would
lead to an understanding of not only the language and music of current
W estern society, b u t also that of the ancient Greeks. In the fifteenth century,
Greece h ad become p art of the Turk-dom inated O ttom an Empire, and
m odem Greeks w ere often referred to as Turks.
Blainville hypothesized that contem porary Turkish culture had
preserved ancient Greek music. A lthough Blainville does not m ention the
enharm onic genre in the section of his Histoire on Turkish m usic, his direct
com parison of Turkish intervals and the ancient Greek quarter tone implies a
connection.136 In discussing Turkish m elody, for example, Blainville writes
that:
these m inute intervals, greatly resembling the quarter tone
w hich served the ancient Greeks, are w hat give [Turkish] music
a distinctive character, whence one could say that French music
is sim ple, noble and natural; Italian music lively, anim ated,
and pleasant; Turkish or oriental music, supple and sensual.137
differens degr£s d'£l£vatk>n, et que les notes du genre diatonique sont les
memes que celles d u chrom atique et de l'enharm onique." Ibid., p. 493.
136 ivano Cavallini m akes this point in his article: "Musica e

strum enti turchi in alcune fonti europee del XVIII secolo e L'Histoire de
Charles de Blainville (1767)" [Turkish music and instrum ents in some
European sources of the 18th century, and the Histoire by Charles de
Blainville, 1767], Restauro conseroazione e recupero di antichi strumenti
musicali (1986): 265.
137"ces petits intervalles tiennent beaucoup du quart de ton dont se

servoient les anciens Grecs, ce qui donne predsem ent un caractere distinctif a
leur M usique: d'ou on pourroit dire que la M usique Frangoise est simple,
noble & naturelle; la M usique Italienne vive, anim ee & attrayante; la
M usique Turque ou orientale, molle & lastive.” Blainville, Histoire generate,
critique et philologique de la musique, p. 64.
79
Blainville was also particularly intrigued by the sim ilarity of Turkish

instrum ents to those of classical Greece and believed these instrum ents
offered im portant d u es to a "missing link" betw een the tw o epochs.138
Blainville's parallels betw een Turkish and ancient Greek m usic, however,
ended at the mechanics of the quarter tone. W hile Turkish m usic could offer
im portant dues to the past, Blainville viewed it as "only a crude vestige of
that of the anrient Greeks."139
Conclusion
Discussions of the enharm onic genre and the quarter tone in
eighteenth-century France w ere not lim ited to the realm of m usic theory.
Both appear frequently in explorations of contemporary and historical Eastern
culture as well as studies on the mechanics of oration and the origins of
language and music. The m ystique surrounding the enharm onic genre as an
expressive vehide of past peoples, for example, is found in m any of the
histories and historical novels w ith exotic settings in vogue during this
period.
While the influence of Eastern style was strong, it m anifested itself in a
nom inal m anner rather than in a direct transfer of Eastern practices. Titles
such as "Air h. la grecque," for example, w ere plentiful and w ere often given
to works very m uch in W estern musical style. As will be seen in the next
138Betzwieser, Exotismus und ' Turkenoper' in der franzosischen

Musik des Ancien Regime, p. 87. See Blainville, Histoire generate, critique et
philogique de la musique, pp. 58-61.
139"La M usique des Turcs n’est qu’un reste informe de celle des
anriens Grecs." Ibid., p. 57.
80
chapter, the "Air k la grecque" of the present study uses W estern functional
harm ony, and the quarter tones embellish a regularly m etered and m easured
W estern m elody.
Explorations of Eastern music w ere also inspired m ore by an interest in
the past than a desire to understand contem porary techniques. Eastern
peoples were viewed by m any as preserving early stages in the developm ent
of W estern culture, and their study was therefore crucial to tracing the
evolution of W estern languages and music.
Of further significance in establishing a broader context for "Air k la
grecque" is the eighteenth century interest in notating the inflections of
verbal language. The work of Joshua Steele, for example, dem onstrates that
the same notation used for the quarter tones in "Air k la grecque" was applied
to declam ation. References to the quarter tone and enharm onic genre in
studies of Eastern music and French dedam ation confirm th at intervals such
as the quarter tone were considered an audible reality in speech and music by
m ore than a few isolated theorists.
81
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS AND PERFORMANCE CONCERNS OFAIR A LA GRECQUE
The Use of Q uarter Tones

A t first glance, "Air k la grecque," an Adagio w ith three quarters per
m easure, does not appear extraordinary (Figure 3, p. 14, or Figure 5, p. 82).
The music is in tw o staves, a treble and a bass line. The latter is not figured,
and the explanatory notes do not specify instrum entation. The form is ABA.
The first section of ten m easures is in D m inor. The m iddle section of
eighteen m easures visits A m inor and F m ajor, and the piece concludes w ith
a da capo of the first section.
The ’Explication" preceding the piece describes it as "a brief essay in the
three m elodic genres; appearing in the order of Diatonic, Chrom atic, and
principally the Enharm onic."140 Accordingly, the opening four m easures
suggest the diatonic genre and do not stray from the scale tones of D m inor.
The first m easure outlines a D m inor chord; the bass line repeats a D on each
quarter-note b e a t The second m easure comes to rest briefly on the dom inant.
The melodic u n it of the first two m easures is then repeated on the dom inant,
w ith the chordal leaps of m easure 3 this tim e outlining a dom inant seventh
in A. The bass underscores the m elody w ith a repeated C-sharp leading tone
in m easure 3, resolving to a D in m easure 4.
140"Un petit ESSAI dans les trois Genres de Melodie; on y voit l’ordre
dans lequel m archent le Diatonique, le Chrom atique et prindpalem ent
rEnharm onique.” "Explication" preceding "Air k la grecque."
82
Figure 6. A transcription of "Air k la grecque” into m odem notation

with, m easure num bers.
An upw ard arrow above a note raises it one quarter tone.
\ v ■■7 — ...
5 n
(jlt- r i f*= • *-
ij ci i i 1 i
FI— r1 0 -i — r\ - ,
■t y 1
A - • ,
83
The chrom atic genre is introduced in the fifth m easure. Here, both the
m elody and bass have descending half steps. The half steps of the melody
line fall in a "sighing” motive from the pitches of a G m inor triad. This
continues in m easure 6 w ith the b-flat" quarter note moving to the a'' on the
second quarter. The bass descends in an unbroken chromatic line from the G
on the first beat of m easure 5 to the C-sharp beginning m easure 6. At this
point, the tonic briefly returns.
In the second half of m easure 6, rising quarter tones, representing the
enharm onic genre, begin in the flute line on the third eighth note. This c’ ’'
quarter-tone sharp continues upw ard in quarter tones to the d"' on the
dow nbeat of m easure 7. The first strain cadences to D m inor in m easures 7-8.
The statem ent is then reiterated w ith the upw ard line extended by another
tw o quarter tones, moving this time from b" quarter-tone sharp on the
second eighth note of m easure 8 through the d'" beginning m easure 9. The
bass notes supporting the quarter-tone gesture in measures 7-8 and again in
m easures 9-10 offers a typical cadential form ula in D minor. (The respelling
of the A-sharp ending measures 6 and 8 to the B-flat beginning m easures 7
and 9 and the shift from G-sharp to A-flat in m easure 8 will be discussed
presently.) The stepwise ascent of the melody characterizes each subsequent
appearance of quarter tones (mm. 11,13,17,19,22,25,26). The longest series
of quarter tones is in m easure 22, where the melodic line has only quarter-
tone intervals from the a' opening the b ar to the c’ ' on the first beat of
m easure 23.
Generally, quarter tones in "Air k la grecque" serve as unaccented
passing tones, filling in chromatic intervals. The only quarter tones that fall
84
on the beat are the e" quarter-tone sharps on the third beats of m easures 25
and 26. Although the m ajority of the quarter tones in "Air k la grecque" are
p art of a series of consecutive quarter-tone intervals, several are reached by
leaps. The c'" quarter-tone sharp in m easure 6 and the g" quarter-tone sharp
in m easure 17, for example, are preceded by an a" and e", respectively. The
first quarter tones in m easures 8 and 19 are both reached by a leap of a tri-tone
raised one quarter tone.
The N otation of the Flute Part

The quarter tones in the flute line are clearly distinguished by their
notation. All chromatic accidentals are indicated by the double-slashed
crosses of standard sharps (>&). The only notated flat, save the B-flat implied
by the key signature, is the grace-note E-flat in the penultim ate m easure of the
m iddle section (measure 27). M easure 14 contains the only notated natural
(&’) of the flute part. The V on the third beat of m easure 22 surrounded by a'
three quarter-tone sharp and b' quarter-tone sharp, however, is m ost probably
intended to be a b' natural as well in the context of the quarter-tone
succession. The quarter sharps are m arked by a single-slashed, or slanted
cross ( * ) and the three-quarter sharps by a triple-slashed cross (*&). The
"Explication" describes them as follows:
The enharm onic sharp or quarter tone is designated next to

the notes by two little crosswise strokes for one part, and for
the other, by three strokes arranged in the same way, as opposed
to the chromatic sharp which has double strokes, while the others
are single and triple.141
141"Le Dieze Enharmonique ou Quart-de-ton y est designe pres des

notes, par deux petites barres en sautoir, d'une part, et de l'autre, par trois
85
In G ardner Read's 20th-Century Microtonal Notation, the hundreds of

examples of different quarter-tone notation attest to the lack of
standardization in current practice.142 Despite the w ide variances in the
symbols for quarter tones, the principle of using single and triple slashes to
distinguish quarter tones from the double slashes of regular sharps
constitutes one of the m ore common m ethods of notation. The three strokes
in each direction of the triple-slashed cross used in "Air k la grecque," for
example, w ould be recognizable as a three-quarter sharp to m ost m odem
perform ers. This symbol, however, typically has a slighly different
appearance in recent compositions, m ore frequently occurring as three
vertide strokes crossed by a double-slash (Jflf).
The "x" symbol em ployed in "Air k grecque" is m ore problem atic,
having tw o different interpretations even w ithin De Lusse’s treatise. The
context of the sim ple cross in "Air k la grecque" and its description in the
"Explication" dearly designate this symbol as denoting quarter sharps. In
eighteenth-century, as w ell as m odem , notation, however, a sim ilar "x”
symbol often defines double-sharped notes. The m ain text of De Lusse's
treatise states that this sign "raises the already-sharped note one
sem itone."143 Thus, F preceded by a single cross in m ost eighteenth-century
barres disposees de meme, a la difference du Dieze Chrom atique dont les

barres sont doubles, au lieu que les autres sont simples et triples." Ibid.
142Gardner Read, 20th-Century Microtonal Notation (New York:

Greenwood Press, 1990): pp. 13-78.
143"L’em ploi du Double Dieze 'x' est d ’elever la note d£ja diezSe d’un
demi-ton." De Lusse, L 'Art de la flute traveriere, p. 5.
86
m usic w ould b e higher than a regular F-sharp. In equal tem peram ent, this
doubly-sharped F w ould be equivalent to G-naturaL In "Air a la grecque,"
however, the sim ple cross raises a pitch only one quarter tone, m aking F
preceded by a single cross lower than a regular F-sharp. A sim ilar symbol for
quarter tones is found in m any m odem system s of notation, b u t this symbol
usually consists of a vertical line w ith a single slanted slash {J( ),
differentiating it from the "x” used for double sharps.
A lthough "Air k la grecque" evidences the use of such notation for h u e
m usical quarter tones in the eighteenth century,144 the connection of these
symbols w ith quarter tones, and indeed the very application of quarter tones
to m usical com position, is widely believed in m odem scholarship to be a
tw entieth-century developm ent. Similar notation found in theoretical
pursuits and com positions in the sixteenth century, for example, do not
designate quarter tones as they do in "Air ci la grecque."145 Johannes W olfs
Handbuch der Notationskund, still a frequently consulted reference guide,
cites Richard H einrich Stein (1882-1942) as the first composer to first apply
single- and triple-slashed sharps to the notation of quarter-tone pitches.146
144joshua Steele's An Essay towards establishing the melody and

measure o f speech to be expressed and perpetuated by peculiar symbols (1775),
a treatise on elocution, offers an additional example of this notation in the
eighteenth century. As discussed in C hapter 3, Steele prom oted signs
identical to the quarter-tone notation in "Air a la grecque" for transcribing
verbal inflection.
l^ L u sitan to 's use of single- and triple-slashed sharps to denote one-

and three-fifths of a tone, respectively, is discussed in Chapter 1.
146johannes Wolf, Handbuch der Notationskund, vol 2. (W iesbaden:

Breitkopf & H artel, 1919), pp. 361-364,460-461. The New Grove Dictionnary
of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Richard H einrich Stein” provides biographical
87
The Fingering C hart

Flute fingerings in eighteenth-century tutors are frequently found on
three different charts—naturals, sharps, and flats. De Lusse’s L'Art de la flute
traversiere, for example, offers fingerings for the "Gamme naturelle"
(Figure 7, p. 88), "Gamme diez6e" (Figure 8, p. 89), and "Gamme b£moliz6e”
Figure 9, p. 90). The "Gamme naturelle" is described as "a lim ited succession
of notes designating the sounds the flute m ust produce."147 The chart begins
w ith the low est possible note on the transverse flute, d \ achieved by stopping
all tone holes.148 The pitches are those of a D natural m inor scale. The sharp
and flat signs used in the "Gamme diez6e" and "Gamme b£moliz6e" are
described as raising or lowering the pitch by a semitone, respectively. The
"Gamme diez6e" begins on D-sharp and is comprised of only sharp tones; the
"Gamme bemoliz6e" begins on E-flat and is comprised of only flat tones. The
three charts often give different spellings for w hat a m odem player would
interpret as identical pitches. De Lusse's "Gamme diez6e,” for example,
includes B-sharp and E-sharp w hich are enharm onically equivalent to
inform ation on com poser Richard Stein. This article m arks Stein's Zw ei
Konzertstucke op. 26 (1906) as the "first published quarter-tone music.” Stein
apparently "devised a quarter-tone clarinet (1914), but w ithdrew it as it
conflicted w ith his m usical intentions."
147"une succession limit6e de notes qui d6signent les sons que la Flute
doit rendre." Ibid., p. 5.
148De Lusse's second Caprice in L'Art de la flute traveriere goes dow n

to c-sharp. This is produced on the one-keyed flute by rolling in the
instrum ent to low er the pitch.
88
Figure 7. "Gamme naturelle" from L'Art de la flute traversiere.
GAMME INAT I7_RE,I_JJL
*rf
L’(
Fn CL
Vi J2.
Si
89
Figure 8. "Gamme diez6e" from L'Art de la flute traversiere.
GAM M E D i E Z E E
“2.
90
Figure 9. "Gamine bemolizee" from L'Art de la flute traversiere.
( C )
/
G A M M E B E M O L I Z E E
bo. fcc_
91
C-natural and F-natural in equal tem peram ent. Such overlap among
fingering charts (especially between the sharp and flat scales) for the flutes of
this era occurs frequently.
In the various tem peram ents used in the eighteenth century, pitches
such as F-sharp and G-flat were often differentiated w ith different fingerings.
Johann Joachim Q uanta in his 1752 flute treatise instructs that E-flat should
be higher than D-sharp, A-flat higher than G-sharp, e tc Q uanta even
designed a flute w ith two keys to distingush betw een D-sharp and E-flat:
E-flat m ust be a comma higher than D-sharp. If there
were only one key for the flute, both the E-flat and the D-sharp
w ould have to be tem pered, as on the keyboard, where
they are struck on a single key, so that neither the E-flat
to the B-flat, the ascending fifth, nor the D-sharp to the B,
the descending major third, would sound truly. To m ark
this difference, and to stop the notes in their true
proportions, it was necessary to add another key to the flute.149
O n a single-key flute, both D-sharp and E-flat m ust be fingered w ith the first
six holes stopped and the seventh open by the depression of the same key.
The three fingering charts in the m ain body of De Lusse's treatise also
assign different fingerings to pitches enharm onically equivalent in the
m odem sense. De Lusse's suggestions, how ever, are generally in opposition
to Quanta’s teaching. De Lusse's flat tones tend to have lower pitches than
their sharp counterparts. The fingerings for G-flat, A-flat, and D-flat, for
example, produce pitches lower than those for F-sharp, G-sharp, and
C-sharp.150
l^ o h a n n Joachim Q uanta, On Playing the Flute, translated by Edward

R. Reilly (New York: Schirmer Books, 1985), p. 46.
150Although De Lusse’s treatise was published less than one decade

after that of Quanta, De Lusse’s fingerings follow the more modem practice of
92
The differences in pitch betw een alternate fingerings on the De Lusse

chart are minimal compared to those found in Quantz. Frequently, the only
variation is the depression of the single key. De Lusse's F-sharp w ith the key
depressed (tone hole uncovered) in the first two octaves, for example, is
alm ost im perceptibly higher than the G-flat played w ithout the key (tone hole
closed). This is also true w ith the first octave fingerings for G-sharp to A-flat,
A-sharp to B-flat, B-natural to C-flat, and B-sharp to C-natural and the first
and second octave fingerings for C-sharp to D-flat.
The fourth chart of De Lusse's treatise, the'T ablature generale”
(Figure 2, p. 13), is separate from the others and imm ediately precedes "Air k
la grecque.” This chart offers fingerings for the twelve chrom atic tones
throughout the flute range (c’ to b-flat'") and the quarter tones betw een each.
The sam e exact fingerings for chromatic pitches can be found in the "Gamme
diezee" and "Gamme bemolizee” charts of the m ain treatise.
The quarter-tone fingerings on the chart fall into three categories. The
first type can be found on flute fingering charts contemporary to De Lusse's
treatise. These do not designate quarter tones, but rather present alternative
fingerings to adjust intonation, help produce certain dynamics, or facilitate
technique in awkward passages. The second type of quarter-tone fingering
uses the identical fingering of the preceding chromatic note w ith the flute
intoning sharped notes higher than their enharm onically equivalent flatted
spellings. C-sharp, for example, is considered a tendency tone to D -natural
and placed higher than D-flat, which serves as a tendency tone to C-natural.
See David D. Boyden, The history of violin playing from its origins to 1761
and its relationship to the violin and violin music (New York; Oxford
University Press, 1965), p. 186. According to Boyden, this distinction became
the norm in string perform ance around 1800.
93
rolled out slightly to raise the pitch one quarter tone. The sole representative
of this catagory is the fingering for c" three-quarter sharp. This quarter tone is
fingered the same as the c-sharp ' or d-flat", bu t the perform er is instructed to
raise the pitch by rolling the flute outw ards w ith the left thum b.151
The third group of fingerings consists of the seven quarter tones
requiring the half venting of holes. In the "Explication,” the use of half
venting is m ade dear:
The zeros and the round dots placed vertically under the notes
represent the holes of the instrum ent; the black dots indicate
dosed holes; the w hite zeros, open holes, and those which are
half w hite and half black indicate sem i-dosed holes.152
This practice was extremely rare on the eighteenth-century flute. In her
survey of twenty-one m ajor baroque and classical flute treatises, M argaret
N euhaus lists only six instances of half holing. One of these is for the
extremely high and rarely employed V". The other five, three of which are
from Jacques H otteterre's Principes de la flute traversiere (1707), are for
purposes of im proving the intonation of chrom atic intervals.153 None of
these m atch the vented fingerings given on the 'T ablature generale.” In his
letter published in the September 1764 issue of the Mercure de Prance, Pierre-
151"En toum ant l'em bouchure de la Flute en dehors, a l’aide du Pouce

de la m ain gauche." "Tablature generale" preceding "Air h la grecque.”
152"Les Zeros et les points ronds places verticalem ent sous les notes
representent les trous de llnstrum ent; les points noirs d& ignent les trous
bouches; les zeros blancs, les trous d6bouch£s, et ceux qui sont moiti£ blancs et
moitie noirs designent les trous h demi bouches." "Explication" preceding
"Air a la grecque."
153Margaret Neuhaus, The Baroque Flute Fingering Book (Naperville,

IL: Flute Studio Press, 1986).
94
Gabriel Buffardin specifically criticizes the half-holing used in the quarter-

tone fingering chart accom panying the "Air k la grecque" he mentions.
The fingering chart preceding "Air k la grecque" is described in the
"Explication" as offering:
all the possible pitches on the instrum ent in the three genres
of music, w hich one calls the Diatonic, Chrom atic, and
Enharm onic, th at is to say, in a succession of pitches which
proceeds by intervals of w hole tones, sem itones, and quarter
tones.154
A footnote to the chart describes how pitches from the diatonic, chromatic,
and enharm onic genres are on the one chart w ith different rhythm ic values
notated for easier reading. Diatonic notes (those w ithout accidentals) are set
in whole notes; chrom atic notes (those w ith flats or sharps), in half notes; and
quarter tones, in quarter notes. Both the flat and sharp spellings of each
chrom atic tone are included on the chart and slurred together. The only
diatonic notes am ong these slurred pairs are E-natural to F-flat and B-natural
to C -flat
A lthough dotted lines tie both notations to a single fingering in most
cases, eleven of the dotted lines end w ith tw o different fingering suggestions.
The "Explication" describes them as follows:
as for the double signs; they serve to differentiate
the positions of the fingers relative to the notes under
154"La Tablature offre tous les sons possibles a llnstrum ent, dans les
trois Genres de m usique, qu’on appelle D iatonique, Chrom atique, et
Enharm onique, c'est-a-dire, dans une succession de sons qui proc6de par
Intervalles de Tons, de Demi-tons et de Q uart-de-tons.” "Explication"
preceding "Air k la grecque."
95
which they are placed.155
That is to say, the perform er is given a different fingering choice for both
spellings in the slurred pair. For example, the fingerings in the first octave
for G-sharp and A-flat, A -sharp and B-flat, B-natural and C-flat, B-sharp and
C-natural, and C-sharp and D -flat differ by the addition of the single key. In
all cases, both fingering options m atch those given in the charts of the m ain
treatise and result in only slight variances in pitch. The presence of alternate
fingerings has two possible explanations. First, the author of the chart is
envisioning the use of quarter tones w ithin some system of non-equal
tem peram ent. Second, the tw o fingerings are to accommodate the
discrepancies among different transverse flutes. N ot only w as there no
standard in tem peram ent and pitch at this time, b u t also the instrum ents
them selves varied greatly in acoustical construct.
N either explanation discounts the interpretation of the quarter tones as
tw enty-four equal divisions of the octave. The ’Tablature generale" was not
intended as a fingering guide merely for "Air h la grecque," which utilizes
only fourteen of the thirty-tw o fingerings for quarter tones listed on the chart.
The "Explication" describes the "Air” as a "petit Essai" which m ust be
considered only "a sim ple sketch, ideal for serving as a m odel for other pieces
susceptible to further expansion."156 The fingering chart is designed to help
^ ••q u a n t a ceux de ces signes qui sont doubles; ils servent a

differencier les positions des doigts, relativem ent aux notes sous les queiles ils
sont places." Ibid.
156"On ne doit considerer cet Essai que comme une sim ple ebauche,
propre a servir de module pour d'autres morceaux susceptibles de plus
d'extension.” Ibid.
96
others who may w ish to compose or perform quarter tones. Its author is,
therefore, addressing a larger audience. The alternate fingerings could aid
potential perform ers of quarter tones w ho m ust conform to the tem peram ent
of an accompanying fixed keyboard instrum ent or provide additional options
to help produce m ore accurate equal intervals.
The interpretation of the quarter tones as equal intervals is also
supported by the notation of "Air k la grecque." The fact that all the
accidentals, save the single E-flat grace note in m easure 27 and the three
B-naturals, are standard sharps or quarter tones, eliminates possible fingering
conflicts betw een equivalent chrom atic tones w ith different spellings. For
example, notes such as F-sharp, C-sharp, and G-sharp are never found as
G-flat, D-flat, or A -flat The exception is the use of one A-sharp in m easure 22
despite the num erous B-flats indicated by the key signature. In the "Tablature
generale," the fingerings for a-sharp' and b flat' differ by the lack of the key for
the latter. The use of A-sharp instead of B-flat in this example makes
notational sense, h i m easure 22, the A-sharp is part of an extended sequence
of ascending quarter tones. W ith the ensuing A-three-quarter-sharp, B-flat
w ould be visually deceptive.
The N otation of the Bass Line

The bass displays a different system of notation than the flute line.
While no single or triple slashes appear in the bass part, both flats and regular
sharps are used, often in enharmonic sequences such as G-sharp to A-flat or
D-sharp to E-flat. The first appearance of such movement is the A-sharp on
97
the last eighth note of m easure 6 moving to the B-flat on the dow n beat of
m easure 7. The shift is concurrent w ith the quarter-tone interval of
c three-quarter-tone sharp to d ' ' ' in the melody line. In fact, every
instance of enharm onic respelling in the bass line coincides w ith notated
quarter tones in the flute part, perhaps indicating sim ilar quarter-tone
m ovem ent. Thus, an A -sharp w ould lie a quarter tone low er than a B-flat
and an E-sharp a quarter tone low er than a F-natural, e tc As w ith the quarter
tones in the flute part, the bass notation always suggests an upw ard
m ovem ent M ost of the examples connect the last eighth of a m easure to the
opening note of the following m easure. This is true in the first appearance of
quarter tones in m easures 6-7 and the reiteration in m easures 8-9,11-12,12-13,
13-14,17-18, and 19-20. In these instances, the quarter tones function as
slightly raised leading tones.
Rudolph Rasch has transcribed "Air h. la grecque" into m odem
notation w ith the quarter tones in the flute line m arked by the more
common } for quarter sharps and {$} for three-quarter sharps.157
Although his transcription of the bass line is realized for a keyboard
instrum ent, Rasch voices a "possible solution" to the bass notation w ith
quarter tones interpreted as just discussed. The A-sharp ending m easure 6
(mistakenly noted as m easure 5 in Rasch’s introduction), for example, could
be raised one quarter tone. A perform er could similarly raise the G-sharp and
A-sharp in m easure 8, the D-sharp in m easure 11, the E-sharp in m easures 13
and 17, and the D-sharp and E-sharp in m easure 19.
ISTpe Lusse, Air a la grecque, edited and introduced by Rudolf Rasch,

Corpus M icrotonale Series, vol. 22 (Utrecht: Diapson Press, 1984).
98
Realized in this m anner, every instance of enharm onic respelling in

the bass results in parallel m ajor thirds (not octave specific) w ith the flute
line. Although it could be argued th at dissonances on the final eighth notes
of the quarter-tone m easures resolve effectively into the end of the sequence
such as the d'" in m easures 7 and 9 o r the g in m easure 12, dissonance in the
m iddle of the m easure seems out of place. If the G-sharp on the second
eighth note of m easure 8, for example, w as intoned identically to the ensuing
A-flat, it w ould create a dissonance w ith the b" quarter-tone sharp in the
m elody line. This dissonant interval w ould suddenly dissolve into the major
th ird on the third eighth note, thus disrupting the upw ard gesture to the d’''
beginning m easure 9. The quarter tones as audible melodic devices are
clearer when supported by parallel and consonant bass m otion.
By contrast, the dissonance supporting the e" quarter-tone-sharps in
m easures 25 and 26 occur on the final quarter note of the m easure. The
tension of their dissonance w ith the C-sharp in the bass resolves on the final
eighth note of each m easure to a sounding m inor third. The dissonances in
these instances set the e" quarter-tone sharps apart from the other quarter
tones in the flute p a rt These are the only tw o quarter tones sounding on
quarter-note beats.
Such an interpretation of the bass notation could be extended to
in d u d e other acddentals. Considering the A-natural a quarter tone higher
than the preceding A-flai in m easure 8 or the E-natural in m easure 19 one
quarter tone higher th an the E-flat, for exam ple, w ould result in a three
consecutive m ajor thirds. This w ould avoid another dissonance w ith the
flute line in the m iddle of the gesture. If the perform er exploring quarter
99
tones in the bass p art opts for interpreting the naturals in m easures 8 and 19
as quarter tones, however, he w ould have to accept inconsistencies in
perform ance unless all naturals w ere realized sim ilarly. The notated naturals
in m easure 21, for example, are p art of a descending chrom atic line, and
quarter tones throw n into this sequence w ould alter the flow of half steps.
Perhaps, only the naturals immediately preceded by flatted notes of the same
letter nam e im ply quarter tones.
Instrum entation of the Bass

The "Explication" discusses neither the notation of the bass part nor its
possible instrum entation. Rudolph Rasch, in his transcription of "Air k la
grecque" into m odem notation, has supplied the unfigured bass w ith a
harm ony. Despite his contention that quarter tones m ight be perform ed in
the bass, Rasch believes the piece can be accompanied by an "ordinary
keyboard.” His support of a keyboard instrum ent as a possible choice is found
in the chrom atic bass notation w hich he says:
rem inds one of the keyboards w ith double raised keys,

m aking possible different pitches for the enharm onically
equivalent sharps and flats. These could be tuned according
to m eantone tuning or another variety of the regular tunings.
However, since in these systems the whole tone is never
divided in tw o equal parts, like it is done in both 12-tone equal
tem peram ent and 24-tone quarter-tone tuning, the tonal system
of De Lusse's bass line is in fact incom patible w ith the system
show n in the flute p art.158
In Rasch's accompaniment, the inner voices em phasize the m ajor key
visitations. He does not incorporate quarter tones into his harm onies.
158ibid.
100
The question rem ains as to w hat instrum ent is intended to perform

the bass line. As Rasch believes, a keyboard instrum ent rem ains a possibility.
Edw ard Reilly and John Solum in their article on "Air a la grecque,"
however, disagree w ith this instrum entation and voice disapproval of
Rasch's efforts. The bass line was not w ritten for keyboard, contend Reilly
and Solum, because it is unfigured: "since there are no figures in the bass, it
m ay be assum ed that no harpsichord was intended; indeed, it w ould be
im practical inasm uch as one cannot realize a bass w ith quarter tones in the
harm ony."159 To Rasch’s support, the lack of figures does not necessarily
discount a keyboard instrum ent Although it is doubtful that such
accom panim ent w ould involve a full realization of the harm ony as Rasch
suggests, it is conceivable that the bass p art be played as a single line or very
thinly voiced on a keyboard instrum ent.
The two different notational systems employed by the flute and bass
lines may not be as "incompatible" as Rasch suggests. Reilly and Solum note
the differences, b ut assert that "if the scale of the De Lusse general tablature
for flute is applied to the bass part, the bass player need not make any attem pt
to differentiate betw een the two notations” such as A-sharp and B-flat.160
This explanation, however, does not account for why the respellings occur in
the first place. The repeated bass notes in measures 12 and 14, for example, do
not receive such treatm ent. The chrom atic bass passages always support
quarter-tone m ovem ent in the flute p a rt Instead of being "incompatible"
159Rej]iy and Solum, "De Lusse, Buffardin, and an eighteenth-century

quarter tone piece,” Historical Performance 19 (Spring, 1992): 21.
160Ibid„ p. 21.
101
w ith the flute notation or completely disregarded, it is likely the bass p art is
intended for an instrum ent type not possessing the pitch restrictions of
keyboards.
The instrum ent for the bass p art m ost probably comes from the string
family. The use of a string instrum ent w ould account for the notation as well
as open the possibility of quarter-tone involvem ent by the bass. Quantz, for
example, suggests th at string players should differentiate the pitch of notes
w ith enharm onically equivalent spellings. W hen notes such as A-flat and
G-sharp are tied together, Quantz instructs the perform er to alter the pitch by
draw ing back or advancing the finger on the string.161
Possible choices of string instrum ents for the bass part include the lute,
theorbo, and the viola da gamba. All w ere still used for accompaniment
during this tim e period, b u t the problem w ith these fretted instrum ents is
that they do not easily produce quarter tones. A more probable alternative
w ould have been the basse de violin or Baroque 'cello.162 As Blainville
described in his Memoire "De renharm onique,” quarter tones can easily be
realized w ith skillful finger placem ent on the violin or 'cello. By the m iddle
of the eighteenth century, the ’cello overtook the viola d a gam ba in
popularity in France. The 'cello, while having a sm aller range and being less
l^ljo h an n Joachim Q uantz, On Playing the Piute, translated by Edward

R. Reilly (New York: Schirmer Books, 1985), pp. 269-270.
l^ R e illy and Solum, discounting the possibility of quarter tones in the

bass line, suggest the bassoon or 'cello: T h e bass line should be played by a
m odem 'cello or bassoon if the Boehm flute is used, or by Baroque 'cello or
Baroque bassoon w ith the flauto traverso." Reilly and Solum, "De Lusse,
Buffardin, and an eighteenth-century quarter tone piece,” Historical
Performance 19 (Spring, 1992): 21.
102
suited to chordal accompanim ent than the viola d a gamba, could be played at
a higher dynam ic level.163 The ’cello could easily accommodate the range of
"Air k la grecque," and its unfretted neck w ould not interfere w ith the subtle
finger shifts dem anded by the quarter tones.
C onclusion
"Air k la grecque" is the earliest W estern piece know n to have used
quarter tones as an im portant m elodic characteristic. The quarter tones are
not m erely the slight variances betw een m ajor and m inor sem itones in non
equal tem peram ents. The notation and m usical context of the quarter tones
strongly suggest a tw enty-four note scale dividing the octave into equal
intervals. Since the "Explication" ties the quarter tones to the enharm onic
genre, "Air k la grecque” is evidence th at the enharm onic genre w as not
solely applied to harm onic progressions. The quarter tones in the flute line
are dearly distingushed by their single- and triple-slashed sharps, and the
’T abulature generale" confirms that each quarter tone is produced by a
specific and often unusual fingering. A lthough not m entioned in the
"Explication," the enharm onic respellings of consecutive notes in the bass
p art may also indicate quarter tones.
Further support for the melodic identity of the quarter tones in "Air k
la grecque is found in a footnote to the "Explication":
If in execution, the intervals w hich form the Enharm onic

succession are not always realized in the exact precision
l^Sjujje Anne Sadie, The Bass Viol in French Baroque Chamber Music,
Studies in Musicology, no. 26 (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1980), pp. xii,
20- 21.
103
dictated by the num erical calculations of Theory, one can at

least make them come dose to the benefits of this precision,
by contributing as m uch dexterity of the fingers and security of
the em bouchure as possible: all to the aid of an infallible guide,
which is the Ear. Superbissimum auris judicium.164
The composer em phasizes that realization of the quarter tones m ust be
carefully considered and m ay dem and m ore than the approxim ation offered
by the fingerings. Superbissimum auris judicium or "the judgem ent of the
ear is superior" is the final advice.165 The perform er m ust possess both skill
and a good ear. The quarter tones in "Air k la grecque" are intended as
m elodic, audible intervals.166
164"Si dans l'ex£cution les Intervalles qui form ent la succession

Enharm onique, ne se rencontrent pas toujours dans l’exacte precision,
qu'exprim ent les rapports num £riques en Th6orie, on peut d u m oins les
rapprocher d'avantage de cette exatitude, en y faisant contribuer autant
l’addresse des doigts que la sfiret£ de l'em bouchure: le tout a 1'aide d 'u n guide
infallible, qui est l’Oreille. Superbissim um auris judicium."
165"Superbissimum auris judicium" is attributed to the Latin orator

Cicero who lived in the the first century B.C. The phrase was Rameau’s
m otto (see Christensen, Rameau and Musical Thought in the Enlightenment,
p. 232) and appears in num erous publications during this period. Jacques
Lacombe, for example, recalled the same quotation in a work published at
about the same time as the De Lusse treatise. See Jacques Lacombe, Le
Spectacle des beaux arts ou considerations touchant leur nature, leurs objets,
leurs effects et leurs regies principales (Paris: Vincent, 1761; reprint ed.,
Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1970), p. 286. Lacombe quotes Cicero w ith slightly
different syntax: "Aures quarum judicium est superbissim um."
166In December 1993,1 perform ed "Air k la grecque" on traverso

accompanied by Jennifer M asada on viola da gamba. Jennifer did a
rem arkable job realizing audible inflections in the m easures in question.
A lthough I strove to render precise quarter tones, w e took a m ore intuitive
approach to the resulting harm onic intervals. Instead of tuning the sounding
harm ony for each of m y ascending quarter tones into consistent parallel
intervals, we focused m ore on the overall gesture.
104
CHAPTER V
UNCERTAINTIES CONCERNING THE COMPOSER AND PUBLICATION

OF AIR A LA GRECQUE
(Charles) De Lusse
The inclusion of ’’Air k la grecque" in the back of L'Art de la flute
traversiere is De Lusse's only established connection w ith the piece. Little is
know n about his life except that he was a composer, w riter about music, and a
flutist, perhaps at the Opera-Comique.167 In eighteenth-century sources, De
Lusse is referred to as M. De Lusse or M. D. L. His "christening” as Charles De
Lusse is only found in F6tis’s brief entry. H is dates of birth and death are
unknow n.168 His compositions include a comic-opera entitled L ’amant
statue (1754), six solo flute sonatas, six trio sonatas for flute and violin (or for
tw o flutes), and num erous songs, h i addition to L'Art de la flute traversiere,
De Lusse published a system for solmization169 and supplied explications of
the music plates in the Encyclopedic ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences,
l^ T h is inform ation, supplied by F4tis, is not substantiated by

contem porary sources. See Franôis-Joseph F6tis, Biographie universelle des
musiciense et bibliographie generale de la musique (2nd ed. Paris: 1868).
168jane M. Bowers surmises 1720-25 to after 1774. The New Grove

Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Lusse, De,” by Jane M. Bowers.
169oe Lusse, "Lettre sur une nouvelle denom ination des notes de la
gamme," Mercure de France (December, 1765): 173-180. Also published
separately in 1766.
105
des arts, et des metiers, edited by D iderot et d'A lem bert170 The January 1765
issue of the Mercure de France also describes De Lusse as authoring his own
Dictionnaire de musique. The brief "Avis" states that the dictionary is "more
expansive, m ore complete, more profound than that of the Abb£
Brossard."171 The book is described as being in m anuscript form , b u t ready to
be set for printing. No m anuscript or extant edition has been found.
One argum ent tying De Lusse to "Air &la grecque" is that the piece’s
experim ental nature conforms w ith De Lusse's reputation as an innovator in
the flute world. De Lusse's treatise, advocating such uncomm on techniques
as breath vibrato and harmonics, greatly contrasts w ith other contem porary
pedagogical works for the flute.172 His trios are among the first to have
unfigured bass.173 H is "Lettre sur une nouvelle denom ination des notes de la
gamme" dem onstrates his interest in new notation. De Lusse proposes not
only a system of solm ization using pure vowels, b ut also a kind of vocal
170De Lusse, "Recueil de planches su r les sciences, les arts liberaux, et

les arts m£chaniques, avec leur explication," Encyclopedic ou dictionnaire
raisonne des sciences, des arts, et des metiers edited by D iderot et d ’Alembert
(Paris: Brassen et Le Breton, 1769).
171’H est beaucoup plus 6tendu, plus complet, plus approfondi que
celui de l'Abb6 Brossard." Mercure de France (January 1,1765): 155-156. The
full title reads: Dictionnaire de musique, contenant Vexplication de tous
termes de l'art, tant grecs & Iatins, qu'italiens & franqois, employes dans la
theorie & dans la pratique. SeMstien de Brossard (1655-1730) published his
Dictionnaire de musique, contenant une explication des termes grecs, latins;
italiens et franqois in 1703.
l^ G re ta M oens-Haenen, "Introduction," "L'Art de la flute traversiere"

by De Lusse (Geneva: Frits Knuf, 1980), p. v.
U Sjhe New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Lusse,

De,” by Jane M. Bowers.
106
notation "that w ould not be m ore unpractical than th at used for instrum ents
of tablature such as the lute, theorbo, guitar."174 According to De Lusse, his
m ethod w ould be the clearest available for teaching m usic to children.
De Lusse was also fa m ilia r w ith the Greek genres. In his w ritings on
m usic, especially his explications of the m usic plates in the Encyclopedic, for
example, De Lusse displays a profound interest and knowledge about ancient
Greek music. The full title of his thus-far lost m usic dictionary, Dictionnaire
de musique, contenant Vexplication de tous termes de l'art, tant grecs &
latins, qu'italiens & franqois, employes dans la tkeorie & dans la pratique,
indicates his definitions are from both classical and m odem cultures. An
entry under "D6couvertes" in the 1781 Almanack musical invites further
speculation:
M. Deluce, M anufacturer of M usical Instrum ents, has m ade

a new, very harm onious Flute, invented, he says, in Germany,
w ith which one person can play airs in parts. This Flute is
comprised of tw o recorders, joined together in the same body.
One of them is at a third from the other. One can play them
together, or, if one wishes, play only one. This instrum ent
has the same scale and the same range as the recorder.175
174”Ce moyen ne seroit pas plus im praticable que celui dont on use
pour les instrum ens k tablature, comme luth, thôrbe, guittare, &c." De
Lusse, "Lettre sur une nouvelle denom ination des notes de la gamme,"
Mercure de France (December, 1765): 179-180.
175”M. Deluce, Facteur dThstrum ents de M usique, a fait une nouvelle

Flftte tr£s-harm onieuse, invent£e, dit-il, en Allemagne, avec laquelle une
seule personne peut jouer airs en partie. Cette Flftte est com posie de deux
Fifties £ bee, r6unies dans une meme corps. L’une d’elles est k la tierce de
l'autre. On peut les jouer ensemble, ou, si Ton veut, n'en jouer qu ’une. Cet
instrum ent a la meme gamme & la meme £tendue que la Flftte k bee.”
Almanack musical 6 (1781): 60-61; reprint ed., Geneva: Minkoff Reprints,
vols 5-6, pp. 1212-1213.
107
A footnote compares this instrum ent to a flute used in the spectacles of

ancient Rome. The flute's description evokes images of the Greek aulos, a
reed-blow n instrum ent usually played in pairs by one perform er. The De
Lusse (Delusse o r Deluce) family w as renow n for w oodw ind m anufacturing
in eighteenth-century Paris. Despite claims by Gerber and F£tis that De Lusse
the com poser was the same "Deluce" w ho invented this flute, no definitive
connection can be draw n.176
Beyond such conjecture about De Lusse's interest in experim entation
and classical culture, he cannot be conclusively nam ed as the composer of
"Air k. la grecque.” In fact, De Lusse’s "Recueil de planches sur les sciences,
les arts libdraux, et les arts m€chaniques, avec leur explication" for the m usic
plates in the En.cycloyed.ie offers significant evidence against his composing a
quarter-tone work. Throughout his explication, De Lusse cannot be described
as hum ble w ith num erous self-prom otional references to his flute treatise,
b u t he fails to m ention "Air k la grecque" in his discussions of Greek music
and the m odem interpretations of the enharm onic genre. He only describes
the enharmonique and quart de ton in term s of the dim inished seventh
chord and underscores their extrem e difficulty in execution:
As for enharm onic notes w hich divide chrom atics by

a quarter tone, they have not been adm itted; the too great
difficulty of reconciling them w ith ordinary harm ony, in
practice, has probably been the reason they were rejected.177
U^The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. ’D elusse,”

by Jane M. Bowers.
177”Q uant aux cordes enharmoniques qui divisoient les chromatiques

en quart de ton, elles n'ont point 6t6 adm inises; la trop grande difficult^ d ’en
faire un usuage ordinaire qui puisse s’accorder avec lharm onie, dans la
pratique, a probablem ent 6te la cause pour laquelle on les a rejettees." De
108
De Lusse does not refer to the quarter tone as an audible interval w ith
possible m elodic applications. Like Rameau, De Lusse apparently believed
the enharm onic genre could only be realized in the context of harm ony:
W ith this apparent [harmonic identity in practice of, and the

divergence know n of [the enharm onic genre in theory, it follows
th at one has found a m anner of em ploying this genre in m usic
by m eans of one, principal chord of which various combinations
achieve different enharm onic progressions.178
Two Editions of De Lusse's Treatise

In the introduction to his translation of L'Art de la flute traversiere,
Robert Lynn reveals that two published facsimiles of the treatise, one by Early
Music Facsimile and one by Minkoff R eprint (1973), represent tw o different
editions.179 Lynn observes th a t
The plates of fingering charts and m usical scores are virtually

identical, in the two facsimiles, b u t the text of the first twelve
pages of the treatise is completely reset and the decorative engravings
in these pages are different The substance of the text is the same,
Lusse, "Recueil de planches sur les sciences, les arts liberaux, et les arts
m echaniques, avec leur explication,” Encyclopedic ou dictionnaire raisonne
des sciences, des arts, et des metiers, edited by Diderot et d'Alem bert (Brassen
et Le Breton, 1769.), p. 9, note 12.
178,rDe cette similitude apparente dans la pratique, & de la distinction

qu'on en a su faire dans la throne, il s'ensuit qu'on a trouv£ une maniere
d'employer ce genre dans la musique, au moyen d'un seul accord principal, &
dont les diverses combinations procurent differentes transitions
enharmoniques." Ibid., p. 17.
179phe term "edition” is used in the sense defined by Philip Gaskell:

"there is a new edition w hen m ore than half the type has been reset" Philip
Gaskell, A New Introduction to Bibliography (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1972), p. 313.
109
b u t there are num erous changes in s p e llin g and punctuation.180

For example, w ords such as "talens," "poulmons," "renvoye, and "scavoir” in
the Minkoff R eprint edition become "talents," "poumons," renvoie," and
"savoir" in the Early M usic Facsimile copy.181 (Figure 10, p. 110 compares like
passages of the tw o editions.) The decorative illustrations inserted
throughout the text also differ betw een the tw o editions.182 (See Figure 11,
p. I l l for a comparison.)
Both editions of the treatise are comprised of twelve pages of set text
followed by thirty-eight pages of examples and exercises printed using plates.
That is to say, the images of these latter pages were printed from engravings
ISORobert Lynn, The Courant 1:1 (January, 1983): 3.
l&T-Ibid., p. 3.
IS^The Early Music Facsimile is of the copy at the University of

Michigan, Ann Arbor. The location of the copy used for the Minkoff Reprint
facsimile cannot be verified. A t the time the Minkoff Reprint facsimile was
published, it was not the practice to note inform ation concerning the original
document. After several exchanges w ith Minkoff Reprint editions, I received
w ord from Mrs. Minkoff that the 1973 facsmile "has certainly been filmed
from one copy of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris." I have personally
examined, however, w hat I believe to be the only copy of the treatise at the
Bibliotheque Nationale. This copy is the same edition as the ones at the
University of M ichigan and the lib rary of Congress (available on microfilm).
The copy at Brussels m atches the edition of the Minkoff facsimile, and I had
assumed this was the copy used. (As I have not examined the extant copy in
Brussels personally, I am m uch indebted to Johan Eeckeloo, the Conservatory
librarian, for relating that the spellings are the same in both set text and plates
in this copy of the treatise). For further information, see the discussion on
the "Extant Copies of De Lusse's Treatise" later in this chapter.
F ig u r e 10. A c o m p a r i s o n o f t h e s e t t y p e i n t h e t w o e d i t i o n s
o f L 'A r t d e la f l u t e tra versiere .
a . M in k o f f R e p r i n t e d i t i o n
D e 2. a P o s i t i o n d e s d o i g t s s u r l a F l u t e .
O U R tcnir la Flute avcc grace, 11 faut que la partie, ou le corps du

m ilieu, porte fur la premiere phalange de 1'indcx de la main gauche,
8c que le poignet foit un peu renverfc ainfi que 1’indcx, qui bouchant
un p eu a plat le premier tro u , laifle la liberte au fecond 8c au troifieme
doigt d’en faire autant fur les deux autres; le pouce fervant de fupport, doit etre
place au-deffous, cntre les deux premiers tro u s, de fajon qu’il ait la liberte d’agir
pour fervir dans les cas neceffaircs dont il fera parlc.
Le corps, ou la partie d’en b as, doit fitre tenue par la main droite, enforte que
lc pouce foit delfous, & entre les deux premiers tro u s, & que le prem ier, le fecond
8c le troifieme doigt bouchent k plat les trois tro u s , pour laiflcr la liberte au petit
doigt d’agir fur la cle *.
D e FEm bouchure.
L’embouchure de la Flute doit etre placce droite au milieu de la levre inferieure ,

de forte qu’en foufflant douccment, la Fliite puifie rendre un fon; 8c pour cet effet
il faut obferver que les lcvres foient tenducs & rcffcrrees fur les dents, & que la
levre fupericure puifie couvrir a une ligne de diftance ou a peu pres , 1ext ericur
Voyez la premiere Handle.
b . E a r ly M u s ic F a c s im ile e d i t i o n
D e la P osition des doicts suit la F lute.
P our renir la Flute avec grace , il faut que la partie ou le corps du milieu porte
fur la premiere phalange de l’index de la main gauche, 2c que le poignet foit un
peu renverfc, ainfi que 1’index qui, boucfaanrun peu a plat le premier trou, laifie
la liberte au fecond 2c au troifieme doigt d’en fairc autant fur les deux autres ; le
pouce, fervant de fupport, doit here place au-defious, entre les deux premiers
trous , de fa;on qu’il ait la liberte d’agir pour fervir dans les cas neceflaires dont
il fera parld.
Le corps ou la partie d’en bas doit etre tenu par la main droite , en forte qu<-
le pouce foit defious & entre les deux premiers trous , 2c que le premier, le ie>
cond 2c le troifieme doigt bouchent a plat les trois trous, pour laifler la liberte au
petit doigt d’agir fur la clef*.
D e F Embouchure.
L’embouchure de la Flute doit etre placce droite au milieu de la levre inferieure .
de forte qu’en foufflant doucement, la Flute puifie rendre an fon ; 2c, pour cet
effet, il faut obferver que les lcvres foient tenducs 2c refieiroet fur lef dents, 2c
que la levre fupcrieure puifie couvrir, i une ligne de diftance ou a peu pcis, l’exte-
* f'eyei la premiere Planchc.
Aij
I ll
Figure 11. A com parison of the decorative illustrations in the tw o editions

of L'Art de la flute traversiere.
a. M inkoff R eprint edition
L’ A R T
D E LA
FLUTE T R A V E R S IE R E .
b. Early Music Facsimile edition
L’ A R T
D E L A
FLTJTE TR A V ER SIER E .
112
as opposed to movable type.183 It is likely that the plates were engraved

oncopper. W hile expensive to produce, copper plates w ere frequently reused
for subsequent editions.184
In pages 3 through 12 of set type (the first two consist of the dedication
and "Avis")185 of De Lusse's treatise, the first twelve pages of plates are
discussed. The section discussing "la Gamme naturelle," for example, refers
the reader to Plate A, offering a fingering chart for the natural o r "white-key”
scale. Since the plates are retained for both editions,186 the spellings of the
text of the first twelve pages in the reset edition often conflict w ith those of
the accompanying plates. As Lynn notes, the w ord "dieze" in the Minkoff
Reprint publication is reset as "diese" in the text of the Early M usic Facsimile
copy, but the "dieze" spelling is retained in the plates. A dditionally, in the
Early Music Facsimile copy, the "Agremens expressifs” of Plate H are referred
183xhe ornate frontspiece of L'Art de la flute traversiere, the same for

both editions, is captioned with "Grav6 par Madame De Lusse.” Greta Moens-
Haenen asserts that all engravings were by De Lusse's wife, "who was a well-
known engraver.” See Greta Moens-Haenen, Introduction to Delusse, L ’A rt
de la flute traversiere, p. II.
184Gaskell, pp . 154-159.
185]30th the dedication and "Avis" are also reset and display different
spelling such as "talents" vs. "talents” and "renvoye” vs. "renvoie."
186rhe plates of the two editions have only extremely minor

variances. Examples include a scripted "M ' on the lower left comer of the
'Tablature des sons harmoniques" (Z or page 11 of plates) which appears in
the Minkoff Reprint facsimile but not in the other three extant copies. The
other differences consist of accent marks or apostrophies which either appear
only in the Minkoff facsimile or the copies of the other edition. These
changes do not interfere with the engraved staves or text and could easily
have been made to the plates.
113
to as "Agr&nents" in their explanation on page 7 in the m ain text. The

"Gamme diez6e" and "Gamme bemoliz£e" of Plates B and C, respectively, are
"Gamme di£s6e" and "Gamme bemolisee" in their discussions on page 5.
The 28 "Lemons," 20 "Preludes," 12 "Caprice,” comprising the majority of De
Lusse’s treatise, also use the same plates for both editions.
Lynn postulates that the Minkoff Reprint edition m ay be the earlier
version,187 w ith spellings supported by the third edition of the Dictionnaire
de VAcademie frangoise of 1740, while the spellings in the Early Music
Facsimile version are m odified to conform w ith the fourth edition of 1762. It
w ould be tem pting to connect the 1763 notices of the treatise w ith the later
edition of the Dictionnaire, b ut the orthographic history proves m uddier.
Indeed, the Early Music Facsimile copy does contain more m odem spellings.
The problem is that many of the m ore archaic forms found in the Minkoff
Reprint publication were already m odified in the 1740 edition of the
Dictionnaire. For example, the "y” in w ords such as the previously-spelled
"renvoye” and "gayet£," both found in the De Lusse treatise, is already
replaced by "i" in the third edition.188 It is doubtful that changes in the
official French dictionary were imm ediately embraced by all authors and
printers.
187<2reta M oens-Haenen has the opposite conclusion in her

"Introduction" to Delusse, L'Art de la flute traversiere, p.IL.
188see Ferdinand Brunot, ed., Histoire de la langue frangaise des

origines a 1900,9 vols. (Paris: Librarie Armand Colin, 1932), vol. 6, part 2: Le
XVIIIe siecle: La langue postclassique, by Alexis Frangcois, p. 965. For further
inform ation on the evolution of the Dictionnaire de VAcademie frangoise in
the eighteenth century, see Charles Beaulieux, Histoire de I ’orthographie
frangaise vol. 2: Les accents et autres signes auxiliares (Paris: Librarie A nden
H onore Champion, 1927), pp. 80-102.
114
Extant Copies of P e Lusse’s Treatise

Four extant copies of De Lusse’s treatise can be confirmed: Bibliothfcque
N ationale de France, Paris; Bibliothfeque du Conservatoire, Brussels; the
University of M ichigan, A nn Arbor; the Library of Congress, W ashington,
D .C 189 G reta M oens-Haenen, in her introduction to the Frits Knuf facsimile
edition of the treatise, alludes to an additional incomplete copy in Brussels,
b ut no other source m entions this copy.190
I have personally examined the copies at the Bibliotheque Nationale
and the University of Michigan. Both are the reset edition. The copy in Paris
is in good shape. At the back of this copy, someone has pasted a handw ritten
fingering chart for the one-keyed flute. This chart contains no quarter tones
and is divided into scales of naturals, sharps, and flats. Fingerings vary
slightly from those found in De Lusse’s plates, possibly to accomodate the
idiosyncrasies of the owner’s flute.
The extant copy at the University of Michigan, w ith w ater damage and
grease stains m aking it in m uch worse condition than the one in Paris, also
l^ S e e RJSM: Ecrits imprimes concemant la musique; and Thomas E.

W arner, Annotated Bibliography of Woodwind Instruction Books, 1660-1830.
Music Bibliography Series, no. 11 (Detroit: Information Coordinators, 1967).
190it is possible that M oens-Haenen is alluding to a second version

published by Minkoff Reprint which includes only the plates. As recounted
in note 182 of this chapter, Minkoff Editions did not keep a record of w hat
extant copies w ere employed at the time the De Lusse facsimile was
published. The facsimile of only the plates may be based on the same one
used for the other publication or, as M oens-Haenen contends, evidence the
existence of a fifth, incomplete copy of the treatise that has apparently escaped
form al cataloging. In my exchanges w ith the librarian of the Bibliotheque du
Conservatoire, a second copy of the treatise was not alluded to or discussed.
115
has a handw ritten addition: T ableau com plet des Flutes traversiferes
nouvellem ent inventees p ar Tacet et Florio; avec I'abr6g6 de leu r Gamine et
description; et l'explication de toutes les cl6s additionnelles e tc " A lthough
the handscript prose alludes to a fingering chart and discusses fingering
notation such as black dots for closed holes and hollow rircles for open holes
(no half-holing), no fingering chart is attached. Many fingerings, however,
can be determ ined from the prose form at, and it is d e a r the intended
instrum ent is a six-keyed flute. Again, no quarter tones are m entioned. An
unusual feature of the M ichigan copy is th at the T ableau generale"
im m ediately preceding "Air k la grecque" is upside dow n. The "Explication"
on the reverse side is correctly positioned.191
I have not personally examined the copies at the Library of Congress or
at the Bibliothfeque d u Conservatoire in Brussels. The copy at the Library of
Congress, however, is available on microfilm. It is the reset edition and is
191lhe M ichigan copy is available from Early Music Facsimiles and

Frits Knuf publication w ith the latter having an introduction by G reta Moens-
Haenen. Readers should be forew arned that the facsimile by Fritz Knuf
publication was m ost probably produced w ith the aid of a m ic ro film or
photocopy rather than the actual text. The original copy has several oily
stains w hich do not obscure the text on personal examination, b u t appear on
m ic ro film as dark blotches w ith the text unreadable. The facsimile edition
contains slight irregularities. For example, the version of the handw ritten
T ab leau complet" published in the Frits Knuf edition contains seem ingly
poor grammar: ’les autre cadences." In the extant copy at Michigan, this reads
’le s autres cadences.” The end of "autre" is covered by a stain. Of signifance
also is that the placem ent of ’’A ir k la grecque” and its fingering chart are
reversed in the Frits Knuf publication. In the original at the U niversity of
M ichigan, the order of the "Explication," "Tablature Generale," and "Air k la
grecque" are the same as in th e other copies, b u t the fingering chart is upside
down. The order has not been altered in the Early M usic Facsimile version of
the same extant copy, bu t the fingering chart is not upside down.
116
m issing a title page. The copy in Brussels is the other and presum ably older
edition.
Inclusion of Air a la grecque in De Lusse’s Treatise

The existence of tw o different editions of the treatise, w ith one possibly
post-dating the other by several years, does not clarify w hether L'Arf de la
flute tranversiere and ”A ir a la grecque" were first published together or
separately. Both editions conclude w ith "Air k la grecque," and exam ination
of extant copies at the Biblioth&que Nationale in Paris and the University of
M ichigan at A nn A rbor offers no obvious indication of rebinding.192
The concluding "Air k la grecque" and its accompanying tw o pages
w ere also printed from engraved plates.193 As w ith the plates earlier in the
treatise, the "Explication" uses the spelling "dieze" instead of "diese."
Although this does not indicate by itself that "Air k la grecque" m ay be
contem porary to the other plates, it raises questions to the argum ent th at the
"Air” was added at a later date. On the other hand, if both sets of plates were
in fact produced at the sam e time, "Air k la grecque" was not necessarily
initially attached to the treatise. Plates had to be printed separately from the
te x t Few printing houses were able to handle both set type and plates, and
192Rebinding, however, is not always apparent See Philip Gaskell, A

New Introduction to Bibliography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972),
p. 319.
193As discussed in note 191, the "Tablature generale" appears upside

dow n in the extant copy a t Michigan. According to Gaskell, such
idiosyncrasies constitute a different edition "state" and not a different edition
or issue. See Gaskell, p. 316.
117
the printing of plates was often fanned out to specialists and combined with
the set text pages when bound.194
Com parison of the plates of "Air k la grecque" and those of the main
treatise reveal several dissim ilar features but do not constitute any definitive
conclusions. For example, the treble defs used for "Air k la grecque" and its
accompanying fingering chart are proportionally larger in relation to its
music staves then those of the preceding examples and exercises. Also, the
fingerings in the three charts of the m ain treatise are given on
representations of flute cylinders at an angle while the fingerings in the
’T ablature generale" preceding "Air k la grecque" appear vertically and are
not encased. As discussed previously, however, all the fingerings for the
diatonic and chrom atic notes in the ’T ablature generale" correspond to the
three charts found earlier (Plates A, B, and C), and the 'T ablature generale"
preceding "Air k la grecque” m ust fit m ore fingerings onto a single page then
the preceding charts, and the different graphics for indicating fingerings take
up less space (compare, for example, the "Gamme diez6e" found in Figure 8,
p. 89 w ith the ’T ablature generale" reproduced in Figure 2, p. 13).
Curiously, in his letter published in the Mercure de France, Pierre-
Gabriel Buffardin refers to the author of the "Air k la grecque" and "faulty”
chart as "anonymous" and does not associate him w ith a flute treatise.
Reilly and Solum suggest that "Air k la grecque" was probably not p art of the
original edition of the treatise. They speculate that "Air k la grecque" may
have first been published separately and anonymously and not attached to De
Lusse’s treatise until after 1764. Although the title page of De Lusse's L'Art de
WÎbid., p. 157.
118
la flute traversiere is not dated, it is believed to have been first published in

1760 w ith its first known reference in the January 1761 issue of the Mercure de
France. Buffardin's letter appeared in September 1764. Reilly and Solum
contend th at "nothing in Buffardin’s letter suggests that he w ould have
w aited four years to note the appearance of a rival's work, or that he would
have refused to identify the author had he know n who it was."195
The fact that the "Explication," 'T ablature Generale," and "Air a la
grecque” have no page num bers (the last page num ber given is "38" for the
tw elfth "Caprice") supports the theory that "Air k la grecque" was not initially
part of De Lusse’s treatise. In addition, the notes, chart, and piece are not
listed in the table of contents. De Lusse even asserts in his "Avis" to the
treatise that the work concludes w ith "12 Caprices or Final Cadences." This
statem ent is repeated in a review of the treatise in the January 1761 issue of
the Mercure de France. 196 The review er discusses the treatise in detail,
applauding the clarity of both De Lusse's text and plates. In addition to the
treatise’s Sonates and Caprices, the review er notes that "the same author has
just m ade a new edition of his Duo for the transverse flute." The review er
m akes no m ention of the quarter-tone venture.197 The first tw o sentences of
this review are paraphrased in a later notice of the treatise appearing in May
195Reilly and Solum, Historical Performance (Spring, 1992): 21.
1 9 6 M e r c u r e de France 2 (January, 1761): 176-177. "Cet ouvrage est

term ini p ar douze Caprices ou Cadences finales."
197"Le meme A uteur vient de faire une nouvelle Edition de ses Duo
pour la Flute traversiere." Ibid., p. 177.
119
1763 in Annonces & Avis Divers.198 A brief listing of the treatise was
published one m onth earlier in the A pril 1 1763 issue of the Mercure de
France.199 Again, neither of these references from 1763 m ention "Air k la
grecque."
Conclusion
The m ysteries surrounding "Air k la grecque" easily begin to read as a
m icrotonal "W ho-done-it.” Is De Lusse the composer? If not, w ho is, and
why and when was the piece attached to De Lusse’s treatise? Did Buffardin
follow through w ith engraving his ow n chart and publishing his own
quarter-tone composition? The explanatory notes w hich precede "Air k la
grecque” describe it as "a simple sketch, ideal for serving as a m odel for other
pieces susceptible to further expansion."200 W ere other composers pursuing
sim ilar ventures?
^9%Annonces & Avis Divers (16 Mai, 1763): 343. The listing reads:
"L'ART DE LA FLUTE TRAVERSIERE, par M. de Lusse, ouvrage dans lequel
1’A uteur a eu pour but de tirer des t£n£bres le prindpe th£orique & pratique
de cet instrum ent, & de l’exposer avec toute la precision & toute la clarity
possibles, a fin qu’il ffit, k la portee non-seulem ent des Mes. de l'art, m ais de
tous ceux meme qui n ’ont aucune connoissance de la m usique." The earlier
version from Mercure de France 2 (January, 1761): 176 reads: ”L’A uteur a eu
pour but, dans cet Ouvrage, de tirer des t6n£bres les prindpes theorique &
pratique de la Fltite, & de les exposer au grand jour avec toute la precision &
la darit€ dont ils sont susceptibles. Par 1k, ce p rindpe devient k la portee
meme de ceux qui n ’ont aucune connoissance de la M usique."
199Mercure de France (April 1,1763): 163-164.
200”On ne doit considerer cet Essai que comme une simple 6bauche,
propre a servir de m odele pour d'autres morceaux susceptibles de plus
d'extension.” ’Explication" preceding "Air k la grecque.”
120
The "Air a la grecque" alluded to by Buffardin is beyond doubt the

sam e "Air k la grecque" concluding De Lusse’s L'Art de la flute traversiere.
W hether the piece was distributed separately first cannot be determ ined. All
extant copies of L ’A rt de la flute traversiere conclude w ith "Air k la grecque,”
b u t De Lusse him self never lays claim to being the composer. In scholarship
concerning "Air k la grecque" and De Lusse's treatise, speculation is ram pant.
The only facts th at can be gleaned are that "Air k la grecque" was w ritten in or
before 1764, and th at Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin, while not the com poser of this
work, had experim ented w ith quarter tones on the transverse flute
previously and intended to publish his findings.
121
CHAPTER VI
WHY INTEREST IN THE QUARTER TONE DIMINISHED

AND WAS FORGOTTEN
The Influence of the French Revolution

It may seem odd that the enharm onic genre and quarter tone, w ith
their strong ties to both m usical and non-musical aspects of eighteenth-
century French culture, did not become w idespread in their compositional
application. The sheltering offered to m uch of the intellectual and
experim ental pursuits in France, however, w aned as the eighteenth century
progressed. The events of and around the French Revolution provide a
m ajor reason for the decline of quarter-tone experim entation.201 W ith the
fall of the monarchy (August 1792), those w ho had been under royal
patronage and members of the intellectual elite were held suspect. Many
m usicians had enjoyed the benefits of court employment or royal pension.
M any philosophes w ith m usical aspirations had been p art of the intellectual
echelon. Those bom to aristocratic families w ere especially vulnerable.
Violinist, composer, and theorist Jean-Benjamin La Borde, who designed a
twenty-one-note keyboard and authored the four-volume Essai sur la
musique ancienne et modeme w as guillotined in 1794. Jacques Cazotte,
201ihe dates of the Revolutionary period roughly fall from the

storm ing of the Bastille and the Declaration of the Rights of M an during the
sum m er of 1789 to 1799, the final year of the Republic
122
w hose novel Ollivier was cited in a previous chapter, suffered execution as

w ell.202
For the musicians who continued to practice their trade during the
Revolutionary period, their role and responsibilities were greatly altered. The
1790s w ere a tim e of reorganization of French institutions and culture.203
The goals of the new Republic (formed in September 1792) w ere to forge a
consolidated national identity. Standardization w as sought in education,
language, art, and music. Theories of the enharm onic genre had appealed
prim arily to academic circles whose complex dialogs could not be easily
sim plified. The w ords of theorist Karol Berger, although intended for
sixteenth-century thought, are befitting to discussions of the enharm onic
genre in the eighteenth century:
The non-diatonic genera were know n to have

been used besides the diatonic in antiquity and their
revival was p art of the general hum anistically inspired
attem pt to restore the arts to their ancient excellence [... ].
Moreover, the non-diatonic genera w ere often associated
w ith less popular, m ore esoteric aspects of ancient
culture.204
The French Revolution brought drastic change to the societal hierarchy so
th at musicians could no longer afford to delve into the less popular.
202por m ore inform ation on the life of Cazotte, see Edw ard Pease
Shaw, Jacques Cazotte (1719-1792) (Cambridge: H arvard University Press,
1942).
203pavid Charlton, "Introduction: Exploring the Revolution,” in

Music and the French Revolution ed. Malcolm Boyd (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1992), p. 2.
204K3J-O1 Berger, Theories of Chromatic and Enharmonic Music in Late

16th Century Italy (Ann A rbor UMI Research Press, 1980), p. 117.
123
Although French m usic did not completely sever its ties to the past,
m any musical genres and stylistic idiom s underw ent significant revisions.
The neo-classicism w hich had sustained interest in the enharm onic genre
and quarter tone was one tradition given a new face. W hile m usical works
continued to incorporate Greek and Roman them es, the emphasis shifted
from exploring ancient aesthetic theories to prom oting dem ocratic principles.
The classical characters in French opera, for example, no longer glorified the
individual hero or wise ruler who m ight be associated w ith the aristocracy.
Instead, characters became agents for prom oting the cam araderie and
patriotism expected by the new citizenry.205 In Fabius, an opera prem iered in
1793, Fabius refuses to assume an offered role as leader, insisting that all
Romans and their allies are responsible for the victory.206 Similarly, in
Miltiade a Marathon, a two-act opera also first produced in 1793, Miltiade does
not take personal responsibility for the m ilitary success and nam es all fighters
as victors. While praising M iltiade's gesture of h u m ility , a review er of this
production criticized the libretto for having him accept command so readily
in the first place.207 As neo-classicism became m ore centered around
political concerns than the exploration of ancient music itself, interest
Elizabeth C. Bartlet, "The New R epertoiy at the Opera During

the Reign of T erro r Revolutionary Rhetoric and O peratic Consequences," in
Music and the French Revolution, ed. Malcolm Boyd (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1992), p. 126.
206rhe libretto for Fabius was w ritten by Marie-Joseph Desir6 M artin

Barouillet and set by Nicholas-Jean Le Froid de M6reaux. Ibid., p. 126.
207jhe libretto for Miltiade a Marathon w as w ritten by Nicholas

Francois Guillard and set by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. Ibid., pp. 126-127.
124
lessened in defining the enharm onic genre and arguing the audibility of the
quarter tone.
The period during and im m ediately following the French Revolution
dem anded broader accessibilty to m usical endeavors. Despite the belief of
num erous m usicians of the m id eighteenth century th at intervals sm aller
than a sem itone could be both heard and perform ed, the realization of
alternative scale system s to the twelve chrom atic steps and the perform ance
of m icrotonal pitches w ere never described in term s of their aural or technical
sim plicity. A contem porary of Blainville's, for example, voiced frustration at
his ow n attem pts to compose a trio using the "mode mixte":
A fter having shuffled ten or tw elve sheets of m usic paper
together and cleanly copied fifteen to tw enty m easures, I
wisely changed m y m ind, although a little late, w hen I
realized the trouble it would take m e to finish my endeavor.
For up o n further reflection, I realized th at my piece, even if
finished perfectly following my w ishes, could never honestly
be useful for anything other than cooking eggs in the w inter.
This sad reflection m ade m e im m ediately resolve boldly to
bring m y new com position to light, that is to say, in lighting
m y stick w ith it, and adding all m y draft sheets of m usic to
the fire, I very pleasantly w arm ed myself, resolved never to
undertake anything sim ilar for the rest of my life.208
208”A pres avoir brouille dix ou douze feuilles de papier de m usique, et

en avoir m is au n et quinze k vingt m esures, je m e ravisoi sagem ent,
quoiqu’u n peu tard, lorsque je fis attention k la peine qu'il m e restoit encore k
prendre p ou r firtir m on entreprise. Car, faisant ensuite reflexion que, ma
piece finie, faite et parfaite suivant mes souhaits, elle ne pourroit eependant
jam ais servir honnetem ent qu’en hiver, k table, pour y faire cuire des ceufs
au jus, cette triste reflexion me fait prendre su r le champ la g£n£reuse
resolution de m ettre en lumifere m a nouvelle com position, c'est-^-dire d'en
allum er m on fagot k la flamme duquel, soutenue encore de celles de tous mes
brouillons m usiquaux, je m e chauffoi tres agreablem ent, bien r£solu de
m ’entreprendre rien de pareil en m a vie." M. Charles Cheinet, as quoted in
Leon Valias, La musique a Lyon au dix-huitieme siecle, vol. 1: La musique a
I 'academie (Lyons: Editions de la revue musicale, 1908), p. 204.
125
Like Blainville's "mode m ixte,” the existence and application of quarter tones
m ay have been deem ed possible by num erous theorists, b u t they were
certainly n ot common practice. The training necessary to realize them was
not conducive to revolutionary needs.
By contrast, the w hole and half tones associated w ith the diatonic and
chromatic genres w ere established in eighteenth-century practice. The twelve
chromatic tones w ere readily available on keyboards, and their production on
string and w ind instrum ents w ere firmly entrenched in the pedogogical
literature. The diatonic and chrom atic genres were also allied to the major
and m inor tonal system established during the eighteenth century. In
theoretical discussions from Rameau forw ard, the diatonic genre is repeatedly
defined as the m ost naturally generated by the fundam ental bass and its
resonating pitches.
In eighteenth-century discussions of the affects and the m etaphysical
pow er of m usic to communicate emotions, both the chrom atic and diatonic
genres w ere believed to have m ore controllable, predictable, and positive
im pacts on the em otions than the enharm onic genre. The diatonic genre, for
example, w as considered the m ost noble of the three genres. As Blainville
describes in his Histoire generale, critique et philologique de la musique, the
diatonic genre, view ed as the "most simple and most natural,” was:
produced and m aintained by all nations. Man hears
and easily understands it guided by only one instrum ent.
A peasant w ith hardly any artistic training remembers
an air or song, because this air is in the diatonic genre.209
209"Ce Genre, comme le plus simple & le plus naturel, s'est produit &
conserve comme de lui-m em e chez toutes les Nations. LTiomme l’entend le
saisit ais6ment guid£ p ar le seul organe. U n Paysan retient un air, le chante;
parce que cet air est dans le Genre Diatonique, sans presque secours de rArt."
126
A lthough the chromatic genre was often associated w ith fear, despair, and the
m inor keys, it essentially m eant increased chromaticism. The enharm onic
genre had the m ost pow erful influence on the emotions. Rameau, for
example, chose his enharm onic progressions in Les lnd.es galantes to portray
an earthquake, and Blainville ascribed to the enharm onic genre the pow er "to
distress the ears and p u t the soul in a state of apprehension and terror."210
France of the 1790's did n o t need music to create either of these conditions.
W hat was desired was a music which w ould transcend intellectual
debate and bring people together from a variety of backgrounds.
Experimental music on the fringe of stylistic norm s was too divisive. Jean-
Baptiste Le Q erc, for example, believed that music m ust conform to the
everyday lifestyles of average citizens. Le Q erc, who assisted in the form ation
of the Conservatoire de M usique in Paris, proposed a fourth m usic genre, or
genre hymnique, in 1796. The genre hymnique was intended to provide
m usic w ith simple forms, sim ple harm onic language, and few technical
challenges to the perform er.211 Le Q erc associated his proposed genre w ith
Rameau's harm onic theory and prom oted its adoption by the new
Conservatoire. Despite Le Q erc’s belief that the fundam ental bass sim plified
Charles Blainville, Histoire generale, critique et -philologique de la musique

(Paris: Pissot 1767), p. 161.
210"d£chire les oreilles, & m et l'am e dans un 6tat d ’appr§hension &

d ’effroi." Charles Blainville, Ibid., p. 171.
2HCynthia M. Gessele, "National Music Education in France, 1795-

1801,” Music and the French Revolution, edited by Malcolm Boyd (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 201-203. Lederc’s ideas w ere p u t forth
in his Essai sur la propagation de la musique en France, sa conservation, et ses
rapports avec le gouvernement (1796).
127
analysis and composition, the General Assembly of the Conservatoire ruled

the theory was still too complex.
In 1801, the Conservatoire officially sanctioned the theoretical m ethod
of Charles-Simon Catel (1773-1830). In his Traite d'harmonie of only seventy
pages, Catel stresses simplicity. Harmony is not generated and controlled by
som e elusive corps sonore. Instead, the corps sonore is m erely "conceptual."
H arm ony is reduced to eight chord types all derived from one principal
harm ony (G-E-D-F-A-C) and easily grasped w ithout involved m athem atical
rationalization.212 Prefatory rem arks by Bernard Sarrette
(1765-1858), the president of the Conservatoire, describe Catel's harm onic
theory as "a complete system, simple in its principles and d e ar in its
explanations."213 Only three pages, one section out of fourteen artides,
discusses the genres. The enharm onic genre is defined as "the passage of one
note to another w ithout the pitch changing in a perceptible m anner."214 The
dim inshed seventh chord is nam ed as the best suited to realize
"enharmonie," and the quarter tone is not even m entioned.
The music literature on the enharmonique im m ediately following the
French Revolution expresses harsh criticism of its practicality. For example,
212Ibid., pp. 206-209.
213"un systeme complet, simple dans ses prindpes et d a ir dans ses

d6veloppemens." Bernard Sarrette, preface to Charles-Simon Catel, Traite
d'harm onie (Paris: Conservatoire de M usique, 1802), p. ii.
214'Xe genre enharm onique est le passage d'une note k une autre sans
que l'intonation de la note ait 6t£ chang6e d ’une m aniere sensible." Charles-
Simon Catel, Traite d'harmonie (Paris: Conservatoire de M usique, 1802),
p. 55.
128
Andr6 Ernest M odeste Gr6try (1741-1813), one of the m ost prom inent French
composers of the epoque, cast doubt on the existence of the quarter tone: "It
w ould n o t be the first tim e th at m en believed they had lost som ething that
had never existed."215 Gr6try believed th at the Greek enharm onic genre
referred, perhaps, to the nuances of declam ation, b u t he felt th at such sm all
intervals could certainly not be applied to m usic com position.
Similarly, Pierre-Joseph Joubert de la Salette’s (1762-1832) treatise of
1810 on ancient and m odem m usic and the Greek enharm onic genre reads as
tw o volum es of anti quarter-tone slogans.216 Nearly every page offers
passages such as: "If quarter tones had been so agreeable in Greek music,
w ould n o t the usage have been conserved in our perform ed music?"217
"W ould the organs of the ear and the voice have changed and become
inferior to those of the Greeks of another time?"218 "Q uarter tones are
im possible in m usic perform ance; they w ould harm the m elody and the
215"Ce ne serait pas le prem fere fois que les hom ines croiroient avoir
perdu ce qui n’exista jamais." As quoted in E rnst Closson, "Les notes
m arginales de Gr6try dans YEssai sur la musique de Laborde," Revue Beige
de musicologie 2:3-4 (July-October, 1948): 118.
216pierre-Joseph Joubert de la Salette, Considerations sur les divers

systemes de la musique ancienne et modeme, et sur le genre enharmonique
des grec; Avec une dissertation preliminaire, relative a Vorigine du chant, de
la lyre, et de la flute attribuee a Pan, 2 vols. (Paris: Gaujon, 1810).
217"Si les quarts de ton avoient 4fe si agr€ables dans la m usique des
Grecs, l’usage s'en seroit conserve dans notre m usique d ’execution." Ibid.,
vol. 1, p. 47.
218’Xes organes de l’oule et de la voix auroient-ils change et seroient-

ils devenus inferieurs k ceux des Grecs d ’autres fois?” Ibid., voL 1, p. 42.
129
harm ony, far from em bellishing them ."219 "The quarter tones of which
people have so m uch spoken, and w hich have n o t been heard in any melody,
are a m yth im agined by some rather m odem scholars and repeated by many
others, for explaining certain passages of the Greek authors, which offer an
am biguous sense to the m ind, b u t not to the ear."220
The Stigma of Eastern Music

The association of the quarter tone and enharm onic genre w ith Eastern
practice also im peded their becoming m ore m ainstream . A lthough w ritings
on Eastern art and m usic are num erous in eighteenth-century France, m ost
studies m erely com pared Eastern music to the W estern harm onic system .
The m onody and perceived m onotony of Eastern m usic w as generally
believed inferior to the harm ony and counterpoint of W estern Europeans.
Despite W estern interest in exotic cultures, the East was still view ed as less
advanced. A W estern account of the Turkish people published in 1766, for
example, portrays them as lazy and uncultivated:
The m an then leaves to attend to business and returns as soon

as it is possible. The wom en converse w ith each other or
occupy them selves by em broidering o r playing some instrum ent.
219"Les quarts de ton sont impossibles dans l’execution m usicales; ils

nuiroient k la m£lodie et k l'harm onie bien loin de les embellir." Ibid.,
vol. 1, p . 99.
22°"Les quarts de ton dont on a tant parl£, et qu’on n a jamais

entendus dans aucune m elodie, sont une chim ere imagin£e par des savans
assez m od ernes, et r6p£tee p ar beaucoup d’autres, pour expliquer certains
passages des auteurs grecs, qui pr6sentent un sens equivoque a l'esprit, mais
non pas k l’oreille." Ibid., vol. 1, p. 182.
130
The colachon is the m ost fashionable instrum ent. There is

hardly a Turk w ho possesses all the embellishments. They w ill
learn sometimes for ten successive years w ithout knowing how
to play perfectly. It is true th at they have neither music books,
nor nearly any rudim ents. By dint of looking for tones, they
come eventually to know several airs by rote.221
Even Blainville dem eans the Turkish culture. In attem pting to
convince W estern listeners that Turkish m usic has some m erit, for example,
he m aintains th at the Turks’ "m anner of singing is not in its foundation
m ore ridiculous than their language, their customs, o r their dress."222
Blainville also did not consider m odem Turkish culture w ith the sam e
respect w ith which he lauded the ancient Greeks. Greek practice may be
preserved in Turkish m usic, b u t the latter, Blainville believed, is essentially a
shell of the deeper theoretical and religious meanings associated w ith music
by classical civilization.
Such criticism of m usic w ithout standardized notation o r w ritten
theoretical and pedagogical literature pervades subsequent generations. In
the early tw entieth century, for example, the French m usicologist Louis Laloy
2 2 1 ” L ’h o m m e sort alors pour vaquer a ses affaires, & revient aussi-tot
qu’il lui est possible, & les femmes font entre elles la conversation, ou
s’occupent k broder & k jouer de quelque instrum ent. Le colachon est le plus
k la m ode. 11 n'y a guere de Turque qui en possede tous les agr&nents, elles
apprendront quelquefois dix ans de suite sans en savoir jouer parfaitem ent. II
est vrai qu’elles n'ont ni livres de m usique, ni presque aucun prindpe: k force
de chercher les tons, elles viennent k bout de savoir quelques airs par
routine." Jean-G aude Flachat (Directeur des Establissements Levantins),
Observations sur le commerce et sur les arts d'une partie de VEurope, de
VAsie, de I’Afrique, et meme des Indes Orientales, 2vols. (Lyon, 1766), 1:430.
The colachon resembles the sitar.
222"Qn peut condure que leur maniere de chanter n'est pas dans le
fond plus ridicule que leur langue, leur mceurs, ou leurs habillements."
Histoire generale, critique et philologique de la musique, p. (A.
131
(1874-1944) acknowledged th at ancient Greek m usic had once utilized quarter

tones in the enharm onic genre, b u t contended th at they do not appeal to
m odem ears:
This inevitable fall from use [of the enharm onic genre]
w as also unrecoverable. N ever again, to m y knowledge,
w ere successive quarter tones allowed in cultivated music
or notated.223
Laloy does not discount the use of quarter tones in all music, only notated
m usic presum ably of W estern origin. It is not a question of w hether quarter
tones exist, bu t rather th at they are unknow n in w hatever constitutes a
"cultivated music."
Connections draw n betw een the enharm onic genre and Eastern music
therefore serve the dual purpose of proving the realization of intervals as
sm all as quarter tones while casting such intervals as an exotic oddity,
unsuited to the W estern tonal system. This was certainly true in the
eighteenth century, and sim ilar sentim ents persist in our ow n century. Even
some supporters of quarter-tone experim entation in the first half of the
tw entieth century deem it necessary to repudiate Eastern m usic For example,
A rthur Holde writes:
As w e have seen, the music of exotic races proves

the practicability of other tone divisions than those of
our tem pered scale. It m ust be added, however, that they
223"Cette chute inevitable fu t aussi irrem ediable: jam ais plus, a m a

connaissance, les quarts de ton successifs ne furent adm is par la musique
savante & representes p ar la notation." Louis Laloy, "Le Genre
enharm onique des Grecs," Congres International d'Histoire de Is Musique
tenu a Paris a la Bibliotheque de I'Opera du 28 au 29 Juillet 1900 (viiie section
du congres d'histoire comparee) Documents, memoires et vceux publies par
les soins de M. Jules Combarieu (Saint-Pierre: Solesmes, 1901), p. 56.
132
are adapted to quite different m eans of expression, and that

their m usic is rath er sim ple in construction. It is the deeper
spiritual expressiveness of o ur W estern m usic w hich gives
it unquestioned superiority to that of the O rient.224
The U nderrepresentation of Ouarter-Tone Experim entation

in Studies of Music H istory
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, interest in quarter-tone
experim entation in France dissipated because of the changing social and
artistic environm ent during the events of the French Revolution and because
of associations w ith Eastern practice, viewed by m any as inappropriate to
W estern style and to post-Revolutionary needs. N ot only did this period of
experim entation come to an end, b ut it has also been all b u t forgotten in
m odem scholarship. If asked w hen the first quarter-tone piece was
composed, m ost contem porary musicians w ould respond w ith a date m uch
m ore recent than 1760. M usic reference m aterials, for exam ple, typically
define the origin of quarter tones as the early tw entieth century. Likewise,
theoretical literature of the first half of this century frequently describes the
quarter tone as a new technique. The question therefore rem ains as to w hy
quarter-tone experim entation previous to our ow n century is n o t recognized.
One reason for the truncated knowledge of quarter-tone
experim entation is th at experim entation out of the m ainstream may leave
few extant sources for scholarly study. Indeed, only four copies of De Lusse’s
treatise w ith the attached "Air k la grecque" are know n to have survived. In
Holde, "Is There a Future for Q uarter-tone Music?" Musical

Quarterly 24 (1938): p. 531. See also Ivan W yschnegradsky, "La M usique k
quarts de ton et sa realisation pratique," La Revue Musicale 18:171 (January,
1937): 27.
133
recent decades, m usicologists have also begun to review the form ation of the
m usical "canon," exploring how our perception of the past is shaped by the
selective survival of the m usic literature.225
Experim ental m usic in general is often not recorded in m usic histories.
W hen historical experim entation is addressed, topics tend to jum p from the
Italian sixteenth century to contem porary events. A 1926 article specifically
exploring the history of the quarter tone, for example, discusses the
M ontpellier m anuscript and the debate over the possibility of quarter tones in
Liturgical chant. A fter outlining the experim entation of Vincentino and
other Italians during the Renaissance and early Baroque, however, the
narration then skips to the m iddle of the nineteenth century. The author
states that no further progress was m ade until the great undertakings of
H elm holtz, "the father of m usic acoustics."226 Despite the rise of
musicological studies during the early tw entieth century, m uch eighteenth-
century French m usic and theory was neglected until only the past few
decades.227
225gome questioning the weight placed on music and m emory of the

w hite m ale, for example, have researched the neglected contributions of
wom en and have expounded w hat they view as gender bias in the w riting of
m usic history. See works by Suzanne Cusick, Susan Me Clary, and Jennifer
Rycenga. Also, half of the W inter 1994 issue of Perspectives of New Music
32:1 is devoted to articles on fem inist m usic theory.
226Lotte Kallenbach-Greller, "Die historischen G rundlagen der

Vierteltone," Archiv fu r Musik-Wissenschaft 8 (1926): 483.
227For a survey of musicological studies of eighteenth-century France

and the problem s in source m aterial, see N orbert Dufourcq, "La M usique
Frangaise au XVHIe Sifede," Dix-Huitieme Siecle 2 (1970): 303-319.
134
C onclusion
Q uarter-tone experim entation previous to the tw entieth century is
generally unknown. Although "Air k la grecque" evidences the use of
quarter tones in the eighteenth century, quarter tones did not enter
m ainstream com position until recent decades. This is true in part because
interest in quarter tones waned in France tow ards the end of the eighteenth
century. Social and political upheavals created an artistic environm ent less
conducive to experim ental pursuits. Frequently aligned w ith Eastern practice,
quarter tones w ere also shunned by m any w ho considered Eastern m usic
inferior to the W estern system of functional harm ony.
h i addition, the survival rate of experim entation is low. Many
attem pts may n o t get beyond the m anuscript stage. If Buffardin did in fact
engineer a quarter-tone fingering chart and compose a quarter-tone piece, for
example, they have both been lost. Such experim entation may also be too
m uch on the fringe to be recorded in music histories concerned m ainly w ith
stylistic norm s.
W hen view ed in the broader context of eighteenth-century French
m usic theory and culture, however, "Air k la grecque" is not an anomaly.
N ot only was the quarter tone, as a 24-tone division of the octave, conceived
at least tw o centuries earlier than widely believed, but intervals less than a
sem itone w ere also regarded by many eighteenth-century musicians as a
m elodic reality. The relationship of the quarter tone to the enharm onic
genre, outlined in the "Explication" preceding "Air k la grecque," exemplifies
a profound interest in France of the m id eighteenth century in the theory and
practice of this classical genre. Treatises and other theoretical literature on
135
music of this time frequently devote considerable energy to discussing the

enharm onic genre and quarter tone. N um erous references are also found in
non-m usical sources such as philosophical letters and novels.
Many questions surround the origins of "Air h. la grecque." It is hoped
that this exam ination of "Air k la grecque" and the enharm onic genre in
eighteenth-century France at once clarifies m isconceptions and raises
additional questions about our often linear perception of m usic developm ent
W hat w e view as innovations in technique or style may in fact have been
explored centuries ago. In expressing his desire to revitalize the enharm onic
genre, Joshua Steele, w hose treatise on notating declam ation w as previously
d ted , offers advice fitting to the present study:
As the ancient Greeks, as well as their language, are all dead,
I do n o t w ish to be draw n into a com parative contest about
them . I am sure I should be overborne by the num ber and
abilities of their champions; for as nobody envies the dead,
they have always had, on these occasions, m ore friends than
the living. I am ready to believe that they had m any rules of
art that are now unknow n to us.228
Regardless of authorship, regardless of exact publication date, "Air h. la
grecque" is undeniably an im portant contribution to the history of music
experim entation.
228joshua Steele, An Essay towards establishing the melody and

measure of speech to be expressed and perpetuated by perculiar symbols
(London: W. Bower and J. Nichols, 1775), p. 89.
136
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Prim ary Sources
Alembert, Jean-Le Rond de. Elemens de musique theorique et -pratique.

Paris: 1752; reprint ecL, New York: Broude Brothers, 1966.
Almanack musical. 10 vols. Paris 1775-1789 (vols. 9-10 entitled

Calendrier de musical universel); reprint ed., Geneva: M inkoff
Reprint, 1972.
A ncelet Observations sur la musique, les musciens, et les instruments.

Amsterdam: 1717; reprint ed., Geneva: Minkoff Reprint, 1984.
Annonces, affiches et avis divers (Affiches, annonces et avis divers from

1783) Paris: 1762-1784.
Barthelemy, Jean Jacques. CEuvres de J. J. Barthelemy. Vol. 1:49-590 Voyage

d'un jeune Anacharsis en Grece. Paris: A. Belin, 1821.
B6thizy, Jean-Laurant de. Exposition de la theorie et de la pratique de la

musique, Seconde edition corrigee et augumentee suivante les
nouvelles decouvertes. Paris: F. G. Deschamps, 1764; reprint ed.,
Geneva: M inkoff Reprint, 1972.
Blainville, Charles-Henri de. "De renharm onique,” Presentation 17 aoftt

1765, L'Acad4mie Royale des Sciences, Paris (Reg., T. 84 f. 352) original
memoire in pochette de seance. Paris: Acad6mie des Science, Archives.
___________ . "Essay su r u n troisifeme m ode.” Presentation 16 juin 1751,

L’Acad£mie Royale des Sciences, Paris (Reg., T. 70, p. 365); original
memoire in pochette de seance. Paris: Acad£mie des Sdnces,
A rchives.
___________ . Essay sur un troisieme mode presente et aprouve par

Messieurs de VAcademie des sciences, joint a la symphonie executee au
concert du chateau des Thulleries, 30 may 1751 (Paris, 1751).
137
___________ . Histoire generale, critique et philogique de la musique.

Paris: Pissot, 1767.
___________ . "Observation de M. de Blainville, su r la Lettre M***, inser6e

dans le M ercure d u m ois de Septembre." Mercure de France
(Novembre, 1751): 120-124.
___________ . Traductions de plusieurs auteurs tant Grecs que Latins et

extraits d'autres auteurs qui ont ecrit tant sur la musique ancienne que
sur la modeme. Paris, Bibliothfeque Nationale: Ms., n..a. frangais 6327.
Buffardin, Pierre-Gabriel. "Lettre h. M. De la Place." Mercure de France

(April 1,1763): 163-164.
Catel, Charles-Simon. Traite d'harmonie. Paris: Conservatoire de Musique,

1802.
Cazotte, Jacques. CEuvres badines et morales, historiques et philosophiques de

Jacques Cazotte, vol. 1: Ollivier, Poeme, 1-263. Paris: Jean-Franqois
Bastien, 1817.
Condillac, £tienne Bonnet de. Essai sur Vorigine des connaissances

hum aines. Auvers-sur-Oise: Galilee Editions, 1973.
Diderot, Denis. Le Neveu de Rameau, w ith an introduction and notes by

Jean-Claude Bonnet. Paris: Flammarion, 1983.
___________ . Paradoxe sur le comediene. W ith a chronology and preface by

Raym ond Laubreaux. Paris: Flammarion, 1981.
D u Bos, Jean Baptiste. Reflexions critiques sur la poesie et sur la peinture.

R eprint of Paris: Chez Pissot, 7th ed., 1770; reprint ed., Geneva:
Slatkine Reprints, 1967.
Encyclopedic, ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers

par une societe de gens de lettre, ed. by Denis Diderot and Jean-Le Rond
d'A lem bert. 17 vols. Paris: 1751-1765.
Flachat, Jean-Claude. Observations sur le commerce et sur les arts d ’une

partie de VEurope, de I'Asie, de I'Afrique, et meme des Indes
Orientales, 2 vols. Lyon: 1766.
138
Fonton, Charles de. "Essay stir la M usique O rientale compar£e k la M usique

Europteene ou L'on tache de dorm er une id6e Generale de la M usique
des Peuples de l'orient, de leur gout particulier, de leur Regies dans
le Chant, et la Combinaison des Tons, avec une N otion abreg6e de
leurs Principaux Instrum ens." Constantinople, 1751.
Paris, Biblioth&que Nationale: Ms. n..a. frangais 4023
Jam ard, T. Rechercksr, sur la theorie de la musique. Paris: Jombert and

M 6rigot, and Rouen: M achuel, 1769.
Journal de musique. Paris, 1770-1777; reprint ed., Geneva: Minkoff Reprints,

197Z
Laborde, Jean-Benjamin de. Essai sur la musique ancienne et modeme.

4 vols. Paris: E. Onfroy, 1780.
Lacassagne, Joseph. Traite general des elements du chant. Paris: 1766; reprint
ed., Geneva: M inkoff Reprint, 1972.
Lacombe, Jacques. Dictionnaire portatif des beaux-arts ou abrege de ce qui

conceme Varchitecture, la sculpture, la peinture, la gravure, la poesie
& la musique. Paris: 1752.
___________ - Le Spectacle des beaux arts ou considerations touchant leur

nature, leurs objets, leurs effects et leurs regies principales.
Paris: Vincent, 1761; reprint ed., Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1970.
La Salette, Pierre-Joseph Joubert de. Considerations sur les divers systhnes de

la musique ancienne et modeme, et sur le genre enharmonique des
grec; Avec une dissertation preliminaire, relative a Vorigine du chant,
de la lyre, et de la flute attribuee a Pan, 2 vols. Paris: Gaujon, 1810.
Lusse, De [Charles]. L'A rt de la flute traversiere. Paris, c.1760.

Extant copies: Biblioth&cque Nationale, Paris.
The University of Michigan, A nn Arbor.
Facsimile reprint, A nn Arbor: Early Music
Facsimile, 1970; facsimile reprint w ith an
introduction by G reta Moens-Haenen,
The N etherlands: Frits Knuf, 1980.
The lib rary of Congress, W ashington D.C.
Microfilm reproduction.
Bibliothfeque du Conservatoire, Brussels.
Facsimile reprint, Geneva: M inkoff Reprint, 1973.
139
___________ . "Lettre sur tm e nouvelle denom ination des notes de la

gamme.” Mercure de France (December, 1765): 173-180.
___________ - "Recueil de planches sur les sciences, les arts liberaux, et les arts
m£chaniques, avec leur explication." Explications accompanying
the Encyclopedic ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts, et des
metiers, edited by D iderot e t d ’A lem bert Paris: Brassen et Le Breton,
1769.
M ahaut, Antoine. Nouvelle method pour apprendre en peu de terns a jouer

de la flute traversiere (1759). Translated and edited by Eileen H adidian
Bloomington: Indiana U niversity Press, 1989.
M ardietto of Padua. Luddarium in arte musice plane (c. 1317). Translated by

Jan W. Herlinger. Chicago: The U niversity of Chicago Press, 1985.
Mercure de France. Paris: 1752-1780.
M uris, Johannes de. Musica speculativa, edited by Susan Fast. Ottawa,

Canada: Institute of M edieval Music, 1994.
Perrault, Charles. Parallele des anciens et des modemes en ce qui regarde les
arts et les sciences. Paris: Jean-Baptiste Coignard, 1688; reprint ed., w ith
introductions by H. R. Strauss and Max Imdahl. Munich: Eidos Verlag,
1964.
Q uantz, Johann Joachim. On Playing the Flute. Translated by Edw ard R.

Reilly. New York: Schirmer Books, 1985.
Rameau, Jean-Fhilippe. The Complete Theoretical Writings of

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), ed. by Erwin R. Jacobi. 6vols.
Rome: American Institute of Musicology, 1967-1972.
___________ . Demonstration du principe de I'harmonie. Paris: D urand,

1752; reprint ed., New York: Broude Brothers, 1965.
___________ . Generation harmonique ou traite de musiqvue theorique et

pratique. Paris: Prault fils, 1737; reprint ed., New York: Broude
Brothers, 1966.
___________ . Nouvelles reflexions sur sa demonstration du principe de

I 'harmonie. Paris: 1753; reprint ed., N ew York: Broude Brothers, 1969.
140
___________ . Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavecin avec des remarques sur

les differents genre de musique. Edited by Erwin R. Jacobi.
New York: Barenreiter, 1958.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Dictionnaire de Musique. Paris: 1768;

reprint ed., New York: Johnson R eprint Corporation, 1969.
___________ . "Lettre de M. Rousseau de Genfcve, k M. l'Abb£ Raynal, au

sujet d u nouveau M ode de M usique, invents par M. Blainville, A
Paris, ce 30 Mai, au sortir du concert” Mercure de France 2 (Juin, 1751):
174-178.
___________ . CEuvres Completes de J. J. Rousseau, vol. 1: Essai sur I'origine

des langues. Paris: Iib rarie Hachette, 1884.
___________ . CEuvres Completes de J. J. Rousseau, vol. 4: Rousseau Juge de

Jean-Jacques. Paris: Fum e, 1835.
Roussier, Pierre-Joseph. Memoire sur la musique des anciens, ou Von expose

le principe des proportions authentiques, dites de Pythagore, et de
divers systemes de musique chez les grecs, les chinois et les egyptiens,
avec un parallele entre le systeme des egyptiens et celui des modemes.
Paris: Lacombe, 1770; reprint ed., New York: Broude Brothers, 1966.
___________ . Memoire sur le nouveau clavecin de M. De Laborde.

1782. In Textes sur les Instruments de Musique au XVIIIe Siecle.
Geneva: Minkoff Reprint, 1972.
___________ . Observations sur differens points d'harmonie. 2nded.

Geneva: Bailleux, 1775 (title page gives 1755).
Sarrette, Bernard. Preface to Traite d'harmonie by Charles-Simon Catel.

Paris: Conservatoire de M usique, 1802.
Saveur, Joseph. Collected Writings on Musical Acoustics (Paris 1700-1713).

Edited by Rudolf Rasch. Tuning and Temperament Library Series, 2.
U trecht, The N etherlands: The D iapson Press, 1984.
Serre, Jean-Adam. Essais sur les principes de Vharmonie. Paris: Prault fils,
1753; reprint ed., New York: Broude Brothers, 1966.
141
___________ . Observations sur les principes de Vharmonie.

Geneva: Henri-AIbert Gosse et Jean Gosse, 1763; reprint ed., N ew York:
Broude Brothers, 1967.
Steele, Joshua. A n Essay towards establishing the melody and measure of

speech to be expressed and perpetuated by perculiar symbols.
London: W. Bower and J. Nichols, 1775.
Zaxlino, Gioseffo. On the Modes: P art Eour of Le Istitutioni Harmoniche.

Translated by Vered Cohen, edited and introduced by Claude V. Plasica.
New H aven: Yale University Press, 1983.
Secondary Sources
Barbour, J. M urray. Tuning and Temperament: A Historical Survey.

East Lansing: M ichigan State College Press, 1953.
Barker, Andrew. Greek Musical Writings. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1989.
Bartlet, M. Elizabeth C. "The New Repertory at the Op£ra D uring the Reign of
Terror: Revolutionary Rhetoric and Operatic Consequences." In Music
and the French Revolution, pp. 107-156. Edited by M alcolm Boyd.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Baud-Bovy, Samuel. "Le 'genre enharm onique' a-t-il exists." Revue de

musicologie 72:1 (1986): 5-21.
Beaulieux, Charles. Histoire de Vorthographie franqaise. Vol. 2: Les accents et

autres signes auxiliares. Paris: Librarie Ancien H onors Champion,
1927.
Benoit, Marcelle, ed. Dictionnaire de la musique en France aux XVIIe et

XVIUe siecles. Librarie Arthfeme Fayard, 1992.
Berger, KaroL Musica ficta: Theories o f Accidental Inflections in Vocal

Polyphony from Marchetto da Padova to Gioseffe Zaxlino.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
___________ . Theories of Chromatic and Enharmonic Music in Late 16th

Century Italy. A nn A rb or UMI Research Press, 1980.
142
Betzrwieser, Thomas. Exotismus und ”Tiirkenoper" in der franzdsischen

Musik des Ancien Regime. Neue H eidelberger Studien zur
M usikwissenschaft, no. 21. Laaber-Verlag, 1993.
Bower, Calvin M. "The Role of Boethius’ De institutione musica in the

Speculative Tradition of W estern M usical Thought." h i Boethius and
the Liberal Arts: A collection o f essays, pp. 157-174. Edited and
introduced by Michael Masis. U tah Studies in Literature and
Linguistics, no. 18. Las Vegas: Peter Lang, 1981.
Bowers, Jane. "Lusse (Charles) de." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians. 20 vols., ed. by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1980,
11:341
___________ . "Delusse." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and

Musicians. 20 vols., ed. by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1980,
5:355-356.
Boyden, David D. The History of Violin Playing from its Origins to 1761 and
its Relationship to the Violin and Violin Music. New York: Oxford
Brenet, Michel. Les concerts en France sous Tancien regime.

Paris: Fischenbacher, 1900.
Brook, Barry S. La Symphonie francaise dans la seconde moitie de XVIle

siecle. Preface by Jacques Chailley. 2 vols. Paris: Publications de
l'institute de musicologie de l’universit6 de Paris, 1962.
Brunot, Ferdinand, gen. ed. Histoire de la langue frangaise des origines a

1900. 9 vols. Paris: Librarie Arm and Colin, 1932). Vol. 6, p art 2:
Le XVIIIe siecle: La langue postclassique, by Alexis Frangcois.
Cassirer, Ernst. The Philosophy o f the Enlightenment. Translated by Fritz

C. A. Koelln and James P. Pettegrove. Boston: Beacon Press, 1951.
Cavallini, Ivano. "Musica e strum enti turchi in alcune fonti europee del
XVm secolo e L'Histoire de Charles de Blainville (1767)” [Turkish
music and instrum ents in some European sources of the 18th century,
and the Histoire by Charles de Blainville, 1767]. Restauro
conservazione e recupero di antichi strumenti musicali (1986): 257-273.
143
Chailley, Jacques. La musique grecque antique. Paris: Soci4t£ d'£dition,

"Les Belles Lettres," 1979.
Chandler, Glen. "Rameau’s Nouveau systeme de musique theorique. An

Annotated Translation w ith Commentary. Ph.D. disseration. Indiana
University, 1975.
Charlton, David. "Introduction: Exploring the Revolution." In Music and

the French Revolution, pp. 1-11. Edited by Malcolm Boyd. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Chevrolet, Claire. "Blainville.” Dictionnaire de la musique en France aux

XVIIe et XVIIIe siecles, ed. by Marcelle B enoit Librarie Arthfeme
Fayard, 1992, p. 72.
Christensen, Thomas. "Diderot, Rameau and Resonating Strings: New

Evidence of an Early Collaboration." Studies on Voltaire and
the Eighteenth Century 323 (1994): 131-166.
___________ . "Eighteenth-Century Science and the Corps Sonore:

The Scientific Background to Rameau's Principle of Harmony,"
The Journal of Music Theory 31:1 (Spring, 1987): 23-50.
----------------- • Rameau and Musical Thought in the Enlightenment.

Cambridge Studies in Music Theory and Analysis, no. 4. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Q osson, Ernst. "Les notes marginales de Gr6try dans l'Essai sur la musique
de Laborde." Revue Beige de musicologie 2:3-4 Quly-October, 1948):
106-124.
Cohen, Albert. Music in the French Royal Academy of Science: A Study in

the Evolution of Musical Thought. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1981.
Cohen, H. Roris. Quantifying Music, the Scientific of Music at the First Stage
of the Scientific Revolution, 1580-1650. The University of W estern
Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, no. 23. Boston: D. Reidel
Publishing Company, 1984.
Com , Alfred. ’Trench Baroque Music." Antaeus on Music. Edited by Daniel

Halpem . 71-72 (Autumn, 1993), 48-62.
144
Cowart, Georgia. The Origins of Modem Musical Criticism: French and

Italian Music 1600-1750, in Studies in Musicology Series, no. 38.
A nn Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1981.
Cyr, Mary. "Blainville, Charles H enri de." The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians. 20 vols., ed. by Stanley Sadie. London:
Macmillan, 1980, 2: 774.
Danielou, Alain. Introduction to the Study of Musical Scales. London: India

Society, 1943; reprint ed., New Delhi: Oriental Books, 1979.
Daniels, A rthur. "Part 1: M icrotonality and Mean-Tone Tem peram ent in the
H arm onic System of Francisco Salinas." The Journal of Music Theory
9:1 (W inter, 1965): 2-51.
___________ . "Part 2: M icrotonality and Mean-Tone Tem peram ent in the

Harm onic System of Francisco Salinas." The Journal o f Music Theory
9:2 (Spring, 1965): 234-280.
Didier, Beatrice. La musique des Lumieres. Paris: Universitaires de France,

1985.
Dill, Charles William. "French Theories of Beauty and the Aesthetics of

Music, 1700 to 1750." M asters thesis, N orth Texas State University,
1982.
Dufourcq, N orb ert "La m usique frangaise au XVHIe Sifede." Dix-Huitieme

Siecle 2 (1970): 303-319.
___________ , ed. La musique a la cour de Louis XIV et de Louis X V d'apres

les memoires de Sourches et Luynes 1681-1758. Paris: A&J Picard, 1970.
Fetis, Frangois-Joseph. Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie

generate de la musique. 2nd ed. Paris: 1868.
Froger, Dom Jacques. "Les pr6tendus quarts de ton dans le chant Gr6gorien et
les symboles du ms H. 159 de M ontpellier." Etudes Gregoriennes 17
(1978): 149-179.
Gallo, F. Alberto. "Marchetto da Padova." The New Grove Dictionary of

Macmillan, 1980,11: 661-663.
145
Gaskell, Philip. A New Introduction to Bibliography. New York: Oxford

U niversity Press, 1972.
Gessele, Cynthia M. "National Music Education in France, 1795-1801." In

Music and the French Revolution, pp. 191-210. Edited by Malcolm
Boyd. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Hartw ig, Dieter. "Buffardin, Pierre-Gabriel. ” Die Musik in Geschichte und

Gegenwart, ed. by F. Blume. Kassel: Barenreiter, 1949-1979,
15:1183-1184.
Holde, A rthur. "Is There a Future for Q uarter-tone Music?" Musical

Quarterly 24 (1938): 528-533.
H ollander, John. The Untuning to the Sky: Ideas o f Music in English Poetry
1500-1700. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961.
H ow arth, W.D. "Neo-Classicism in France: A Reassessment" in Studies in

the French 18th Century Presented to John Lough. Durham:
U niversity of D urham , 1978.
Johnston, Ben. "M icrotones.” Dictionary o f Contemporary Music. Edited by

John Vinton. New York: E. P. D utton & Co., 1974, pp. 483-484.
Kalleribach-Greller, Lotte. 'D ie historischen G rundlagen d er Vierteltone."

Archiv fu r Musik-Wissenschaft 8 (1926): 473-485.
K2rp£ti, A ndres. 'T ranslation o r Compilation? Contributions to

the Analysis of Sources of Boethius’ De institutione musica."
Studia Musicologica 29:1-4 (1987): 5-33.
Kaufm ann, H enry W. 'N icola Vincentino." The New Grove Dictionary of
Macmillan, 1980,19: 699-701.
___________ . "Vincente Lusitano." The New Grove Dictionary of Music

and Musicians. 20 vols., ed. by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan,
1980,11:340-341.
___________ . "Vincentino and the Greek Genera." Journal of the American

MusicologicaI Society 16 (1963): 325-346.
146
K urat, Akdes Nim et, and John Selwyn Bromley. "The R etreat of the Turks,
1683-1730." In A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730, pp. 178-219.
Edited and introduced by Michael A. Cook. Cambridge: Cambridge
La Laurende, Lionel (De). L'Ecole frangaise de violon de Lully a Viotti:.

3 Vols. Paris: Delagrave, 1922-1924; reprint ed., Geneva: Minkoff
Reprint, 1991.
___________ . Inventaire critique du Fonds Blancheton de la Bibliotheque du

Conservatoire de Paris. 2 Vols. Paris: Publications de la sod6t£
frangaise de musicologie, Librarie E. Droz, 1930-1931.
Laloy, Louis. "Le genre enharm onique des grecs." Congres International
d'Histoire de Is Musique tenu a Paris a la Bibliotheque de VOpera du 28
au 29 Juillet 1900 (viiie section du congres d'histoire comparee)
Documents, memoires et vceux publies par les soins de M. Jules
Combarieu, pp. 39-56. Saint-Pierre: Solesmes, 1901.
Lavignac, Albert, and Lionel de La laurende, eds. Encyclopedie de la musique

et dictionnaire du Conservatoire. 11 Vols. Paris: Delagrave, 1921-1931.
Le Huray, Peter, and James Day. Music and Aesthetics in the 18th and Early-
19th-Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Lindley, Mark. 'T uning and Intonation." In Performance Practice Vol. 2:

Music after 1600, edited by H ow ard Mayer Brown and Stanley Sadie,
pp. 169-185. London: The Macmillan Press, 1989.
Lindley, M ark, and Paul Griffiths. "Microtone." The New Grove Dictionary
o f Music and Musicians. 20 vols., ed. by Stanley Sadie. London:
Macmillan, 1980,12: 279-280.
Lowinsky, Edward E. The Secret Chromatic A rt in the Netherlands Motet.

N ew York: Columbia University Press, 1946.
Lynn, Robert. "The Art of the Transverse Flute by M. De Lusse: Translation

and Annotation." The Courant 1:1 Qanuary, 1983): 2-17.
M arjara, H arinder S. "Milton’s 'Chrom atick jarres’ and T uscan Aire."

Milton Quarterly 19:1 (March, 1985): 11-13.
147
M arshall, Robert L. "J. S. Bach's Compositions for Solo Flute:

A Reconsideration of their A uthenticity and Chronology." Journal of
the American MusicologicaI Society 32:3 (Fall, 1979): 463-498.
Meeus, Nicholas. "Enharmonic Keyboard.” The New Grove Dictionary of

Macmillan, 1980, 6:203-204.
M eyer, Eve R. "Turquerie and Eighteenth-Century Music." Eighteenth-

Century Studies 7:4 (Summer, 1974): 474-488.
M ichaelides, Solon. "Tonus.” In his The Music of Ancient Greece: An

Encyclopedia. London: Faber and Faber, 1978.
M oens-Haenen, Greta. Introduction to L ’Art de la flute traversiere par

M. Delusse. Paris: c. 1760; facsimile ed., The Netherlands: Frits Knuf,
1980.
Morey, Carl. "The Diatonic, Chromatic and Enharmonic Dances by M artino

Pesenti." Acta Musicologica 38 (April-December, 1966): 185-189.
N eubauer, John. The Emancipation of Music from Language: Departure

from Mimesis in Eighteenth-Century Aesthetics. New Haven: Yale
Neuhaus, M argaret. The Baroque Flute Fingering Book. Naperville, IL: H ute
Studio Press, 1986.
Oliver, Alfred R. The Encyclopedists as Critics o f Music.

New York: Columbia University Press, 1947
Palisca, Claude V. Girolamo Mei Letters on Ancient and Modem Music to

Vincenzo Galilei and Giovani Bardi: A Study with Annotated Texts.
Musicological Studies and Documents, no. 3. A m erdan Institute of
Musicology, 1960.
Pottinger, David T. The French Book Trade in the Ancien Regime 1500-1791.
Cambridge: H arvard University Press, 1958.
Rasch, Rudolf. Introduction to his edition of Air a la grecque, Corpus

M icrotonale Series, no. 22. U trecht Diapson Press, 1984.
148
Read, Gardner. 20th-Century Microtonal Notation. Contributions to the

Study of Music and Dance, no. 18. New York Greenwood Press, 1990.
Reilly, Edw ard R. "Buffardin, Pierre-GabrieL" The New Grove Dictionary of

Music and Musicians. 20 vols., ed. by Stanley Sadie. London;
Macmillan, 1980,3:425.
___________ . Introduction and notes to his translation of On Playing

the Flute, by Johann Joachim Q uantz. 2nd Ed. New Y ork Schirmer
Books, 1985.
Reilly, Edw ard R., and John Solum. ’D e Lusse, Buffardin, and
an Eighteenth-century Q uarter Tone Piece." Historical Performance
19 (Spring, 1992): 19-23.
Richter, Lukas. "Diesis." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
20 vols., ed. by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1980,5: 466-467.
Sabaneev, Leonid. "The Possibility of Q uarter-tone and O ther N ew Scales."

Translated by S. W. Pring. The Musical Times 70 (June 1,1929):
501-504.
Sadie, Julie Anne. The Bass Viol in French Baroque Chamber Music. Studies
in Musicology, no. 26. A nn Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1980.
Saint-Priest, Franôis-Emmanuel. Memoires sur I'Ambassade de France en

Turquie et sur le commerce des franqais dans le levant. Institut
national des langues et civilisations orientales. Paris: E. Leroux, 1877.
Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale: microfiche m. 631.
Seay, A lbert Music in the Medieval World. Prentice-Hall H istory of Music

Series. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1975.
Shaw, Edw ard Pease. Jacques Cazotte (1719-1792). Cambridge: H arvard

Sillanol, Marie-H6tele. "Buffardin.” Dictionnaire de la musique en France

aux XVIle et XVIIF siecles, ed. by Marcelle B enoit Librarie Arthfeme
Fayard, 1992, p. 93.
Taddie, Daniel Lawrence. "Scale: An H istorical Study of Musical

Terminology and Concepts." Ph. D. dissertation, The University of
Iowa, 1984.
149
Telesco, Paula Jean. "Enharm onidsm in Theory and Practice in 18th-century

M usic." PhD . dissertation, Ohio State University, 1993.
Valias, L6on. La musique a Lyon au dix-huitieme siecle. Vol. 1: La musique

a VAcademie de Lyon. Lyon: Editions de la Revue Musicale, 1908.
Verba, Cynthia. Music and the French Enlightenment: A Construction of

a Dialogue: 1750-1764:. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Vogel, M artin. Die Enharmonik der Griechen. 2 vols. Diisseldorf: O rpheus,

1963.
W alker, Daniel Pickering. Studies in Musical Science in the Late Renaissance.

London: W arburg Institute, U niversity of London, 1978.
W arner, Thomas E. Annotated Bibliography o f Woodwind Instruction

Books, 1660-1830. Music Bibliography Series, no. 11. D etroit
Inform ation Coordinators, 1967.
W eber, W illiam. "Learned and General M usical Taste in Eighteenth-Century

France" in Past and Present: A Journal of Historical Studies 89
(November, 1980): 58-85.
___________ . "La musique ancienne in the W aning of the Ancien Regime."

The Journal of Modem History 56:1 (March, 1984): 58-88.
Wellek, Albert. "Quarter-tones and Progress." Translated by Theodore Baker.

The Musical Quarterly 12 (1926): 231-237.
West, M artin Litchfield. Ancient Greek Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press,

1992.
W innington-Ihgram , Reginald Pepys. "Greece: I. Ancient." The New Grove

Dictionary o f Music and Musicians. 20 vols., ed. by Stanley Sadie.
London: Macmillan, 1980,7: 659-670.
Wolf, Johannes. Handbuch der Notationskund. 2 vols. Wiesbaden:

Breitkopf & Hartel, 1919.
Wolff, C hristoph. "Introduction." In The New Grove Bach Family, p p 1-24.

London: Macmillan London Lim ited, 1983.
150
W yschnegradsky, Ivan. "La M usique h quarts de ton et sa r e a liz a tio n

pratique." La Revue Musicale 18:171 (January, 1937): 26-33.
Youens, Susan Lee. "Music and Religion in the French Reform ation and
Counter Reformation." Ph.D. dissertation, H arvard University, 1975.

Air A La Grecque A Quarter

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Air A La Grecque A Quarter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

INFORMATION TO USERS

The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality o f the

Oversize m aterials (e.g_, maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by

Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced

A Bell & Howell Information Company

A thesis subm itted in partial fulfillm ent

Thesis supervisor: Professor Betty Bang M ather

UMI Microform 9603054

This microform edition is protected against unauthorized

This is to certify that the D.M.A. thesis of

has been approved by the Examining Committee

L ’A rt de la flute traversiere (c. 1760), a treatise by the French

I. A HISTORY OF DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING

n. THE ENHARMONIC GENRE AND QUARTER TONE IN

Ancients vs. M odem s............................................................. 33

m. RELATION OF THE ENHARMONIC GENRE AND

The Influence of Eastern C ultures in France....................... 62

The Use of Q uarter Tones................................................... 81

V. UNCERTAINTIES CONCERNING THE COMPOSER

(Charles) De Lusse................................................................ 104

VI. WHY INTEREST IN THE QUARTER TONE DIMINISHED

2. "Tablature generale" preceding "Air k la grecque".............................. 13

4. A n excerpt from "De l'enharm onique" transcribed from

5. Two versions of "Chanson Turc".......................................................... 65

6. A transcription of "Air k la grecque" into m odem

7. "Gamme naturelle” from L'A rt de la flute tranversiere.................... 88

8. "Gamme diez£e" from L'Art de la flute tranversiere......................... 89

9. "Gamme bemoliz6e” from L'A rt de la flute tranversiere................... 90

10. A com parison of the set type in the two editions

11. A com parison of the decorative illustrations from

L'Art de la flute traversiere, a treatise published around 1760 by the

lln eighteenth-century sources, De Lusse is referred to as M. De Lusse

Despite the unequivocal use of quarter tones in "Air h. la grecque/'

^TTze New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v.

^See The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s. v.

A lbert W ellek authored an artid e denouncing the introduction of quarter

They w ould halve the tw elve equal intervals of our octave,

I can confidently assert that my ear has never received this

4A lbert Wellek, "Quarter-tones and Progress," translated by Theodore

$Ibid., p. 234. Wellek believed the system of twelve equal semitones

than a seventh sounds to us like an octave or a seventh out

the creative force in m usic seems to have come to a standstill.

6 Leonid Sabaneev, "The Possibility of Quarter-tone and O ther New

^A rthur Holde, "Is There a Future for Q uarter-tone Music?" Musical

used. M any composers have abandoned this practice. W ith quarter-tone

M any Renaissance and Baroque theorists used ['diesis'] for

&The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Quarter-

9"Diesis" also commonly means ’’sharp." This definition is in fact

^®The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Diesis," by

Among the three facsimile versions of the De Lusse treatise (Ann

14"Difeze" o r "diese" is the French w ord for "diesis."

l^For a detailed history and survey of proposals, see Albert Cohen,

w hether quarter tones and m icrotonal intervals in general could be

Many authors have w anted to revitalize it am ong us; b u t

16"Plusieurs A uteurs l’ont voulu renouveller parm is nous; m ais ces

^'^'en h arm o n iq u e n'est pratiquE en France que depuis quelques

m ovem ent in pre-revolutionary France seeking to revitalize this classical

played in quarter-tone experimentation- Buffardin, a renow n perform er and

Figure 1. "Explication" preceding "Air k la grecque."

E X P L IC A T IO N des Planckes suivantes .

Z.a Tahitihire o^p'ctons les so/zspossiA/es a. I’instrument.

lit dans I execution tar Intcr-callcs </ui fo rm a n t la. succession

Figure 2. "Tablature generale" preceding "Air k la grecque."