Introduction to Volume II

Abstract

In Part II, we find ourselves confronted by the world of the generally so-called scientific revolution. I must therefore warn the reader not to fall into the trap of overused commonplaces, which are unfortunately particularly widespread in many environments. When natural philosophers left the highroad of calculations with ratios as a means to solve their problems, to break out of the rigid framework of the classical quadrivium, did they forget music, or not? Certainly not! I will show, rather, that even the most famous characters continued to deal with the art of sounds. Indeed, they did so to such an extent, at times with an attention comparable to that reserved for the questions of mathematical sciences, that music revealed, or at least made more evident, their ideas and notions sustained with other means. In certain cases, we may even go so far as to say that through investigations into the division of the octave, instrument-tuning procedures, or how to justify consonances, creating synergies or otherwise, the evolution of sciences was influenced, particularly at critical moments.