Between Latin and French

Tonietti, Tito M.

doi:10.1007/978-3-0348-0675-6_5

Tito M. Tonietti⁵

Part of the book series: Science Networks. Historical Studies ((SNHS,volume 47))

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Abstract

“La Musique est une science qui doit avoir des regles certaines; ces regles doivent être tirées d’un principe évident, & ce principe ne peut gueres nous être connu sans le secours des Mathematiques.” [“Music is a science which must have certain rules; these rules must be derived from a clear principle, and we cannot have a knowledge of this principle without the help of mathematics.”] This was written in the Preface to his Traité de l’harmonie réduite à ses principes naturels [Treaty of Harmony Reduced To Its Natural Principles], not by one of our usual natural philosophers, but by one of the most famous musicians of the eighteenth century: Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764). After travelling around various cities in France as an organist, he arrived in Paris, where he became famous as a composer of pieces for the harpsichord, and above all, of operas and ballets. These won him the favour of the Royal Court, but they also aroused endless criticism and controversies, in spite of himself.

Nous avions pourtant une pure tradition française dans l’oeuvre de Rameau , faite de tendresse délicate et charmante, d’accents justes, de déclamation rigoureuse dans le récit, sans cette affectaction à la profondeur allemande, ni au besoin de souligner à coups de poing, d’expliquer à perdre haleine, qui semble dire: ‘Vous êtes une collection d’idiots particuliers, qui ne comprenez rien, si on ne vous force pas d’avance à prendre des vessies pour des lanternes’. [Therefore we have a pure French tradition in the work of Rameau , made of delicate and charming tenderness, correct accents, rigorous declamation in the recitative, without that German affectation towards depth, or the need to underline with blows of the fist, or to explain at the top of one’s voice, as if to say: ‘You are a mass of real idiots who do not understand anything if you are not forced in advance to get hold of the wrong end of the stick’.]

Claude Debussy

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Notes

1.
Rameau 1722/1992, preface [c].
2.
Chailley 1986 .
3.
Descartes 1979, pp. 120, 81, 83 and 87. Rameau 1722/1992, pp. 3, 6–9 and passim.
4.
Rameau 1722/1992, passim.
5.
Mila 1967 , pp. 134–135 and 145. Abert 1985 , v. II, p. 511. Alfred Einstein 1951, pp. 170–171. Paumgartner 1956, pp. 370–371.
6.
Maurolico 2000, e 201?. Tonietti 2006b, p. 151. See Appendix C.
7.
Rameau 1722/1992, pp. 23 and 139.
8.
Rameau 1722/1992, p. 14.
9.
Descartes 1979, pp. 93–94.
10.
Rameau 1722/1992, pp. 23–24 and passim.
11.
Basso 1979 /1983, v. I, pp. 650–663.
12.
Rameau 1722/1992, p. 364.
13.
Rameau 1722/1992, pp. 323 and 397.
14.
Rameau 1737, pp. 7–9. Chailley 1986, pp. 219–220.
15.
Rameau 1737, pp. 14 and 75–104.
16.
Rameau 1980, pp. 66, 70–72 and passim.
17.
Rameau 1980, pp. 80, 82 and passim.
18.
Rameau 1980, pp. 89, 95 and passim.
19.
Rameau 1980, pp. 87, 103–105 and passim.
20.
Rameau 1980, p. 88.
21.
Rameau 1969, v. V, pp. xxxiv and xliii–xliv.
22.
Rameau 1980, pp. 30–32.
23.
At the time, Johann II enjoyed success, and won four prizes at the Académie des Sciences. Fleckenstein 1981, p. 56. It will be seen below that his best interlocutor in the family would have been Daniel Bernoulli , a scholar of harmonics.
24.
Rameau 1980, pp. 113–115. Rameau 1752a. Cohen 2001 . Lester 2004 .
25.
In Italian in the text.
26.
Euler 1731, pp. 146–150.
27.
Euler 1739.
28.
Euler 1926, pp. vii–xx.
29.
Euler 1739, p. 207; cf. 1865, p. 1.
30.
Euler 1739, pp. 200–203; cf. 1865, pp. i–vi.
31.
Euler 1739, pp. 208–209; cf. 1865, p. 3.
32.
Euler 1739, pp. 210–211 and 221; cf. 1865, pp. 5–6, 14–16 and 19.
33.
Euler 1759, pp. 217–219, 230 and 235; cf. 1865, pp. 30 and 34.
34.
Euler 1759, pp. 237 and 249–252; cf. 1865, pp. 36 and 48–51.
35.
Euler 1759, pp. 258–260 and 281–288; cf. 1865, pp. 58–59 and 78–85.
36.
Euler 1759, p. 276; cf. 1865, p. 73.
37.
Euler 1759, p. 280; cf. 1865, p. 77.
38.
Euler 1739, p. 307; cf. 1865, p. 101.
39.
Euler 1739, pp. 320–321; cf. 1865, pp. 112–114.
40.
Euler 1739, p. 332; cf. 1865, p. 123.
41.
Euler 1739, p. 419; cf. 1865, p. 205.
42.
Euler 1739, pp. 421 and 427; cf. 1865, pp. 208 and 215.
43.
Youschkevitch 1970, pp. 470–471.
44.
Rameau 1752b; Rameau 1980, pp. 116–120.
45.
Euler 1752.
46.
Rameau 1753, pp. 10, 23, 28–30.
47.
Youschkevitch 1970, p. 471. Euler 1958.
48.
Euler 1958, pp. 5, 10, 22–28.
49.
Cf. Euler 1862.
50.
Boyer 1990, p. 567. Grattan-Guinness 1970, pp. 1–32. Bottazzini 1981, pp. 34–38.
51.
Euler 1759. See below, Sects. 11.2 and 12.1.
52.
Euler 1764a, pp. 511, 515 and 515.
53.
Euler 1764b, pp. 523–526.
54.
Euler 1764b, pp. 537, 529 and 533.
55.
Euler 1773, pp. 267–268. Kline 1972 , p. 1164.
56.
Youschkevitch 1970.
57.
Euler 1926, pp. XVI–XX. Vogler 1960. Other music theory is to be found in Euler’s mathematical notebooks. See Knobloch 1987.
58.
Truesdell 1960, pp. 15–17, 121–125 and 154–236.
59.
Truesdell 1960, pp. 154–155, 158–159 and passim.
60.
Truesdell 1960, pp. 122 and 179–180.
61.
Truesdell 1960, pp. 193, 195–196.
62.
Betti & Caparrini 2008, p. 14.
63.
Euler 1952, pp. 281, 283, 289, 292 and 294. Truesdell 1960, pp. 197, 199, 220, 222. Kline 1972 , pp. 577–579. Boyer 1990 , pp. 567–568.
64.
Truesdell 1960, pp. 229–230.
65.
Truesdell 1960, passim. Youschkevitch 1970. Straub 1981 . Betti & Caparrini 2008.
66.
Truesdell 1960, pp. 254–259. Brook Taylor conducted an experiment which generated a note whose frequency was 383. He verified it on the harpsichord as an A; Wardhaugh 2008, p. 110. Music continued to make itself heard in studies on sound, which were about to be transformed into acoustics.
67.
\(m\frac{{d}^{2}x} {{\mathit{dt}}^{2}} = -\mathit{kx}; x = \mathit{Acos}(2\pi \nu t+\delta )\); \(\nu = \frac{1} {2\pi }\sqrt{ \frac{k} {m}};\delta\) is the phase. Resnick & Halliday 1961, pp. 282–313.
68.
Bernoulli 1762, pp. 441–442, 436–440, 443–444 and 462–467. Cf. Truesdell 1960, pp. 262–263.
69.
Bernoulli 1762, pp. 467, 469, 436 and 447.
70.
Truesdell 1960, pp. 259–262.
71.
Truesdell 1960; Truesdell 1968. Boyer 1990 , pp. 507–539. Grattan-Guinness 1970, pp. 1–21. Kline 1972 , pp. 478–483 and 502–522. Bottazzini 1981, pp. 19–51. David Speiser 1989. Kleinert 1996. Betti & Caparrini 2008.
72.
Truesdell 1960, p. 222.
73.
Euler 1980, p. 425. Lagrange 1759, pp. 139–148. Christensen 1993, p. 155. See below, Sect. 11.2.
74.
See below, Sect. 12.1.
75.
Betti & Caparrini 2008, pp. 9, 16, 75–77, 79 and 86–87.
76.
Betti & Caparrini 2008, p. 15.
77.
Betti & Caparrini 2008, p. 86.
78.
Betti & Caparrini 2008, p. 20.
79.
Betti & Caparrini 2008, p. 83.
80.
Truesdell 1960, p. 186. Cf. Euler 1980, p. 427: “…le souci évident de l’auteur de déprécier les apports de d’Alembert et de Lagrange .” [“…the clear concern of the author [Truesdell ] to denigrate the contributions of d’Alembert and Lagrange .”]
81.
D’Alembert 1747, pp. 214–215.
82.
\(\frac{{\partial }^{2}y} {\partial {x}^{2}} = \frac{1} {{v}^{2}} \frac{{\partial }^{2}y} {\partial {t}^{2}}\); with v the velocity of the wave. Persico 1960, pp. 162–179.
83.
D’Alembert 1747, pp. 358–360.
84.
Cf. Truesdell 1960, pp. 237–244, where the ‘rational’ scholar of the twentieth century completely ignored music.
85.
D’Alembert 1752a, p. ij; we are using the edition of 1779.
86.
D’Alembert 1752a, pp. vij, ix–xiij, 11.
87.
D’Alembert 1752a, pp. xiij, xvj, xix.
88.
D’Alembert 1752a, pp. xxij–xxvj.
89.
D’Alembert 1752a, pp. xxx–xxxj.
90.
D’Alembert 1752a, pp. 22–24.
91.
D’Alembert 1752a, pp. 33, 32, 34.
92.
D’Alembert 1752a, pp. 50, 56–57.
93.
D’Alembert 1752a, p. 88. See Sect. 11.1.
94.
D’Alembert 1752a, pp. 115, 117–118.
95.
D’Alembert 1752a, pp. 159.
96.
D’Alembert 1752a, pp. 76, 194, 205, 202. Rameau 1980, pp. 169–191.
97.
D’Alembert 1752a, pp. xxj and 117.
98.
D’Alembert 1968, pp. 31, 52 and 79.
99.
D’Alembert 1751d, pp. 98, 99.
100.
D’Alembert 1751d, p. 101.
101.
D’Alembert 1751d, p. 102.
102.
D’Alembert 1751d, p. 103.
103.
D’Alembert 1751d, p. 104.
104.
D’Alembert 1751d, p. 105.
105.
D’Alembert 1758a, pp. 193–194. D’Alembert 1758b, p. 469.
106.
D’Alembert 1778, p. 329.
107.
D’Alembert 1759, pp. 163 and 292.
108.
Pergolesi 1733.
109.
Rousseau 1966, pp. 492–495. Fubini 1971, pp. 92–95.
110.
D’Alembert 1752b, p. 181.
111.
D’Alembert 1752b, pp. 168–169, 171–172 and passim.
112.
D’Alembert 1752b, pp. 178, 180 and 182.
113.
D’Alembert 1887, pp. 162–163.
114.
Rousseau 1752.
115.
Rousseau 1752, p. 203.
116.
Rousseau 1839, Correspondance t. I, pp. 193–194 and 208–209; 1839, Beaux-Arts t. I, pp. 177, 182–183 and passim. Rousseau 1966, pp. 706–707. Rousseau gave Colin an acute ‘female’ voice, despite his presumed naturalism.
117.
Rousseau 1839, Beaux-Arts t. I, pp. 205, 212, 214.
118.
Rousseau 1839, Beaux-Arts t. I, pp. 222–231.
119.
Rousseau 1751a; 1751b, p. 306; 1751c; 1751d; 1751e, p. 11.
120.
Rameau 1980, pp. 145, 179–180, 182, 185, 187, 189 and passim.
121.
Lully 2008, p. 17.
122.
Rameau 1980, pp. 190–191 and passim.
123.
Rousseau 1839, Dictionnaire de musique . Having finished it, he asked Alexis Claude Clairaut (1713–1765) to correct the mistakes. 1839, Correspondance t. V, pp. 124 e 164; t. VII, pp. 127–128.
124.
Rousseau 1755, pp. 12, 14, 18 and 27–29.
125.
Rousseau 1989; 1926; 1839, Dictionnaire de musique .
126.
Rousseau 1989, pp. 79–85, 93 and 95. In the heavy commentary of the editress, only an excessively small, insignificant reference is made to Rameau . The bad habit of cutting music, for academic reasons, is not found, unfortunately, only among historians of the sciences. Cf. Fubini 1971.
127.
Rousseau 1926, pp. 294, 292, 102–105 and passim.
128.
Rousseau 1926, pp. 124, 123, 122, 128–129 and passim.
129.
Rousseau 1926, p. 256. At other points, pp. 247, 260 and 272, he praised its laws. Rousseau 1966, p. 459.
130.
Rousseau 1926, pp. 201, 169, 239, 240 and 258.
131.
Rousseau 1926, p. 185.
132.
Rousseau 1926, pp. 280–281, 43–53 and passim. Rousseau 1945, p. 60. Rousseau 1966.
133.
Rousseau 1926, p. 327.
134.
Rousseau 1839, Dictionnaire de musique , t. I, p. 53. Rousseau 1966, p. 659.
135.
Resnick & Halliday 1961, pp. 392–447.
136.
Rousseau 1839, Dictionnaire de musique t. I, pp. 260–263.
137.
Rousseau 1839, Dictionnaire de musique t. II, p. 67.
138.
Rousseau 1839, Dictionnaire de musique t. II, pp. 192. In the 1839 edition, the table quoted with the pieces of music does not exist. But it is again found in the 1995 edition, v. V, pp. 1190–1191, which takes up, with variants, the “Planches Musique” of the Encyclopédie .
139.
Rousseau 1989, pp. XXVIII–XXX. Aligned with Rameau , Thomas Christensen has failed to notice the clear doubt of Rousseau regarding the reliability of missionaries; Chistensen 1993, p. 296.
140.
Diderot & d’Alembert 1751–1776, “Planches musique” pp. 21, 3–5. Pl. IV. Judging by editorial convention, but the problem appears to be much more complex, the entries not signed were generally compiled by Diderot himself, even if not always; Diderot 1976, pp. 2–12. Diderot [?] 1765. Did “D. L.” stand for Diderot , as certain indications suggest? Or did it stand for a D’Alembert Le Ronde, perhaps corrected by Diderot ?
141.
Rousseau 1839, Dictionnaire de musique t. III, pp. 122 and 125–1301. Diderot 1975, pp. 251–252.
142.
Rousseau 1839, Dictionnaire de musique t. II, p. 195.
143.
Rousseau 1966, p. 776.
144.
Rousseau 1966, pp. 23, 161–162, 194–197, 236, 240–247, 260–261, 284–285, 308, 350–351, 364–369 and passim. See above.
145.
Rousseau 1966, pp. 480–498, above all 492–493.
146.
Rousseau 1966, pp. 284–285 and 686.
147.
Abelardo & Eloisa 2008.
148.
My comment was written before reading the contemptuous judgement that our man from Geneva had expressed, towards the end of the book, on the English writer, Samuel Richardson (1689–1761); Rousseau 1966, p. 697.
149.
Rousseau 1966, pp. 815–816.
150.
Rameau 1762a.
151.
Rameau 1762a, pp. 272–273 and 278. D’Alembert 1762a.
152.
Rameau 1762a, pp. 278–279.
153.
Cf. Montucla 1799.
154.
Rameau 1762b, p. 288.
155.
Rameau 1762b, pp. 290–291 and 294.
156.
Rameau 1762b, pp. 314–315 and 323.
157.
Rameau 1762b, p. 326.
158.
D’Alembert 1762b, p. 2; 1762a, pp. 517, 515.
159.
D’Alembert 1762a, p. 521.
160.
D’Alembert 1762a, pp. 533–534.
161.
D’Alembert 1762a, p. 539.
162.
D’Alembert 1762a, pp. 544.
163.
D’Alembert 1762a, p. 546.
164.
Rameau 1765, pp. 26, 30–31.
165.
Rameau 1765, p. 36.
166.
See above, Sect. 8.3.
167.
D’Alembert 1777, pp. 138, 144, 139–141. Cf. Fubini 1971, pp. 185–193.
168.
Diderot 1975, pp. 237, 244 and 236.
169.
Diderot 1975, p. 254.
170.
See above, Sect. 10.1.
171.
Diderot 1975, pp. 258–259. See above, Sect. 11.1.
172.
Diderot 1975, pp. 275 and 277–278.
173.
Diderot 1983, pp. VII–XXII.
174.
Diderot 1994, pp. 20 and 24–26.
175.
Diderot 1994, pp. 95–96. Cf. Fubini 1971, pp. 133–183.
176.
Prunières 1950, pp. 97, 95, 102, 109 and passim.
177.
Careri 1994. Grossato 1994.
178.
Di Benedetto and Nicolodi 1994. Grasso Caprioli 1994. Angelucci 1994.
179.
Tartini 1996, pp. 54–55.
180.
Tartini 1996, p. 249.
181.
Tartini 1996, p. 108.
182.
Tartini 1996, pp. 173–174.
183.
Barbieri 1994, pp. 340, 341.
184.
Barbieri 1994, pp. 325, 330, 333–334.
185.
See Part I, Sect. 2.7.
186.
Barbieri 1994, pp. 343, 335–336.
187.
Montucla 1802, pp. 650–652.
188.
Montucla 1802, t. I, Seconde partie Livre quatrième, pp. 449, 457–458, 461.
189.
Montucla 1802, t. I …pp. 477–478 and 454. Cf. above, Part I, Chap. 3.
190.
Above all in Chap. 10.
191.
D’Holbach 1985, 112, 121, XXX, XXXVI and passim.
192.
Briggs 1981. Hankins 1970, p. 49.
193.
Voltaire 1879, t. VI, pp. 33–34. Voltaire 1962, v. I, pp. 463–465, 556–557; v. II, pp. 88–108, 139–143. Voltaire 1966, pp. 86–88, 203–230.
194.
Voltaire 1879, t. VIII, pp. 470, 473. Voltaire 1966, p. 85. Cf. Sabattini & Santangelo 1989, pp. 556–557.
195.
Voltaire 1879, t. VIII, p. 474. See above, Chap. 3.
196.
See above, Part I, Chap. 3, and Part II, Sect. 8.1.
197.
Voltaire 1966, pp. 220–221.
198.
Voltaire 1966, p. 226.
199.
Voltaire 1961, pp. 411–413. Voltaire 1962, v. I, pp. 624–632.
200.
Voltaire 1962, v. II, pp. 91–92.
201.
Voltaire 1963, pp. 786 and 789.
202.
Voltaire 1966, p. 212.
203.
Voltaire 1966, pp. 213, 218–219.
204.
Voltaire 1962, v. I, pp. 51–57.
205.
Hankins 1970, pp. 42–65. Truesdell 1984, pp. 218–222. Delsedime 1972. Boyer 1990 , pp. 517–532.
206.
Bailhache 1995a, pp. 13, 21–22 and 32.
207.
See above, Sect. 11.1.
208.
Bailhache 1996, pp. 7 and 17.
209.
Bailhache 1996, p. 5.
210.
Christensen 1993, pp. 28 and passim.
211.
Christensen 1993, pp. 133–134.
212.
Christensen 1993, pp. 102, 133 and passim.
213.
Christensen 1993, p. 156.
214.
See above, Sect. 11.2.
215.
See below, Sect. 12.1.
216.
Christensen 1993, pp. 276–277. For the whole of his essay, Christensen used the terms “acoustical” and “acoustical phenomenon” when he wanted to refer to the phenomena of the ear or to the sense of hearing. This risks misleading the reader, because acoustics as a discipline did not exist yet.
217.
Christensen 1993, p. 297.
218.
Christensen 1993, p. 268.
219.
Christensen 1993, pp. 298–306.
220.
Fubini 1964; 1971; 1986.
221.
Rameau 2007, p. 102.
222.
Rameau 1990, p. 16 and passim.
223.
Fubini 1971, pp. 116 and 53.
224.
Eximeno 1774, pp. 298–299. Also Fubini has left d’Alembert ’s declared Italian and sensual inclinations in the dark; Fubini 1971, pp. 186–187.
225.
Fubini 1971, p. 104.
226.
Fubini 1986, pp. 250–254.
227.
Basso 1983, II, pp. 687–688, 702, 705, 710, 713–715.
228.
Basso 1983, II, pp. 717, 721; Basso 1979 , I, pp. 658 and 663.
229.
Mozart 1991, 4, pp. 1455–1457.
230.
Mozart 1991, 4, pp. 1430–1454.
231.
Mozart 1991, 8, pp. 1094–1095.
232.
Christensen 1993, pp. 218–231.
233.
Alfred Einstein 1951, p. 171.
234.
Mozart 1991, 16, p. 395 bars 109–110 and following.

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Tito M. Tonietti

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Tonietti, T.M. (2014). Between Latin and French. In: And Yet It Is Heard. Science Networks. Historical Studies, vol 47. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-0675-6_5

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