From J & J LUBRANO MUSIC ANTIQUARIANS LLC, Syosset, NY, U.S.A.
AbeBooks Seller Since January 6, 2003
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Small quarto (210 x 156 cm). Full modern dark brown calf with raised bands on spine in blindstamped compartments, dark red title label gilt. 1f. (recto title with woodcut device, verso blank), 1f. ("Typographyus Lectori S.P. Benevole Lector."), 34 pp. With occasional musical examples and a number of diagrams and tables. Slightly worn; light uniform browning; extreme outer margins slightly browned; small chip to blank outer margins of pp. 23-34 with minor loss. Second edition of the work first published in Utrecht in 1650. Cortot, p. 60 (the 1683 edition). Gregory-Bartlett Supplement, p. 28. Hirsch I, 144. Wolffheim I, 592 (the 1650 edition). RISM Écrits, p. 262. "Descartes . conducted numerous precise scientific experiments relating to music and sound and studied natural phenomena in an attempt to determine their mechanistic characteristics. . [He] corresponded with Mersenne about music and scientific analysis. . Descartes's mathematical and acoustical approach to music had a strong influence on subsequent theorists, including Printz and Saveur." Damschroder and Willliams, p. 69. "The Compendium is both a treatise on music and a study in methodology. In it Descartes shows himself to be a link between the musical humanists of the 16th century - he was influenced particularly by Zarlino, whom he cited - and the scientists of the 17th. The work is noteworthy as an early experiment in the application of an empirical, deductive, scientific approach to the study of sensory perception and as being among the earliest attempts to define the dual relationship between the physical and psychological phenomena in music. . Descartes was not to return to music as a topic for concentrated investigation after completion of his Compendium. That he continued to develop ideas on musical subjects throughout his life, however, is evident from his surviving correspondence, particularly that with his old friend in Paris, Marin Mersenne (where mutual influence is evident), and with the Dutch humanist Constantijn Huygens. Among his specific contributions to music theory the following are of note: an early concern with definition of period structure in musical form; an expression of the later theory of a conditioned reflex in animals; a hint at the theory of harmonic inversion; and a detailed review of the physical nature of sound." Albert Cohen in Grove Music Online This distinguished French philosopher and mathematician's principal contribution to music theory. Seller Inventory # 39469
Bibliographic Details
Title: Musicae Compendium
Publisher: Apud Joannem Janssonium Juniorem, Amstelodami
Publication Date: 1656
Binding: Hardcover
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