Music Explained as Science and Art, And Considered in its Analogical Relations to Religious Mysteries, Ancient Mythology, and the History of the World PDF
Preview Music Explained as Science and Art, And Considered in its Analogical Relations to Religious Mysteries, Ancient Mythology, and the History of the World
FABRE D'OLIVET = MUSIC EXPLAINED AS SCIENCE AND ART AND CONSIDERED IN ITS ANALOGICAL RELATIONS TO RELIGIOUS MYSTERIES, ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF THE JOSCETLRAYNSNL ATEGD OBYD WIN Fabre d’Olivet MUSIC Explained as Science and Art Fabre d’Olivet Charcoal drawing by Julie Fabre d’Olivet (Collection H. Fabrègues-Cliché Roudil) Fabre d’Olivet MUSIC Explained as Science and Art and considered in its analogical relations to Religious Mysteries, Ancient Mythology, and the History of the World TRANSLATED BY Joscelyn Godwin FROM THE 1928 EDITION OF JEAN PINASSEAU Inner Traditions International Rochester, Vermont Inner Traditions International, Ltd. One Park Street Rochester, Vermont 05767 Translation copyright © 1987 by Joscelyn Godwin All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Inquiries should be addressed to Inner Traditions International, Ltd. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Fabre d’Olivet, Antoine, 1767-1825. {Musique expliquée comme science et comme art et considérée dans ses rapports analogiques avec les mystères religieux, la mythologie ancienne et l’histoire de la terre. English] Music explained as science and art : and considered in its analogical relations to religious mysteries, ancient mythology, and the history of the world / by Fabre d’Olivet ; translated from the French by Joscelyn Godwin. p. cm. Translation of: La musique expliquée comme science et comme art et considérée dans ses rapports analogiques avec les mystères religieux, la mythologie ancienne et l’historie de la terre. Includes index. ISBN 0-89281-206-0 1. Music — Philosophy and aesthetics. 2. Music and literature. 3. Music — Religious aspects. 4. Art and music. I. Title. ML3849.F213 1987 780'.1 — dcı9 88-3033 CIP 109876554321 Printed and bound in the United States. Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Harper and Row Publishers, Inc. Distributed to the book trade in Canada by Book Center, Inc., Montreal, Quebec CONTENTS INTRODUCTION BY JOSCELYN GODWIN PREFACE BY JEAN PINASSEAU (1928] BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE I. The Ideas of the Ancients on Music Il. The True Cause of the Moral Effects of Music III. Why the Principles of Music Have Remained Unknown; Vicissitudes of This Science; Origin of the Modern System IV. The Origin of Music Etymology of the Word “Music”; Number Considered as Musical Principle Survey of Sacred Music Survey of Celestial Music IOI The Musical System of the Chinese The Musical System of the Greeks II9 The Musical System of the Eastern Christians 132 Definition of Melody; How It Is Produced and XI. Modified 137 FABRE D'OLIVET XII. Advice to Young Composers concerning Imitation in Music I4I APPENDIXES: A. Harmony among the Greeks and Romans ISI B. The Origin of Notation and of Modern Music 156 C. The Music of the Phoenicians I6I D. The Music of the Egyptians 164 E. Brief Exposition of the Musical System 167 F. The Schism in the Universal Empire 171 INDEX 175 INTRODUCTION by Joscelyn Godwin No WORK, certainly not one as unusual as this, ben- efits from being read in ignorance of its author’s life and character, and this Introduction therefore provides the reader with a short biography of Fabre d’Olivet. Similarly, no biography is free from bias, so it is as well to say at the outset that this is a musical biog- raphy, in which everything concerning our subject has been extracted from the broader context of his life and given disproportionate emphasis. A list of sources ap- pears at the end, with suggestions for further reading. Antoine Fabre was born 8 December 1767 in Ganges, a small town near Montpellier in the Languedoc, that region of southern France that takes its name from the Provencal language. Until he was ten, Antoine spoke with his mother the “langue d’oc” (the language that uses oc, not oui, to say “yes”), and he retained a great love for it and for his native soil. His father, a member of a prominent Protestant clan, was a manufacturer of silk stockings and a marketer on an international scale. He saw his bright son as a useful adjunct to the family firm, and packed him off to Paris at the age of eleven or twelve to be properly educated by tutors. Antoine describes this exile touchingly in his mem- 3 FABRE D'OLIVET oirs, describing how he spent his nights in dreams of his mother and his homeland. After five years he re- turned, having added to his native languages Latin, Greek, and English, and bringing with him his piano. Learning also the violin and cello, he formed an ama- teur orchestra in his home town, to make what he calls “a detestable music” composed by himself.! However, his father could think of nothing but com- merce, and in 1786 Antoine was dispatched on his first business trip, back to Paris and then on to various cities of Germany. He seems to have done no business whatever, but he took the chance to learn German and also had a strange romantic encounter with a girl called Chrisna, the resonances of which he would feel for years afterwards: it would be the subject of his first published song. Antoine returned to Paris in the fateful year of 1789, supposedly to continue working in the family busi- ness, and threw himself into the intellectual and po- litical life of the capital. His sympathies marked him at first as a Jacobin, unfortunately getting his name on a list of undesirables that would later bring him to the unfavorable attention of Napoleon. His talents, at this stage, showed him as a litterateur who could turn his hand to journalism, poetry, and the occasional novel, drama, or opera libretto. Finding a poem of his mistakenly attributed to the well-known Fabre d’Eglantine, he forthwith took up his mother’s name, d’Olivet, and discarded the “Antoine.” "Fabre d’Olivet” he would remain. In an essay published in 1797,” he reflects on the I. Mes Souvenirs (Nice, 1977) p. 19. 2. “Des effets de la révolution sur la musique,” in L’Invisible, I, 1 Prairial V (= 20 May 1797).
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