ROBERT FLUDD'S TEMPLE OF MUSIC:
A DESCRIPTION AND COMMENTARY
by
DAVID TODD BARTON

A THESIS

Presented to the School of Music
and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Master of Arts in Music History

December 1978

Vita

Name of Author: Todd Barton

Place of Birth: Oakland, California

Date of Birth: July 2, 1949

Undergraduate School attended : University of the Pacific

Degrees Awarded: Bachelor of Music, 1971, University of the Pacific

Areas of Special Interest: Renaissance Music, Renaissance Philosophy

Professional Experience: Lecturer in Music and Drama, Raymond College, University of the Pacific, Stockton, California 1974-1975

Lecturer in Renaissance Music, Institute of Renaissance Studies, Ashland, Oregon, summers 1972-1976 and 1978

Lecturer in Music History, Southern Oregon State College, Ashland, Oregon 1977-1978

Awards and Honors:

Close Fellowship, 1976-1978

Listed in the 1975 edition of International Who's Who in Music and Musicians

Publications:

"Microfiche" Pro Musica, , November, 1976

"Guido the Guide: The Guidonian Hand" Pro Musica, May, 1976

"Analogia: Musica Mundana and Musica Humana" Pro Musica, January, 1976

Acknowledgments

From the outset this thesis has been a joy which has been nurtured by the astoundingly generous and invaluable assistance of many scholars. This I joyfully and humbly acknowledge my debt to the following men: to Dr. Peter Bergquist for his patient and precise criticism and correction of the final manuscript; to Dr. Andrew Ashbee for the use of his manuscript article on Robert Fludd for the forthcoming New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and for photocopies of Fludd's compositions from the Filmer MS 3; also to Robert Ford for his interest in my research and for providing me with another photocopy of the Fludd pieces. A special thanks to Charles A. Mauzy whose loan of his exquisite 1618 edition of the second tract of Fludd's Utriusque cosmi... historia afforded me the exciting and vibrant experience of working from the original. All the illustrations in this thesis are reproduced from this edition.

The other scholar and friend to whom I offer my deepest gratitude is Dr. Joscelyn Godwin who encouragingly offered me his own notes on the Temple of Music, a typescript of his forthcoming book on Robert Fludd, and a continuing and enlightening dialogue on Fludd and his milieu. though I have carefully cited my use of his various works, he certainly will notice more subtle influences which I gratefully acknowledge, for he is surely, "in scientia hac praecellenti magister perquam expertus."

Abbreviations

AIM American Institute of Musicology

ARSJ American Recorded Society Journal

CS Scriptorum de musica medii aevi nova series, ed. E. H. Coussemaker. Paris, 1864-1876

GS Scriptorum ecclesiastici de musica sacra potissimum, ed. M. Gerbert. St. Blasien, 1784

GSJ Galpin society Journal

JAMS Journal of the American Musicological Society

JHI Journal of the History of Ideas

JMT Journal of Music Theory

JWCI Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes

LSJ Lute Society Journal

MD Musica Disciplina

MR Music Review

RKP Routledge and Kegan Paul

Titlepage and frontispiece

The titlepage reads:

Part II of the Second Tract; On the Temple of Music, in which universal music is beheld as in a mirror; divided into seven books.*1

This is accompanied by an illustration of Apollo and the nine Muses, a titlepage convention of the period which recalled the divine origins of music and its place among the creative arts.

The phrase, "beheld as in a mirror," harkens back to Fludd's tract on musica speculativa, "De musica mundana,"*2 in which he says that the positions of all material things in the monochordum mundi are beheld as in a mirror, whence also the intellectual staircase and spiritual order are made clear.*3

Immediately we find ourselves in the world of correspondences. As the monochordum mundi (fig. 1) reflects the universal music of all spheres, so the temple (fig. 2) reflects the universal music of this earthly sphere. In the temple we see all the elements of practical music subsumed: the gamut, hexachords, proportional notation, a composition lesson and a variety of instruments including a monochord.

Before we proceed to Fludd's "most splendid description of the temple," we must, in order to see the temple in its proper setting, realize that Fludd was intellectual heir to a profound tradition of symbolic interpretation of emblemata. This tradition consisted of two strands, one interpretative, the other creative, which intermingled throughout history and sometimes lost their identity in one another.

The interpretative strand was spun from the exegesis of Dionysius Areopagita and found its Renaissance expression in Pico della Mirandola's Heptaplus.*4 this method of interpretation applied the doctrine of correspondences to visual image and showed how a single image could be interpreted on three different levels. Pico explicates this most vividly in the following passage:

Everything which is in the totality of worlds is also in each of them and none of them contains anything which is not to be found in any of the others... whatever exists in the inferior world will also be found in the superior world, but in a more elevated form,; and whatever exists on the higher plane can also be seen down below but in a somewhat degenerate and, so to say, adulterated shape... In our world we have fire as an element, in the celestial world the corresponding entity is the sun, in the supra-celestial world the seraphic fire of the Intellect. But consider their difference: The elemental fire burns, the celestial fire gives life, the supra-celestial loves.*5

We can see how this is very close to Fludd's own belief in the corresponding worlds of the elemental, etheral and empyrean. In fact, a parallel interpretation of the monochord is possible: the earthly monochord consists of fret or bridge positions intersecting string and demonstrates tonal or sensory relationships; the celestial monochord consists of the orbits of planets intersecting an imaginary chain of being and demonstrates celestial or intellectual relationships; and the supra-celestial monochord, which cannot be seen or heard, represents the transcendent archetype.*6 Memory was a sub-discipline of Rhetoric. Its purpose was to help lawyers, statesmen and orators remember their carefully reasoned arguments and examples. Therefore, the art of memory dealt with creating specific, utilitarian memory images. The two main precepts of the system were 1) loci or memory places, usually the visual image of a building with many rooms, and 2) images agentes or vivid images which were either strikingly beautiful or appallingly ugly and placed in a logical sequence in the loci. thus, an orator, mentally walking through his memory house could systematically discourse on the images in each room.

Fludd adopts this Classical memory system in his Ars Memoriae , and puts it to use in the temple. The Temple (fig. 2) serves as the memory house and the various sections or rooms containing interesting, if not striking, images which later appear in detailed form in their corresponding books.

Though the link between music and memory is not mentioned per se in the temple, it certainly is utilized; and lest the reader miss this point Fludd efficaciously dedicates only De Templo Musicae and Ars Memoriae to the Marquis de Orizon, Vicomte de Cadenet,*7 a member of a circle of French intellectuals centered in Avignon.

Now prepared with some sense of Fludd's symbolic heritage, we will proceed to his own description of the temple.*8

The poets, whose efforts are accustomed to be assiduously engaged with fables and images, would be singing about the buildings and wonderful site of this temple. Indeed, they may have pursued

The poets, whose efforts are accustomed to be assiduously engaged with fables and images, would be singing about the buildings and wonderful site of this temple. Indeed, they may have pursued this subject with even greater acumen since, after all, music derived its name from their goddesses, the Muses, just as is evident from its etymology. I beseech, therefore, that I may ask pardon from them if I permit myself to be led very much without measure by the invention and stimulus of poetical madness in the description of this temple.

Thus, let us imagine this Temple of Music to be built on the top of Mt. Parnassus, the abode of the Muses, adorned in every part with eternally green and flowering woods and fields, and pleasantly surrounded by crystal fountains flowing here and there in different directions whose murmur often brings a peaceful sleep to passers by.

Birds frequent theses parts and inhabit the woods pouring forth diverse consonances of sound in greater symphony. They seem diligently to lay the basis or foundation by means of their higher, more piercing song; through their melody the Nymphs themselves around the temple, the Satyrs led through the woods by Sylvanus and the shepherds led through the fields by Pan, are all moved to engage in choral dances.

Among these delights, therefore, that divine gift of Apollo *9 is established, preserved and indeed worshipped by the adoration of all souls. All of its constituent parts are given up to peace and concord, in the mysteries of harmony and symphony, including the concords of heaven and the elements, so mutually bound to each other that it would be necessary for the whole world to perish and be reduced to nothing by the strifes of discord before these consonances would either disappear of be destroyed.

Therefore, the protectress or goddess of this temple is Concordia, ineffable Concord, great offspring of the Being of Beings, by whose adoration little things grow, and by whose contempt great things fall to pieces. Its guardian or priestess is Thalia, most delightful of the nine Muses, by the example of whose harmony the occult mysteries are explained to pilgrims who suppliantly seek her oracles.

Therefore, a man with a keen eye for knowledge will pay attention to any part of this structure and not disdain the smallest portion, because it is moved by that harmonic soul of Apollo in each part as in its whole. That spirit of music, after the manner of a zephyr, is accustomed to blow through all the sinews of this building, soothing and gladdening the souls of living beings, carrying away with itself the lusts of man, and restraining the madness of evil daemons as if imbuing them with a certain humanity.

You should eagerly contemplate the spiral revolution of the larger tower of the temple which denotes the motion of air, after it is caused to resound by sound or voice. the two doors represent the ears, the organs of hearing, without which the emitted sound cannot be perceived, nor may one enter this temple except by them. In the following place you will observe its three smaller towers representing the arrangements of notes, b rotundum b quadratum, and naturalis. And with observation of these, three rectangles must be carefully examined in order to determine the diverse natures, names and places of the aforementioned notes in the demonstrated system (anything placed under any tower is naturally related to that tower). The pipes or organs of these rectangles, distinct in their height, denote the difference of voices and sounds of any rectangle.

Indeed, the division of the column of this temple must not be disdained, since it will delineate the true proportions and diverse species of consonances. The clock must also be zealously pondered lest time waver unexpectedly or advance with too slow a pace, that is, one which does not observe proportion or measure. And so, this clock is a sort of guardian of the regular times of the notes and a most ample mirror of their simple value.

Why then will not the triangle of proportionate quantity have to be inspected, which probes into the diversity of the proportion of times in diminution as well as in augmentation and clearly shows the perfections and imperfection of the notes? Also the triangle of the system of harmonious intervals, as it were the end of all the remaining mysteries, ought to be looked into with no little care, since, through it and from it all the concords of music are produced, without which no harmony is made. Beyond this triangle is depicted the story in which the discovery of its consonances is told, namely the observations of Pythagoras, who passing by a certain blacksmith's shop by chance hearing an agreement from the striking of four hammers, ordered the hammers to be weighed, and from the difference of their weights he discovered the three musical proportions of consonances: diatesseron, diapente and diapason, which we have very plainly explained by the letters and connection of letters in the three *10 windows of the temple, which are equally of use in composition of musical harmony and the harmonical triangle.

Therefore, eager reader, if you keenly examined these parts of the temple, you will be a partaker of all of its mysteries and a great master of this excellent science.

BOOK I

Preposterous ass, that never read so far

To know the cause of why music was ordained!

The Taming of the Shrew, III; i

With music treatise from the English Renaissance in hand we need not read far to know the cause why music was ordained. the first few pages tell the story. It was a convention, carried on from the middle Ages, to begin any discussion of music with a brief recapitulation of music's etymology, definition, inventors and psychological effects. Virtually all English theorists followed this convention, *1 and Fludd was hardly an exception. Book I is entirely devoted to a lengthy discussion of these mentioned aspects of music.

Chapter I, "On the definition, etymology and inventors of music," is given in a family tree type outline known at the time as a Tree of Porphyry. This was a graphic arrangement of genus and species used by the third century philosopher Porphyry in his commentary on Aristotle's Categories. In this present "tree" the category of music is divided into the genera: definitio, etymologia and inventores. Definitio is then further divided into the species: generalis and specialis. Fludd's general definition of music follows:

Generally defined, music is the divine knowledge by which all worldly things are joined by unbreakable bonds and by which like is related to like by equal proportion in any object. this definition fits musica mundana, humana and instrumentalis. *2

From the first sentence we are told that music was ordained by virtue of its implicit doctrine of correspondences. The idea that all things are joined by an unbreakable bond (inviolato vinculo) echoes a passage found in Plato's Timaeus:

Out of these materials (the elements), such in kind and four in number, the body of the Cosmos was harmonized by proportion and brought into existence. These conditions secured for it Amity, so that being united in identity with itself it became indissoluble by any agent other than Him who had bound it together. *3

The indissoluble bond, for both Fludd and Plato, was proportion. It was by proportion that like was related to like, as the Macrocosm was related to the Microcosm. In UCH II, i, p. 275, Fludd illustrates this idea in his monochordum humaniae microcosmi (fig. 3). In this cut, man the microcosm and his various parts, anatomical, mental and spiritual, are harmonized by an unbreakable chain, i.e. the string and its various harmonious proportions.

The second sentence refers to the Boethian categories of music which are all related to one another by means of proportion (Boethius, De musica, bk. I, chap. ii).

Fludd's specific definition of music reads, "Specifically defined, music is the science of singing well, of playing lute and of composing propoer and fitting songs in lows and highs." *4 Music defined as a science of singing well (scientia bene) dates back to Augustine's De musica *5 and may have been popular prior to that time. The rest of the definition, also popular during the Middle Ages, is reminiscent of Plato's definition of a musician given in the Sophist (253 A).

These definitions of music are followed by various theories of the etymology of the word music. The first and most enigmatic theory states that, "the word is derived from moys, which in latin is water, as if it were a science discovered near water, because without the benefit of that humor no song or pleasure of voice subsists." *6

This definition, though Fludd does not give a source, is directly taken from Quator principalia (1351) *7 fludd gives us the passage verbatim, with the exception that he leaves out one word which tells us that moys is Greek. Unfortunately, there is no Greek work moys or •mu omega ypsilon zeta. The closest Greek work to this, and I suspect the word which was originally intended, is • mu omega ypsilon sigma alpha which means Muse or goddess of song, music, poetry and the fine arts. However, Renaissance theorists could not agree on the derivation of moys. Georg Reisch, in Margarita philosophica (1503), gives a similar definition but says that moys is Egyptian (sig. h iiii*r). Sir John Hawkins was also perplexed by a similar passage he found in the Cotton MS *8 and discusses it at length in a note in which he cites various Renaissance sources that give the derivation as Egyptian, Coptic and Hebrew. He finally concludes that it was Greek for the Muse.

for the notion that music was discovered near water, Hawkins offers Athanasius Kircher's "extravagent conjecture" that the Ancient Egyptian pipes or flutes were made from reeds growing on the banks of the Nile, suggesting that music was discovered by the Egyptians. The entire passage is a conundrum.

The next theory Fludd gives is also taken from Quattuor principalia (CS, IV, 203), and is the popular medieval derivation of the word music, probably having its source in Idisore's Etymologia (GS, I, 20). The theory says that music is derived from the Latin word for Muse, which, in turn, derived from the verb muso or "I seek," for the ancients thought that, "the Muses sought the power of songs and the modulation of the voice." *9 Fludd supports this by referring to Plato's Alcibiades, *10 wherein Socrates teaches Alcibiades the traditional Greek definition of music which embraces poetry, dancing and instrumental music, the arts presided over by the Muses.

To round off his list of etymologies Fludd concludes, "Thus, we imagine Thalia, who far excels the other eight (Muses) of her order in delight, as guardian of this temple." *11

Thus he impresses the memory image of Thalia, who stands in the alcove of the Temple, on his readers' minds. It should be noted that in medieval cosmologies the Muses were often associated with the planets, Thalia being the Muse aligned with Earth. Therefore, Fludd's choice of Thalia as the guardian and teacher of the secrets of the Temple follows this tradition, in that Thalia is the Muse ordained to aid the peoples of the earth. Here Fludd may have had in mind the series of correspondences that appear on the titlepage (fig. 4) of Franchino Gafori's Practica musice (Milan, 1496) in which Thalia is depicted as the mediary between heaven and earth, i.e. on earth she is seen as a muse and guide to man while in heaven she is pictured among the three Graces at Apollo's right hand. It should be noted that the motto above Apollo which reads, "Mentis Apollineae vis has movet undique musas," (The power of Apollo's mind move these Muses everywhere) has much in common with Fludd's description of Apollo's role in the Temple (p. 30).

Following the etymologies is a list of the inventors of music. fludd begins this list by mistakenly citing the Biblical Tubal (Genesis, 4:22) as the inventor of music instead of Jubal (Genesis 4:21), a common error since Isidore of Seville (d. 636). *12 The remainder of the first page is devoted to the traditional story of Pythagoras discovering the consonant intervals while passing by a blacksmith's shop, a story already mentioned in the description of the Temple and often retold in medieval and Renaissance music treatises. *13

Leaving the ancient inventors, Fludd turns to a brief cataloge of more modern inventors in the field of music: Boethius, Guido of Arezzo (for his system), and Franco of Cologne (for the establishment of the alteration, perfection and imperfection of the figures in measured music),

Chapter I ends with the following discussion on the discovery of musical instruments:

Now, in respect to the origin of music and the discovery of musical instruments, a great controversy arises among writers. Pythagoras himself claims that this discipline was not a man-made invention but an invention of the maker of the universe who made the heavenly spheres to move in a certain harmony by means of intervals and motions, from which music he affirms that the musica humana flowed forth.

The poets make Apollo the leader and ruler of this science and certainly not without reason, for according to them the sun is, as it were, the leader and prince of the spheres and ruler of the other stars, the mens or soul of the universe and heart of heaven itself.

Heraclides Ponticus makes Jove the inventor of songs. Amphion, the son of Zeus and Antiope, invented the lyre, and Terpander established the first rules for the lyre. According to Macrobius, Apollo invented the cithera and the aulos (tibia). Pythagoras, whose opinion wee will follow to a greater extent, first invented music. But according to Pliny, Amphion and Cethion revealed it first.

According to some, Lamisus Heroneus, Chabrinus' son (who is enumerated in place of Periander as one of the seven wise Greeks) wrote the first treatise on music. Tyrrhenus invented the trumpet, the Phrygians the aulos, the Latins the cithara, Mercury the lyre and Phanius the pipes (fistula). *14

The first two paragraphs show a certain ingenuity and sense of continuity by alluding to the general definition of music which began this chapter. A highlight of this definition is the analogy Fludd draws between Apollo, the sun-god, as ruler of music, and the sun as ruler or more precisely the heart and soul of the universe. This metaphor is clearly taken from Cicero's Somnium Scipionis. *15 Fludd frequently used this image in many of his illustrations *16 and he also recast this passage into a rhetorical question in Sophia cum moria certamen (1629, p. 103) as a reply to Mersenne's attack in Quaestiones in Genesim (1623). *17

The rather loosely-knit list of inventors mentioned in the closing paragraphs of chapter I could have been culled from any number of medieval sources and indeed seems to be a compilation.

Chapter II is "On the Different Types of Music," and begins with the following Tree of Porphyry:

•

This tree functions as a table of contents listing all the subjects to be discussed in the text of this chapter. Fludd's division of musica instrumentalis into harmonica, rhythmica and metrica is clearly Boethian (De musica, I:xxxiii), but Fludd's text is lifted straight from Quator principalia, chapter VI, "De musica instrumentali, armonica et rithmica" (CS, IV, 202).

The text of this chapter, however, begins with another peculiarly Fluddian description of music mundana.

One of the most unique features of the passage is the reference to the mathematician, physician, musician, and scholar Hieronymus Cardanus (1501 - 1576). *19 No other English or Continental theorist of the period cites Cardanus, though his encyclopedic works, De subilitate rerum and De varietate rerum enjoyed numerous printings.

Fludd's interest in Cardanus's works may have been sparked by John Dee, who was a personal friend of Cardanus. And as already mentioned, Dee's library contained well over sixteen works of Cardanus.

Though Fludd only draws on the opinions of Cardanus, without giving a specific citation, it seems he must have been referring to passages found in De varietate rerum (Basel, 1557) describing the sympathetic connection between macrocosm and microcosm such as this one found in book XVII:

Appendix III

Filmer MS 3

The only known musical compositions of Robert Fludd are the eleven dance pieces contained in the Filmer MS 3 at the Yale Music Library. *1 These works are written for two treble instruments and a bass and are bound in three-part books. The hand is quite poor, errors are frequent and rewrites prevalent. For an example see the facsimile in section b.

I have chosen two of the less problematic pieces for transcription. In the first piece, (sec. c) corrections have been made and notated in the accompanying list. The second piece (sec. d), in contrast, has not been corrected, thus allowing some of the clashes and awkward voice leadings to remain.

On the whole Fludd's pieces show no great skill; indeed, it appears that they could have been composed using Fludd's compositional devices described in Book V of the Temple.

NOTE *1 The Filmer Collection contains thirty-seven manuscripts which include a miscellany of works by French, Italian and English composers of the seventeenth century. For a description of the entire collection see Robert Ford, "The Filmer Manuscripts: A Handlist," Music Library Association Notes, 34 (June, 1978), 799 - 825.

a) A list of Fludd's pieces contained in the Filmer MS 3.

1. Dreame

2. Scale

3. Pavan I

4. Pavan II

5. Changes

6. Caranto

7. Almain I or Mottle

8. Almain II

9. A Toy

10. Branle (first treble only)

11. The May Game

• b) Facsimile of the treble I partbook, fols. 3 and 4.

NOTE *1 The Filmer Collection contains thirty-seven manuscripts which include a miscellany of works by French, Italian and English composers of the seventeenth century. For a description of the entire collection see Robert Ford, "The Filmer Manuscripts: A Handlist," Music Library Association Notes, 34 (June, 1978), 799 - 825.

References
Timaeus, 56B. Translation by Francis M. Cornford, The Liberal Arts Press, 1959, 61.
Godwin, Fludd: Surveyor, pl. 100.

excerpt from Todd Barton's thesis for OSU