Treatises
Probably the most popular way that one learned to compose in the baroque was through reading treatises. For a small price, anyone could obtain knowledge about music regardless of his or her social standing or location. Through reading treatises, one could learn the art of canter, organum, descant, or counterpoint. This would be demonstrated in the treatises by familiarizing the reader of preexisting material.[1] It is unclear, however, how accessible majority of treatises were to the public because treatises were written down and passed around years before they were published. Additionally, many treatises did not add new material to the musical zeitgeist, but instead just elaborated existing practices. Often, the most treatises did was offer an extended lists of patterns that could be employed extemporaneously or written music.[2] However, we know that treatises were used as the curriculum in many cathedral and Latin grammar schools. We also know of treatises that were not only published, but have revisions made to them and subsequently republished multiple times during the baroque period. The topic of treatises is a rather large topic frought with dead ends and speculation. We can however, focus on some of the more influential treatises and the their respective authors. For the purpose of this paper, the treatise of John Playford and Jean-Phillip Rameau will be the focus.
John Playford
John Playford was born in 1623 and grew up to become a music publisher. Despite not being a musician or a composer himself, some accredit him to preserving English music and folk dances from being lost.[3] After publishing several editions of Dance books, of which he would become very well know for, Playford would publish his music treatise A Brief Introduction to the skill of Musick. The treatise covers various topics in music; from clefs and rhythms to part writing and descant. The book also covers how to play and notate the viols and violin. Additional chapters would be later added, written by Purcell, on the topic of counterpoint. Standard to treatises written during and before Playford’s, Introduction to the skill of Musick also contains a definition of music, mentioning of previous music scholars such as Guido Aretinus, lays ground rules for harmony, and cites said rules from Greek and Roman sources.
In the first chapter, Playford introduces the gamut, which spans several octaves. He includes both a solmization of the gamut as well as note names in their proper octave. A table as well as the notes written on a staff is provided as well. Multiple times through the chapter, he strongly urges the reader to memorize the gamut in its entirety. Playford even provides hypothetical situations that emphasis the importance of memorization. The next two chapters are brief and cover the topic of clefs, key signatures (or cleaves), and instructions on how to find the proper cleave for your voice. The next three chapters deal with note naming, flats and sharps, and semi-tones. Again, each of the chapters in this section is brief and direct. Chapter seven is considerably longer than the previous chapters, but not by many pages. This chapter goes into detail about rhythm and note value divisions. The first third of the chapter covers division in what we would consider a compound meter, i.e. in divisions of a beat into three. The second third of chapter deals with division at the duple, i.e. simple meter. The remaining part of the chapter deals with imperfect divisions and dotted rhythms. The chapter nine deals covers modes but does so in a very matter of fact way. There are almost no instructions in this chapter instead just list a chart of scales in each mode with their accompanying solfege.
The tenth chapter takes all the previous knowledge and applies it to what the treatise calls “tuning the voice.” In this chapter, Playford goes into detail on this topic and even provides real world examples of songs for the reader to practice. The next section is an instruction manual to playing the viol de gambo. This section goes on for 17 pages and gives very detailed instructions on tuning and playing the instrument. The section also contains easy musical examples for practice. After this section the treatises goes into the second part of the book, which is titled “The Art of Setting or Composing of Musick in Parts.” This section begins with a more in-depth review of scales before going into a section on counterpoint. This section goes into detail about four-part voice writing. Afterwards a section on harmony is presented in which instructions on how to build and use chords are present. The following and last section covers intervals and correct melodic progression. As one can see, Playford covers a number of topics that allows anyone to understand the basics to composing.
In later editions, a section about the divine and civil uses of music would be added, as well as rewrite of a chapter by Purcell. The Purcell edition would also add the descant chapter as well as more chapters on string playing. As stated in the cover of the last edition, corrections and additions to existing chapters were also made. Editions would also include, as he writes, “necessary plain Rules” to help beginner musicians with some more basic concepts; additionally, the books were written in a very plain non-floral language making the books easier to understand.[4] In total, 19 editions would be published between 1654 through 1730.[5] Playford’s treatise would act as a means for us to view the musical activities in England of all classes.[6] While the treatise provided would be composers a means of learning their craft on their own, it also provided the public the means to become more musically sophisticated. Through each edition, one can see the progression of music theory, and thus compositional pedagogy, as it evolves in England. This is especially pertinent due to the popularity of the treatise during its time.[7]
Jean-Philippe Rameau
The other defining treatise of the late baroque would come from French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. Rameau would obtain fame through his operas; it was his treatise, Traité de lharmoni, which would have some of the greater influence on composers of the late baroque and early classical period. In 1715, while signed as a cathedral organist, Rameau begins his investigation and writings on the foundation of musical harmony. In 1722, his treatise on harmony would be published gaining him even more fame.[8] One can see this influence through the speed in which his theory on fundamental bass spreads through Europe. Though he is not cited by name, one can see how his theory changed how composers wrote music. John Frederick Lampe, for example, begins to illustrate how a key was organized based on Rameau’s theory of fundamental harmonies. By the middle of the 18th century, Rameaian theory became the norm even by those who claimed ot reject his findings.[9]
In Traité de lharmoni—translates to Treatise on Harmony—Rameau argues that the rules of harmony are based on he natural overtone series. In book one of his treatise, he offers a way of generating any chord from the divisions of a single monochord string. From a combination of fifths and major or minor thirds, Rameau was able to create triads and seventh chords, which become the basis of harmony in the common practice period.[10] In the second book, Rameau lays the groundwork for the Fundamental bass as well as goal-oriented harmony. In order to explain his goal-oriented harmony, Rameau uses ancient explanations of motion in contrapuntal theory—particularly in regards to dissonance resolution. He argues that the dissonance’s need to resolve is the link between two chords, particularly the seventh chord’s fundamental dissonance. Rameau coins the term dominant-tonique to further underscore this relationship of the dominant seventh chord resolution to the tonic.[11] Rameau also goes into detail over other harmony-based topics; such as cadences, irregular motion in the bass, leading tones, and inversions. Unlike Playford, Rameau goes into much more detail on each of these topics. Entire chapters are dedicated to preparing discords, as well as where discords cannot be prepared. The treatise also covers keys, modes, and modulations; a topic not covered in the Playford treatise. Rameau also goes over other aspects of music other than purely harmonic based principles. Chapters on rhythm, imitations, canon, and fugues can also be found in the treatise.
Many of what Rameau writes in Traité de lharmoni is already in practice to some degree. Rameau especially just codifies and improves upon the musical traditions of the norm during the baroque. He provides a detailed analysis and even real world examples of common music practices. Despite the great amount of detail that goes into his treatise, it is not without its inconsistences, as well as criticism from both his contemporaries and modern scholars.[12] For critics, Rameau was unable to justify convincingly notions as the generation of irregular seventh chords or the problem of generating minor thirds directly from the octave.[13] Other issues and theoretical discoveries would come after the publication of the treatise. Rameau would also make additions to his own theories after the publication of his treatise; perhaps the most important would be the introduction of the sousdominante or subdominant. Rameau would spend his final four decades debating his theories with other philosophers and finding a systematic or natural basis for his practical theories. He would also redefine his theories after he becomes aware of the acoustical research of Joseph Sauveur. What Sauveur did in his research was to find that what Rameau painstakingly deduced from the ratios of vibrating strings happened naturally. This caused Rameau to redefine the basis of his harmonic theory from a Cartesian deductive system to a Newtonian empirical system.[14] Despite any of its initial perceived shortcomings, Rameauian theory would change thinking about harmony towards directional tonal music. His theories would also elevate harmony theory to a science attracting the attention of scientist and mathematicians.[15]
If we were to compare the treatises of Playford and Rameau we could see a sizable difference. As mentioned, Playford uses a simple language for ease of comprehension. Rameau treatise, though not floral in its language, uses a more elevated language as well as a number of new terms that the average amateur and beginning composer might not know. The content of both treatises are also very different and demonstrates the different audiences both treatises were intended. Playford’s treatise covers mainly very basic and practical topics such as names of notes, clefs, rhythms, and in later editions counterpoint. Playford also includes sections on how to play violins and viols. Rameau covers these topics briefly as well except for instrumental instructions, however he goes much more into detail with harmony, cadences, fundamental bass, and voice leading. One can surmise from this that Playford’s treatise is a much more practical guide to writing music as where Rameau’s treatise is more of a theoretical guide. Regardless, each treatise provided its readers a compressive guide to composing. Any would be composer during the baroque could buy one of these treatises and learn the necessary skills to compose
[1] Benjamin John Williams, “Music Composition Pedagogy: A History, Philosophy and Guide,” (DMA Diss., Ohio State University, 2010), 24.
[2] Williams, “Music Composition Pedagogy: A History, Philosophy and Guide,”
[3] W, Barclay Squire, “John Playford,” Music & Letters, Vol. 4, No. 3 (1923): 261-265.
[4] Wendy Heller, Music in the Baroque, 138.
[5] Frank Kidson, “John Playford and 17th Century Music Publishing,” The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 4 (1918): 516-534.
[6] Wendy Heller, Music in the Baroque, 146.
[7] W, Barclay Squire, “John Playford.”
[8] Alan S. Curtis, “Jean-Philippe Rameau,” Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc, accessed April 28, 2014, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/490604/Jean-Philippe-Rameau
[9] Joel Lester, “Rameau and the eighteenth-century harmonic theory,” in The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory, ed. Thomas Christensen (Cambridge, United Kindom; Cambridge University Press, 2002) 772.
[10] Joel Lester “Rameau and the eighteenth-century harmonic theory,” 760.
[11] Joel Lester “Rameau and the eighteenth-century harmonic theory,” 761.
[12] Wendy Heller, Music in the Baroque, 214.
[13] Joel Lester “Rameau and the eighteenth-century harmonic theory,” 760.
[14] Joel Lester “Rameau and the eighteenth-century harmonic theory,” 769-770.
[15] Joel Lester “Rameau and the eighteenth-century harmonic theory,” 774.
