Music Explained as Science and Art, And Considered in its Analogical Relations to Religious Mysteries, Ancient Mythology, and the History of the World

196 Pages·2.62 MB·English

by  Antoine Fabre d'Olivet, Jean Pinasseau, Joscelyn Godwin

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.
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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
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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).