On Music
by Boethius · De institutione musica
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- c. 500
- Form
- Treatise
- Language
- Latin
- Length
- Medium · 200 pp120 to 300 pages
- Difficulty
- Difficult4 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendFundamentals of Music, translated by Calvin M. BowerYale University Press, 1989The only complete English translation, edited by Claude V. Palisca with the diagrams and a full introduction.
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Boethius's treatise on music as a mathematical science, drawing on Nicomachus and Ptolemy, which served as the university textbook on the subject for a thousand years. It divides music into cosmic, human and instrumental, ranks the musicus who understands proportion above the performer, and sets out the Pythagorean theory of consonance, the ratios of the intervals, the division of the monochord, the Greek tonal system and the modes. The fifth book, unfinished, compares the rival schools of Pythagoras and Aristoxenus.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns On Music are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
