On the lute, ‘an instrument on which both are hands are employed, we must therefore keep time with a foot’. Mace’s Aristotelean time requires steady motion to drive it, and – according to the philosophy of the Music of the Spheres – the motion of music imitates the perfect movement of the stars and the harmonious nature of the human body. Not until a century or so later would Newton’s concept ( Principia, 1687) of Absolute Time gain general acceptance. The inter-dependence of Time and Motion is rooted in Aristotle’s definition of Time as ‘a number of motion, in respect of before and after’. And Mace gives us plenty of further detail of how to keep time.

This alone should be enough to settle any debate. In all musical performances whatever, if they be done according to Art, they are done according to the Rule of Time-Keeping Concerning time-keeping, Mace’s instructions for beginners and comments for advanced players are found in the The Civil Part: or the Lute made Easie, starting at page 78:

Its 272 pages are divided into three parts, on the Necessity of Singing, the Noble Lute and the Generous Viol. The book includes many music examples, even complete pieces and suites, in tablature. This suggestion, and the mis-reading of period texts as if they supported it, is so commonly encountered, that I took up the challenge, and re-read the whole of Mace’s 1676 treatise Musick’s Monumentto find out what Thomas actually wrote. My provocation drew the hoped-for riposte, with a suggestion that 17th-century lutenist Thomas Mace thought that ‘playing in time is for beginners’. In a recent online discussion in the Historical Performance Research group, I gaveĪ timely warning to anyone who might be tempted by the idea that Rhetorical Eloquence is somehow contrary to rhythmical or harmonic structure.

Wordrake humor cutting excess verbiage