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Universal Harmony in the Age of Eloquence

Mersenne and the Uses of Rhetoric
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Working from a monastic cell in Paris, French polymath and savant Marin Mersenne became a key facilitator of the early scientific revolution. An interdisciplinary music theorist, Mersenne drew from the burgeoning field of rhetoric to describe, analyze, and teach musical structures. At a time when the heart of seventeenth-century rhetoric seemed to be firmly in Germany, Marsenne's writings demonstrate that these phenomena extended far beyond those borders. Universal Harmony in the Age of Eloquence uses Mersenne's work as a case study to examine the exchange between music and rhetoric in early modern music theory. Author Andre de Oliveira Redwood argues that, although features of Mersenne's writings have often been dismissed as stylistic defects or signs of muddled thinking, they reflect a deliberate rhetorical approach and an epistemological posture consistent with principles of sacred invention. Mersenne's Harmonie universelle serves as a prime example, demonstrating that the affinities between musical and rhetorical thought exist precisely because they are grounded in mathematics and the physical properties of sound. An important contribution to our understanding of seventeenth-century French music and culture, Universal Harmony in the Age of Eloquence offers a new vision of scientific and musical inquiry undertaken in the service of theological reflection.
Andre de Oliveira Redwood is Assistant Professor in the Department of Music & Theatre at the University at Albany, SUNY.
Note on Abbreviations, Citations, and Translations Note on Citing Harmonie universelle List of Figures Introduction Part I 1. Reframing Rhetoric and Music Theory 2. Preachers and Polymaths 3. Mersenne, Rhetorician Part II 4. Making Eloquent Music 5. Sound, Voice, Delivery 6. Music for the Orator Epilogue: Harmony as Aptum Bibliography Index
"Even though Mersenne studies have captured the attention of a new generations of scholars who are and will be publishing important research on the subject, Universal Harmony in the Age of Eloquence stands alone in its holistic approach with rhetoric as its focal point. The book is especially important because it supplies the key that unlocks our understanding of Mersenne's Harmonie universelle as a whole and its relevance to other studies on seventeenth-century French music, literature, culture, and society" - Catherine Gordon, author of Music and the Language of Love
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