Marin Mersenne’s “Harmonie Universelle” and Seventeenth-Century Percussion

Marin Mersenne’s Harmonie Universelle (1636) is a landmark seventeenth-century treatise on music theory and instruments. Mersenne devotes a full book to percussion, detailing drums used in music and military signals. He describes the tambourin provençal—played with one stick while the performer plays a flute—and early rudimental rolls, including the single-stroke roll. Mersenne also mentions the drum roll (roulement, or “long roll”), though exact techniques remain unclear. Linking percussion to music, mathematics, and natural philosophy, his work is a key early source on drum construction, rudimental practice, and the role of percussion in seventeenth-century music.

Read more here and download the full text or just the book about percussion (both in the original French).