Harmonie Universelle is a monumental (nearly 1600 pages!) seventeenth-century treatise on music theory and musical instruments by the French scholar Marin Mersenne. Published in 1636, it serves as a comprehensive encyclopedia, covering topics such as acoustics, temperament, musical composition, and instrument construction.
Marin Mersenne’s work is organized into several major sections, known as Traités, each of which contains multiple books (Livres). Translated from the original French, the principal sections are as follows:
• Traité de la nature des sons et des mouvements divers qui les causent (Treatise on the nature of sounds and the various movements that cause them)
• Traitez des consonances, des dissonances, des genres, des modes, et de la composition (Treatises on consonances, dissonances, genres, modes, and composition)
• Traitez des instrumens à cordes (Treatises on string instruments), comprising four books (Books 1–4)
• Traitez des instrumens à vent (Treatises on wind instruments), comprising two books (Books 5–6)
• Livre septiesme des instrumens de percussion (Seventh Book of percussion instruments)
• L’art de bien chanter (The art of good singing)
• De l’utilité de l’harmonie (On the utility of harmony)
The sections devoted to instruments are often grouped together under the collective title “Books on Instruments,” reflecting an organizational system based on instrument families.
The Seventh Book of percussion instruments addresses drums within the broader context of music theory, instrument construction, and early rudimental practice. Mersenne gives particular attention to ancient and contemporary percussion instruments, including the tambourin provençal (Provençal drum), a single-headed, rope-tensioned drum played with one stick while the performer simultaneously plays a flute. He also acknowledges early rudimental rolls, such as the single-stroke roll, and discusses percussion in relation to his mechanical philosophy of sound, which links musical practice to natural science and mathematics.
Military drums receive special emphasis in this section, especially in their role as signaling instruments. It is here that Mersenne refers to the drum roll (roulement, or “long roll”), recognizing it as an established practice in military drumming. While the existence and function of the roulement are clearly noted, Mersenne does not provide detailed technical instruction on its execution. As a result, questions concerning specific sticking techniques—such as whether seventeenth-century drummers employed single or double strokes—remain a subject of scholarly debate.
Through its detailed treatment of percussion instruments, particularly the Provençal drum, Harmonie Universelle stands as a key early source for understanding rudimental drumming, military signaling practices, and early instrument design within a broader scientific and philosophical framework.
Presented here for your continued exploration of our rudimental history is the full French text and the extracted Seventh Book of percussion instruments.
Harmonie Universelle – complete text in the original French (1600 pages total, in color)
Seventh Book of percussion instruments – addresses percussion specifically, also in French (60 pages, in color)
