Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

North, Roger

(b Tostock, Suffolk, 1651; d Rougham, Norfolk, March 1734). English lawyer, writer, philosopher, historian of music and amateur musician, younger brother of francis North.

1. Life.

2. Philosophy.

JAMIE C. KASSLER

North, Roger

1. Life.

He was the youngest child of Dudley, 4th Lord North, and Anne (née Montagu), and lived for some years in his grandfather’s house at Kirtling, Cambridgeshire. Falling ill to infection with gastric and encephalitic symptoms (c1657), he was educated privately and then at the free schools of Bury St Edmunds and Thetford. He entered Jesus College, Cambridge (30 October 1667), where he was tutored by his brother John. A second illness terminated his university studies. He was admitted to the Middle Temple, London, on 21 April 1669, and on 29 May 1674 he was called to the bar. His public appointments included Steward to the See of Canterbury (1679), King’s Counsel (1682), the Duke of York’s Solicitor General (1684) and the Queen’s Solicitor General (1685) and Attorney General (1686). On 16 January 1676 a fire broke out in the Middle Temple, after which North resided with his brother Francis. The fire led to an acquaintance with Christopher Wren, who was invited to design the new cloisters (30 November 1680); the design of the Great Gateway (which still gives access to the Temple from Fleet Street), long thought to be Wren’s, was by North himself. After the Revolution of 1688, when North was forced to resign from public life, he moved to a house in Covent Garden leased from the estate of Peter Lely. Here he sorted through the papers of his brother Francis, wrote notes and animadversions on some of them, and commenced his ‘scribbling’ on music and other subjects. In 1692, after the funeral of his brother Dudley, he began remodelling his estate in Rougham, Norfolk (purchased 1690). On 26 May 1696 he married Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Gayer, and of their seven surviving children, the second son, Montagu, became custodian of North’s manuscripts and his first editor. From these manuscripts we learn that music was ‘the exercise’ of North’s youth; that he was ‘imprest by the continuall use of it, in the family of my education’; and that it ‘hath ever since bin my companion, and delight in all my solitudes as well as societys’. Therefore, ‘I may be alowed to have no small esteem for it; as a man of honour loves his freind as such tho not esteemed by others’ (Cursory Notes of Musicke, p.1 of edn).

Some of North’s activities as a music lover are preserved in his literary masterpiece, Notes of Me (c1698). Written after the loss of his three brothers as well as his public appointments, this text includes a poignant assay of whether suicide is lawful, thus giving a clue to North’s reasons for ‘idiography’ (his term, General Preface, p.78 of edn). His self-portrait is modelled in part on the Essayes of Michel de Montaigne (1533–92), whose irony had darkened North’s father’s melancholy. North’s tone is not consistently dark, however; rather, his ‘drye mock’ is that of one who, standing aside from events, writes with moderation occasionally embellished by exaggeration, as he tries to cast a beam of light on his own life, for example: ‘I became, as I thought, a master of composition, which was a great pleasure, and I essayed some compositions of three parts, which I cannot commend’ (Notes of Me, p.83 of Jessopp edn).

North drew his data from events within his personal knowledge and experience, but his judgement of these events illuminates contemporary musical life generally, including music in entertainment, in education, in performance and in technology. From North’s grandfather’s time, music had served as a harmonizing influence within country households. As his father wrote: ‘Of pastimes within dores Musick may challenge [religion as] the next place to Study, and it is more sociable, for it entertains many at the same time’ (GB-Lbl Add.32523, f.6v). The North household, therefore, included one or more resident music masters, who, in North’s youth, were John Lilly (theorbo), Henry and George Loosemore (organ) and John Jenkins (viol). With the last, North also studied the principles of music and composition. Since teacher and pupil became close friends, Jenkins probably encouraged North’s interest in educational methods; for example, that beginners in music ‘should be trained as in manufacture and trades, first taught to provide the material and then to put it together, and lastly to finish it’ (Notes of Me, p.75 of Jessop edn). In this comparison North emphasized productivity; but new methods were coming into vogue that emphasized receptivity: the beginner was to be cultivated like a plant, the principles of his or her education being derived from materials placed before his or her senses. Still other social changes were underway, as resident music teachers were replaced by itinerant ones; and as private consorts of viols were becoming less fashionable than public concerts with violins. In 1709 North’s own children had music lessons with a ‘rare harpsi[c]ordiere’ (Lbl Add.32501, f.60), no doubt François de Prendcourt, whose treatise North copied and subsequently put under critical scrutiny. Between about 1674 and 1685 North himself performed in a weekly music meeting of gentlemen amateurs and professionals that included the violinist Nicola Matteis (i), whose virtuosic playing so impressed North that he was prompted to examine and put to critical test the new bowing techniques and ornamentation by comparison with older practices. The word ‘vibrato’ had yet to be coined; and North provided an early description, representing the practice as a wavy line, because he was unable to find the appropriate nomenclature (Notes of Me).

These and other changes made North keenly aware of the need for printed scores. To this end, he sought to reduce the expense of copperplate engraving (introduced c1683) by urging composers to learn reverse writing and, then, to buy and etch copperplates themselves. As a demonstration, North engraved in score ‘a sonata or two’ and gave the plate to the music publisher, John Carr, ‘but found none to follow the industry of my example’ (Notes of Me, p.89 of Jessop edn). This took place when North was treasurer of the Middle Temple (c1682–4), in which capacity he invited the organ builders Bernard Smith and Renatus Harris to submit designs for a new organ for the Temple Church. The successful tenderer, Smith, afterwards built North’s organ (Lbl Add.32531, f.1), which was set up in the long gallery at Rougham when North was completing his first systematic treatise on music (Cursory Notes of Musicke, p.1 of edn).

North, Roger

2. Philosophy.

North’s writings on music fall within the Augustan tradition of a wit who exercises judgement in commenting on the contemporary scene. This tradition was the seedbed for the emergence of historiography generally, including the music historiography that he was the first to produce during the closing years of his life. But North also turned his thoughts ‘with more than ordinary intentness to search of truth in the way of phisicks’ (Cursory Notes of Musicke, p.1 of edn). Hence, his critical ‘examen’ includes both the science and the art of music. In these two domains North was innovative in at least four ways: before Vaucanson (1738), he understood how certain wind instruments produce sound; before Diderot (1748), he elaborated a physics of beauty that stressed activity, not the matter, in things as having ontological significance; before Rameau (1722), he developed a theory of harmony as individual chords that function in relation to a chord root and within a key; and before Hawkins (1776) and Burney (1776–89), he rejected the traditional explanation that music was a gift of the gods or God or that it was invented by Jubal or Tubalcain, outlining instead a naturalistic theory of the origin of music and arguing that historical change comes chiefly through new musical ideas and new musical technology.

North’s chief innovation, however, was epistemological, since before Helmholtz (1863–77) he sought the origin of music in empirical consciousness by arguing that such knowledge grows out of simple sense perception by way of repetition (association) and subconscious inference, and by stressing that an important part of sensory knowledge derives from movement, since ‘actions of the body are, as I may say, mentally performed, [and] the imagination will follow use’ (Lbl Add.32531, f.17). To develop this type of epistemology, North treated music as a form of communication involving the motion of sound generators, the motion of the medium of sound and the motion within the perceiver. To show how music conveys emotion and meaning, he analysed it in terms of disorder, which provides a measure of uncertainty (Cursory Notes of Musicke). As a piece of music unfolds, the listener acquires certain expectations from memories of previous cultural knowledge. When those expectations are momentarily frustrated, such as in a delayed cadence or extended embellishment, the attentive listener becomes more engaged and consequently more receptive to an emotional or meaningful response. This type of theory is what we now call ‘information theory’, since it stresses the importance of uncertainty in musical communication and the probabilistic nature of musical style.

In about 1698 North’s starting-point was a coincidence theory, in which pitch is related to rates of vibration (frequencies) of the source of sound. When pulses of air produced by different pitches coincided frequently in agreement, concord occurred and was heard; but when pulses coincided infrequently or broke in on one another, the result was discord. The direct cause of concord was thus related to a physical phenomenon that provided a natural, or rational, connection between pulses and harmony. But if data is communicated as a composition of pulses, how is musical knowledge possible? To answer this question, North conceived the mind as a computer that, in sensation, processes pulses subconsciously by counting. If pulses strike us faster than we can count, the mind collects them into larger units or pitches. But pitches do not merely exist at the moment they are heard, they also endure in memory and relate to what came before and what follows after. Memory, therefore, accepts or rejects a pitch as harmonically functional by a process of comparison. Once stocked with data from sensation and memory, imagination produces new ideas by means of a rudimentary probabilistic mechanics of combinations and permutations, whereby pitches change their position and arrangement, as, for example, in chord inversions.

The origin of musical knowledge, and the condition of its possibility, is the intuition of time that underlies the act of counting. But musical knowledge itself depends, for art, on acquired memories and, for science, on ‘a stock of collected truths’. Thus, harmony is not in the world of eternal ideas, as the Platonists supposed, but in ‘a musicall ear’ that has acquired ideas of consonance, ‘as if such were so many distinct essences’ (Lbl Add.32549, f.94v). Take musical memory away, and nothing is left but pulses. North thus rejected the Platonic notion of harmony or beauty as a ‘sort of divine stamp’ on our nature, as well as the Cartesian spatial model of memory as an instantaneous impression on wax. Instead, he relied on a temporal model of memory as a vibrating string, when he wrote (Lbl Add.32537, f.93):

any one … may trye, and by a world of instances, find that after he hath heard one note, some that follow, will not agree so well as others, but after the former note ceaseth the memory of it makes as exquisite discord or concord as if the two sounded together. Which would make one think that memory is a sort of vibration, as the sound of a string after it is toucht, continues, so the sence being toucht continues to vibrate as the string; and thereby memory of a former, and of a present sound, make harmony or discord, by actual agreements or disagreements as divers sounds together.

By conceiving memory as temporal and mind as computational, North revealed his indebtedness to Hobbes, even though he described Descartes as ‘the most transcendent genius’ (Lbl Add.34546, f.213v). But North also asserted: ‘I am not a Cartesian in the sense of the academicks so as blindly to idolize him, but am glad as they are (but with more civility) to use him’ (Lbl Add.34546, f.221v). As this statement indicates and as his writings demonstrate, North was a philosophical descendant of Cicero and eclecticism, even though the convictions that guided his eclectic procedure led him to adopt positions attributable either to Descartes or to Hobbes (or to their followers).

Some of these positions may be traced in North’s thinking about musical thinking that began about 1698 and continued to about 1733, when he produced some 2000 pages of sketches for, as well as three different versions of, his theory of musical cognition. These pages are not mere rewritings; rather, they reflect his belief that knowledge acquisition in science and art is dynamic: knowledge of natural truth grows by hypothesis and experiment, whereas knowledge of beauty grows by convention and use. But science and art are not measured by ‘one man’s caprice … but [by] the agreement of many, and the best’ (Lbl Add.32531, f.47), so that the criterion of truth and beauty is intersubjectivity. Science and art are thus integral to North’s theory, the importance of which has been obscured by scholarly practices that fragment his thought, ignore his intentions or value historiography above other types of writing. But when North chose knowledge of natural truths for his special diversion and study, he was confident that such knowledge (Lbl Add.32546, ff.194–194v):

is what [human] nature leads directly to, and advanceth in us by continuall degrees more or less from the first opening our eys in the world, to the finall closing them againe. And hath so little relation to fraud or profit as scarce corruptible that way, but is courted for its owne sake purely … [and] in its cours, as auxiliary, takes in a reasonable skill in all other arts whatsoever, so that a profest naturalist may not without blushing, be absolutely ignorant of any thing.

This was his apology ‘for the bold a[d]ventures’ to be met with in his papers.

WRITINGS

those devoted solely to music; all MSS, in GB-Lbl unless otherwise stated; for further details see Hine, Chan and Kassler (1986), Chan, Kassler and Hine (1988) and Chan and Kassler (1989); biographical writings listed in the bibliography also contain references to music

early period (c1698–c1707)

preparatory writings

Some Notes upon an Essay of Musick [by F. North] printed, 1677, by way of comment, and Amendment (Add.32531), ff.42–52v

Vossius de viribus Rithmi (Add.32531), ff.53–8v

Memorandums as to the phisicall solution of this theory [of Francis Roberts] (Add.32549), ff.34v–5

Some memorandums, concerning Musick (Add.32532), ff.1–26v

completed theory

Cursory Notes of Musicke (Rougham, Norfolk); ed. M. Chan and J.C. Kassler (Kensington, NSW, 1986)

Middle period (c1708–c1720)

preparatory writings

Untitled on the theory of sound and music (Add.32537), ff.66–109v

Sound (Add.32537), ff.110–32v

Of Sounds (Add.32537), ff.133–48v

Frags., some titled, on the theory of sound and music (Add.32537), ff.149–241v

completed theory

Short easy, and plaine rules to learne in a few days the principles of musick, and chiefly what relates to the use of the espinette harpsicord or organ (Add.32531), ff.8–23v [F. de Prendcourt’s tracts, with North’s commentary]

The Theory of Sounds taking rise from the first principles of action that affect the sence of hearing, and giving phisicall solutions of tone, harmony and discord, shewing their anatomy, with the manner how most instruments of musick are made to yeild delicious, as well as triumphant sounds, with intent to leav no mistery in musick untoucht (Add.32534), ff.1–82v

An Essay of Musicall Ayre: Tending chiefly to shew the foundations of melody joyned with harmony, whereby may be discovered the native genius of good musick, and concluding with some notes concerning the excellent art of voluntary (Add.32536), ff.1–90

late period (c1721–c1730)

preparatory writings

Theory of Sounds shewing, the genesis, propagation, effects and augmentations of them reduced to a specifick inquiry into the cripticks of harmony and discord, with eikons annexed exposing them to occular inspection (1726, Add.32535), ff.1–73v

The Musicall Grammarian or a practick essay upon harmony, plain, and artificiall with notes of comparison between the elder and later musick, and somewhat historicall of both (Add.32533), ff.1–151v

Untitled frag. (Add.32537), ff.1–65v

completed theory

Theory of Sounds shewing, the genesis, propagation, augmentation and applications of them … with eikons annexed esposing them to occular inspection (1728, Add.32535), ff.74–149

The Musicall Grammarian being a scientifick essay upon the practise of musick (1728, GB-H R.11.xliii), ff.1–147v; ed. M. Chan and J.C. Kassler (Cambridge, 1990)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

R. North: General Preface (MS, GB-Cjc James 613) and The Life of Dr. John North (MS, Lbl Add.32514); ed. P. Millard in Roger North: General Preface and Life of Dr. John North (Toronto, 1981)

R. North: The Life of the Lord Keeper North (MS, GB-Cjc James 613); ed. M. Chan (Lewiston, NY, 1995)

R. North: Notes of Me (MS, GB-Lbl Add.32506), ff.1–194; ed. A. Jessopp as The Autobiography of the Hon. Roger North (London, 1887) [bowdlerized]; ed. P.T. Millard (Toronto, forthcoming)

M. North, ed.: The Life of the Right Honourable Francis North (London, 1742) [pastiche from various MSS]

M. North, ed.: The Life of the Honourable Sir Dudley North … and the Honourable and Reverend Dr. John North (London, 1744) [pastiche from various MSS]

D. Diderot: Memoires sur differens sujets de mathematiques (Paris, 1748)

H. von Helmholtz: Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen als physiologische Grundlage für die Theorie der Musik (Brunswick, 1863, 4/1877; Eng. trans., 1875, 2/1885/R, 6/1948 as On the Sensations of Tone)

A. Jessop, ed.: The Lives of the Norths (London, 1890/R) [pastiche from various MSS]

J. Wilson, ed.: Roger North on Music: Transcribed from his Essays of c.1695–1728 (London, 1961) [extracts from various MSS arranged in quasi-chronological order]

P.T. Millard: ‘The Chronology of Roger North’s Main Works’, Review of English Studies, new ser., xxiv (1973), 283–94

J.C. Kassler: The Science of Music in Britain 1714–1830: a Catalogue of Writings, Lectures and Inventions (New York, 1979), ii, 798–802

D. Lasocki: Preface to facs. of J. de Vaucanson: Le mécanisme du fluteur automate (Buren, 1979)

F.J.M. Korsten: ‘Roger North (1651–1734), and his writings on Science’, Lias, viii (1981), 203–24 [incl. list of correspondence]

F.J.M. Korsten: Roger North (1651–1734): Virtuoso and Essayist (Amsterdam, 1981)

D.J.B. Randall: Gentle Flame: the Life and Verse of Dudley, Fourth Lord North (1602–1677) (Durham, NC, 1983)

M. Chan: ‘On Editing Roger North’s Writing on Music’, Early Music New Zealand, ii (1986), 3–9

J.D. Hine, M. Chan and J.C. Kassler: Roger North’s Writings on Music to c.1703: a Set of Analytical Indexes with Digests of the Manuscripts (Kensington, NSW, 1986)

M. Chan, J.C. Kassler and J.D. Hine: Roger North’s The Musicall Grammarian and Theory of Sounds: Digests of the Manuscripts with an Analytical Index of 1726 and 1728 Theory of Sounds (Kensington, NSW, 1988)

M. Chan and J.C. Kassler: Roger North: Materials for a Chronology of his Writings (Kensington, NSW, 1989)

J.C. Kassler: Inner Music: Hobbes, Hooke and North on Internal Character (London, 1995)

M. Chan, J.C. Kassler and J.D. Hine: Roger North’s Writings on Music c.1704–c.1709: Digests of the Manuscripts with Analytical Indexes (Kensington, NSW, 1999)

M. Chan, J.C. Kassler and J.D. Hine: ‘Roger North's “Of Sounds” and Prendcourt Tracts: Digests and Editions with an Analytical Index’ (Kensington, N.S.W., 2000)