Article: The true causes of the state of ignorance, Jean-François Boëly, 1806

Nicolas MEEUS

Professeur à l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, Rédacteur en chef de Musurgia.

Abstract

The work published by Jean-François Boëly in 1806, following the adoption of Catel’s Traité d’harmonie by the Paris Conservatoire, retained the attention mainly because of its polemic tone. However, some of the points of theory that Boëly merely sketches, unfortunately, are not devoid of interest. In particular, Boëly strongly links the function of chords to their form : perfect chord for the tonic, “accord sensible” (i. e. dominant seventh) for the “dominante-tonique”, “dissonant sixth” for the subdominant and “simple seventh” for the second degree. One would wish to know more about the theorist.