Jules Combarieu: "Music is the art of thinking with sounds"

"La musica è l'arte di pensare attraverso i suoni".

"La musique est l'art de penser avec des sons, sans concepts".

"Music is the art of thinking with sounds".

Jules Combarieu's thesis that "music is the art of thinking with sounds, without concepts" serves as the absolute foundation of his musical sociology.

This perspective directly challenged the dominant 19th-century scientific and romantic views of musical experience.

Thinking "Without Concepts"

Non-Verbal Intelligence: Combarieu argued that music is a form of pure intellectual activity.

Autonomous Logic: Unlike spoken language, musical thoughts do not rely on standard vocabulary or literal definitions.

Abstract Reasoning: The brain processes melodies, chord structures, and rhythms as complex, self-contained semantic logic.

He viewed changes in musical style - such as the transition from monophony to complex modern polyphony - not as arbitrary shifts in fashion, but as the literal evolution of human intelligence over time.

Jules Combarieu (Cahors, February 4, 1859 - Paris, July 7, 1916) was a French musicologist.

He studied music first at the Ecole Niedermayer and later in Berlin as a student of Spitta.

He taught in high schools in Paris and in the years 1904-1910 he taught music history at the Collège de France.

He founded several publications such as the magazine Revue d'histoire et de critique music and the Revue Musicale.

Among his books are numbered: Les Rapports de la musique et de la poésie considerées au point de vue de l'expression (1894), Theorie du rythme dans la composition modern music (1897), La Musique, ses lois, son évolution (1907).

Jules Combarieu (Cahors, 4 febbraio 1859 - Parigi, 7 luglio 1916) musicologo Francese, è stato uno dei pionieri della sociologia e della storia della musica, celebre per la sua celebre definizione: «La musica è l'arte di pensare con i suoni».

Studiò musica dapprima all'Ecole Niedermayer e successivamente a Berlino come allievo di Spitta.

Insegnò nei licei parigini e negli anni che vanno dal 1904-1910 insegnò storia della musica al Collège de France.

Ha fondato varie pubblicazioni quali la rivista Revue d'histoire et de critique musicale e la Revue Musicale.

Tra i suoi libri vanno annoverati: Les Rapports de la musique et de la poésie considerées au point de vue de l'expression (1894), Théorie du rythme dans la composition musicale moderne (1897), La Musique, ses lois, son évolution (1907).