"The Imperfect Seeks Its Perfection": Harmonic Progression, Directed Motion, and Aristotelian Physics

The modern theoretical concept of harmonic progression was first clearly articulated by Rameau. Yet in his Traité, this concept is still demonstrably linked (via Zarlino) with an older notion of harmonic progression: the late-medieval contrapuntal doctrine that “imperfect” dyadic sonorities “seek” or “require” resolution to specific “perfect” dyads. This doctrine first appears in Marchetto of Padua's Lucidarium (1317/18). Its explanation, the general principle that “the imperfect seeks its perfection,” is a scholastic formulation of a basic principle of Aristotelian physics: natural motions are directed toward a predetermined goal or “end” (telos), which is the “perfection” of the moved thing. The late-medieval application of this principle to counterpoint thus emerges as the probable origin of the concept of harmonic progression and, more broadly, of the widely accepted view of music as embodying “directed motion.”