Early Modern Music Cognition

Abstract Although W. C. Printz has not figured prominently in the history of music theory, this article argues that he deserves a place of great importance in the pre-history of music cognition. Drawing upon the broadest reading of Printz's oeuvre to date among Anglophone scholars, the article demonstrates that he was attuned to how sounding musical phenomena in the domains of rhythm and pitch can differ from how they “appear” or are “understood.” It concludes by considering Printz's overlooked, late-career summa, in which he adapts Descartes's Compendium musicæ to craft a yet stronger account of musical perception.