Organas: a multiple and revealing historical path

Abstract

This  work  proposes  attestation  of  a  possible  hiatus  in  Western  organological studies by means an in-depth study of variations in names and descriptions, observed in written records and sources of the visual arts (such as sculptures and drawings): these were reinvestigated, added together  and  crossed  with  contexts  from  other  areas  such  as  History,  Sociology,  Linguistics  (etymology,  philology  and  others),  Mathematics  (statistics, comparative) and Comparative Literature (discourse analysis). The technique presented, which is referred to as onomato-organology, is fundamentally based on the Dialectical Methodology (Lakatos & Marconi, 2003,  p.  101-107;  Gil,  2008,  p.  16-20),  from  which  it  was  developed  that  so-called  “phenomena  surrounding  the  study”,  for  application  in  Organology,  would  imply  carrying  out  retranslations  with  attention  to  musicological  contexts  and  a  chronological  organization  of  records  based on the most remote citations observed, to estimate historical-social contexts; thus, based on the revised Chronology, Development underwent cross-analysis  of  variations,  identifying  patterns.  The  delimitation  to  records  related  to  the  generic  Greek  and  Latin  nomenclature  organa  was selected due to the peculiar development of appointments over the centuries, in understandings considered partial such as: organum at the same time pointed out as linked to the ancestry of modern organs, the harmony between voices and names of organologically very different instruments (wind, with and without bellows, with and without keyboards, chordophones).  Such  diffuse  understandings,  repeated  in  a  chain, would have hindered, until then, to deepen studies on historical remains observed both in nomenclatures and organological characteristics. In the possibly unique case of organs, the remains would have been pulverized into a wide range of different instruments, however, it was observed that it  was  possible  to  attest  to  all  processes  through  the  application  of  onomato-organology in the log historical of records. The main motivation is  to  collaborate  in  the  application  of  new  and  more  comprehensive  methodological  techniques  in  studies  on  musical  instruments  and  other  areas of Science.