Early Modern Music Cognition: The Case of W. C. Printz

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 history of music cognition. Surveying the breadth of Printz’s oeuvre, the article demonstrates the sophistication of his observations about 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 ideas on music perception to craft a well-grounded intellectual foundation for his earlier observations.