ABSTRACT
Once upon a time science, learning and knowledge were synonyms. ‘Science’ was by no means a metonymy for what we nowadays call the ‘natural’ or ‘hard’ sciences, and what was formerly called ‘Natural philosophy’. Rather, it stood for a particular kind of knowledge, as it was the translation for the Greek word episteme, which – according to the Aristotelian system – was the enquiry into what cannot be different from what it is, leading ultimately to knowledge of the causes, of the principles of things. These are also the characteristics of that particular knowledge about music, which Sir John Hawkins – author of A General History of the Science and Practice of Music – intends in the second half of the eighteenth century as ‘Science of Music’:
To remove the numberless prejudices respecting music [...]; to point out its various excellencies, and to assert its dignity, as a science worthy the exercise of our rational as well as audible faculties, the only effectual way seems to be to investigate its principles, as founded in general and invariable laws. 1
