Nicolas MEEÙS, Les véritables causes de l’état d’ignorance… “The true causes of the state of ignorance”, Jean-François Boëly, 1806

Abstract

The work published by Jean-François Boëly in 1806, following the adoption of
Catel’s Traité d’harmonie by the Paris Conservatoire, retained the attention mainly
because of its polemic tone. However, some of the points of theory that Boëly
merely sketches, unfortunately, are not devoid of interest. In particular, Boëly
strongly links the function of chords to their form : perfect chord for the tonic,
“accord sensible” (i. e. dominant seventh) for the “dominante-tonique”, “dissonant
sixth” for the subdominant and “simple seventh” for the second degree. One would
wish to know more about the theorist.