on "physical skill obeys like a handmaid while reason rules like a mistress." Instrumental music was, therefore, of a much lower order than vocal music, both in terms of its ability to participate in the ritual of praise and its reliance on mechanical skill rather than intellect. Instrumental music, or singing heavily augmented by instruments, could only call attention to itself and detract from the "ditty," thereby, as Augustine said, causing the distracted listener to offend God rather than praising him.
In emulating ancient authors, however, medieval theorists were "more concerned with the academic and philosophical aspects of music" than with details of practice and even simple references to instruments are "tantalizingly rare." No work earlier than Johannes Tinctoris' treatise (1487) offers substantial information about instruments and even that work is only concerned with instruments that can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome. Earlier works contain only hints of instruments' roles. The earliest mention of polyphonic instrumental
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