As a topic which straddles the domains of physiology, psychology and linguistic communication, the voice has been recognised in recent decades as an essential matrix for Western thought, partly because it is irreducible to words, whether written or spoken. By necessity, the voice is also central to early modern writings on music, for it is one area where nascent French musicography situated the specificity of music over language, as well as the articulation of the one to the other. Indeed, whilst the famous quip of Fontenelle – ‘Sonate, que me veux-tu?’ (‘Sonata, what do you want of me?’) – repudiated purely instrumental music as unintelligible, because it was devoid of verbal language which alone could carry signification, so instrumental music was in turn theorised by analogy with song, itself described and analysed according to characteristics of the voice, such as accent and pitch.