>> Kircher? Never heard of him of course. So I went through the link and its
>> quick sketch. Still not understanding why this guy should be celebrated...
>
> But also because Stephen Jay Gould wrote about him,
> and I'm usually interested in anything Gould was interested in.
FWIW: Kircher is an important figure in musicology. This from Oxford Music, ie the new Grove:
"Nevertheless, he compiled, especially in the massive Musurgia universalis, a compendium of musical facts and speculation that is still essential to an understanding of 17th-century music and music theory.
Musurgia universalis, one of the really influential works of music theory, was drawn upon by almost every later German music theorist until well into the 18th century. Its popularity was greatly aided by a German translation of a major part of it in 1662. Kircher wrote about music as an essentially conservative German rationalist, who saw it as a natural element in the Quadrivium, as part of mathematical order and, by extension, as a unique symbol of God’s order expressed in number. He continued to support the essentially medieval view that the cosmos was revealed in musical ratios and that musical harmony mirrored God’s harmony. This profoundly theological viewpoint of 17th-century German music theory (see Buelow) clearly extends as far as the music of Bach. Much of Kircher’s contrapuntal doctrine derives from Zarlino, and in this and some other respects Musurgia universalis presents a synthesis of 16th- and 17th-century Italian and German compositional practices. A specifically German feature, however, is the description of the affective nature of music, in which Kircher brought the concept of musica pathetica into relation with the formal constructive elements of rhetorical doctrine. He examined rhetorical structure, poetic metre and musical–rhetorical figures in some detail. In this way he suggested the means for achieving an emotionally expressive yet rationally controlled musical style. His ideas concerning the classification of musical styles, based on sociological as well as national characteristics, are also original and important for the study of Baroque music (see Katz). Although he was apparently not a practising musician he was able to identify the best music composed and performed in his own (and earlier) times. In Musurgia universalis he quoted frequently extensive music examples from composers such as Agazzari, Gregorio Allegri, Carissimi, Froberger, Gesualdo, Kapsberger, Domenico Mazzocchi and Morales. Other aspects of his treatise that contribute to an understanding of 17th-century musical thought include the lengthy discussions of acoustics, musical instruments (see WATER ORGAN, ), the history of music in ancient cultures and the therapeutic value of music."