... in song) is relatively modern. In the European Middle Ages, musica was part of the mathematical quadrivium - arithmetics, geometry, astronomy and musica. The concept of musica was split into three major kinds: musica universalis, musica mundana, musica instrumentalis. Of those, only the last - musica instrumentalis - referred to music as performed sound. Musica universalis referred to the order of the universe, as God had created it in "measure, number and weight". The proportions of the spheres of the planets and stars (which at the time were still thought to revolve around the earth) were perceived as a form of music, without necessarily implying that any sound would be heard - music refers strictly to the mathematical proportions. From this concept later resulted the romantic idea of a music of the spheres. Musica mundana designated the proportions of the human body. These were thought to reflect the proportions of the Heavens and ...

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