Book section : Chapter
The harmony of the spheres in English musical mathematics, 1650-1750
- Abstract:
- The seventeenth century was the period when some attempted to replace the 'sounding number' with the 'sounding body', in Paolo Gozza's apt formulation: to use mechanics and experiment to replace numerology in accounting for the role of small whole numbers and their ratios in musical tuning theory. Others abandoned altogether the exclusive reliance on whole-numbered ratios in the description of musical sound. As Vanhaelen and Prins argue, different models of the music of the spheres existed concurrently, and even within the works of individual writers we can discern multiple views of the subject apparently in tension with one another. By focusing on mathematical writings about music in particular, and on the English case, this chapter attempts to illustrate how such changes could take place, and in particular how authors with less—or no—interest in a numerological basis could continue to produce purely mathematical studies of music.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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Access Document
- Files:
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(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 380.5KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.4324/9781315161037
Authors
- Publisher:
- Routledge
- Host title:
- Sing Aloud Harmonious Spheres: Renaissance Conceptions of Cosmic Harmony
- Chapter number:
- 12
- Series:
- Warwick Studies in the Humanities
- Place of publication:
- New York
- Publication date:
- 2017-09-07
- Edition:
- 1st
- DOI:
- EISBN:
- 9781315161037
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Subtype:
-
Chapter
- Pubs id:
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826151
- Local pid:
-
pubs:826151
- Deposit date:
-
2021-02-06
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Taylor & Francis
- Copyright date:
- 2018
- Rights statement:
- © 2018 Taylor & Francis.
- Notes:
- This is the accepted manuscript version of the chapter. The final version is available online from Routledge at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315161037
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