The Helmholtz Legacy in Physiological Acoustics

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This book explores the interactions between science and music in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century. It examines and evaluates the work of Hermann von Helmholtz, Max Planck, Shohé Tanaka, and Adriaan Fokker, leading physicists and physiologists who were committed to understanding crucial aesthetic components of the art of music, including the standardization of pitch and the implementation of various types of intonations. With a mixture of physics, physiology, and aesthetics, author Erwin Hiebert addresses throughout the book how just intonation came to intersect with the history of keyboard instruments and exert an influence on the development of Western music. He begins with the work of Hermann von Helmholtz, a leading nineteenth-century physicist and physiologist who not only made important contributions in vision, optics, electrodynamics and thermodynamics, but also helped advanced the field of music theory as well. The author traces the Helmholtzian trends of thought that become inherently more complex by reaching beyond the sciences to perform a bridge with aesthetics and the diverse ways in which the human mind interprets or is taught, in different cultures, to interpret and understand music. Next, the author explores the works of other key physicists and physiologists who were influenced by Helmholtz and added to his legacy. He examines Japanese music theory student Shohé Tanaka, who sought to design a harmonium that was not based on equal temperament but rather on just intonation. Dutch physicist Adriaan Daniel Fokker, who arranged for organs to be built based on 31-tones per octave, orchestrated concerts for these new instruments and even attempted to compose microtonal music, or music whose tonality is based on intervals smaller than the typical twelve semitones of Western music.

Author(s): Erwin Hiebert
Series: Archimedes: New Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology 39
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2014

Language: English
Pages: 269
Tags: Aesthetics; History of Science; Acoustics; Music

Front Matter....Pages i-xxiii
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
The Helmholtz Setting in the Johannes Müller Circle in Berlin....Pages 3-10
New Directions in Physiology in the Johannes Müller Circle in Berlin....Pages 11-19
From Physiology to Energy Conservation....Pages 21-25
Early Experience in Music-Making....Pages 27-32
Physiological Acoustics and Combination Tones....Pages 33-38
Physiological Causes of Musical Harmony....Pages 39-45
Sensations of Tone as the Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music....Pages 47-57
Just Intonation and the Harmonium....Pages 59-77
Front Matter....Pages 79-79
Introduction....Pages 81-84
Encounter with the Helmholtz Group in Berlin....Pages 85-89
The Papendick Sammlung....Pages 91-93
The Enharmonium....Pages 95-97
Expert Opinions. Evaluating the Enharmonium....Pages 99-106
With Bruckner in Vienna....Pages 107-110
Encounters with Music Theorists in Japan....Pages 111-122
Front Matter....Pages 123-123
Berlin: Capital of the New German Reich....Pages 125-130
From Thermodynamics to the Quantum of Action....Pages 131-139
Objective Laws as Stepping Stones to the Deity of Creation....Pages 141-192
Front Matter....Pages 193-193
Fokker: Theoretical Physicist....Pages 195-205
Fokker and the Teyler Foundation....Pages 207-211
Front Matter....Pages 193-193
Fokker Music Theorist....Pages 213-217
Temperament and the Circle of Fifths....Pages 219-226
Arithmetic Reflections on Music....Pages 227-234
Just Intonation and the 12-tone System (1949)....Pages 235-240
Confronting Developments in Contemporary Music....Pages 241-249
Refinement of Pitch....Pages 251-252
Neue Musik mit 31 Tönen....Pages 253-260
Back Matter....Pages 261-269