1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910778268203321

Autore

Barker Andrew <1943-2021, >

Titolo

The science of harmonics in classical Greece / / Andrew Barker [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2007

ISBN

1-107-18386-3

1-281-14636-6

9786611146368

1-139-13328-4

0-511-36713-9

0-511-48246-9

0-511-36650-7

0-511-36587-X

0-511-36772-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 481 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

781.2/30938

Soggetti

Music - Acoustics and physics

Musical intervals and scales - Greece - History - To 500

Music theory - Greece - History - To 500

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Beginnings, and the problem of measurement -- Empirical harmonics before Aristoxenus -- The early empiricists in their cultural and intellectual contexts -- Interlude on Aristotle's account of a science and its methods -- Aristoxenus--the composition of the Elementa harmonica -- Aristoxenus--concepts and methods in Elementa harmonica book 1 -- Elementa harmonica books 2-3 -- Elementa harmonica book 3 and its missing sequel -- Contexts and purposes of Aristoxenus' harmonics -- Pythagorean harmonics in the Fifth Century -- Developments in Pythagorean harmonics -- Plato -- Aristotle on the harmonic sciences -- Systematising mathematical harmonics -- Quantification under attack -- Postscript--the later centuries.

Sommario/riassunto

The ancient science of harmonics investigates the arrangements of



pitched sounds which form the basis of musical melody, and the principles which govern them. It was the most important branch of Greek musical theory, studied by philosophers, mathematicians and astronomers as well as by musical specialists. This 2007 book examines its development during the period when its central ideas and rival schools of thought were established, laying the foundations for the speculations of later antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It concentrates particularly on the theorists' methods and purposes and the controversies that their various approaches to the subject provoked. It also seeks to locate the discipline within the broader cultural environment of the period; and it investigates, sometimes with surprising results, the ways in which the theorists' work draws on and in some cases influences that of philosophers and other intellectuals.