Historically, music was long classified as both art and science. Aspects                  of music--from the mathematics of tuning to the music of the celestial spheres--were                  primarily studied as science until the seventeenth century. In the nineteenth                  century, although scientists were less interested in the music of the spheres than                  the natural philosophers of earlier centuries, they remained committed to                  understanding the world of performing musicians and their instruments. In Harmonious                  Triads, Myles Jackson analyzes the relationship of physicists, musicians, and                  instrument makers in nineteenth-century Germany. Musical instruments provided                  physicists with experimental systems, and physicists' research led directly to                  improvements in musical-instrument manufacture and assisted musicians in their                  performances. Music also provided scientists with a cultural resource, which forged                  acquaintances and future collaborations.Jackson discusses experiments in acoustical                  vibrations that led to the invention of musical instruments and describes work with                  adiabatic phenomena that resulted in the improvement of the reed pipe, used by organ                  builders. He examines the collaborations of physicists and mechanicians aimed at                  standardizing beat and pitch and considers debates stirred by the standardization of                  aesthetic qualities. He describes the importance for scientists of choral societies                  as a vehicle for social life and cultural unity. Finally, he discusses a subject                  that occupied both physicists and musicians of the era: Could physicists, using the                  universal principles of mechanics, explain musical skill? Was the virtuosity of a                  Paganini or a Liszt somehow quantifiable? Jackson's historical consideration of                  questions at the intersection of music and physics shows us how each discipline                  helped shape the other.

Harmonious Triads: Physicists, Musicians, and Instrument Makers in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology)

Harmonious Triads: Physicists, Musicians, and Instrument Makers in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology) PDF

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