The Monochord in Ancient Greek Harmonic Science

Traces the history of the monochord from its earliest appearance to Claudius Ptolemy (mid-second century AD).

David Creese (Author)

9780521843249, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 June 2010

426 pages, 26 b/w illus. 5 tables
22.4 x 14.5 x 3.2 cm, 0.71 kg

All this is not to detract from the fact that David Creese has filled an important gap in the studies of ancient Greek music in a masterful way, in a book that enriches the libraries of everybody interested in this particular field of study, philologist or music historian, as well as in the development of scientific though in general." -- Stefan Hagel, Institute for Research in Classical Philosophy and Science

Among the many instruments devised by students of mathematical sciences in ancient Greece, the monochord provides one of the best opportunities to examine the methodologies of those who employed it in their investigations. Consisting of a single string which could be divided at measured points by means of movable bridges, it was used to demonstrate theorems about the arithmetical relationships between pitched sounds in music. This book traces the history of the monochord and its multiple uses down to Ptolemy, bringing together all the relevant evidence in one comprehensive study. By comparing the monochord with a number of other ancient scientific instruments and their uses, David Creese shows how the investigation of music in ancient Greece not only shares in the patterns of demonstrative and argumentative instrument use common to other sciences, but also goes beyond them in offering the possibility of a rigorous empiricism unparalleled in Greek science.

Preface
Introduction: The geometry of sound
1. Hearing numbers, seeing sounds: the role of instruments and diagrams in Greek harmonic science
2. Mathematical harmonics before the monochord
3. The monochord in context
4. Eratosthenes
5. Canonic theory
6. Ptolemy's canonics
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Theory of music & musicology [AVA]