By Musical Acoustics we refer to some physics laws which allow us to
understand the foundations of Musical Theory. Music which has evolved
differently within various Societies (greek and roman, arabo-oriental,
hispano-moresque, medieval and then west-european, indian,
sino-japanese, etc) is based on the same principles, which explain for
instance why the musical scale is composed of seven degrees (5 tones + 2
semi-tones) and why the best way to end up a melody is the chaining
dominant seventh chord and tonic perfect chord.
After giving some rudiments of Acoustics (sound, vibration,
frequency, harmonics, beats), the book explains the building of the
musical scale by means of the Circle of Fifths (sketch on cover). This
concept has been the platform of all musics throughout the world for 5
millenna. Designed in Mesopotamia, it spread into the antique Persia,
then towards the indian sub-continent. Phytagoras brought it in the
6th century B.C. in Greece whose tetrachord scale had only 4
degrees (the 4 strings of their lyra often seen on ancient paintings).
The first turning point in Western Europe occured around 1000 A.D.
It was the beginning of Polyphony; De Arezzo achieved the definitive
form of music writing, and by the same occasion ruled out the
quarter-tone of the greec heritage. At least in theory, since it
survived in practice till the Renaissance, but without any theoretical
backing, it had been forgotten for a millennium. De Arezzo had
nevertheless established a system exploiting the seven ancient modes, in
use throughout medieval Europe.
A big chapter is dealing with Consonance, the founding-criterion to
Just Intonation.This concept has always been misunderstood by music
theorists since Boethius around 500 A.D. announced his much debated
ideas on this subject. Yet they have influenced scholars during several
centuries. The author presents his own vision of just intervals, and
points out the failure of simple ratios theory which marked the history
of western music.
The big Turning Point occured at the Renaissance, due to some
theorists who tried to impose scales containing only consonant
intervals, very difficult to put into practice.This confusion caused the
death of the ancient 7 medieval modes and set the major-minor dichotomy
in Western Europe. Only one has been remained in the 16th
century : the major (ionian). The minor (aeolian) will appear in the
early 17th, with a leading note (seventh note raised by half
a tone) for harmony-related reasons. This note and its
“attraction” towards the tonic can be explained by
acoustical arguments. The Russian and the Orthodox Church have kept on
using the ancient medieval modes. The Coptic Church of Egypt, in
addition to major and minor, has a great variety of modes (non-western,
ancient, often with quarter-tones, etc). So, the western music is all
but universal, and has strong cultural features.
Later on (late 17th/early 18th), in order to
comply with Just Intonation, some scientists (C. Huygens and J. Sauveur)
tried to provide the scale with consonant intervals (such as the
harmonic seventh, slightly lower than the minor seventh), this has led
them to build temperaments with 31 or 43 degrees. That was the birth of
Micro-tonality in Europe, but the first micro-tonal scale in History was
designed by Safi Addin in the 13th century.
The micro-tonal attempts have not been pursued since the 12-tone
temperament had created a semi-tonal environment which has shaped the
hearing, in addition to the difficulty in making convenient keyboards
giving more than 12 keys per octave. Micro-tonality will be resumed in
early 20th century in Europe (with Haba, Wyschnegradsky,
Fokker) and continued in the USA (with Partch and many others).
The most mentioned names are J.-Ph. Rameau and J.-S. Bach (with
Pythagoras and Zarlino). Rameau was also a great theorist, he studied
the sound nature and the harmonics from a scientific view-point and
wrote many treaties which are the basis of modern Harmony. Bach, a
keyboard virtuoso, had deeply exploited many tunings or temperaments
seeking for chords which best suited his themas. The semi-tones in the
17th and 18th temperaments didn’t have the same
size, they were not absolutely equal until the middle of the
19th century.
While in Central Europe this led to chromatism (Liszt and Wagner)
and then to serialism (Schönberg), in France many composers introduced
some non-western tonalities (in their spanish dances), others with
quater-tones were discovered by Bartok in his native Hungary. The
non-western tonalities will have a real success all along the
20th century, mainly in USA.
The book covers all sides of Musical Acoustics : Scales and
Temperaments, Harmonics, Chords, Tonality, Consonance, etc. A great part
is devoted to the 20th century and its Musical Revolution :
Atonality, Serialism, Electro-acoustics, Just Intonation. The most
significant elements are undoubtedly the comeback of micro-tones and the
advent of non-western tonalities.
The book is addressed to a large scan of readers, since it needs no
background in Physics (neither in Music Theory), every thing is
explained (the author has been teaching for more than a quarter of
century). In return, the reader has to be very sceptical to dare dismiss
many old beliefs deep-rooted in western musical culture, and which have
influenced its evolution for a whole millennium. In addition to the
Bibliography and its hundred books, a great number of websites are given
inside. The author is professor of physics at the University and
professor of music at the Conservatoire.