Pythagoras
experimenter with musical acoustics
Biography
Pythagoras is credited in the text with using the monochord, in 582 B.C., to carry out experiments regarding the mathematical relations of musical sounds. The instrument consisted of a single string, presumably of catgut, strung over a wooden box, with a strip of paper marked with the scale's sections and subdivisions glued beneath the string. By pressing the string down on a given mark and plucking it, a tone was produced whose pitch depended on where along the scale the string was stopped. This use of the monochord by Pythagoras is presented as the prototype experiment underlying the later technical development of the pianoforte.
Highlights
- Used the monochord (582 B.C.) to conduct experiments on the mathematical relations of musical sounds
Source
Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 27.
Public domain.