Nobody doubts that music has a special, somewhat mysterious power. Less clear is how we can evaluate that power. What makes music good or bad? Are there objective criteria for such a distinction? What impact can or should music have on individuals and on society as a whole? What…
Aristoxenus of Tarentum and the birth of musicology
Aristoxenus made an enormous contribution to the development of music theory in antiquity. Despite his Pythagorean upbringing, he rejected Pythagorean methods of harmonics which focused on the mathematical significance of musical structures and instead applied a scientific metho…
Storia dei concetti musicali
Fifth-century Athens' most important music theorist and the teacher and political counselor of Perikles, Damon was the first to study music's psychological, behavioural, and political effects, profoundly influencing debates on music theory throughout antiquity. Called by Isokrat…
Fifth-century Athens' most important music theorist and the teacher and political counselor of Perikles, Damon was the first to study music's psychological, behavioural, and political effects, profoundly influencing debates on music theory throughout antiquity. Called by Isokrat…
In the 1920s, Mexican composer Julián Carrillo (1875-1965) developed a microtonal system he metaphorically called El Sonido 13 (The 13th Sound). Although his pioneering role as one of the first proponents of microtonality gave him a cult figure status among European avant-garde …