Article ID: CBB139335148

Lavoisier and Music: An Analysis of Notes sur la Musique (1778) within Its Cultural Context (2018)

unapi

Notes sur la Musique are a set of notes devoted by the French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) to music theory and in particular to the rules for correct composition. Given its subject matter, Notes constitutes a unicum in Lavoisier’s corpus that has been little studied and never published. This essay will present the initial results of an in-depth analysis of this manuscript, followed by a transcription of the text. It will be argued that a large part of the Notes were derived from the writings of Alexandre Théophile Vandermonde (1735–1796), a mathematician who collaborated with Lavoisier on his scientific experiments, but who also developed his own system of harmony. After a brief examination of Vandermonde’s contributions to music theory, various passages from Lavoisier’s Notes will be evaluated in order to show the link between the two scientists’ perspectives on music. Some of Vandermonde’s unpublished papers will also be taken into consideration. On the basis of this analysis, hypotheses will be advanced regarding the circumstances that could have led Lavoisier to take an interest in music theory. Overall, this paper will shed light on a little-known side of Lavoisier’s cultural interests and activities and provide elements that could contribute to a better understanding of his Notes sur la Musique.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB139335148/

Similar Citations

Book Marco Beretta; Paolo Brenni; (2022)
The Arsenal of Eighteenth-Century Chemistry: The Laboratories of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) (/isis/citation/CBB674187148/)

Article Siegert, Bernhard; (2013)
Mineral Sound or Missing Fundamental: Cultural History as Signal Analysis (/isis/citation/CBB001320385/)

Book Brindley, Erica Fox; (2012)
Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China (/isis/citation/CBB001214779/)

Article Hecht, Jacqueline; (1989)
Vandermonde et l'héritage des économistes à l'École normale (/isis/citation/CBB000028870/)

Book Charrak, André; (2001)
Raison et perception: fonder l'harmonie au XVIIIe siècle (/isis/citation/CBB000501924/)

Article Fabio Bellissima; (2019)
Guida alla lettura del "Tentamen novae theoriae musicae" di Eulero (/isis/citation/CBB702093931/)

Article Darrigol, Olivier; (2007)
The Acoustic Origins of Harmonic Analysis (/isis/citation/CBB000772559/)

Book Day-O'Connell, Jeremy; (2007)
Pentatonicism from the Eighteenth Century to Debussy (/isis/citation/CBB000830148/)

Book Cesare Beltrami; John M. Chowning; (2020)
Il suono da Giuseppe Tartini a John M. Chowning (/isis/citation/CBB918557123/)

Article Lambert, Kevin; (2014)
Hearing Pygmalion's Kiss: A Scientific Object at the Paris Opéra (/isis/citation/CBB001422214/)

Book Dillon, Emma; (2012)
The Sense of Sound: Musical Meanings in France, 1260--1330 (/isis/citation/CBB001201434/)

Article Donovan, Arthur; (1992)
Lavoisier's two publics (/isis/citation/CBB000062860/)

Book Frercks, Jan; (2008)
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier: System der antiphlogistischen Chemie (/isis/citation/CBB001020636/)

Article Goupil, Michelle; Horeau, Alain; (1990)
“La République n'a pas besoin de savants”: Légende ou réalité? (/isis/citation/CBB000039491/)

Article Roberto A. Ferrari; (2021)
An Unrecorded Early Lavoisieriana (/isis/citation/CBB092325899/)

Article Pannese, Alessia; (2012)
A Gray Matter of Taste: Sound Perception, Music Cognition, and Baumgarten's Aesthetics (/isis/citation/CBB001211285/)

Authors & Contributors
Beltrami, Cesare
Chowning, John M.
Lambert, Kevin
Sullivan, Charles R.
Siegert, Bernhard
Pannese, Alessia
Concepts
Music
Harmony (music theory)
Science and culture
Mathematics
Science
Science and music
Time Periods
18th century
Medieval
19th century
Early modern
Modern
Ancient
Places
France
United States
Italy
Europe
China
Institutions
École Normale Supérieure, Paris
Neuf Sœurs
Académie Royale des Sciences (France)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment