Bellissima, Fabio (Author)
Carocci Editore
Physical Details: 192 pp.
Language: Italian
La melodia delle note Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si-Do, suonate di fila, è per noi così familiare che quasi pensiamo sia il modo con cui la musica necessariamente si esprime. Questa scala di suoni è invece il punto d’arrivo di una storia lunga più di duemila anni, che ha coinvolto musici, matematici e filosofi. La scoperta, attribuita a Pitagora, del legame tra le consonanze fondamentali e i rapporti tra i primi quattro numeri interi è stata giudicata dai Greci così sorprendente da indurli a inserire la musica tra le scienze matematiche, insieme all’aritmetica, alla geometria e all’astronomia (ciò che nel Medioevo verrà chiamato Quadrivio). L’interazione tra queste quattro discipline è stata continua. Molte scale musicali sono state costruite seguendo criteri puramente aritmetici, altre volte è prevalso l’aspetto geometrico, e alcuni rapporti tra note sono stati elevati fino agli astri, portando a una concezione del cosmo che ha raggiunto il Rinascimento: l’Armonia universale. Più vicino a noi, la ricerca di una scala che permettesse di ottenere accordi della massima consonanza è stata, da Cartesio e Galileo fino a Eulero, il banco di prova per una possibile spiegazione scientifica del mondo. Ma il prevalere di un singolo modello – la scala temperata – e una rigida divisione dei saperi hanno poi spinto ai margini questa lunga vicenda che parla di matematica ai musici e di musica ai matematici; per tale motivo, alla luce del rinnovato interesse per l’interazione tra discipline diverse, è utile conoscerla e insegnarla. [Abstract translated by Google Translate: This is the abstract in English… The melody of the notes C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C, played in a row, is so familiar to us that we almost think it is the way in which music necessarily expresses itself. This scale of sounds, on the other hand, is the culmination of a history spanning more than two thousand years, which involved musicians, mathematicians and philosophers. The discovery, attributed to Pythagoras, of the link between the fundamental consonances and the ratios between the first four integers was judged so surprising by the Greeks as to induce them to include music among the mathematical sciences, together with arithmetic, geometry and astronomy (what in the Middle Ages would be called Quadrivium). The interaction between these four disciplines was continuous. Many musical scales were built following purely arithmetic criteria, other times the geometric aspect prevailed, and some ratios between notes were raised to the stars, leading to a conception of the cosmos that reached the Renaissance: universal harmony. Closer to home, the search for a scale that would allow us to obtain chords of the highest consonance was, from Descartes and Galileo to Euler, the testing ground for a possible scientific explanation of the world. But the prevalence of a single model - the equal tempered scale - and a rigid division of knowledge then pushed to the margins this long story that talks about mathematics to musicians and music to mathematicians; for this reason, in light of the renewed interest in the interaction between different disciplines, it is useful to know and teach it.]
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