Music Theory
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Music Theory
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (key signatures, time signatures, and rhythmic notation); the second is learning scholars' views on music from antiquity to the present; the third is a sub-topic of musicology that "seeks to define processes and general principles in music". The musicological approach to theory differs from music analysis "in that it takes as its starting-point not the individual work or performance but the fundamental materials from which it is built." Music theory is frequently concerned with describing how musicians and composers make music, including tuning systems and composition methods among other topics. Because of the ever-expanding conception of what constitutes music, a more inclusive definition could be the consideration of any sonic phenomena, ...
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Lüshi Chunqiu
The ''Lüshi Chunqiu'', also known in English as ''Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals'', is an encyclopedic Chinese classic text compiled around 239 BC under the patronage of the Qin Dynasty Chancellor Lü Buwei. In the evaluation of Michael Carson and Michael Loewe, "The ''Lü shih ch'un ch'iu'' is unique among early works in that it is well organized and comprehensive, containing extensive passages on such subjects as music and agriculture, which are unknown elsewhere. It is also one of the longest of the early texts, extending to something over 100,000 words. Background The ''Shiji'' (chap. 85, p. 2510) biography of Lü Buwei has the earliest information about the ''Lüshi Chunqiu''. Lü was a successful merchant from Handan who befriended King Zhuangxiang of Qin. The king's son Zheng, who the ''Shiji'' suggests was actually Lü's son, eventually became the first emperor Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC. When Zhuangxiang died in 247 BC, Lü Buwei was made regent for the 13-ye ...
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Alypius Of Alexandria
Alypius of Alexandria ( grc-gre, Ἀλύπιος) was a Greek writer on music who flourished in the 4th century CE. Of his works, only a small fragment has been preserved, under the title of ''Introduction to Music'' (). Works The work of Alypius consists wholly, with the exception of a short introduction, of lists of the symbols used (both for voice and instrument) to denote all the sounds in the forty-five scales produced by taking each of the fifteen modes in the three genera ( diatonic, chromatic, enharmonic). It treats, therefore, in fact, of only one (the fifth, namely) of the seven branches into which the subject is, as usual, divided in the introduction; and may possibly be merely a fragment of a larger work. It would have been most valuable if any considerable number of examples had been left us of the actual use of the system of notation described in it; unfortunately very few remain, and they seem to belong to an earlier stage of the science. However, Alypius's work r ...
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Gaudentius (music Theorist)
Gaudentius was a Greek music theorist in Classical Antiquity. Nothing is known of his life or background, or when he lived, except what can be inferred from his sole surviving work, (English: ''Harmonic Introduction''), a treatise. Leonhard Schmitz and Karl von Jan say that he seems to have known the writings of Aristoxenus (); but Schmitz says, not those of Ptolemy (). Hugo Riemann says he may have been a younger contemporary of Ptolemy. Cassiodorus () praises the treatise, and mentions a contemporary Latin translation for use in schools by one Mutianus, which has not survived. The treatise was first printed in 1652 by Marcus Meibomius Marcus Meibomius (c. 1630, Tönningen – 1710/1711, Utrecht) was a DanishOr possibly German, from Holstein. scholar. He is best known as a historian of music, as an antiquarian, and as the first librarian at the Denmark's Royal Library. He was ..., together with a commentary and a Latin translation, in his ''Antiquae musicae auctores septem'' ...
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Cleonides
Cleonides ( el, Κλεονείδης) is the author of a Greek treatise on music theory titled Εἰσαγωγὴ ἁρμονική ''Eisagōgē harmonikē'' (Introduction to Harmonics). The date of the treatise, based on internal evidence, can be established only to the broad period between the 3rd century BCE and the 4th century CE; however, treatises titled ''eisagōgē'' generally began to appear only in the 1st century BCE, which seems the most likely period for Cleonides' work.Jon Solomon, "Cleonides leoneidēs, ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001). The attribution of the ''Eisagōgē'' in some manuscripts to Euclid or Pappus is incompatible with the Aristoxenian approach adopted in the treatise. A few manuscripts name a "Zosimus" as the author. Cleonides' treatise is the clearest account of the technical aspects of Aristoxenus Aristoxenus of Tarentum ( el, Ἀ ...
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Nicomachus
Nicomachus of Gerasa ( grc-gre, Νικόμαχος; c. 60 – c. 120 AD) was an important ancient mathematician and music theorist, best known for his works ''Introduction to Arithmetic'' and ''Manual of Harmonics'' in Greek. He was born in Gerasa, in the Roman province of Syria (now Jerash, Jordan). He was a Neopythagorean, who wrote about the mystical properties of numbers.Eric Temple Bell (1940), ''The development of mathematics'', page 83.Frank J. Swetz (2013), ''The European Mathematical Awakening'', page 17, Courier Life Little is known about the life of Nicomachus except that he was a Pythagorean who came from Gerasa.} Historians consider him a Neopythagorean based on his tendency to view numbers as having mystical properties. The age in which he lived (c. 100 AD) is only known because he mentions Thrasyllus in his ''Manual of Harmonics'', and because his ''Introduction to Arithmetic'' was apparently translated into Latin in the mid 2nd century by Apuleius.Henrietta ...
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Theon Of Smyrna
Theon of Smyrna ( el, Θέων ὁ Σμυρναῖος ''Theon ho Smyrnaios'', ''gen.'' Θέωνος ''Theonos''; fl. 100 CE) was a Greek philosopher and mathematician, whose works were strongly influenced by the Pythagorean school of thought. His surviving ''On Mathematics Useful for the Understanding of Plato'' is an introductory survey of Greek mathematics. Life Little is known about the life of Theon of Smyrna. A bust created at his death, and dedicated by his son, was discovered at Smyrna, and art historians date it to around 135 CE. Ptolemy refers several times in his ''Almagest'' to a Theon who made observations at Alexandria, but it is uncertain whether he is referring to Theon of Smyrna.James Evans, (1998), ''The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy'', New York, Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 49 The lunar impact crater Theon Senior is named for him. Works Theon wrote several commentaries on the works of mathematicians and philosophers of the time, including works ...
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Euclid
Euclid (; grc-gre, Wikt:Εὐκλείδης, Εὐκλείδης; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the ''Euclid's Elements, Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely dominated the field until the early 19th century. His system, now referred to as Euclidean geometry, involved new innovations in combination with a synthesis of theories from earlier Greek mathematicians, including Eudoxus of Cnidus, Hippocrates of Chios, Thales and Theaetetus (mathematician), Theaetetus. With Archimedes and Apollonius of Perga, Euclid is generally considered among the greatest mathematicians of antiquity, and one of the most influential in the history of mathematics. Very little is known of Euclid's life, and most information comes from the philosophers Proclus and Pappus of Alexandria many centuries later. Until the early Renaissance he was often mistaken f ...
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Archytas
Archytas (; el, Ἀρχύτας; 435/410–360/350 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, music theorist, astronomer, statesman, and strategist. He was a scientist of the Pythagorean school and famous for being the reputed founder of mathematical mechanics, as well as a good friend of Plato. Life and work Archytas was born in Tarentum, Magna Graecia and was the son of Mnesagoras or Hadees. For a while, he was taught by Philolaus, and was a teacher of mathematics to Eudoxus of Cnidus. Archytas and Eudoxus' student was Menaechmus. As a Pythagorean, Archytas believed that only arithmetic, not geometry, could provide a basis for satisfactory proofs. Archytas is believed to be the founder of mathematical mechanics.: ''Vitae philosophorum'' As only described in the writings of Aulus Gellius five centuries after him, he was reputed to have designed and built the first artificial, self-propelled flying device, a bird-shaped model propelled by a jet of what was probably st ...
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Philolaus
Philolaus (; grc, Φιλόλαος, ''Philólaos''; ) was a Greek Pythagorean and pre-Socratic philosopher. He was born in a Greek colony in Italy and migrated to Greece. Philolaus has been called one of three most prominent figures in the Pythagorean tradition and the most outstanding figure in the Pythagorean school. Pythagoras developed a school of philosophy that was dominated by both mathematics and mysticism. Most of what is known today about the Pythagorean astronomical system is derived from Philolaus's views. He may have been the first to write about Pythagorean doctrine. According to August Böckh (1819), who cites Nicomachus, Philolaus was the successor of Pythagoras. He argued that at the foundation of everything is the part played by the limiting and limitless, which combine in a harmony. With his assertions that the Earth was not the center of the universe (geocentrism), he is credited with the earliest known discussion of concepts in the development of heliocent ...
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Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samos, Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionians, Ionian Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and, through them, the Western philosophy, West in general. Knowledge of his life is clouded by legend, but he appears to have been the son of Mnesarchus, a gem-engraver on the island of Samos. Modern scholars disagree regarding Pythagoras's education and influences, but they do agree that, around 530 BC, he travelled to Crotone, Croton in southern Italy, where he founded a school in which initiates were sworn to secrecy and lived a communal, asceticism, ascetic lifestyle. This lifestyle entailed a number of dietary prohibitions, traditionally said to have included vegetarianism, although m ...
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Thomas J
Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall and has served since 1991. After Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court and its longest-serving member since Anthony Kennedy's retirement in 2018. Thomas was born in Pin Point, Georgia. After his father abandoned the family, he was raised by his grandfather in a poor Gullah community near Savannah. Growing up as a devout Catholic, Thomas originally intended to be a priest in the Catholic Church but was frustrated over the church's insufficient attempts to combat racism. He abandoned his aspiration of becoming a clergyman to attend the College of the Holy Cross and, later, Yale Law School, where he was influenced by a number of conservative authors, notably Thomas Sowell, who dramatically shifted his worldview from progressive to ...
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