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James Murray Barbour (1897–1970) is an American
acoustician Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...
,
musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
, and
composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...
best known for his work ''Tuning and Temperament: A Historical Survey'' (1951, 2d ed. 1953). As the opening of the work describes, it is based upon his unpublished dissertation from 1932, his interest having been sparked by musicologist
Curt Sachs Curt Sachs (; 29 June 1881 – 5 February 1959) was a German musicologist. He was one of the founders of modern organology (the study of musical instruments). Among his contributions was the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which he created with Erich ...
having shown him
Marin Mersenne Marin Mersenne, OM (also known as Marinus Mersennus or ''le Père'' Mersenne; ; 8 September 1588 – 1 September 1648) was a French polymath whose works touched a wide variety of fields. He is perhaps best known today among mathematicians for ...
's ''
Harmonie Universelle ''Harmonie universelle'' ("Universal Harmony"; complete title: ''Harmonie universelle, contenant la théorie et la pratique de la musique'') is a work by Marin Mersenne, published in Paris in 1636. It represented the sum of musical knowledge duri ...
''.Tuning and Temperament
, ''Archive.org''. Murray Barbour taught at Ithaca College, New York, 1932–1939, and Michigan State College (later University), 1939–1964. Murray Barbour adapted the
Strähle construction Strähle's construction is a geometric method for determining the lengths for a series of vibrating strings with uniform diameters and tensions to sound pitches in a specific rational tempered musical tuning. It was first published in the 1743 '' ...
for use in approximating equal temperaments. He is also the author of *"Synthetic Musical Scales", ''The American Mathematical Monthly'', Vol. 36, No. 3, (Mar., 1929), pp. 155–160. *''Trumpets, Horns and Music'' (1964). Michigan State University. *"A Geometrical approximation to the Roots of Numbers", ''American Mathematical Monthly'', vol. 64, 1957. p. 1–9.


See also

*
Equal temperament An equal temperament is a musical temperament or tuning system, which approximates just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into equal steps. This means the ratio of the frequencies of any adjacent pair of notes is the same, wh ...
*
Musical temperament In musical tuning, a temperament is a tuning system that slightly compromises the pure intervals of just intonation to meet other requirements. Most modern Western musical instruments are tuned in the equal temperament system. Tempering is the ...
*
Musical tuning In music, there are two common meanings for tuning: * Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice. * Tuning systems, the various systems of pitches used to tune an instrument, and their theoretical bases. Tuning practice Tun ...


References


External links


Barbour, J. Murray (James Murray), 1897–1970
, ''id.loc.gov''. Music theorists 1897 births 1970 deaths 20th-century musicologists Michigan State University faculty Ithaca College faculty {{US-music-bio-stub