Robert Holford Macdowall Bosanquet (31 July 1841 – 7 August 1912) was an English scientist and music theorist, and brother of Admiral Sir

Day Bosanquet Admiral Sir Day Hort Bosanquet, (22 March 1843 – 28 June 1923) was a British politician and senior officer in the Royal Navy. He served as the Governor of South Australia from 18 February 1909 until 22 March 1914. Naval career Born in Alnwick ...

, and philosopher Bernard Bosanquet.Bosanquet was the son of Rev. R. W. Bosanquet of Rock Hall,

Alnwick Alnwick ( ) is a market town in Northumberland, England, of which it is the traditional county town. The population at the 2011 Census was 8,116. The town is on the south bank of the River Aln, south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish bor ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

, and took first class honors in Natural Science and Mathematics at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, and later became a fellow of St. John's College. He was

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

but worked mainly tutoring at Oxford, notably for the Natural Science School, and later was Professor of Acoustics at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

. He was a musician and an authority on organ construction, and published a number of experimental and theoretical papers on

acoustics 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 ...

electromagnetism In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of a ...

and

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

. He was elected Fellow of the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

in 1871 and

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1890. Bosanquet developed classes for musical tunings used mapping pitches in a coordinate arrangement he called a ''

generalized keyboard Generalized keyboards are musical Keyboard (music), keyboards, a type of isomorphic keyboard, with regular, tile-like arrangements usually with rectangular or hexagonal keys, and were developed for performing music in different Tuning (music), tuni ...

'', contrasting with

Henry Ward Poole Henry Ward Poole (1825–1890) was an American surveyor, civil engineer, educator and writer on and inventor of systems of musical tuning. He was brother of the famous librarian William Frederick Poole, and cousin of the celebrated humorist, jour ...

's and Colin Brown's keyboards which were based on symmetry of key relationships. The keyboard was demonstrated in two instruments loaned permanently to the

South Kensington Museum South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

in 1876: a 4-octave harmonium tuned in

53 equal temperament In music, 53 equal temperament, called 53 TET, 53 EDO, or 53 ET, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 53 equal steps (equal frequency ratios). Each step represents a frequency ratio of 2, or 22.6415 ...

with 84 keys per octave built by T. A. Jennings in 1872–3, and a 3-octave generalized keyboard organ built in 1875 with 48 notes per octave tuned to

Hermann von Helmholtz Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (31 August 1821 – 8 September 1894) was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability. The Helmholtz Association, ...

' approximate just intonation (

schismatic temperament A schismatic temperament is a musical tuning system that results from tempering the schisma of 32805:32768 (1.9537 cents) to a unison. It is also called the schismic temperament, Helmholtz temperament, or quasi-Pythagorean temperament. Construc ...

) or 36 notes per octave tuned in

quarter-comma meantone Quarter-comma meantone, or -comma meantone, was the most common meantone temperament in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and was sometimes used later. In this system the perfect fifth is flattened by one quarter of a syntonic comma (81:80 ...

selected by means of draw stops. In 1877, speculating on papers about Indian śrutis, he relaxed the arrangement to permit mapping

22 equal temperament In music, 22 equal temperament, called 22-TET, 22- EDO, or 22-ET, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 22 equal steps (equal frequency ratios). Each step represents a frequency ratio of , or 54.55 cents (). When composing wi ...

. He also invented a sensitive

polariscope A polarimeter is a scientific instrument used to measure the angle of rotation caused by passing polarized light through an optically active substance.Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

, spending summers in England. He died at his home called "El Castillo" (The Castle), near

Los Realejos Los Realejos is a town and a municipality in the northern part of the island of Tenerife, which is the biggest of the Canary Islands. It is part of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain. The town is located from the north coast, southw ...

town,

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

Island (

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

) in 1912.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bosanquet, Robert Holford Macdowall 1841 births 1912 deaths People from Alnwick People educated at Eton College Alumni of the Royal College of Music Fellows of St John's College, Oxford Members of Lincoln's Inn Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford English music theorists Historians of astronomy Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society Fellows of the Royal Society Musical keyboard layouts

References

Further reading

External links