Walter Odington was a 14th-century English

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

scientific and especially musical theory author. He is also known as Walter of Evesham, by some writers confounded with Walter of Eynsham, who lived about fifty years earlier, died not earlier than 1330. During the first part of his religious life he was stationed at Evesham and later removed to

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, where he was engaged in astronomical and mathematical work as early as 1316.

Writings

He wrote chiefly on scientific subjects. His work ''De Speculatione Musices'' was first published in complete form in

Edmond de Coussemaker Charles Edmond Henri de Coussemaker (19 April 1805 – 10 January 1876) was a French musicologist and ethnologist focusing mainly on the cultural heritage of French Flanders. With Michiel de Swaen and Maria Petyt, he was one of the most eminent d ...

's ''Scriptores''; other works are in manuscript only. In this treatise, a remarkable work written at Evesham and therefore certainly before 1316, according to Riemann before 1300, the author gathered together practically all the knowledge of the theory of

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

possessed at his time and added some theoretical considerations of his own. Of particular note is his suggestion that, in practice, musicians often favour simple, just tuning of imperfect consonances, such as the

major third In classical music, a third is a Interval (music), musical interval encompassing three staff positions (see Interval (music)#Number, Interval number for more details), and the major third () is a third spanning four semitones.Allen Forte, ...

, over the traditionally held Pythagorean tuning, which was the predominant theoretical framework. For example, Odington writes:

''Verumtamen quia vicinae sunt sesquiquartae et sesquiquintae habitudinibus...iccirco plurimos estimant consonas esse. Et si in numeris non reperiantur consoni, voces tamen hominum sua subtilitate ipsos ducunt in mixturam suavem...'' (Nevertheless, on account of their he Pythagorean tunings of the major and minor thirdsbeing neighbours to 5:4 and 6:5...very many people therefore deem them to be consonances. And if they are not found to be consonant in number, human voices, by their own subtlety, nevertheless lead themselves into pleasant mixture...).

A discussion of his work is given by Riemann, who claims for him the distinction of having, before the close of the thirteenth century, established on theoretical grounds the consonance of minor and major thirds. Davey enumerates the following works: *"De Speculatione Musices"; "Ycocedron", a treatise on alchemy *"Declaratio motus octavæ spheræ" *"Tractatus de multiplicatione specierum in visu secundum omnem modum" *"Ars metrica Walteri de Evesham" *"Liber quintus geometriæ per numeros loco quantitatum" *"Calendar for Evesham Abbey".

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Odington, Walter English Benedictines 13th-century births 14th-century deaths English music theorists Medieval music theorists