source file: m1391.txt Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 11:56:08 -0400 Subject: Helmholtz's book From: monz@juno.com (Joseph L Monzo) As far as I know, the edition of Helmholtz's book "On the Sensations of Tone" which is ordinarily available these days (at least it's the one I have) is put out by Dover. >From the copyright page: > "This Dover edition, first published in 1954, > is an unabridged and unaltered republication > of the second (1885) edition of the Ellis translation > of _Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen_..." There are extensive appendices by Ellis, and these are invaluable in themselves as tabulations of historical intonations. This book was the catalyst which started Partch on his way to his future development as a just-intonation composer, theorist and instrument-builder. From Partch's "Genesis of a Music", 2nd edition, p. vii: > "In 1919, as I recall, I had virtually given up on > both music schools and private teachers, and > had begun to ransack public libraries, doing > suggested exercises and writing music free > from the infantilisms and inanities of professors > as I had experienced them. > > When I was twenty-one I finally found, in a > library, the key for which I had been searching > the Helmholtz-Ellis work, _On the Sensations > of Tone_. Under this new impetus, doubts > and ideas achieved some small resolution, > and I began to take wing." It influenced many other harmonically inventive composers in a similar fashion -- I believe among these were Debussy and Ben Johnston. It's well worth the cost. By the way, the full title of the book is "On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music", and most of it is an explanation of Helmholtz's scientific experiments on sounds and hearing, and their results. Notice the emphasis this places on the subject (the listener) -- reminiscent of my quoting Meyer the other day about music theory having to do not only with acoustics but also with nervous tissue. A very interesting book about the history of tonality in European music, which emphasizes a subjective interpretation of tonal concepts, is _Tonality in Western Culture: A Critical and Historical Perspective_ by Richard Norton [Pennsylvania State University Press, 1984]. Joseph L. Monzo monz@juno.com 4940 Rubicam St., Philadelphia, PA 19144-1809, USA phone 215 849 6723 _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]