Monochord ( dr. Greek. Μονόχορδον , lat. Monochordum , single-stringed), also (musical) canon ( dr. Greek. Κανών <μουσικός> ) - a tool that serves to accurately build intervals by fixing different lengths of the sounding part of the excited pinch. It consists of a base (sometimes a resonator box ) on which a stretched string is fixed between two sills (stands). Between the spills there is a movable stand (pressing the string from below), by moving which the sounding part of the string is fixed. A division scale marking parts of the string can be applied to the base of the monochord. In Ancient Greece (among the Pythagoreans ), in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, the monochord served to demonstrate the correspondence of certain numerical relations to certain musical intervals - for scientific and educational purposes.
Content
Historical Review
Known since Greek antiquity (tradition attributes his invention to Pythagoras ), the monochord was the most important tool in elementary music education and the main instrument for conducting musical-acoustic measurements in the Middle Ages, during the Renaissance, up to the Baroque. The most general Pythagorean principles for dividing a monochord (an interval as the ratio of two numbers, addition and subtraction of intervals ) are described in Euclid’s “Division of the Canon” [1] . Perhaps this Hellenistic compilation was made on the basis of materials from the work of Architus of Tarento that did not reach us. Authentic (out of 20) are only proposals 1-16. Later (known only from sources of the Renaissance times) sentences 17-18 interpret the position of the mobile steps of the tetrachord (kinumens) in the enharmonic genus of melos . Proposals 19-20 contain an algorithm for dividing the two-octave canon in diatonic. The word “monochord” ( Greek: τὸ μονόχορδον ) first appears in chapter 4 of the “Harmonics” of Nicomachus of Gerasa (2nd century AD) and — at about the same time — in I, 10 of the “Harmonics” of Ptolemy ; more often, however, Ptolemy uses the phrase “single-string canon” ( dr. Greek κανών μονόχορδος ) [2] .
The division of the monochord in the diatonic genus and the sketch of the division in the chromatic genus are found in treatises on the harmony of Trasilla and Gaudens . A detailed calculation of tetrachords for all genera of melos belongs to Ptolemy (who, however, discusses the canon as a musical, and not just a scientific, instrument [3] ). For the first time, Boethius performed a complete calculation of the monochord in the entire volume of the Complete System and in all kinds of melos.
Subsequently, the division of the monochord became part of treatises on music that reproduced Boethius to some degree of accuracy (as in the case of Jacob Liège , Heinrich Glarean and many others) or developed their own musical and acoustic teaching, such as, for example, Lodovico Foliano , Joseffo Zarlino , Andreas Werkmeister .
A similar tool on a rectangular frame is called a helicon .
The term “monochord” [4] is also used as a generic name for musical instruments that have a single string as a sound source (for example, single-stringed rebab , tanpura , danbau , berimbau ).
Notes
- ↑ In science, this work is usually designated in Latin - “Sectio canonis”. The authorship of Euclid is disputed.
- ↑ See, for example, I, 8.
- ↑ Harmonica. Prince II, ch. 12. Another rare evidence of the monochord as a musical instrument is provided by Nicomachus (Harm. 4).
- ↑ But not the "canon."
Literature
- Wantzloeben S. Das Monochord als Instrument und als System entwicklungsgeschichtlich dargestellt. Halle, 1911;
- Barbour JM Tuning and temperament: a historical survey. East Lansing (MI), 1951;
- Adkins C. The theory and practice of the monochord. Diss., U. of Iowa, 1963;
- Adkins C. The technique of the monochord // Acta Muscologica XXXIX (1967).
- Lebedev S.N. Monochord Boethius // Academy of Music, 2011, No. 1.
- Lebedev S.N. Monochord // Big Russian Encyclopedia . T.21. M., 2013, p. 45.