‘OF THE TEMPERAMENT OF THOSE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS’: CONSIDERING TIBERIUS CAVALLO AND THE SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION OF MUSICAL SOUNDS IN LATE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LONDON

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-51
Author(s):  
KATELYN CLARK
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Scientific Activity ◽  
Musical Instruments ◽  
Pitch Control ◽  
Scientific Exploration ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Technological Growth ◽  
Equal Temperament ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Musical Sounds

The connection of music to scientific exploration in late Enlightenment London can be considered from various perspectives, perhaps most evidently through the binary of amateur–professional. These two realms intersected within natural philosophical observation, a practice that often served concurrently as entertainment and as study. The development of scientific instruments for the observation of various phenomena appeared in both professional and amateur contexts, contributing to technological growth and research. Natural philosopher Tiberius Cavallo (1749–1809) and his 1788 article on musical temperament (‘Of the Temperament of Those Musical Instruments, in Which the Tones, Keys, or Frets, are Fixed, as in the Harpsichord, Organ, Guitar, &c’) provide a captivating example of amateur interest overlapping effectively with the professional domain; as an amateur musician and professional scientist, Cavallo observed equal temperament in both mathematical and aesthetic terms. Consideration of his work promotes a more nuanced view of London as a place where scientific and musical ideas could meet and be ‘instrumentalized’, emphasizing the city's status as a vibrant arena for the interaction of scientific exploration, artistic endeavour and professional identities. In this sense, Cavallo's work on temperament was not merely a scientific activity; it reflected technological change during a stimulating period of scientific and musical progress in late eighteenth-century London. For example, instrument builders were actively developing ways to improve pitch control and tuning stability, as witnessed by numerous British patents for harp mechanisms, the addition of flute keys and keyboard construction.

Key-Mood Association: A Self Perpetuating Myth

2005 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Powell ◽  
Nicola Dibben
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Strong Correlation ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
The Past ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Equal Temperament ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Shed Light

The association of certain keys with specific moods continues to be widespread despite technical evidence that all equally tempered keys are identical. This paper provides experimental results which shed light on this phenomenon. First, approximately three-quarters of participants questioned claimed to have key-mood associations. Second, the key-mood associations held by participants showed a very strong correlation to late eighteenth century associations which attributed brightness to keys with sharps in their key signature and mellowness to those with flats. Third, key-mood associations were proven to be invalid for the modern, equal temperament keyboard; the participants showed no ability to be able to identify mood from key or key from mood and, overall, there was no change in perceived mood of a piece if it was performed in a different key. One reason why the key-mood association myth persists to the present day is the tradition of associating sharp keys with bright and positive moods and flat keys with dark and negative moods, which has been perpetuated by some musical commentators over the past two hundred years. In addition, there are a number of aspects of early musical training which encourage these associations for the sharp and flat keys.

Slavery and Ransom

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Smiley
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
The State ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
The Law

This chapter explores captives’ fates after their capture, all along the Ottoman land and maritime frontiers, arguing that this was largely determined by individuals’ value for ransom or sale. First this was a matter of localized customary law; then it became a matter of inter-imperial rules, the “Law of Ransom.” The chapter discusses the nature of slavery in the Ottoman Empire, emphasizing the role of elite households, and the varying prices for captives based on their individual characteristics. It shows that the Ottoman state participated in ransoming, buying, exploiting, and sometimes selling both female and male captives. The state particularly needed young men to row on its galleys, but this changed in the late eighteenth century as the fleet moved from oars to sails. The chapter then turns to ransom, showing that a captive’s ability to be ransomed, and value, depended on a variety of individualized factors.

Historical Romance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Ferris
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Distinct Form ◽  
Literary Field ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Historical Romance ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth

This chapter looks at historical romance. Late eighteenth-century historiography began to expand its purview to unofficial spheres of social, cultural, and private life typically cultivated by informal genres such as memoirs, biographies, and novels. The ‘matter’ of history was being increasingly redefined, and this had two key effects that bear on the question of historical romance. First, the ‘reframing’ of the historical field generated a marked reciprocity among the different historical genres in the literary field, as they borrowed material and tactics from one another; second, it led to a splintering albeit not displacement of ‘general’ history, as new branches of history writing took shape, notably that of literary history as a distinct form of history. Hence romance now denoted not only the realm of ‘fancy’ but a superseded literary form of renewed interest in the rethinking of the national past.

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