Newtonian Music

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Rameau sought music’s foundation in three fundamental harmonics generated by a sounding string: the octave (2nd), twelfth (3rd), and seventeenth (5th). For him the ‘triple geometric progression’ (harmonics 1-3-9-27-81) as shown in this diagram formed the basis of diatonic melody. Here, the major scale ‘ut re mi fa sol…’ is supported by bass notes that progress by intervals of a fifth: 'ut sol ut fa ut…'

Author: Jean-Philippe Rameau
Title: Démonstration du principe de l'harmonie [Demonstration of the principle of harmony] (Paris, 1752)
Shelfmark: D.16.29
Provenance: Formerly owned by Isaac Milner (1750–1820)

D.16.29

$An example of Newton’s interest in the idea of music as an organising principle in nature can be found in his work of popular science, Opticks (1704). Curiosity as to relationships between light and musical sound had been aroused following Newton’s claim (c.1672) that sunlight is a compound that separates into seven colours when refracted through a prism. The slightly later discovery by former Queens’ member John Wallis (and others) that musical sound is a compound of harmonic pitches raised further questions. With these in mind, Newton proposed a mathematical correlation between the sines of the seven colours and the ratios between seven notes of the musical scale. Although ultimately spurious, the idea was seized on by philosophers and musicians eager to demonstrate the unity of nature and music's basis in it. Author: Isaac Newton Title: Opticks or, A treatise of the reflexions, refractions, inflexions and colours of light (London, 1704) Shelfmark: <a href="https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/1nnjft8/44CAM_ALMA21606041340003606"> A.14.27</a> Provenance: Formerly owned by Isaac Milner (1750–1820)$
$Newton's ‘colour wheel’ diagram (Bk 1, Pt 2, Plate 3) famously depicted a diatonic scale beginning on the note D. For each note an equivalent colour is indicated (beginning with red) with the intervals between each degree of the wheel shown to be measurable in terms of diatonic whole number ratios. Newton believed he had made his ‘discovery’ of a correlation between sound and light by comparing sound vibrations with those caused by the interaction of light with ether. Author: Isaac Newton Title: Opticks or, A treatise of the reflexions, refractions, inflexions and colours of light (London, 1704) Shelfmark: <a href="https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/1nnjft8/44CAM_ALMA21606041340003606"> A.14.27</a> Provenance: Formerly owned by Isaac Milner (1750–1820)$
$Book label acknowledging the bequest of this book by Isaac Milner in 1820 following his death. Author: Isaac Newton Title: Opticks or, A treatise of the reflexions, refractions, inflexions and colours of light (London, 1704) Shelfmark: <a href="https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/1nnjft8/44CAM_ALMA21606041340003606"> A.14.27</a> Provenance: Formerly owned by Isaac Milner (1750–1820)$