Eighteenth-Century Science and the "Corps Sonore:" The Scientific Background to Rameau's "Principle of Harmony"

Christensen, Thomas; Rameau, Jean-Philippe

doi:10.2307/843545

Cited by 37 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…This convergent evidence is consistent with Rameau's idea that Western harmony, with its focus on the interplay between consonance and dissonance, is based in part on the harmonic series (Christensen, 1987). Unlike Rameau, we do not consider the harmonic series as an idealised natural physical construct, but as psychological or cognitive schema-a familiar pattern that is originally learned from speech (Terhardt, 1974).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 82%

Octave-generalized analysis of chord progressions: Diatonic/fifth relations, missing fundamentals, completion tones

Parncutt

Reisinger

2020

Journal of New Music Research

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In a representative historical database of musical scores, a sonority was defined at every onset in any voice. For eight trichords-major (047), minor (037), suspended (027), diminished (036), 015, 045, 025, 035-immediately preceding and following sonorities were analysed. Chroma prevalence profiles depended surprisingly little on century or temporal position-especially for major/minor trichords (cf. Krumhansl's key profiles). Profiles for nine non-chord chromas per trichord were influenced more strongly by diatonic scales and 5th relationships than missing fundamentals (roots) or completion tones (tones that complete familiar tetrachords) according to predictions of simple models.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 82%

Octave-generalized analysis of chord progressions: Diatonic/fifth relations, missing fundamentals, completion tones

Parncutt

Reisinger

2020

Journal of New Music Research

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“…16 The corps sonore itself was 'Rameau's term for any vibrating system such as a vibrating string which emitted harmonic partials above its fundamental frequency'. 17 For Rameau, music was a matter for the sciences, and his agenda held at its core a belief not in the creative invention of a system to explain harmonic procedures, but a commitment to the identification of the principle from which this apparently 'natural' system can be seen to arise. What interests us here is not the linking of music and science; that, of course, has a much longer history.…”

Section: Originsmentioning

confidence: 99%

(En) corps sonore: Jean-Luc Nancy's ‘Sonotropism’

Hickmott¹

2015

French Studies

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“…This brings out the ludic qualities of instruments. Viet Erlmann explores these issues in his most revealing Reason and Resonance (2010), with numerous examples, such as the monochord with Jean-Philippe Rameau’s idea of the corps sonore (sonorous body; see Christensen, 1987) and Baroque composer François Couperin’s of the l’homme-clavecin (human harpsichord; Bent and Christensen, 2004 [1993]). More recently, this idea of harmonics of the human body was taken up by the 1950s electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram, with her idea of the formant of frequencies giving each individual person their distinctive identity, not only their distinctive voice (Hutton, 2003; Oram, 1972).…”

Section: Amplification and Accelerationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rhythmic Bodies: Amplification, Inflection and Transduction in the Dance Performance Techniques of the “Bashment Gal”

Henriques

2014

Body & Society

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This article explores the rhythmic body with the example of the embodiment of the ‘bashment gal’ and the role she plays in the dancehall sound system session. It considers rhythm as an energetic patterning process operating both within and between media. Rhythm provides a means of communication and making sense that does not rely on representation or code. There are three elements to performance techniques of the rhythmic body – amplification, inflection and transduction. Amplification for the bashment gal’s performance techniques involves increasing the size or effort of her dance movements, dancing in a chorus line accelerating her tempo. In what is considered as a hyper-sexualized arena of the dancehall session, it is argued that the bashment gal has to be understood in terms of African traditions where sexual pleasure and fertility are not separate. With rhythmic inflection the bashment gal gives distinctiveness to her performance, as is much prized in the style and fashion of the dancehall scene. The transduction of patterning from one medium to another, via tympanic surfaces, helps to forge the sound system session and the bashment gal as a rhythmic whole and fosters her sense of identity as a rhythmic body.

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Eighteenth-Century Science and the "Corps Sonore:" The Scientific Background to Rameau's "Principle of Harmony"

Cited by 37 publications

References 0 publications

Octave-generalized analysis of chord progressions: Diatonic/fifth relations, missing fundamentals, completion tones

Octave-generalized analysis of chord progressions: Diatonic/fifth relations, missing fundamentals, completion tones

(En) corps sonore: Jean-Luc Nancy's ‘Sonotropism’

Rhythmic Bodies: Amplification, Inflection and Transduction in the Dance Performance Techniques of the “Bashment Gal”

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