Marin Mersenne
(1588 to 1648)
Contributed to understanding the physics of music.
Marin Mersenne, a French theologian, philosopher, mathematician, and music thoerist, is mostly remembered for his work with prime numbers, while also being the central exchange for scientific information between mathematicians and scientists, including Galileo, Kepler and Descartes.
He contriubuted greatly to our understanding of the physics of music, musical instruments and acoustics through his well-documented experiments.
The credit for the first correct published account of the vibration of strings is usually given to Marin Mersenne. He studied the vibrations of musical tones by using brass-ball weights attached to brass wires, adjusting the tension with the amount of weight.
In 1636, he published the following laws in his Harmonie universelle. the theory and practice of music including the nature of sound, movement, key,
voice, mood and harmonic instruments.
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For different strings of the same length and tension, the period is inversely proportional to the square root of W, where W is the weight of the string.
Some of Mersenne's books were published in Latin. The following is a translation of the title page to
HARMONICORUM LIBRI XII, published in 1648:
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'"Twelve books of harmonic principles in which the nature of sounds is treated, in their causes and affects: about harmonies, dissonance, ratios, types, modes, songs, composition and the harmonic instruments of all the world."
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Marin Mersenne's 12-tone scale
showing the harmonies and disharmonies
between intervals arranged as a circle of fifths.
From HARMONICORUM LIBRI XII
Although Marin Mersenne produced a correct and systematic description of equal temperament in 1635, it was not adopted until nearly 100 years later in Germany.
