ThoughtGallery.org > An Evening with the Monochord: Global Perspectives in Music, Math, and History

An Evening with the Monochord: Global Perspectives in Music, Math, and History

The monochord, an instrument featuring a single stretched string, is perhaps the oldest known musical and scientific instrument. Records of its usage date back to the Sumerians, and it played an important role in the mathematical and musical explorations in Greek and Chinese antiquity. This evening excavates the history of the monochord in a global  perspective  by drawing together concerns in measurement, classification, and craft across East Asia and Europe. Music theorists Guangming Li, Joon Park, and David Cohen each examine how early philosophers used the monochord to address musical and mathematical problems from the sixth century BCE to the fifteenth century. Relying on archeological evidence and music-theoretical texts, Li will discuss the derivation of a chromatic scale in the Warring-States Period (475-221 BCE). Park will compare insights in ancient Greek and 15th century Korean court music to show how the monochord shaped conceptions of musical space as relating to motion. Cohen will examine the role of the monochord in research on harmonics from Pythagoras through Ptolemy. Together, these histories reveal how converging and diverging forms of knowledge could be produced from a single string.

This event is co-sponsored by the Society of Fellows in the Humanities, the Center for Science and Society, and the Center for Korean Research.











When: Mon., Feb. 20, 2017 at 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Where: Columbia University
116th St. & Broadway
212-854-1754
Price: Free
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The monochord, an instrument featuring a single stretched string, is perhaps the oldest known musical and scientific instrument. Records of its usage date back to the Sumerians, and it played an important role in the mathematical and musical explorations in Greek and Chinese antiquity. This evening excavates the history of the monochord in a global  perspective  by drawing together concerns in measurement, classification, and craft across East Asia and Europe. Music theorists Guangming Li, Joon Park, and David Cohen each examine how early philosophers used the monochord to address musical and mathematical problems from the sixth century BCE to the fifteenth century. Relying on archeological evidence and music-theoretical texts, Li will discuss the derivation of a chromatic scale in the Warring-States Period (475-221 BCE). Park will compare insights in ancient Greek and 15th century Korean court music to show how the monochord shaped conceptions of musical space as relating to motion. Cohen will examine the role of the monochord in research on harmonics from Pythagoras through Ptolemy. Together, these histories reveal how converging and diverging forms of knowledge could be produced from a single string.

This event is co-sponsored by the Society of Fellows in the Humanities, the Center for Science and Society, and the Center for Korean Research.

Buy tickets/get more info now