Bibliography for the monochord thread

Library codes are from University of California as Santa Cruz (UCSC) unless otherwise noted: UCB = UC Berkeley; PAL = Paul A. Lee.

Anderson, Warren D. Music and musicians in Ancient Greece. Ithaca [N.Y.] : Cornell University Press, 1994. UCSC McHenry ML169 .A66 1994
  • App. B: Very complete exposition of scales.
    Barbera, Andre, transl. Sectio canonis. Polyglot. The Euclidean Division of the canon : Greek and Latin sources : new critical texts and translations on facing pages, with an introduction, annotations, and indices verborum and nominum et rerum. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, c1991. UCSC McHenry ML3809.S52812 1991
  • How much did Euclid really understand of all this tuning stuff? Here is the awesome answer, in Greek, Latin, and English.
    Blackwood, Easley. The structure of recognizable diatonic tunings. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1985. UCSC McHenry ML3809.B49 1985
  • Definitive modern treatment of Pythagorean, just, meantone, and equal tunings.
    Brumbaugh, Robert Sherrick, 1918-. Plato's mathematical imagination : the mathematical passages in the dialogues and their interpretation. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1954. UCSC McHenry AS36.I385 no.29
  • pp. 221, 228: Plato's scales
    Crocker, Richard L., Remarks on the tuning text UET VII 74 (U. 7/80). Rome, Italy : Faculty of Ancient Oriental Studies, Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1978. UCSC McHenry ML164.C76 1978
  • Old Babylonian text on the tuning of the lyre in seven tones.
    Dolge, Alfred, 1848-. Pianos and their makers : a comprehensive history of the development of the piano from the monochord to the concert grand player piano. New York : Dover Publications, 1972. UCSC McHenry ML652.D6 1972
  • pp. 27-29: monochord, 582 BC, drawing.
    Galpin, Francis W. (Francis William), 1858-1945. The music of the Sumerians and their immediate successors, the Babylonians & Assyrians, described and illustrated from original sources by Francis W. Galpin. Cambridge [Eng.] The University Press, 1937. UCSC McHenry ML164.G17M9
  • pp. 39, 93: Scale measured from flute pipes from Ur, ca 2700 BC
    James, Jamie. The music of the spheres : music, science, and the natural order of the universe. New York : Grove Press, c1993. UCSC McHenry ML3800.J22 1993
  • Ch. 2: Pythagoras
  • Ch. 7: Hermetic tradition
    Levin, Flora R., 1924-. The Harmonics of Nicomachus and the Pythagorean tradition. University Park, Pa. : American Philological Association, 1975. UCSC McHenry ML168.N5 L48
  • Some very advanced considerations in the notes.
    Lloyd, Llewelyn S. (Llewelyn Southworth), 1876-1956. Intervals, scales and temperaments. Articles by the late Ll. S. Lloyd selected and edited with an introd. and bibliography by Hugh Boyle. Glossary of musical terms, appendices, summary of mathematical terms and tables by Hugh Boyle. New York, St. Martin's Press [1963]. UCSC McHenry ML3809.L55
  • Besides definitive articles on the vibration of strings and the history of tunings, Lloyd has left us the best instructions for making (App. 1) and using (App. 2) a monochord. His is 53 inches long and has two strings: a duochord.
    McClain, Ernest G. The Pythagorean Plato : prelude to the song itself. Stony Brook, N.Y. : N. Hays ; Boulder, Colo. : distributed by Great Eastern Book Co., c1978. UCSC McHenry ML169.M3
  • p. 169: intro to monochord
    McKnight, Stephen A., 1944-. The modern age and the recovery of ancient wisdom : a reconsideration of historical consciousness, 1450-1650. Columbia : University of Missouri Press, c1991. UCSC McHenry CB367 .M35 1991; PAL
  • Outstanding review of the prisca theologia tradition.
    Manniche, Lise. Music and musicians in ancient Egypt. London, England : British Museum Press, c1991. UCSC McHenry ML164.M35 1991
    Prosdocimus, de Beldemandis, d. 1428. Brevis summula proportionum quantum ad musicam pertinet ; and, Parvus tractatulus de modo monacordum dividendi = A short summary of ratios insofar as they pertain to music ; and, A little treatise on the method of dividing the monochord. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, c1987. UCSC McHenry ML3809.P9713 1987
  • p. 6: very complete table of pythagorean tuning, from 1409!
    Schneider, Michael S., 1951-. A beginner's guide to constructing the universe : the mathematical archetypes of nature, art, and science. 1st ed. New York, NY : HarperCollins, c1994. UCSD S & E QA8.4 .S374 1994
  • p. 233-246: Nice background on the monochord.
    Smith, Hermann, 1824-1910. The world's earliest music: traced to its beginnings in ancient lands, by collected evidence of relics, records, history, and musical instruments from Greece, Etruria, Egypt, China, through Assyria and Babylonia, to the primitive home, the land of Akkad and Sumer. London W. Reeves [1904]. UCSC McHenry ML162.S64
  • p. 39: intervals measured from Egyptian flutes
  • p. 342: Alexandrian perfection of the diatonic scale
    Tame, David. The secret power of music. New York : Destiny Books, c1984. UCLA Music ML3845 .T29 1984b; RHA
  • pp. 248-254: excellent history of the Pythagorean comma
    Terpstra, Siemen. An introduction to the monochord. Alexandria 2 (1993); pp. 137-166.
  • This is great!
    Wittkower, Rudolph. Architectural principles in the age of humanism. London: Warburg Institute, University of London, 1949, UCSC McHenry CB3.U55 v.19. // New York: W. W. Norton 1971, UCSC McHenry NA520.W5 1971. // London: Academy, 1988, UCSC McHenry NA520.W5 1988
    See esp. Part IV: The problem of harmonic proportion in architecture, incl. Sec. 4: Musical consonances and the visual arts.
    • Revised 14 December 2001 by Ralph Abraham