Penelope Gouk

The Second Sense. Studies in Hearing and Musical Judgement from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century

Explores theories of sound and hearing, and addresses some of the problems involved in listening to and evaluating musical sounds and compositions in antiquity, the Middle Ages and the early modern period.

Hearing science in mid-eighteenth-century Britain and France.

Benjamin Martin, the English natural philosopher, and Claude-Nicolas Le Cat, the French surgeon, both published important work on auditory physiology and function in the mid-eighteenth century. Despite their different backgrounds, there was consensus between the two scholars on key principles of hearing research, most notably the importance of the inner ear in relation to auditory perception. Martin’s work (1755 [1763?]) drew directly on the surgical work of Le Cat (1741) to demonstrate the importance of the auditory mechanism in listening processes. Le Cat’s interest in the ear, however, came in turn from his interest in surgical anatomy. Martin used Le Cat’s elegant designs as a tool for the vivid communication of auditory function to a popular, fee-paying audience. The meeting of two very different minds through intellectual agreement and material transfer demonstrates the way in which principles of hearing science were established in the Enlightenment period.

Acoustics in the Early Royal Society 1660-1680

The early Royal Society has been the focus of much attention by historians of science over many years, (1) but strangely enough there is no really detailed account to be found of the activities and discussions which took place in the weekly meetings, although there is ample information available on the subject. This study of the Royal Society’s collective interest in acoustics aims to provide a detailed analysis of an important subject that has not been dealt with elsewhere, at the same time as providing a case study of the way in which experiments were suggested and sometimes undertaken in meetings during the first twenty years of the Society’s existence. Apart from the article published forty years ago in this journal by Lloyd, in which the author is concerned only with articles in the Philosophical Transactions relating to music theory and acoustics in the years 1677—1698 (2), the contribution of members of the Royal Society to the topic of acoustics has been treated as subsidiary to that of more famous individuals in the seventeenth century; namely Galileo Galilei, Marin Mersenne, Isaac Newton and Joseph Sauveur. The comparative neglect of the activities of the Royal Society has arisen because writers have been concerned with tracing the ‘progress’ of acoustics as a scientific discipline, in which events in the seventeenth century merely set the scene for the triumphs of John and Daniel Bernoulli and Euler in the eighteenth century.

In Search of Sound: Authenticity, Healing and Redemption in the Early Modern State

ABSTRACT This article is a contribution to early modern sound studies, from the perspective of intellectual history. In contrast to the way visual culture has been handled, few scholars in this field have considered sound in general, or even music in particular, as an agent of change, despite the wealth of scholarship available. Starting with Francis Bacons ambitious plan to construct a total history of sound—an enterprise ultimately designed to improve the human condition—this paper surveys a series of early modern experiments to recover an authentic golden past, to restore harmony to a chaotic present world, and to heal and restore the soul. It draws on recent as well as more canonical studies in the history of science, early music history and ethnomusicology to suggest how attending to sound can enrich our understanding of the early modern state.

An early critique of Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum: Edmund Chilmead's treatise on sound

Summary Edmund Chilmead (1610–54), a little-known scholar and musician, was the author of a possibly unique testimony to the interest among English natural philosophers in the nature of sound and philosophical music theory during the years following the publication of Francis Bacons Sylva Sylvarum (1626). Chilmeads ‘An Examination … of the Naturall History’ is a manuscript treatise which takes the form of twenty ‘Quaeres’ on the second and third centuries of experiments of the Sylva which are concerned with the nature of sound. In the treatise, Chilmead reveals his familiarity with the developments in the field of musical acoustics made by the French natural philosopher Marin Mersenne (1588–1648) and his circle. The paper falls into two complementary sections. In the first, Feingold gives an account of Chilmeads life and career (which has hitherto never been fully documented) in order to place him in the context of the intellectual and social milieu of Oxford and London during this period. In the secon...

The union of arts and sciences in the eighteenth century: Lorenz Spengler (1720–1807), artistic turner and natural scientist

Summary The life and career of Lorenz Spengler (1720–1807) provides evidence to support the view that the eighteenth century was a period when there was a fruitful interrelationship between the arts, crafts, and sciences in the courts and capitals of Europe. Spengler was trained as a turner, and was appointed teacher of ornamental turning to the Danish royal family and turner of the court in 1745. Even in the early years of his artistic career Spengler was interested in electricity and its role in healing, and he became an avid collector of shells and naturalia. Over the years, Spenglers interests turned more to the natural sciences, and in 1771 he was appointed director of the Kings Kunstkammer. Only by considering both aspects of Spenglers career can his scientific activities be placed in their proper historical context.