Thomas Salmon: Writings on Music Vol. 2 : Volume II: a Proposal to Perform Musick and Related Writings, 1685-1706
Thomas Salmon: Writings on Music Vol. 2 : Volume II: a Proposal to Perform Musick and Related Writings, 1685-1706
Click to enlarge
Author(s): Wardhaugh, Benjamin
ISBN No.: 9780754668459
Pages: 208
Year: 201308
Format: Trade Cloth (Hard Cover)
Price: $ 185.71
Dispatch delay: Dispatched between 7 to 15 days
Status: Available

This is the second volume in a two-part set on the writings of Thomas Salmon. Salmon (1647-1706) is remembered today for the fury with which Matthew Locke greeted his first foray into musical writing, the Essay to the Advancement of Musick (1672), and the near-farcical level to which the subsequent pamphlet dispute quickly descended. Salmon proposed a radical reform of musical notation, involving a new set of clefs which he claimed, and Locke denied, would make learning and performing music much easier (these writings are the subject of Volume I).Later in his life Salmon devoted his attention to an exploration of the possible reform of musical pitch. He made, or renewed, contact with instrument-makers and performers in London, with the mathematician John Wallis, with Isaac Newton and with the Royal Society of London through its Secretary Hans Sloane. A series of manuscript treatises and a published Proposal to Perform Musick, in Perfect and Mathematical Proportions (1688) paved the way for an appearance by Salmon at the Royal Society in 1705, when he provided a demonstration performance by professional musicians using instruments specially modified to his designs. This created an explicit overlap between the spaces of musical performance and of experimental performance, as well as raising questions about the meaning and the source of musical knowledge similar to those raised in his work on notation. Benjamin Wardhaugh presents the first published scholarly edition of Salmon's writings on pitch, previously only available mostly in manuscript.



To be able to view the table of contents for this publication then please subscribe by clicking the button below...
To be able to view the full description for this publication then please subscribe by clicking the button below...