Abstract
YEARS ago, when the laws of musical sounds, like the laws of Nature before Newton, lay hid in night, it was not unusual for clever and ingenious writers on music to invent what they called “systems of harmony.” They found certain combinations and progressions in use by by the best composers, and they conceived it to be their duty to explain, or account for, or justify these by some kind of imaginary natural principles, more or less fanciful, which they conjured up out of their inner consciousness, to fit the case. But, unfortunately, these writers widely disagreed among themselves as to the principles on which their theories should be based, and the result was such a mass of contradiction and confusion that the very name of theoretical harmony became a by-word and a scandal, until the Newton of musical acoustics, Helmholtz, arose, and, by explaining the real nature of musical sensations, swept away these fanciful inventions into deserved oblivion.
Elements of Harmony and Counterpoint.
By Sir F. Davenport, Professor of Harmony, &c., Royal Academy of Music. (London: Longmans, 1887.)
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Elements of Harmony and Counterpoint . Nature 35, 339 (1887). https://doi.org/10.1038/035339a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/035339a0