Details
HELMHOLTZ, Hermann von (1821-1894). Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen als physiologische Grundlage fr die Theorie der Musik. Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1863.
8o (215 x 141 mm). Wood-engraved text illustrations. Contemporary black paste paper boards, preserving original orange printed front wrapper (some wear).
Provenance: Oskar Emil Meyer (1834-1909), author of Die kinetischen Theorie der Gase (1877) (signature on flyleaf).
FIRST EDITION. "This exhaustive study of acoustics ranks as one of the greatest books on the subject and shows that Helmholtz was, besides being a great physicist and physician, an accomplished musician" (Garrison-Morton). Helmholtz's resonance theory of hearing, expounded in this work, remained unchallenged for decades. Helmholtz also explained that differences in timbre result from differences in upper partial tones, which depend in turn on how the fundamental is produced., and he applied this observation to music theory to explain that consonance and dissonance are produced by more or less coincident upper partial tones. "This foundation treatise on audition has been termed the Principia of physiological acoustics" (Grolier/Horblit).
Garrison-Morton 1562; Grolier/Horblit 49a; Norman 1044.
8o (215 x 141 mm). Wood-engraved text illustrations. Contemporary black paste paper boards, preserving original orange printed front wrapper (some wear).
Provenance: Oskar Emil Meyer (1834-1909), author of Die kinetischen Theorie der Gase (1877) (signature on flyleaf).
FIRST EDITION. "This exhaustive study of acoustics ranks as one of the greatest books on the subject and shows that Helmholtz was, besides being a great physicist and physician, an accomplished musician" (Garrison-Morton). Helmholtz's resonance theory of hearing, expounded in this work, remained unchallenged for decades. Helmholtz also explained that differences in timbre result from differences in upper partial tones, which depend in turn on how the fundamental is produced., and he applied this observation to music theory to explain that consonance and dissonance are produced by more or less coincident upper partial tones. "This foundation treatise on audition has been termed the Principia of physiological acoustics" (Grolier/Horblit).
Garrison-Morton 1562; Grolier/Horblit 49a; Norman 1044.