1 The Birth of Science - MSRI

198 7. Some Other Aspects of the Scientific Revolution
fourth century B.C. also witnessed the development of the first true theory
of music, by Aristoxenus of Tarentum. We read in Franchi’s contribution
to an authoritative collection about Greek civilization:
These doctrines still constitute today the basis for any study about
sound systems, and their accuracy is often astonishing, as when Aristoxenus
actually foreshadows equal temperament, which was not
achieved until the late seventeenth century. 74
As in all cases examined, from semantics to shipbuilding, from dream
theory to propositional logic, any specialist who in the course of studies in
his own field turns his attention to the period of the scientific revolution is
invariably astonished to discover that modern knowledge was foreshadowed
at the time. The idea of foreshadowing of later theories is a bit like the premonitions
in which Artemidorus of Daldis believed. Now that we have
succeeded, in the case of oneirology, in reconstructing a scientific theory,
should we not try to do the same for the history of culture? Should we not
replace these foreshadowings by the study of the influences of Hellenistic
thought on modern thought?
The main Hellenistic innovation in the area of musical instruments was
the introduction of the first keyboard instrument: the water organ, 75 which
seemingly was also the first scientifically designed musical instrument. Its
invention, attributed to Ctesibius of Alexandria, 76 was clearly linked to
the new science of pneumatics created by the same man. In the Ctesibian
organ, the water, enclosed in an airtight tank, is pushed into the tubes by page 251
the pressure of water introduced into a container. Remnants of an exem- a clarification and a figure
are pending here
plar dating from the imperial period and having four registers, each with
thirteen tubes, have been found at Aquincum (now Buda) and are on display
at the local museum. Remnants of an older water organ were found
in 1994 in Dion, near Mount Olympus. Medieval organs are the direct descendents
of Alexandrian ones, through imperial and Byzantine inheritance.
77 This is a typical case of the pervasive role played by Byzantine
culture in the transmission of Hellenistic musical heritage. 78
74 [Franchi], p. 624.
75 The instrument is described in Vitruvius, De architectura, X, viii.
76 Sources for this attribution include Athenaeus (Deipnosophistae, IV, 174b, d–e), who adds that
Aristoxenus (born around 370 B.C.) did not know the instrument (IV, 174c).
77 The first organ in medieval Europe was received in 757 by the Frankish king Pepin the Short
as a present from the Byzantine emperor Constantine V. It was a water organ.
78 A lack of interest in Byzantine music was for a long time a factor in hiding the continuity
between ancient and medieval music. See [Touliatos].
Revision: 1.9 Date: 2002/10/11 23:59:33