Product Details
Harmonograph: A Visual Guide to the Mathematics of Music (Wooden Books)

Harmonograph: A Visual Guide to the Mathematics of Music (Wooden Books)
By Anthony Ashton

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Average customer review:
The beauty of frequency relaionships, examined by the publisher's grandfather; the harmony of music expressed in moving ink and the lovely Lissajous patterns one may create on an oscilloscope.

Product Description

During the nineteenth century, a remarkable scientific instrument known as a harmonograph revealed the beautiful patterns found in music. Harmonograph is an introduction to the evolution of simple harmonic theory, from the discoveries of Pythagoras to diatonic tuning and equal temperament. Beautiful drawings show the octave as triangle, the fifth as pentagram; diagrams show the principles of harmonics, overtones, and the monochord. Anthony Ashton examines the phenomenon of resonance in Chladni patterns, describes how to build a harmonograph of your own, and provides tables of world tuning systems. This inspiring book will appeal to musicians, mathematicians, designers, and artists alike.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #44312 in Books
  • Published on: 2003-04-01
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 64 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Anthony Ashton is an economist and journalist.

Customer Reviews

Sound Made Visible5
Humans have known or intuited that sound not only has form but it organizes matter.
Throughout history individuals have found ways to demonstrate (and make visible) this profound fact.
We know that music & sound is vibration. (within the audible range)
Scientists and mystics understand that EVERYTHING is vibration.
Therefore Everything is Sound.
The notion that EVERYTHING is in perfect order & can ultimately be understood by number is purely a Pythagorean notion. "Harmony of the Spheres" were his expression that "our solar system, the cosmos, everything that IS... IS a perfect symphony".
The "Harmonograph" is a simple classic for the individual interested this subject.
I recommend it for children and adults alike.

A delightful little book5
I didn't know what quite to expect with this book; I wasn't familiar with the term "harmonograph" before getting this text.

This is a small book with about 25 topics, each discussed on 1 or 2 pages. It links together many concepts from our past (including the 19th century harmonograph) and the mathematics underneath them. This is one book which satisfyingly explains the concept of an even-tempered scale -- something I had been pondering for a long time.

You could say this book is a group of different stories about the vibrations in music, and the relationship between those vibrations. Vibrations are important for us to understand: our bones float; our bodies are springy and resilient. The math and physics of vibrations -- scientists call it "simple harmonic motion" -- can get rather tricky. Most of use stop our math classes before they get to this point. On the other hand, there are many topics in this field that are understandable without all of those complicated scribbles; this book lovingly explores many of them.

My main gripe is that there are few links for the DIY types to go try this stuff hands-on. There must be some websites which have virtual harmonographs; the author should have found these. And it's a darn shame that so few of these machines are around. I make it a point of seeing lots of science museums; I've never seen a harmonograph.

We forget how many wonderful things before we had computers. Things like the harmonograph have a delightful physicality; that's something we've lost in our "modern" society.

I highly recommend this book to a young high-school student. There are hidden delights in the drawings and historical references. For such a small book, there is a surprising depth of detail.

I can't wait to explore the rest of this series.

Beautiful4
Short and easy to read with beautiful illustrations, this is a nice addition to your collection if you are interested in the connections between sounds and visuals.