Didymus the Musician
Didymus the Musician (Greek: Δίδυμος) was a
cents is sometimes called the comma of Didymus after him.[1]
Among his works was On the Difference between the Pythagoreans (Περὶ τῆς διαφορᾶς τῶν Ἀριστοξενείων τε καὶ Πυθαγορείων).
Theory
We know of his theory only indirectly from the works of Porphyry and Ptolemy. There, one finds examples of his tetrachords as measured string lengths from which the following frequency ratios are calculated:
tetrachord
typeinterval
1st–2ndinterval
2nd–3rdinterval
3rd–4thdiatonic 16 / 15 10 / 9 9 / 8 chromatic 16 / 15 25 / 24 6 / 5 enharmonic 32 / 31 31 / 30 5 / 4
Like
minor (10:9) whole tones, as the proportions produced by 10 / 9 × 9 / 8 = 5 / 4 . The ratio of these whole tones 9 / 8 ⧸ 10 / 9 = 9 / 8 × 9 / 10 = 81 / 80 ; is the so-called syntonic comma, also referred to as Didymos' comma.[3][4]
References
- ^ a b Richter (1995), pp. 462–463.
- ^ Barker (1994), [page needed].
- ^ Chappell (1874), p. 204.
- ^ Hubbard (1910), p. 121.
Sources
- S2CID 170415282.
- Chappell, W. (1874). "The History of Music (art and science)". London, UK: Chappell & Co – via HathiTrust Digital Library.
- Hubbard, W.L., ed. (1910). The American History and Encyclopedia of Music. Vol. 10 (reprint ed.). New York, NY: Irving Squire. OCLC 1194188882. Archived from the originalon 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
- ISBN 9780918728609.
- Richter, Lukas (1995) [1980]. "Didymus [Didymos ho mousikos]". In OCLC 1245646411 – via Internet Archive(archive.org).
