Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 2 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"Plutarch
Philosophy
Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 2 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"
Plutarch
Classical literature; Essays; Ethics; Philosophy
19. Others, placing the two extremes of the diatessaron, the acute part
in 288, and the lower sound in 216, in all the rest observe the same
proportions, only that they take the remainder between the two middle
intervals. For the base, being forced up a whole tone, makes 243; and
the upper note, screwed downward a full tone, begets 256. Moreover 243
carries a sesquioctave proportion to 216, and 288 to 256; so that each
of the intervals contains a full tone, and the residue is that which
remains between 243 and 256, which is not a semitone, but something
less. For 288 exceeds 256 by 32, and 243 exceeds 216 by 27; but 256
exceeds 243 by 13. Now this excess is less than half of the former. So
it is plain that the diatessaron consists of two tones and the residue,
not of two tones and a half. Let this suffice for the demonstration of
these things. Nor is it a difficult thing to believe, by what has been
already said, wherefore Plato, after he had asserted that the intervals
of sesquialter, sesquiterce, and sesquioctave had arisen, when he comes
to fill up the intervals of sesquiterces with sesquioctaves, makes
not the least mention of sesquialters; for that the sesquialter is
soon filled up, by adding the sesquiterce to the sesquioctave, or the
sesquioctave to the sesquiterce.
20. Having therefore shown the manner how to fill up the intervals,
and to place and dispose the medieties, had never any person taken the
same pains before, I should have recommended the further consideration
of it to the recreation of your fancies; but in regard that several
most excellent musicians have made it their business to unfold these
mysteries with a diligence more than usually exact,—more especially
Crantor, Clearchus, and Theodorus, all born in Soli,—it shall suffice
only to show how these men differed among themselves. For Theodorus,
varying from the other two, and not observing two distinct files or
rows of numbers, but placing the duples and triples in a direct line
one before another, grounds himself upon that division of the substance
which Plato calls the division in length, making two parts (as it were)
out of one, not four out of two. Then he says, that the interposition
of the mediums ought to take place in that manner, to avoid the trouble
and confusion which must arise from transferring out of the first
duple into the first triple the intervals which are ordained for the
supplement of both.... But as for those who take Crantor’s part, they
so dispose their numbers as to place planes with planes, tetragons with
tetragons, cubes with cubes, opposite to one another, not taking them
in file, but alternatively odd to even. [Here is some great defect in
the original.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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