Ptolemy

:This article is about the geographer and astronomer Ptolemy. For Alexander the Great's general, see Ptolemy I of Egypt. For others named "Ptolemy" or "Ptolemaeus", see Ptolemy (disambiguation).

Ptolemy and music

Ptolemy also wrote an influential work, Harmonics on music theory. After criticizing the approaches of his predecessors, Ptolemy argued for basing musical intervals on mathematical ratios (in contrast to the followers of Aristoxenus) backed up by empirical observation (in contrast to the overly-theoretical approach of the Pythagoreans). He presented his own divisions of the tetrachord and the octave, which he derived with the help of a monochord. Ptolemy's astronomical interests also appeared in a discussion of the music of the spheres.

Related Topics:
Music theory - Aristoxenus - Pythagoreans - Tetrachord - Octave - Monochord - Music of the spheres

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