- Joseph Sauveur
Joseph Sauveur (1653-1716) was a French
mathematician andphysicist . He was a professor ofmathematics and in 1696 became a member of theFrench Academy of Sciences .Sauveur is known for his detailed studies regarding the science of
acoustics . He is credited for coining the term "acoustique", which he derived from the ancient Greek word ακουστός, meaning "able to be heard". His work involved researching the correlation betweenfrequency and musical pitch, and he did studies on subjects such as thevibrating string , tuning pitch,harmonics , ranges of voices and musical instruments, et al.Sauveur also created a measure of intervals concerning the
octave . The following are some of the terms Sauveur used aslogarithm ic divisions:
* "méride": 1/43 part of an octave
* "eptaméride": 1/301 part of an octave, or 1/7 of a "méride"; this term would later be known as asavart .
* "demi-heptaméride": 1/602 part of an octave; 1/2 of an "eptaméride".
* "decaméride": 1/3010 part of an octave; 1/10 of an "eptaméride"
* Also 1/55 of an ocatve would become known as a "Sauveur comma".Compilation of Written Works about Joseph Sauveur:
* Joseph Sauveur: "Collected Writings on Musical Acoustics" (Paris 1700–1713); edited by Rudolf Rasch (The Diapason Press).References:
* French Wikipedia Site; Joseph Sauveur
* [http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/doc/measures.html Musical Interval Measures]
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