John Weeks Moore, Complete Encyclopaedia of Music… (1880)
“ Acoustics, indeed, comprehend nothing Less than the whole theoretical portion of music, as discovered and laid down by Aristoxenus, Pythagoras, Lasus, Euclid, Ptolemy, and others among the great fathers of musical science. We may call acoustics the science which teaches the physical law, and phenomena of sound and hearing. Several important facts concerning sound must have been known at a very early period. ”
John Weeks Moore, Complete Encyclopaedia of Music… (1880)
“ Our churches and theatres are yet much too large, though we do not need pipes or speaking tubes. If we rub our moistened finger along the edge of a drink-big glass, or draw a bow across the strings of a violin, we can in both cases procure sounds which remain undiminished in intensity as long as the operation by which they are excited is continued. If we strike two bells, one of lead, and the other of brass, the sound of the former is feeble and momentary, compared with that of the latter ; so we see, that, though bodies all sound, yet the sounds produced are not all alike. ”
John Weeks Moore, Complete Encyclopaedia of Music… (1880)
“ A musical string is of a uniform thickness, and is stretched between two points, by a force much greater than its weight. The stretching force which is applied is generally conceived as measured by the weight which would occasion an equal tension. The sound which a string gives, thus stretched, or in this mode of vibration, is called its fundamental sound. The tone of a string becomes more acute as we increase its tension, or diminish its length, and the weight of a given portion. ”
