Joseph Sauveur

Joseph Sauveur [ sovœʀ ] (* March 24, 1653 in La Fleche, † July 9, 1716 in Paris) was a French scientist and is considered the founder of acoustics as a scientific discipline.

Biography

Joseph Sauveur first studied theology and philosophy in Paris, then moved on to medicine to devote himself finally of mathematics. He worked as a mathematics teacher in Paris and in 1686 took over the chair of mathematics at the Collège Royal. Only after he was elected in 1696 to the French Academy of Sciences, he devoted himself to the acoustics, which until then had been scarcely explored scientifically. This choice of the operating field seems amazing because Sauveur was supposedly deaf (probably at least hard of hearing ) and until his 7th year also dumb.

Research

The most important research findings Joseph Sauveurs apply:

  • A method to measure the frequency of pitches by the beat method exactly
  • The composition of a tone from a fundamental and its harmonics, and the application of this knowledge to the organ building
  • The exploration of different ( equal temperament especially) mood systems and as a tool to introduce the units Méride and Eptaméride for the determination of interval sizes.

Works

All writings were originally published in the yearbooks of the Academy of Sciences of Fontenelle.

  • Sur la Determination d'un son fixed. in: Histoire de l' Académie Royale des Sciences in 1700
  • Principes d' acoustique et de musique ou système général des sons of the interval. in: Mémoires de l' Académie Royale des Sciences in 1701
  • Application of the sons harmoniques à la composition des jeux d' orgues. in: Mémoires ... 1702
  • Méthode générale pour the former systèmes de musique tempéré, et du choix de celui qu'on doit suivre. in: Mémoires ... 1707
  • Table générale des systèmes de musique tempérés. in: Mémoires ... 1711
  • Repeat of the sons of cordes d' instruments de musique, aux Flèches of cordes; et nouvelles de Determinations sons fixes. in: Mémoires ... 1713

New edition of the Complete Works:

  • Joseph Sauveur: Collected Writings on Musical Acoustics. Edited by Rudolf Rasch. Utrecht 1984, ISBN 90-70907-07-0
France Muteness Musical tone Integrated Authority File
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