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Altered Sensations David Pantalony Altered Sensations Rudolph Koenig’s Acoustical Workshop in Nineteenth-Century Paris 123 Chapter 2 Hermann von Helmholtz and the Sensations of Tone Music has hitherto withdrawn itself from scientific treatment more than any other art....It always struck me as a wonderful and peculiarly interesting mystery, that in the theory of musical sounds, in the physical and technical foundations of music, which above all other arts seems in its action on the mind the most immaterial, evanescent, and tender creator of incalculable and indescribable states of consciousness, that here in especial the science of purest and strictest thought—mathematics— should prove pre-eminently fertile.1 Hermann von Helmholtz, Bonn, 1857. In the 1840s it seemed improbable, even offensive to some, that musical sounds could be analysed in the same way that a chemical compound could be reduced to elements, or the way light could be separated into a spectrum. Today we take for granted the notion that musical sounds are in fact a compound of simple, pure frequencies. Electronic equipment does this analysis automatically. We play a trumpet into a microphone and a spectrogram appears on a monitor. The basis for this, Fourier analysis (a mathematical description of periodic behaviour), first appeared in the mid nineteenth century. What historical circumstances made this mathematical theory so “pre-eminently fertile”? How did musical sounds, “the most immaterial, evanescent, and tender creator of incalculable and indescribable states of consciousness,”2 enter into the laboratory to be analyzed, manipulated and mea- sured? How was the German context of this development different from Koenig’s unique Parisian training with sound? Through a seminal book and new instruments, Hermann von Helmholtz laid the foundation for an analytic conception and practice of sound. Rudolph Koenig was the first instrument maker to capitalize on this major development. But, as we will see in later chapters, Koenig eventually rejected fundamental aspects of Helmholtz’s work, in particular the mechanistic elements. Even though both men shared a love of science and music, and both had even shared the same social cir- cles in Königsberg, they came to differ markedly on their approach to acoustics. In this chapter I look at the origins and background of Helmholtz’s studies of sound, part of which carried a mechanistic (physical and physiological) view of sensa- tions, a psychological theory of perception built on these assumptions, experiments D. Pantalony, Altered Sensations, Archimedes 24, DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-2816-7_2, 19 C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 20 2 Hermann von Helmholtz and the Sensations of Tone and instruments that reinforced these views, and sophisticated mathematics that explained some of the more elusive phenomena in this framework. It represented a compilation of Helmholtz’s famous phrase from a lecture in 1862 that science strove to achieve “the intellectual mastery of nature.”3 Different from Koenig who failed to enter the German academic world yet achieved fame in the Parisian arti- san classes, Helmholtz ascended to the top of the social elite of German academic scientists. Hermann von Helmholtz Musical culture was central to German science in the nineteenth century; it inspired inquiry, formed social cohesion and stimulated collaboration between scientists, musicians and musical instrument makers.4 Hermann von Helmholtz, scientist and amateur musician, was an exemplar of these traditions. Music had always been essential to his life. In 1838 when he left his birthplace in Potsdam to attend medi- cal school at the Friedrich Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, he wrote immediately to his father about the arrival of his piano at his new quarters. His Silesian room-mate, he reported, played the piano well but only cares for “florid pieces” (colorirten Sachen) and “modern Italian music.”5 The elder Helmholtz responded by warning his son to beware of “Italian extravagances” (Ueberspanntkeit) and not to forget the inspi- ration of German and classical music – the former was a distraction while the latter was an education.6 As we will see, the piano itself, and not just the music, would provide inspiration for Helmholtz’s studies in acoustics. “Florid pieces” and “Italian extravagances” were just a taste of the novelties that Helmholtz experienced in his student years and early career. There was growing social and political uneasiness that culminated in the failed revolution of 1848. There was the triumph of steam power, the beginnings of train travel, the intro- duction of the telegraph and prosperity brought on by industrial development. Even Helmholtz’s favourite pastime, music, went through dramatic changes in this period.7 There was the emergence of the modern, more powerful pianoforte that would change concert music. There was growing acceptance of the well-tempered scale that would alter traditional notions of harmony. There were also problems, recognised throughout Europe, related to the standardisation of pitch.8 Helmholtz epitomised Prussia’s Bildungsbürgertum (educated upper-middle class), with its emphasis on cultivating a whole individual, and strong social and intellectual connections between artists and natural scientists. Intimate Sunday after- noon salon events for family and friends included concerts and lectures on literature, art or popular science.9 The Prussian education system, which came to represent these ideals, went through upheaval during the post-Napoleonic period, becom- ing the first system to replace classical teaching methods with an emphasis on research and laboratory-based teaching. In turn, the decentralised German states established a dynamic network of competing research institutes.10 Justus Liebig’s chemical institute, founded in the 1830s attracted students from across Europe and North America and became a veritable factory for research in organic chemistry. Hermann von Helmholtz 21 Several schools in the German territories and later around the world would imitate Liebig’s model for success.11 We see the impact of this new teaching and research emphasis in Helmholtz’s medical training. In his thesis year, 1841, Helmholtz joined the laboratory of the physiologist, Johannes Müller (1801–1858), and became acquainted with Ernst Brücke, Emil du Bois-Reymond and Carl Ludwig. This cir- cle of young researchers formed the “1847” group becoming leading advocates for a school of physiology based on physical and chemical principles. Helmholtz’s first paper showed his dedication to mechanistic notions with detailed studies on animal heat and muscle contraction. To complement his schooling in physiology, Helmholtz read the masters of eighteenth century mechanics and mathematics – Euler, Bernouilli, D’Alembert and Lagrange. In 1847 he combined this background with his knowledge of physiology to develop the mathematical principles for the conservation of energy. From 1849 to 1855 Helmholtz taught physiology at Königsberg where he started to focus on sensory physiology. In particular, he began studies on optics and colour research. As he would do in acoustics, he explored the relations between the basic elements of light (the frequencies of the spectrum) and their counterparts in physiology, the receptors and nervous tissues. He relied on Müller’s doctrine of specific nerve energies whereby specific nerves performed specific sensory jobs.12 Since Descartes there had been a notion of the mechanics of sensation (i.e. based on a reflex system), but no one had ever suggested that the nervous system had a built-in, differentiated structure that divided processing jobs automatically. Müller’s doctrine enunciated a radically new architectural blueprint for the sensory system. From the primacy of physics and physiology, therefore, Helmholtz built a mech- anistic conception of sensations. Psychological processes brought order to these sensations constituting our perception of the world. In this way, there was a pro- gression from physics to sensation to perception. Patrick Macdonald has argued that the act of experimenting itself strongly shaped Helmholtz’s view of percep- tion. Experimenting, or the active “varying of conditions” in a laboratory became for Helmholtz a mirror of how the mind ordered incoming sensations. He saw per- ception as an act of will that could reorder or deliberately alter the conditions of experience.13 Helmholtz was as attentive in the laboratory as he was on the theoretical front. In one of his first series of studies at Königsberg, he measured the velocity of a nerve impulse with delicate electrical apparatus of his own invention. Before that time, nerve transmission was thought to be too fast, even instantaneous, for study in the laboratory. He used a precise electrical timing apparatus that was connected to a 50–60 mm long nerve of a frog’s leg to produce a fairly consistent figure of 25 m/s. He checked his results using graphical apparatus (invented by his friend Ludwig) to map the sequence of the nervous impulse over time.14 In addition to these researches, in 1851 Helmholtz became a celebrity in medical circles for his invention of the ophthalmoscope that allowed physicians a novel means of studying the inner structure of the eye for the first time. The ophthalmoscope became an indispensable instrument for his studies in optics.15 22 2 Hermann von Helmholtz and the Sensations of Tone Contacts with industry and skilled artisans enriched Helmholtz’s experimen- tal endeavours. The self-regulating interrupter used in his vowel synthesiser was initially developed by Werner Siemens.16 Friedrich Fessel of Cologne (see below) built the actual synthesiser for Helmholtz. The Berlin instrument maker, E. Sauerwald, who had collaborated with Gustave Magnus on early electrical appa- ratus, made the original double siren. He also made a myograph (for studying the action of electricity on bodies) based on Helmholtz’s earlier myograph made by Egbert Rekoss of Königsberg. In 1852, Rekoss also invented the rotating disk for Helmholtz’s ophthalmoscope.17 Taking advantage of his growing fame, and his ability to harness more research time and facilities, Helmholtz took up two positions in Bonn in 1855 and then Heidelberg in 1858.
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