jul 21, 580 BC - Pythagoras (580-500 B.C.)

Description:

Pythagoras (580-500 B.C.) not only discovered numerical relations among pitches, but also developed systematic descriptions of the elements of music and the patterns of musical composition. He is credited with discovering that the octave, fifth, and fourth, long recognized as consonances, are generated by the simplest possible numeric ratios. For example, when a vibrating string is divided into segments, one twice as long as the other (expressed by the ratio 2:1), an octave results; 3:2 yields a fifth; and 4:3, a fourth.