The Gaming Den

Dr_Noface wrote:I think he meant "find".

Dr_Noface wrote:I think he meant "find".

Britannica wrote:Poisson’s spot, also called Arago’s spot, diffraction pattern produced by a small spherical object in the path of parallel light rays. French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel presented much of his work on diffraction as an entry to a competition on the subject sponsored by the French Academy of Sciences in 1818. The committee of judges included a number of prominent advocates of Isaac Newton’s corpuscular model of light, one of whom, Siméon-Denis Poisson, pointed out that Fresnel’s model predicted a seemingly absurd result: If a parallel beam of light falls on a small spherical obstacle, there will be a bright spot at the centre of the circular shadow—a spot nearly as bright as if the obstacle were not there at all. An experiment was subsequently performed by the French physicist François Arago, and Poisson’s spot was seen, vindicating Fresnel and giving support for the wave model of light.

Diabolus in Musica means "The Devil in Music". In medieval times, high clergymen had a habit of debating esoteric theological themes - such as "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?". They applied their mental machinations to music, too, and one of the ideas they came up with was that there was a true representation, in music, of the Holy Trinity. It was, of course, the musical interval produced by adding three pure tones - representing the Three in One. What you get if you try it is the interval of the augmented fourth, or tritone. Try it on a piano, if you like. Play a C and an F sharp together. To the modern ear, it's not a nice sound. OK to produce a passing scrunch in jazz, but not something you'd want to hear repeatedly unless you were watching a horror film.

The medieval ear was used to hearing perfect fourths and perfect fifths - and perfectly in tune, too, unlike the modern equal-tempered scale. The augmented fourth, being half-way between the two most common pure intervals, was about the worst discord imaginable. So this idea about the representation of the Trinity was a nice thought, but it doesn't work, so let's forget it. Oh no. It fitted in with Plato, notions of the Harmony of the Spheres, and other esoterica. The theory had to be right. There was something sour and evil lurking at the heart of music itself. What had happened was that when the rules of harmony were laid down at the creation of the Universe, Satan had crept in and corrupted the image of the Trinity.

The tritone was therefore labelled "Diabolus in Musica", and comprehensively banned from church music.

Maxus wrote:I found out about the "Diabolus in Musica" today.

Yes, I know. At 25 years old. Music is a gap in my education, shuttup.

To quote:

Diabolus in Musica means "The Devil in Music". In medieval times, high clergymen had a habit of debating esoteric theological themes - such as "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?". They applied their mental machinations to music, too, and one of the ideas they came up with was that there was a true representation, in music, of the Holy Trinity. It was, of course, the musical interval produced by adding three pure tones - representing the Three in One. What you get if you try it is the interval of the augmented fourth, or tritone. Try it on a piano, if you like. Play a C and an F sharp together. To the modern ear, it's not a nice sound. OK to produce a passing scrunch in jazz, but not something you'd want to hear repeatedly unless you were watching a horror film.

The medieval ear was used to hearing perfect fourths and perfect fifths - and perfectly in tune, too, unlike the modern equal-tempered scale. The augmented fourth, being half-way between the two most common pure intervals, was about the worst discord imaginable. So this idea about the representation of the Trinity was a nice thought, but it doesn't work, so let's forget it. Oh no. It fitted in with Plato, notions of the Harmony of the Spheres, and other esoterica. The theory had to be right. There was something sour and evil lurking at the heart of music itself. What had happened was that when the rules of harmony were laid down at the creation of the Universe, Satan had crept in and corrupted the image of the Trinity.

The tritone was therefore labelled "Diabolus in Musica", and comprehensively banned from church music.

Most Christian mythology and related ideas have always struck me as fairly weak, but that bolded part is downright Lovecraftian-level creepy.