‘Hogyan használja (ki) napjaink zenetudománya a Fibonacci-számokat és az aranymetszést?’ : Translation by Gergely Fazekas of ‘The Use and Abuse of the Golden Section and Fibonacci Series in Musicology today’. Understanding Bach 1 (2006), 69–85

• Consecutive terms in the Fibonacci Sequence form a numerical approximation of the Golden Section, the popular term for Euclid’s division in extreme and mean ratio (DEMR). Because Fibonacci dated his manuscript 1202, and because Euclid described DEMR in c.300 BCE, many musicologists have naïvely assumed that composers since 1202 consciously used Fibonacci numbers to express the Golden Section. This is historically misguided. Although Euclid’s DEMR was widely disseminated throughout maths history, Fibonacci's Liber abaci (1202) was not. After a brief transmission in manuscript form, Liber abaci was lost until the mid-18th century, forgotten again until the 19th century and finally published in 1857 and 1862. The few sporadic appearances of a numerical expression for DEMR in the 17th and 18th centuries arose independently of Fibonacci. The attribution of exotic aesthetic properties to the Golden Section is a product of the late 19th century. This paper examines the historical facts and consider the problems and possibilities they present to the Bach scholar.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Musikvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Musicology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Golden Section; Fibonacci Series; History; Art history; Musicology; Bach studies

Musikvetenskap

Musicology

Konstvetenskap

History of Art

Idé- och lärdomshistoria

History of Sciences and Ideas

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)