Volume 2: 1771 Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica!
Harmonical
Harmonical, something belong to harmony. See Harmony.Harmonical
composition, in a general sense, includes both harmony and melody, i.e. of music
or songs, both in a single part, and in several parts.Harmonical series, a
series of many numbers in continual harmonical proportion. Thus, if
there are four or more numbers, of which every three immediate terms are
harmonical, the whole will make an harmonical series: such is 30 : 20 : 15 : 12
: 10. Or, if every four terms immediately next each other are harmonical,
it is also a continual harmonical series, but of another species, as 3, 4, 6, 9,
18, 36, etc.Harmonical sounds, an appellation given, by Mr. Sauveur, to such
sounds as always make a determinate number of vibrations, in the time that one
of the fundamentals, to which they are referred, makes one vibration.
Harmonical sounds are produced by the parts of chords, etc. which vibrate a
certain number of times, while the whole chord vibrates once.
The relations of sounds had only been considered in the series of numbers, 1 :
2, 2 : 3, 3 : 4, 4 : 5, etc. which produced the intervals called octave, fifth,
fourth, third, etc. Mr. Sauveur first considered them in the natural
series, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. and examined the relations of sounds arising
therefrom. The result is, that the first interval, 1: 2, is an octave; the
second, 1 : 3, a twelfth; the third, 1 : 4, a fifteenth, or double octave; the
fourth, 1 : 5, a seventeenth; the fifth, 1 : 6, a nineteenth, etc.
This new consideration of the relations of sounds is more natural than the old
one; and is, in effect, all the music that nature makes without the assistance
of art.