Encounter I

Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization

with Stuart Isacoff
Friday, July 18
7:30 p.m., Martin Family Hall, Menlo School
Tickets: $35 adult; $15 student

In a multimedia presentation—employing musical performance on pianos in different tunings, visual images, and a bit of theater—writer, pianist, and composer Stuart Isacoff takes us on a journey through history to unveil the little-known story of fierce battles over music that have engaged philosophers, popes, scientists, musicians, and artists across many centuries. Combatants included such thinkers as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, and Sir Isaac Newton. At the center of these fights were fundamental questions: Does God have rules governing how we should select the notes of our musical scales? Does Mother Nature teach us the ways of musical harmony? If the universe seems to provide specific musical laws, does anyone have a right to tamper with them? This Encounter tackles these fascinating questions, and is based on Stuart Isacoff’s critically acclaimed book, Temperament (Knopf and Vintage), of which the New York Times Book Review declared: “Isacoff untangles the complexities of this issue with the aplomb of a virtuoso pianist playing scales.”

More Encounters:
Encounter II »
Encounter III »
Encounter IV »