From psophos to noise: origins and transformations of the object in the 17th century

Abstract

The presence – or absence – of terms denoting “noise” in the Greek, Latin and
vernacular (essentially French) semantic fields is considered from the point of view
of their respective theoretical traditions. While Greek psophos accounts for the
physical materiality of sound, the medieval musica speculativa neglects the matter.
The 17th century causal – rational – approach revitalizes the topic: acoustics, a new
scientific discipline that emerges during that period (the first chair at the French
royal academy was established in 1700), is in charge of mapping a new field, wider
than that of music, in which noise occupies a position that needs to be defined and
theorized. The analysis of this object comes up against the limits of mathematical
formulation and of univocity; subjectivity cannot be avoided and authorizes
discourses on taste (personal, national, etc.) and an aesthetic approach of the
pleasant or unpleasant nature of sound, of music, of noise.