Abstract
MR. LLOYD has done a public service by writing a book on musical acoustics which, while giving the latest results of scientific investigation, approaches the subject from the point of view of the musician. Too often the latter has had to complain of the attitude which many who write for him adopt; that he ought to have taken a course in mathematics and physics at least up to university intermediate standard before reading their works, forgetting that, so overcrowded is the curriculum to-day that a knowledge of physical acoustics cannot be assured even to science students unless they have taken physics as one of the principal subjects of a degree course. It is true that it is impossible to write on sound nowadays without introducing concepts like frequency and phon or their equivalents, but Mr. Lloyd wisely does not confound his readers with an introductory chapter or appendix containing a long list of definitions. Instead he cleverly avoids defining many of the terms he has to employ, leaving the reader to sense their meaning from the context.
The Musical Ear
By Ll.S. Lloyd. Pp. ix + 88 + 2 plates. (London, New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1940.) 6s. 6d. net.
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The Musical Ear. Nature 146, 476 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146476a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146476a0