Benjamin Whitcomb’s Recordings and Publications

Recordings

J.S. Bach: Suites 1, 3, 5; D. Gabrielli: Suites 1, 3, 5
(MSR Classics 1177) — Order online / sample »»

Other sampler CDs available
—please contact me for more information.

Publications

Chair of the committee of editors revising the cello portion of the 2008 ASTA String Syllabus

“Improving Intonation,” American String Teacher, November 2007.

“Devising Good Cello Fingerings,” Strings, February 2008.

Recognized for outstanding research from 2006-2007 at the Scholarship &
Creative Achievement Reception. UW-Whitewater, November 21, 2007.

A Guide to Practicing Cello (forthcoming)

Contributing author to Teaching Music through Performance in Orchestra, Vol. 3

"Reinventing the Ear—Twentieth-Century Theories of Pitch Perception and the Coincidence Theory of Consonance," Theoria 12 (2005): 69-92

Abstract: For centuries, thinkers have attempted to explain why some combinations of pitches are more pleasing to the ear than others. While Hermann von Helmholtz's theory of consonance is regarded highly even today, most of the older consonance theories, developed before about 1850, are generally disregarded or disparaged. Numerous 20th-c. consonance theories, though, are actually very similar to some of these older theories, and most of these newer theories either fail to acknowledge the precedent established by the earlier theories or claim to be without precedent. A large proportion of the 20th-c. theories contain ideas strikingly similar to those contained in the coincidence theory of consonance. The coincidence theory has had a substantial influence on theories of consonance throughout the centuries, and it therefore deserves to be given more credit for its continued contributions to the explanation of the phenomenon of consonance.

"The Coincidence Theory of Consonance: A Re-evaluation Based on Modern Scientific Evidence" (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1999; UMI 9956952)

Abstract: The coincidence theory was a theory of consonance advocated by many of the scientists of the period 1550-1800, including Galileo, Mersenne, Descartes, and Euler. It was the first truly scientific explanation of consonance, addressing the way that sound waves interact with each other either constructively or destructively. Within the present century, historians of music and science have turned their attention to the coincidence theory and the important role it played in both fields in the 17th century. Many of these same authors have charged the theory with having had serious faults. However, an investigation of modern scientific evidence reveals that these alleged problems are either answerable or irrelevant to the coincidence theory. Furthermore, a survey of the major theories of consonance since the 18th century shows that the premises of the coincidence theory pervade and underlie many of these more recent theories. Examples of such theories include those of Helmholtz, Lipps, Boomsliter and Creel, and Terhardt. In the process of establishing these theses, many relevant secondary issues are addressed. For example, this dissertation contains a discussion of the different meanings of the word consonance, the relationship between integer ratios and musical intervals, and the similarities between pitch perception and rhythmic perception. Also, several different versions of the coincidence theory are identified and evaluated.

Areas of Research Interest

• Consonance and dissonance
• Musical universals
• Octave equivalence
• Tuning and Temperament
• Intonation
• The two "channels" of pitch perception: melodic and harmonic
• Empirical music theory
• Ear training pedagogy
• Servais
• Popper
• J. S. Bach
• Cello fingerings
• Methods of practicing