Alexander Malcolm (1685 - 1763) was a Scottish educator and the author of A Treatise on Musick, Speculative, Practical & Historical, Edinburgh, 1721.
Malcolm was born in Edinburgh on 25 December 1685, [1] the son of a minister. Nothing is known of his education, but as a young man Malcolm became a mathematics teacher.
Malcolm's most important publication, A Treatise on Musick, Speculative, Practical & Historical, Edinburgh, was published in 1721, and reprinted in 1779. His other publications were New Treatise on Arithmetic and Book Keeping, Edinburgh, 1718 and A New System of Arithmetic, Theoretical and Practical London, 1730. [2]
He was deeply influenced by treatises written by his contemporaries such as Descartes, Kircher and Mersenne. In his own treatise, A Treatise on Musick, Speculative, Practical & Historical, he admits that his main goal is to "gather together in one system what lay scattered in several treatises". [3]
Charles Burney commented that Malcolm's work had considerable merit, but was too scientific for an elementary textbook and too superficial in the rules for practical harmony. Nevertheless, Ephraim Chambers used Malcolm extensively when writing the first edition of his Cyclopaedia. [4]
Malcolm migrated to America, and in 1734 became the master of a grammar school in New York. He was appointed rector of St Michael's Church, Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1740, and in 1749 became rector of St Anne's Church, Annapolis, Maryland. Malcolm moved in 1754 on his appointment as rector of St Paul's Parish Church, in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. Later he was appointed master of the Free School there. Malcolm resigned this post in 1759, following a dispute over curriculum.
Malcolm died in June 1763. [2]
Master of the Queen's Music is a post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The holder of the post originally served the monarch of England, directing the court orchestra and composing or commissioning music as required.
Louis Grabu, Grabut, Grabue, or Grebus was a Catalan-born, French-trained composer and violinist who was mainly active in England.
William Boyce was an English composer and organist.
Charles Burney FRS was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist and book donor to the British Museum.
William Crotch was an English composer and organist.
Ephraim Chambers was an English writer and encyclopaedist, who is primarily known for producing the Cyclopaedia, or a Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences.
John Farey Sr. was an English geologist and writer best known for Farey sequence, a mathematical construct that is named after him.
Rees's Cyclopædia, in full The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature was an important 19th-century British encyclopaedia edited by Rev. Abraham Rees (1743–1825), a Presbyterian minister and scholar who had edited previous editions of Chambers's Cyclopædia.
Abraham Rees was a Welsh nonconformist minister, and compiler of Rees's Cyclopædia.
Music theory has no axiomatic foundation in modern mathematics, although some interesting work has recently been done in this direction, yet the basis of musical sound can be described mathematically and exhibits "a remarkable array of number properties". Elements of music such as its form, rhythm and metre, the pitches of its notes and the tempo of its pulse can be related to the measurement of time and frequency, offering ready analogies in geometry.
Thomas (Tom) Linley the younger was the eldest son of the composer Thomas Linley the elder and his wife Mary Johnson. He was one of the most precocious composers and performers that have been known in England, and became known as the "English Mozart".
John Beard was an English tenor of the 18th century. He is best remembered for creating an extensive number of roles in the operas and oratorios of George Frideric Handel.
John Lenton was an English composer, violinist, and singer.
Greyfriars Kirkyard is the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located at the southern edge of the Old Town, adjacent to George Heriot's School. Burials have been taking place since the late 16th century, and a number of notable Edinburgh residents are interred at Greyfriars. The Kirkyard is operated by City of Edinburgh Council in liaison with a charitable trust, which is linked to but separate from the church. The Kirkyard and its monuments are protected as a category A listed building.
The music articles in Rees's Cyclopaedia were Charles Burney's (1726-1814) final literary production, and form in effect the Dictionary of Music he never wrote. There were additional articles by John Farey, Sr. (1766-1826), and John Farey, Jr. (1791-1851). The listings show there are 1971 articles in total: Burney, 1752, Farey Sr. 215, and Farey Jr. 4.
Samuel Akeroyde was a popular and prolific composer of songs in the latter part of the 17th century. He was born in Yorkshire. He wrote more than 100 songs.
John Bethune (1812–1839) was a short-lived Scottish weaver-poet. He sometimes wrote under the pen-name of the Fifeshire Forester.
Marmaduke Overend was a Welsh music theorist and organist. He served as Organist at All Saints Church, Isleworth for thirty years.
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