FREUNDESKREIS

HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ AND MUSIC

A GOOD THING HE PLAYED THE PIANO

Günther Wess and Eugen Müller

Image (top) For his composition Monophonie, the musician, sound artist, and DJ Phillip Sollmann wrote music scores for selected instruments made by Harry Partch, for the sound sculptures by Harry Bertoia, and for the double siren by Hermann von Helmholtz. The compositions were debuted at a premiere in 2017. The Helmholtz double siren – which is now in the Berlin Museum of Medical History of the Charité – was photographed by Anette Kelm for this occasion.

Annette Kelm, Helmholtz Sirene, archival pigment print, 99.8 × 75 cm, 2017 The 31st of August 2021 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of the scientist and natural philosopher Hermann von Helmholtz, a name familiar to many due to one of Germany’s most prestigious scientific societies – the Helmholtz Association – being named after him. But what does this have to do with the Akademie der Künste or even with the current issues and debates in society today? Born when Goethe and Beethoven were still alive, Helmholtz died in 1894, before the dawn of modernity in art. So, what could he still have to say to us today?

His life’s achievements are usually seen through the lens of the physicist, and his various contributions to physics, his services to the development of universities, and the founding of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt (Germany’s national metrology institute) have long been acknowledged. During his lifetime, his work even gained a certain cult status in Berlin, where he was considered the “Reich Chancellor of Physics”.

His contributions to music, on the other hand, have received little recognition. Yet they have never been surpassed and remain fascinating to this day, continuing to point the way for all those involved in music, be they musicians, composers, conductors, sound architects, acoustic or sound engineers, instrument makers, or, of course, listeners.

In 1863, he published a comprehensive work about music entitled On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music. It was based on his research, firstly, into the physics of tones and sounds and, secondly, into the physiology of the ear and the processes of hearing and sensation. His thinking was rooted firmly in the fundamental as well as in the overtones and the interactions that yield the sounds we perceive. This was followed by essays on the development of music, philosophical and psychological matters regarding music, and finished with the issue of aesthetics. In subsequent editions, the content was repeatedly supplemented with the latest findings from research in physics and physiology, written using practical examples to enable the layperson to grasp the phenomena described.

In his Sensations of Tone, Helmholtz was the first to present an overall account of musical phenomena. His

Perspective view of a double siren constructed by Hermann von Helmholtz to demonstrate the “interference of sound”. Double-pane, modular, 12-tone hole siren with a sliding sound box, controllable via Max/MSP: implementation, planning, and development by Atelier Blattmacher in cooperation with Phillip Sollmann

findings were disseminated rapidly in national and international musical and scholarly circles, and his advice was even sought after by instrument makers because of his analysis of instruments in terms of their sound spectrum. His favourite instrument being the piano – it is said that he practised for at least an hour every day, and even more on days off – he gained insights that led to advances in the development of the Steinway grand piano. Also studying the organ and the physics of organ pipes with great interest, he visited and praised the most famous organ builder of the time, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, in Paris. Without Cavaillé-Coll’s instruments, such as the organ of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, which is still played today, the development of French Romantic organ music would have been unthinkable.

Helmholtz was particularly open to the music of non-European cultures, such as Asian, whose scales and sounds he studied and to which he devoted much of his work. Many modern composers have benefited from his insights and continue to be influenced by his writing today: Charles Ives, Edgard Varèse, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and the exponents of spectral music, to name but a few. In particular, Charles Ives – the long underappreciated American avant-gardist and one of the founders of American modernism – wholeheartedly endorsed Helmholtz’s conviction that there should be no prohibitions in music. In a number of theoretical writings on music, he frequently refers to Helmholtz, praising this unequivocal position that stood in stark contrast to many traditionalist German composers of the time. Paraphrasing Helmholtz, Ives demands that “the ear must learn to hear”.

Finally, without Helmholtz’s systematic investigation of overtone spectra and sounds, the development of electronic instruments would be scarcely conceivable. Many modern composers use Helmholtz’s findings in the production of innovative music, because like Helmholtz, most composers and sound artists are constantly looking for new and exciting sounds. At this point, it should be briefly mentioned that Helmholtz also wrote a Treatise on Physiological Optics, an opulent work on sensory perception and the process of seeing, which is in no way inferior to his Sensations of Tone. His research into sensory perception and processes in the brain is the reason why Helmholtz is regarded by some authors as a co-founder of neuroscience. The celebrated neurobiologist Eric Kandel, for example, drew on Helmholtz’s work to explain perception in abstract art. Kandel made the observation that expressionist art triggers far stronger empathic reactions than figurative painting. Even highly abstract paintings such as those by Rothko, Mondrian, Pollock, and de Kooning have a powerful effect on the viewer, as they are reminded of more basic past impressions, even personal experiences, and can thus empathically associate with the images. This is the result of how the brain fuses visual impressions to form complete images, an idea which Kandel credits to Helmholtz’s assertion that the brain assembles information from the various sensory systems and unconsciously draws conclusions from it: “We do not have direct access to the physical world. It may feel as if we have direct access, but this is an illusion created by our brain.” As such, Helmholtz was probably the first physiologist to regard perception as a process of unconscious inference, on the basis of which cognitive researchers and experts in artificial intelligence have coined the terms “predictive coding” and “predictive processing”. His findings thus extend into the very latest areas of neurobiology.

Leaving aside the lasting impact of his remarkable scientific publications, what do Helmholtz’s life and work tell us today in a broad social context? He was, of course, influenced by the ideals of his time, the ideals of classicism. But at the same time, he was bold, enquiring, and open to new developments, willing to break rules and cross boundaries. And he always had the practicability and utility of his research in mind. As a young scientist, Hermann von Helmholtz had the courage to grapple with complex issues spanning several disciplines. He built a bridge between science and art that still holds to this day. He showed how scientific knowledge and artistic creativity interpenetrate each other; both were inseparable parts of his work, of his life. He recognised that aesthetic principles change with time; and he thought little of clinging to values merely on the strength of tradition.

To quote Goethe, Helmholtz was a “Weltkind in der Mitten” (Child of the world in its midst). Perhaps this is what we can best aspire to today, in a society of diverging functional systems, (sub-)cultures, and perceptions.

GÜNTHER WESS is a chemist and pharmacist who headed the Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health (HMGU) in Munich until recently. A trained church musician, he has studied the writings of Hermann von Helmholtz, especially those on music, in detail. He is chairman of the board of trustees, EUGEN MÜLLER is the managing director of the Aventis Foundation, Frankfurt am Main.

The Aventis Foundation is a member of the Society of Friends of the Akademie der Künste.

pp. 3–4, 12–17 photos Ute Mahler and Werner Mahler/OSTKREUZ | pp. 6–10 © Hoidn Wang Partner 2021 | p. 18 photo Alun Be | pp. 21–25: Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Paul Robeson Archive (AdK, PRA), partly also Federal Archives, Berlin (BA) with kind approval; p. 21 without specification, AdK, PRA 590.03 © BA (Bild 183-74126/21); p. 22 Brüggemann/Stöhr, AdK, PRA 613.01 © BA (Bild 183-B 0708/14); p. 23 (top) Alfred Paszkowiak, AdK, PRA 513.15 © bpkBildagentur; (middle) Herbert Görzig, AdK, PRA 516.15; (bottom) Krüger/ Hochneder, AdK, PRA Nr. 513.16 © BA (Bild 183-76837/3); p. 24 (top) Zühlsdorf/Sturm, AdK, PRA 612.11 © BA (Bild 183-67155/10); (bottom) Krüger, AdK, PRA 613.02 © BA (Bild 183B0708/17/1); p. 25 Gerhard Kiesling, AdK, PRA 515.08 © bpk-Bildagentur | pp. 28–35 © Sasha Kurmaz | p. 36 Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Erich Wonder Archive, 3/19 © photo Erich Wonder; p. 37 Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Erich Wonder Archive, 19_4, 19_3, 19_2 © Erich Wonder; p. 38 Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Erich Wonder Archive, 6_7, 6_1 © Estate Sibylle Bergemann | p. 39 photo Malte Giesen; pp. 40/41 © mutesouvenir | pp. 42–45 © Mark Gergis | p. 46 © Zvetelina Belutova/private archive; p. 47 (top) © Johann Feindt/zero one film; (bottom) © Johann Feindt | p. 49 Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Joachim Walther Archive, 580 © Erben Joachim Walther | p. 50 (left) photo Bruno Wiehr, HfBK_DD, F 177; (right) Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Hans and Lea Grundig Archive, 852, p. 179; p. 51 Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Art Collection, fol. Grundig Hans 225, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022 | p. 52 photo: unknown; p. 53 photo (left) Nadia Nashir; photo (right) Insa Wilke | p. 54 Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Hugo Häring Archive, 1198_14_12 © VG BildKunst, Bonn 2022; p. 55 Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Hugo Häring Archive, 1199_11_2 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022; p. 56 (top and bottom) photos Marieluise Nordahl; (middle) photo Juliane Kreißl | p. 57 Courtesy the artist and KÖNIG Galerie Berlin / London / Seoul / Vienna © Annette Kelm; p. 58 (left) fig. 56, in: H. v. Helmholtz, Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen als physiologische Grundlage für die Theorie der Musik, Braunschweig, 1870; (right) © Phillip Sollmann, Sirene, installation detail, Oststation, Vienna 2015

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The views offered in this journal reflect the opinions of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Akademie der Künste. Journal der Künste, edition 17, English issue Berlin, January 2022 Print run: 800

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