118 Chapter 7
Figure 7.7
(a) Mersenne ’ s list of the range of the trumpet, which omits the discordant seventh, eleventh, and thirteenth
overtones. (b) Mersenne ’ s illustration of the military trumpet with its range, including the problematic overtones
(above), but not in their musical application (below).A BThe multiplicity of overtones posed an even more fundamental musical and logical
problem: “ How is it possible that a single string can make many sounds at the same
time? ”^32 Further, “ why does it make no sound lower than what is natural to the string? ”
In a corollary, he argues that “ it is more probable that these different sounds come from
different movements of the exterior air rather than those of the interior [of the string]. ”^33
Yet he refers his readers to his discussion of bells, which he says use the “ motion of their
parts, which imprints a similar movement on the air with which they are surrounded. ”^34
His discussion of bells intensifies the problem because they so loudly exemplify this
multiplicity: even to a relatively unpracticed ear, a single bell produces a complex sound,
not a single pitch.
Among all the many instruments he described, Mersenne devoted special care to bells
and organs, as befits one who spent his life in churches ( figure 7.8 ).^35 Mersenne notes how