Pythagoras (560-480 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher and religious leader who was responsible for important developments in the history of mathematics, astronomy, and the theory of music.

Pythagoras was fascinated with harmony, and worked out a theory on the maths behind the tones used into modern times. He noticed the mathematical relationship between notes and worked out ways of applying them to musical instruments. This is where the harmonics come in.

Among his claims to fame is the oldest known proof of what we call the " Pythagoras Theorem". For Pythagoras, ratios were everything. He believed every value could be expressed as a fraction. He was also the first to believe in the idea that mathematics is everywhere.

Pythagoras used mathematical relationships to devise a musical scale on which all present-day western music is based. A great variety of scales have been used in the past and in different cultures; no single interval is common to all of them. Pythagoras defined the mathematical relationship of the perfect intervals (the octave, fourth, and fifth) and of the intervals between them (an interval being the difference in pitch between two tones).

The ancient Greek music system was taken up by the Christian Church. The Christian Church then adapted its note series to a number of modes. These modes were in turn used in medieval music, especially in plainsong.

Apart from Pythagoras, other famous Greek mathematicians were Aristarchus , Archimedes, Euclid and Hipatia.

Check that you understand what these words mean in this document
Fraction: one of the many pieces that something is divided or broken into.
Interval: the distance in the counting or measurement of things.

For further information visit:
Pythagoras