Letter 1022

Salmon thanks the Royal Society for printing his papers. He writes: ‘the theory of musick [is] settled, which being accommodated to the present practice, wee may proceed to those emprovements wherein the Grecians excelled us.’ Salmon believes he has figured out their half notes and will turn to figuring out Greek quarter notes. Thomas Salmon (bap.1647 d. 1706) graduated Trinity College in 1664, received his BA in 1667 and MA in 1670 in Mathematics. In 1672 he published “Essay to the Advancement of Musick” which was recommended by the Royal Society but found to be controversial and began an ongoing disagreement between Salmon and Matthew Locke. In 1688 Salmon published “A Proposal to perform music in Perfect and Mathematical Proportions” that was largely ignored by the music world. In 1701 he shifted to publishing several historical works until 1705 when he gave a lecture at the Royal Society in “Just Inotation” accompanied by performers playing instruments modified to his designs. The lecture was written up in Philosophical Transactions. Salmon died the rector of Meppershall in 1706. (“Donald R. Boomgaarden, “Salmon, Thomas (bap. 1647, d. 1706)”, The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; Henry Davey “Thomas Salmon (1648-1706)” Wikisource).