The Defect in René Ouvrard’s Harmonic Proportions

Abstract

In 1679, René Ouvrard published a pamphlet about the relationship between musical harmonies and architectural proportions called Architecture Harmonique, ou Application de la Doctrine des Proportions de la Musique à l’Architecture. The pamphlet presents a normative system of correlations between musical harmonies and architectural proportions, based on an analogous understanding of hearing and vision. Ouvrard claims that the system is infallible. In this paper, evidence regarding problems associated with Ouvrard’s normative system based on the correlations between musical harmonies and architectural proportions presented in Architecture Harmonique is showcased, implying that the system to a certain extent is fallible. Based on the argument, the problems are made possible by Ouvrard’s philosophical framework.