The Western scale is only seven notes. Ever heard of an octave? The
Eastern (pentatonic) scale has five notes.
If notes are notes only because I've been "conditioned" for them, why
do the same notes show up in music all over the world? Probably has
something to do with the limitations of the human voice and the human
ear. Whatever the explanation, the bushman and Mozart incorporate the
same 12 fundamental harmonics in their music. The sound of a yak
belch can be part of a rhythm, but it is utterly useless as a
component of melody -- unless it happens by chance to be a note.
On 4/5/07, Fons Adriaensen <fons@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 05, 2007 at 12:34:23PM -0400, Charles Linart wrote:
>
> > There are 12 frequencies of sound that are recognized by the human ear
> > as musical notes.
>
> That's completely wrong. Your recognise notes because you have been
> conditioned for them. It could be any set of frequencies.
>
> > The limited use of other frequencies can produce rhythms to bind the
> > notes into musical compositions. Technology gives us the ability to
> > turn everything into a drum, but you still need those 12 frequencies
> > to produce melody.
>
> Again wrong. The existence of melody does not depend on the Western
> 12-note scale.
>
> --
> FA
>
> Follie! Follie! Delirio vano è questo !
>
>
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>
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Received on Fri Apr 6 00:15:04 2007
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