On Sep 2, 2009, at 11:35 AM, Alan Rudy wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 11:14 AM, Michael Smith
>>
>> Chuck Grimes <cgrimes at rawbw.com> wrote:
>>> Through a variety of experiments and studies, it
>>> also turns out that languages sounds and music making sounds have a
>>> correlation to the 12 tone chromatic scale of sounds. In other
>>> words the
>>> sounds that make up language sounds are pretty much the same as
>>> those
>>> that make up music.
>> This sounds mighty fishy. One would like to hear more about these
>> "experiments and studies." For one thing, the "twelve tone chromatic
>> scale" is an extremely recent Western European invention.
>> If anything the pentatonic scale (in just intonation, NB, not
>> tempered or Pythagorean) is more nearly universal...
>> It is fascinating how often, and in what multifarious guises, we
>> find this same impulse to universalize our cultural norms.
> Well said, historically supported, compartively situated and
> convincing...
> at least to me.
Except for one little thing--the twelve-tones of the chromatic scale reflect the basic physics of sound. The interval of the fifth is the second overtone of the fundamental vibration and the twelve-tone series is nothing but the succession of fifths:C-G-D-A-E-B-F#-C#-G#-D#- A#-E#. That is a law of nature, and human intellectual progress consists of recognizing, understanding, and utilizing the laws of nature--in music as in everything else.
Shane Mage
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos