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Re: music by numbers
> Acoustical theory helped me to devise a reed
> instrument with a resonator for each note. The formant of each
>resonator
> can still be altered by covering and uncovering the holes. Is this
>science
> or music? Again, I don't mind how you call it; I'm just pleased with
>the
> sounding result, quite different from any other instrument. And I am
> fascinated by the fact that sounds can be visualised, in waveforms by
means
> of an oscilloscope, or with spectral analysis.
can you tell us more about this instrument (very interested)
<A HREF="http://www.c21-orch-instrs.demon.co.uk/"> 21st Century Orchestral
Instruments</A>
there's a lot of stuff in the downloadable study about how
tonality might relate to harmony, and new instruments
(microtonal)
> By the way, numbers were implicit in music long before maths were
invented.
> Anthropologists have found primitive societies where the concept of
>time
is
> non-existent. But they did not find societies without music. And where
> music is, there is rhythm, and scales, with fixed intervals. Obviously
> musicians can play with scrutinous precision to the rhythms and scales
> whether or not they are interested in visual representation. The fact
>is
> that the musical mind loves to hear repetition in well-defined portions
>of
> time and pitch.
but when I hear recordings of "primitive" cultures
making music there is not really fixed intervals.
...and in some very old cultures the music
theory is lost, and a glorious out of tuneness
between the instruments develops.
Sometimes there's no rhythm, just a pulse.
The single repeated drum beat.
Often a second drummer is totally out of time.
...and then it sounds real good:-)
Shamanic drumming often seems intended to
create a continuous drone, with the rhythm/pulse being
irrelevant. Especially when there's a group of drummers
all beating different tempi.
I'd also say that people who learn rhythms before
learning to read music have a distinct advantage
in the rhythmic feel department.
(the bar lines interfere with perception somehow)
andy butler