Hi Brendan,
Yes, I was forgetting 'a capella' choral music. However, I still
maintain that because of the variety of instruments involved orchestral
music must follow the equal temperament scheme.
> >music.... representing a negligible percentage of the total of
> >music performed.
> Sounds like you need to get to more concerts! : )
> Chamber music is, of course, not only a huge percentage
> of music performed, as if such a statistic could mean anything,
> but it is indeed the vanguard of musical development.
> For proof, turn to Beethoven's Late Quartets.
I take your point, but wouldn't you say that keyboard music - not just
at the professional level - represents the greatest proportion of all
music played? And that, certainly, is ET.
> >That the twelfth root of two
> >is the 'natural' division of the octave can hardly be denied - the
> >universally acknowledged masterpieces of the classical and popular
> >repertoires surely confirm this as fact.
> Equal temperament is a very special thing, and for all the time
> I've spent studying tuning, I still don't understand why such a
> simple idea took so long to hit upon. Nevertheless, the natural
> division of the octave, as demonstrated by every human culture
> with the interesting exception of the Balinese, is the fifth, or a
> frequency ratio of three over two. That is what leads to the scale
> we know (successive applications of three over two) and that
> is what leads to the alternative scale systems I mentioned. Far
> from sterile, these systems are rooted in the fundamental
> nature of music.
A fair point.
>
> Why HAS a week seven days? That is an interesting question. If you
> have any insight, please share it with me, either privately or on
> evolution-list.
I shall research this matter and report in due course.
> >However, interesting as these matters are, you have failed to address
> >the nub of my question: "What advantage does a singing hominid have in
> >the evolutionary scheme of things?"
> I'm not here to defend evolution as a concept, first of all. I think that
> our
> musicality is in fact the finest evidence of the rootedness (orientation?)
> of
> homo in (toward?) the divine, whatever means brought it about. Some
> argue that homo sapiens was singing before it was even speaking,
> propter hoc, so I'd say the bio-cultural advantages of organizing our
> brains around musical vibrations are pretty deep.
>
> Do anthropologist/evolutionists ignore this topic? If Vernon is right and
> they do, that is indeed a gross failing!
>
> Brendan Frost
Thank you Brendan.
Regards,
Vernon