I disagree, jopy
Given sine waves and interference patterns what goes on between ration fractions of frequencies is not odd. It is, however, profoundly odd the reactions we have to them.
Then again I just read that only quantum effects explain certain quirks of our visual system so I always look forward to gaining more insight into human perception. Notably I didn't get to follow up on the whole quantum/vision thing, but you need only look at a rainbow to see that how we perceive is not a one-to-one map of frequency scales, and that's just as true with our hearing which works in an even stranger way when you get down to the details, none of which are well understood yet.
Interactive circle of fifths website
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 10286 posts since 17 Sep, 2004 from Austin, TX
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- KVRAF
- 1585 posts since 13 Nov, 2005 from St. Paul
I'm not sure I'm catching your point. I do agree that what we hear is complicated by a number of other physical factors regarding sound that are not well understood yet, but there's still that underlying physical phenomenon regarding shortening and lengthening strings that accounts for a lot of the sound of "consonance" or "dissonance" when all the vibrations are lined up next to each other. You can see this on an oscilloscope. I don't doubt that we'll find the behavior of sound is even more complicated over time, but sometimes those first approximations are useful shortcuts (like Newtonian mechanics).
If I read you correctly, I would also add that the complexity of perception is even further increased when you take psychological factors like experiences and expectation into account. We have been trained by our experiences all our lives to hear certain musical patterns as meaningful or sensible. We hear minor keys and people mostly think "sad" because of when and where we were raised; in other times and cultures this could be more associated with "meditative," or "ethereal." And the context of when and how something is played adds more to the complexity. So I agree that the circle of fifths isn't just objective; there are subjective human factors that are at work.
But I still think the circle of fifths is a useful and interesting physical phenomenon.
If I read you correctly, I would also add that the complexity of perception is even further increased when you take psychological factors like experiences and expectation into account. We have been trained by our experiences all our lives to hear certain musical patterns as meaningful or sensible. We hear minor keys and people mostly think "sad" because of when and where we were raised; in other times and cultures this could be more associated with "meditative," or "ethereal." And the context of when and how something is played adds more to the complexity. So I agree that the circle of fifths isn't just objective; there are subjective human factors that are at work.
But I still think the circle of fifths is a useful and interesting physical phenomenon.
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- KVRist
- 279 posts since 13 May, 2003
why is the viith degree in Ionian/Major written as diminished ?
It's half diminished or Ø, not °
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- KVRAF
- 6519 posts since 13 Mar, 2002 from UK
Half diminished refers to 7th chords. That particular circle of fifths is triadic. The triad based on the viith degree is diminished.
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