They probably worked it out by trial and error until they got something that sounded good to them. — Bitter Crank
you cannot keep drilling holes in the same piece of wood — Metaphysician Undercover
This creates a slight difference between the same note, played in a different key. So modern musicians have turned to equal temperament to avoid this problem, making modulations smooth. — Metaphysician Undercover
.I didn't want to get into any Dualism debate either. — 3017amen
That the Pythagorean method produces the Pythagorean comma is a problem which has not been resolved. Going to a less harmonic system of division, equal temperament, is not a real solution. It's a simple fix which lowers the quality. — Metaphysician Undercover
If the positioning of the holes was not random, it was measured. And it couldn't have been random or the sound wouldn't be musical. Don't you agree? — Metaphysician Undercover
Here's a thought provoking phenom of sorts. It relates to the math/music interval known as the devil's interval. Which, is a third up, but of course a flat 5th away from tonic. — 3017amen
Here's the sort short irony:
"The number three is used in the Torah to mediate between two opposing or contradictory values. The third value mediates, reconciles, and connects the two. Three is the number of truth." — 3017amen
But that would assume we could aquire the ability to hear those frequencies. — 3017amen
Could similar electromagnetic waves produced from our consciousness, be a spiritual medium that travels too... — 3017amen
I tried to google the connection, but was unsuccessful in finding any theories. Why do you think we have musical and mathematical abilities ?
If neither confer any survival value (eg: we don't have to compute the laws of gravity in order to dodge falling objects) are there any plausible explanations out there as to why we have these abilities? — 3017amen
I don't have a theory on musical ability but we can safely bet, ceteris paribus, that it too must have a hitherto undiscovered reproductive advantage. — TheMadFool
...because, as we know, everything about h. sapiens can be explained with reference to evolutionary biology, so musical ability *must* have biological implications. — Wayfarer
‘Survival of the fittest’ is an extrapolation (or a broad generalisation) of the theory of natural selection. It explains a prevalence of certain forms of diversity in certain environments, but it doesn’t satisfactorily explain the emergence of all traits. — Possibility
At least one point to made viz. Evolution; it's hard to see how diatonic music theory confers survival advantages in the Jungle!!! — 3017amen
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