A visualization of the imperfections tempered tuning vs. perfect ration based intonation. From Justonic(by way of Synthtopia): With just tuning, composers were more or less locked into the key that a piece of music began in. This was not thought to be a problem until the rise of keyboard based instruments, which would sound out [...]
In stark contrast to the exploration of latent musical patterns that appear to be present in all cultures that Bobby McFerrin explored(as mentioned in yesterday’s post), Harry Partch was one of the systematic innovators of music in the twentieth century. He sought to imitate natural sounds of machinery and speech more closely than the traditional [...]
On the subject of neroscience and music, at the World Science Festival recently Bobby McFerin demonstrated an the ability of non-musicians to recognize patterns in music, and convinces them to sing along with his dancing. it appears that everyone knows the pentatonic scale. World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic [...]
A few years ago Radiolab released an episode interviewing Diana Deutsch. She described an interesting artifact of the way the human brain processes new sounds. She tells of an experience she had while editing a lecture recording. A short loop of her voice repeating the phrase, “sometimes behave so strangely” was left running as she [...]