PS :
Following the previous Post, there was some exchange of opinion in Emails.
And this is the extract in which, I found, it is highlighting the point of
” How to make a perfect music piece which will hit the guts of others “
————-
Though, important point is, —- What are the guts.
Everybody got more or less the same guts, having it
tens of thousands of years.
Its mean, what will hit it, has been tried and sorted out
spending thousands of years of time, by millions of people.
That is how most of the culture in the world came to
have pentatonic —– same conclusion.
The reason is, it was written in the Dharma. ( Ref; Harmony
in Dharma )
And the guts is ruled by the Dharma, not by one’s brain.
Deviate from the Dharma, yet make perfect one is hard,
if not impossible. ——–
—–
Equidistant Tonal system was perfected in the time of J.S. Bach, though it has been only utilized for
the convenience of key-tone change. And its use became universal, despite of the existence of some
discord (which has been simply avoided to occur as Taboo, by the composer.)
So that, Arnold Schoenberg is the first one to fully explore the musical possibility of its system.
But, big but, do you or anybody on the street, ever listen, let alone remember his music ?
Some (very rare person, may be a student / ex-student in classic music) may say
“How about his organ music [ The Ascension ] it is spiritually very striking isn’t it ?”.
I can agree, its sound very spiritual though, as I wrote in ” Blank Space ” it is because of slow-moving,
continuous high tone, which is vague and undefinable, hence our brain abandon to define its
meanings, then start to feel ” Something Unknown there”.
This very feeling, “abandon to impose own thinking, and leave the Mind open” is happen to be
the same to Buddhist’s Mushin —— we describe it Spiritual.——- All of us share more or less
the same perception and the same guts. Simple 😀
—– So, departing from the tradition, and explore complete freedom in sound making, is a good attempt,
though, better not forget, we and yourself are still within the Dharma’s rule.
Other’s guts is under this Dharma too, so that better chose the direction accordingly.
( The Expression —– which is also common with others, mean Communicable, has to be
emanated from own guts” Blank Space ” too —— not from the thinking or technical possibility )
Please read the Post ” Freedom in Restriction “. (Under a category [Music] )
___/\___
—
Freedom — Restriction ?
Freedom under the strict restriction —– people may feel it is the contradiction.
Because they are thinking it in the word / notion but didn’t observe the reality. In reality, there is
no such freedom ever exist like we conceived in the notion. Even the most powerful rich person still has
to live in the oxygen rich air and soon or later has to die. Restriction is the basis of our existence.
Ideally imagined condition, or a story from another world may tell otherwise, still a person was
bound to live within his or her restrictive Karma. But it doesn’t mean there is no freedom to the person.
——————–
If you think about music, in the traditional folk music, even popular Blues, they were composed in the
Pentatonic which is the Natural Tonal System. But its got only five notes ( well, octave higher etc, a bit
more ) ——- from those meager five + notes, how many tunes we human being created in the history ?
Have you ever heard the same tune or melody from different source ? No such thing ever happened in
the isolated situation (culture)—–other than a copy.
Any new tune can be created even from very restricted five notes —- isn’t this Freedom ? Need more ?
Full use of the tonal scale, 12 tone system, or even continuous frequency change of the electronic music
the possibility and the freedom to create new music should be much higher ——— though in the result,
do you remember any of such contemporary music ? ——– It is the evidence of what the unrestricted
freedom had achieved. Theoretically it might be new, but in reality its a trash, nobody give a sit kind.
In political correctness, its free to express any new idea, it must be one’s freedom. But in the same time
others got exactly same right of freedom not to give a damn to such idea. It is the waste of the life.
——————–
There was a funny quote ( sorry I forgot who said this though) ” If the God wished the man to play Foot Ball
he wouldn’t have given the hands to us” 😀
If there was no hand from the beginning, there is no notion of the hand or possibility to image them—-so,
there wouldn’t be any complaint of the restriction not having the hands. Just ply Foot Ball. (no punch up :-))
The notion of the restriction is only a thought of excuse by a person who haven’t actually tried it.
When anybody try long enough, and to know deep enough, there is unlimited possibility and the freedom.
To contemplate ” Who you are” and to build your life in its maximum possibility, is the Zen.
And the Zen Master called this Jizai. ——- Being as Itself.
( Sadly, I noticed so many people stranded on front of the door, puzzling ” Who you are”—-misguided
by the wrong but looks elaborated words, words, words. Look at the mirror, its you. Who else )
———-In the history, J.S. Bach’s music is the best sample of the achievement of such freedom.
You should try listen his ” Art of Fugue”, which was composed from the four notes B, A, C, H.
Its followed strict rule of the ” Counter Point” in the Fugue, to make the variation of those four
note in different order and permutation.—— And created such a universe of mesmerizing
musical time and the space.
His achievement is one of the epoch in the human history.
Harmony in Dharma / Origin of TONAL SYSTEM
When I was small, long before the school, I made the most Fundamental discovery,
“ Fundamental Element of the matter is the ASH “- – – – that’s what I thought. Though, nobody was
impressed, despite this is the unquestionable FACT. Look, To burn anything, Wood, Grass, Coal, Charcoal,
Fish bone, Paper, Cotton, Woolly things —— what ever they are, all burn to the ASH.
And even burn ASH further, still it remains as the ASH. —— This is the Truth, isn’t it ?
But I only got the words ” Silly boy ” without any explanation.
(World is twisted, they are blind and rotten ! ! ! 😦 )
——————–
Another question which captured me ——in fact many years, was “Why all the music were composed
in the same Do, Re, Mi, Fa scale, and can be played on the same simple instrument ? ? ?”
On that time, one of my pass time was to listen the radio VOA ( Voice of America Far-East Netwok/
American propaganda, aiming to the communist Russia and China ) and listening latest American
Hit-Chart. And I was writing down the short passage of each tune to music score.
( Regardless, whether the tune is A or C—– the matter is just relative scale of the note )
( And this interest led me start to listen many ethnic, such as Indian Music — It was the time of Ravi Shankar)
——————–
German Sociologist Max Weber wrote a book about the evolution of the music scale,
from Natural Tonal Scale to Equi-distant Tonal Scale ——– etc, kept my question alive and so on.
Many years later, when I needed to design electronic tone generator, and while watching the frequency
table of music tones, such as A=440 Hz, E=660 Hz etc—— I realized, all the tones in the music scale
are having 1:1.5 ratio, which can create Pentatonic easily. ( This is why Pentatonic is so common in
any folk cultures in the world )
1 :1.5 ratio mean, if you shorten the length of the String ( if it was C / Do ) to 2/3rd,
the tone become 1.5 times higher to the 5th (E / So) and so on.
(Press a string and play, if the shorter side sound octave higher than the other side, it’s the 2/3rd point)
In short, Do (524 Hz)—> So (786 Hz)—> Re (1179/ Octave high of 589 Hz)—> Ra (880/ 440 Hz)
—> Mi (660 Hz) ( Save, few Hz deviation, which wouldn’t make audible differences)
Here all the Pentatonic Notes of Do, Re, Mi, So, Ra were created. ! ! !
——–Much more interesting Phenomena is, those tones are not human invention.
They are naturally existing.
All the materials vibrates. (If you hit, they makes a sound, except shock absorbing soft material)
They vibrate not only in its fundamental frequency, but also all the harmonic frequencies of x2, x3, x4, x5 etc.
(Though even number of the harmonics are in the Octave, and its sound is indistinguishable.)
So that, those odd numbered harmonics are 524 Hz (C / Do) x3 /2 = 784 (G / So), x 5 / 4 = 654 (E / Mi),
x7 / 8 = 457 (A / Ra), x9 / 8 = 588 (D / Re) —-> Do, Re, Mi, So, Ra —– Pentatonic in the Nature. ! ! !
This is the reason why the Dominant Harmony is [ Do, Mi, So ], as they are naturally there, and
sounding in perfect Harmony.
——————–
The Nature having such amazing structure, Isn’t this the beauty of the Dharma and the Rules within ?
——–When I realized this, I thought ” Eureka ” then noticed, this is what Pythagoras found 3000 years ago.
My brain was 3000 years slow.
—
6 comments