Re: (Why is high high)

[B Suresh Krishna <suresh@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I posted the essentials of the pitch-frequency question on a newsgroup,
and got this interesting response. Another poster said that colloquially,
sing higher meant sing at a higher pitch in atleast one Indian language
(Hindi), but didnt supply any specific terms - Suresh


From: digitala@aol.com (Digitala)
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical

Interesting question. Could also be articulatory--the larynx (Adam's apple or
cricoid cartilage) moves "up" to stretch the vocal folds to produce "high"
notes.  Also, the tongue moves up toward the roof of the mouth for the
high-pitched vowels (try whistling from low to high and watch what your tongue
does).

This is a bit off topic, but as a tabla player I was often confused when my
teacher or the artist I was accompanying pointed up or down as I was tuning my
tabla.  I didn't know if I was supposed to make the tabla lower in pitch or to
hammer the gajra down to make a higher pitch.  It usually seemed to be the
latter.  I guess if it had been the former, it would have supported the claim
for the universality of the positive relationship between pitch and elevation
terms


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B. Suresh Krishna, Graduate Fellow, Center for Neural Science, NYU.

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