Re: Why the music is music and the noise is noise?

[John Croft <mfmxhjcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

on 26/4/01 14:03, Bob Masta at masta@UMICH.EDU wrote:

> And besides Oriental music, the Pentatonic
> scale is allegedly common in traditional music of the British Isles,
> American Mountaineers, and American Indians.  It seems to be sort of
> a "can't miss" scale, maybe hitting on natural ratios in our systems?

Or maybe just lacking semitones. The notes of the "black note" pentatonic
scale can be played simultaneously without a lot of sensory roughness -- I
think this is sufficient to explain the apparent "can't miss" nature of the
scale. The whole tone scale has something of this quality as well (but may
be less comfortable for tonal ears).

John


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