Re: Req: pitch-to-physical space mappings, refs (Sean Ferguson )

Subject: Re: Req: pitch-to-physical space mappings, refs
From:    Sean Ferguson  <ferguson(at)MUSIC.MCGILL.CA>
Date:    Tue, 1 Apr 1997 00:06:42 -0500

The first pitch-generating system over which we have control is our voice.

Make the lowest pitch that you can with your throat.  What happens to your
voice box? your jaw? your eyebrows? your shoulders?  Now make the highest
pitch you can.  What changes? (besides the fact that the other people in
the room are looking at you strangely ;-))

Maybe there is a relationship between these fundamental unlearned
(I think) physical actions and our metaphorical use of the terms "high"
and "low".

Just a thought...


                                             Sean Ferguson
                         Doctoral Candidate in Composition
                                         McGill University
                           email: ferguson(at)music.mcgill.ca

           "I believe in an open mind, but not so open that
       your brains fall out."
                -Arthur Hays Sulzberger
                    Publisher, The New York Times (1935-61)

On Wed, 2 Apr 1997, Andrew Bell wrote:

> Stephen McAdams makes an excellent point that
>
> >"Spatialization" of
> >pitch relations would appear to have arisen in the 9th-10th
> >centuries with the development of notational schemes, but the notion
> >of pitch "height" only really became accepted in the 17th century
> >after much debate. Thus pitch as space is a metaphoric convention of
> >relatively recent invention and would thus not be likely to have a
> >biological basis.
> >