Re: Why the music is music and the noise is noise? (Bob Masta )

Subject: Re: Why the music is music and the noise is noise?
From:    Bob Masta  <masta(at)UMICH.EDU>
Date:    Fri, 27 Apr 2001 09:54:14 -0400

On 26 Apr 01, at 17:31, John Croft wrote:

> 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).
>

The lack of roughness when these tones are sounded together is no doubt
related to the "can't miss" phenomenon, but doesn't seem sufficient to
explain it;  the phenomenon applies when the notes are sounded singly,
not just together.  And I doubt that this is due to cultural experience with
polyphonic music having shaped our tastes, since the pentatonic scale
is so popular in what we may (presumptuously) call "simpler" music
cultures that probably evolved with monophonic instruments.

Or is there possibly some higher mechanism that allows a "roughness"
determination between notes that are separated in time?



Robert Masta
tech(at)daqarta.com

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