pitch

EXCELLENT — The Mathematical Problem with Music, and How to Solve It — “Performance is an art of compromise” – temperament, timbre, intonation, tuning, voice, tone

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Equal Temperament purpose — Divide octave into 12 equal intervals (ratios) to facilitate octave transposition on keyed / digital / discrete instruments. VIDEO DESCRIPTION / NOTES There is a serious mathematical problem with the tuning of musical instruments. A problem that even Galileo, Newton, and Euler tried to solve. This video is about this problem … Read more

Musical Mathematical Ratios and the Engineering of Consciousness – Alexandre Tannous – Free Your Mind Conference 3 (2015-04)

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Half-step has 100 cents. Western octave is 12 half-steps (tones, notes: C, C#, D, etc. Black and white keys on keyboard) Indian octave has 22 tones Persian and Arabic octave has 24 tones Turkish octave has 53 steps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-rIRML75_I&list=PLfi4BBtYUMKz36guaSbV8F0I8gosT7eIw

Fractal geometry of music

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Abstract   Music critics have compared Bach’s music to the precision of mathematics. What “mathematics” and what “precision” are the questions for a curious scientist. The purpose of this short note is to suggest that the mathematics is, at least in part, Mandelbrot’s fractal geometry and the precision is the deviation from a log-log linear … Read more

Eric P. Dollard, On Music & Harmonics. Spokane, WA 2015

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Conversation with Telsa-scientist Eric P. Dollard. Interviewed by Charles Roland Berry & Yogi Robert Emin. This is a true story of suppressed technology. Some powerful people don’t want the rest of us to have access to new technology– unless of course those people can make billions of dollars from the rest of us. Professor Dollard … Read more

Musical intervals and relative pitch: Frequency resolution, not interval resolution, is special

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Abstract Pitch intervals are central to most musical systems, which utilize pitch at the expense of other acoustic dimensions. It seemed plausible that pitch might uniquely permit precise perception of the interval separating two sounds, as this could help explain its importance in music. To explore this notion, a simple discrimination task was used to … Read more

How Eighteenth Century Piano Tuners Heard Major 3rds — 18th Century Aesthetics

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Eben Goresko presents a Temperament Recital at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2000 where he demonstrates the usefulness and artfulness of tuning modern pianos in historic intonations to augment performances of Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Schubert, Bach, Mozart and other so called “equal temperament” composers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uCu5pTBzbU

Affective constraints on acquisition of musical concepts: Children’s and adults’ development of the major-minor distinction

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Abstract Across cultures and age groups music has a powerful impact on human affective states. We examined the effect of these affective responses on children’s and adults’ ability to label musical excerpts as major or minor. Content Affective constraints on acquisition of musical concepts: Children’s and adults’ development of the major-minor distinction Clarissa A. Thompson … Read more

Music and felt emotions: How systematic pitch level variations affect the experience of pleasantness and arousal

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Abstract   “There was also a significant, yet smaller, negative relationship between pitch level and arousal, moderated by gender: Compared to higher pitch, lower pitch was associated with higher arousal in men only.”   Content   Music and felt emotions: How systematic pitch level variations affect the experience of pleasantness and arousal Lucas Jaquet Brigitta … Read more

Pitch Memory in Nonmusicians and Musicians: Revealing Functional Differences Using Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

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Abstract   For music and language processing, memory for relative pitches is highly important. Functional imaging studies have shown activation of a complex neural system for pitch memory. One region that has been shown to be causally involved in the process for nonmusicians is the supramarginal gyrus (SMG). The present study aims at replicating this … Read more

Functional anatomy of musical processing in listeners with absolute pitch and relative pitch

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Abstract   We used both structural and functional brain imaging techniques to investigate the neural basis of absolute pitch (AP), a specialized skill present in some musicians. By using positron emission tomography, we measured cerebral blood flow during the presentation of musical tones to AP possessors and to control musicians without AP. Listening to musical … Read more

Pitch perception beyond the traditional existence region of pitch

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“…the perception of musical pitch at high frequencies is not constrained by temporal phase locking in the auditory nerve but may instead stem from higher-level constraints shaped by prior exposure to harmonic sounds.” Humans’ ability to recognize musical melodies is generally limited to pure-tone frequencies below 4 or 5 kHz. This limit coincides with the … Read more