From: Chad Fowler <chadfowler@...>
Date: 2003-02-12T01:11:21+09:00
Subject: Re: OT: 12 tones

Mark Probert wrote:

>Hi.
>
>"Hal E. Fulton" <hal9000@hypermetrics.com> did say ...
>  
>
>>There are other scales -- in fact
>>some cultures get along with a pentatonic scale -- but
>>for most humans 12 is just about right.
>>
>>    
>>
>
>I am not sure that I agree with this, Hal.  
>
>For most of the history of Western Music, it used
>scales other than 12-tones.  It was pentatonic or
>modal (7 tone).  You could argue that not until the 20th C
>with Arnold Schoenberg and his theory that each tone
>had equal importance, that we got to 12 tones.  
>
>As for other cultures, the Indian system is modal
>based on a 7 tone scale (see 
>http://www.chandrakantha.com/articles/scales.html).
>Chinese music appears to be based on 5 or 7 tone
>scales.
>
>If this means anything, then I would guess that 
>5 or 7 tones is about right .. ;-)
>
>Regards,
>
>  
>
Sorry to OT++, but the fact is that we've had 12 *potential* tones for a 
long long time.  Indian music is also based on 12 potential tones with 
some in-between tones added for effect (but purely for effect...not 
first-class citizens).  It's true that we didn't start hearing 12 tones 
*simultaneously* until around the time of the second Viennese school 
(Schoenberg and friends), but even Mozart made use of chromaticism in 
less dissonant ways.

This is all about the physical properties of sound.  As someone 
mentioned, most of what we consider to be music is directly derived from 
nature.  We just rearrange it differently as time passes.

Chad