Re: virus: Nursery Rhyme Memes

sodom (Sodom@ma.ultranet.com)
Thu, 06 Aug 1998 16:48:33 -0400


B. Lane Robertson wrote:

> Going out on a limb, I suggest that the evolution
> of a note according to a "step" pattern
> (1,1,.5,1,1,1,.5) could imply the evolution of
> *any* idea as, first, itself (1); then a
> redundancy (1), thus the dichotomy (.5), the
> similar one (1), the different one (1), the whole
> difference between (1), and so the resolution
> (.5). This is a "seventh son" generational chart
> (like the biblical prophecy which suggested the
> birth of Jesus... that is, seventh son of a
> seventh son-- which would be a .5 *resolution*
> "redundant"... or self-reflexive "word become
> flesh" [except in this case, a note become
> embodied?]).
>

Sorry, but this first part will take me a little while to digest, i
never before noted a similarity between the math of our scales, and what
you mention, so Ill start looking into why we use the scales we use -
historicaly of course.

> Anyway, as a pattern organization; the scale
> structure would seem to be an organization which
> is "productive" as far as being both repetitive
> and "levelled" (as the same note becomes "another"
> note at the next octave). So, I would agree that
> the scale would be a pattern; but, still wonder
> what central idea is being replicated?

I think that the "central idea" in the musical sense is a type of good
vs bad. I suspect that unwittingly our ancestors engrained ehis scale
into our minds - and that any other scale sounds "wrong" or "bad" to
most westerners. I would go so far as to say that there is a correlation
in the mind between "good and our scale" and "bad and non-western
scales". Fortunately the most that ever really becomes of it is that
music using other scales acheives no success either financially or
publicly here is the states. I would say that the scale is the memetic
foundation that either permits music into the mindspace, or counters
opposing scales - preventing the musical message from getting in.
About "ideas" in sound: I suppose we need another word for "idea"
when it is only musical. Perhaps it is nuance? Ill keep on it.

Sodom
Bill Roh