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System of musical vibration

"The numbers which express the motions of these twenty-five quantities have among themselves nineteen different ratios, or rates of meeting; and when these ratios are represented by the oscillations of twenty-five pendulums, at the number of 64 for the highest one, they will all have finished their periods, and meet at one for a new series. This is an illustration, in the low silence of pendulum-oscillations, of what constitutes the System of musical vibration in the much higher region of vibrating strings and other elastic bodies, and determines the number of undeveloped sounds which form the harmonious halo of one sound, more or less faintly heard, or altogether eluding our dull mortal ears; and which determines the number of sounds which, when developed, constitute the System of musical sounds." [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 16]

There are joinings, however, though at a wilder limit. The system of music is not a spiral line. The minor scale is developed from the major by the law of Duality; and when this is done, D26 2/3, the root of the subdominant minor, is so near to D27, the top of the dominant major, that one note may be made to serve for both; and this joins the one extreme of the major and minor systems in this note D, which has thus duality in itself. The only other place where the dual system of major and minor stands open is at the other extreme of the two modes, between B, the top of the dominant minor, and F the root of the subdominant major; and these unjoined ends reach away till at three fifths below F, namely A♭, and at three fifths above [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 38]

Created by Dale Pond. Last Modification: Sunday October 11, 2020 05:40:26 MDT by Dale Pond.