Aaaaargh

[lady_karelia]

So, the hymn of St John the Baptist... Ut Re Mi Fa So La, yeah, that one. The sheet music is on wikipedia, and it clearly shows ut as c, re as d, mi as e, etc. Makes perfect sense. Until I came across the Solfeggio frequencies, which are based on the hymn. 396 hz? That's not ut, that's close to today's g (392hz). And lo and behold, Horowitz in his Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse lists them as 396 = g. It kind of makes sense, but boy, did it take me some thinking. He mentioned on one occasion that the combination of mi and sol is destructive, and my first thought was, what a fuckwit. I mean, seriously, e and g as destructive??? Get rid of all the classical compositions then. *snrk* But nooooooo, that's not at all what he meant. C followed by the next higher f-sharp. Yeah, definitely destructive. But hell, how am I gonna figure out how C moved to G??? *iz lost* Cuz I'm sure I'm missing something. C4 is pretty close to Mozarts idea of 256 (258), A440 is of course utterly out of place, but then, yeah, no surprise there. Anyone can shed any light on this transformation from ut=c to ut=g? Cuz, really, I'm utterly lost.

Comments

[grrangerous.livejournal.com]

Hey there, I just got your message and clicked on your journal. I think this might be a question I can answer: when they first invented the solfege system, with my man Guido d'Arezzo and his hand, you could put the ut in one of several positions. The thing was, the lowest note they could notate was called Gamma (and the highest was an "ut", hence the word gamut meaning the full range, which is a contraction of Gamma-ut), but you will notice that the syllables they originally had, ut re mi fa so la, don't cover the whole octave and only contain one semitone (between mi and fa). Thus, a major part of learning the method was about fitting the right syllables to the right parts of the chant. "Ut" was never a specific pitch, not even a specific notated pitch (because what they called "A" for example, varied by as much as a major third within Italy alone), and even within one piece, ut could appear as several different pitches. (Once modality was replaced by tonality, the system changed, and someone invented "ti" and also a whole variety of ways to inflect a tonal solfa system to account for accidentals.)

If you want to learn how to sing Guido's solfa, there are various sources that are helpful, not least the picture of the guidonian hand.

I don't know whether that was all stuff you already knew, or, on the contrary, completely incomprehensible . . . ?

ps. I'm delighted to have been friended! :)

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

That makes perfect sense of course; therefore, I never thought of it. ;)

I don't want to sing it, as voice is definitely not my strength. But I've been researching it for a fic I'm working on, and I think your post offers some pointers where else to look. I found Horowitz's book somewhat lacking. It made an interesting read, but imo talked too much about prions and too little about sound.

Right. Off to search for the guidonian hand. Thank you!

[grrangerous.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the Horowitz, but a more musicological perspective, and one that is very clear in its explications of some of the math involved in the medieval period is Jamie James, The Music of the Spheres: Music, Science and the Natural Order of the Universe (1993). Have you read it? I'm not entirely convinced by his thesis of the return to world order in contemporary classical music, but I do think he does a good job of explaining some stuff.

Is it a HP fic you're working on? When/if I ever get to the planned ending towards which Phoenix Song is heading, I know Gary Tomlinson's Music and Renaissance Magic is going to become so important I might have to footnote it ;)

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons the Horowitz one disappointed me is his focus on the conspiracy instead of the sound frequencies. Just had a look at amazon, read the excerpt and ordered it. I certainly agree with his take on science having become a victim of its own success, so now I have to read it.

Yes, it's a HP fic. I signed up for the Hermione Big Bang and my friend gave me an idea about Hermione researching the music of the spheres.

Music and Renaissance Magic? That's another intriguing title I've not heard off! I think I need to pay amazon another visit, lol.

[grrangerous.livejournal.com]

The big bang: B flat right? 57 ocataves below the piano? :) okay, so I'm a big music geek. No surprises there. The Tomlinson is excellent, though he takes a long time to get to the musical/Monteverdian point (which was the original reason I read it). But he's a very smart man.

Well, I tell you what: I can't wait to read the story. I love reading about music and magic when it's done well. :)

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

57 ocataves below the piano? *laughs with delight* How ever did you guess?

I like smart! Tomlinson will be the next one to get I think. Just saw he's written other books on the subject as well that sound interesting.

The story is about half-written, but I'll return to it as soon as the LMHG exchange is done, which I hope will be the case by the end of this weekend. Somehow, I feel more at ease when I can include music in my plots. :)