This is a funny one...
the beginnings of what we call western music (as it has been historically recorded) developed in the early middle ages through the christian church in the form of plainchant (no harmony, only lots of people singing the same tune). The rudiments of this form of music were based on what had been salvaged of Ancient Greek music theory (remember around this time in the west music was still considered a science, a mathematical study of ratios....all this was inherited from Pythagoras). Anyway, the idea of the 'cadence' or moving from one note to a different one was firmly rooted in the use of fourths, fifths and octaves for a long time...again, this owes everything to Pythagorean tuning (or 'Just Intonation' as its contemporary offshoot is referred to). However, as plainchant and music theory developed through the 13th century, the favouring of intervals such as thirds and sixths became increasingly popular.
Music was composed around this time using about 6 (I think) different 'modes' (groups of notes). These modes were linked to each other by certain common notes which were exploited, as time went on, for this reason and became 'pivot notes' which enabled the moving from one mode to another. As polyphony (more than one melodic voice) began to find its way into music around this time also, increasingly complex music began to take shape which utilised all these newly developed areas of composition. Within a couple of hundred years you had Johannes Ockheghem writing 35 part choral pieces with melodies playing backwards over each other and all kinds of carry on.
Once this system of modal writing and mode change became established, the introduction of equal temperament allowed the octave to possess the same relationships across an enormous note range (a semitone in equal temperament is equal to an multiplication in frequency of the square root of 1.095, whereas 'just intonation' operates on a logarithmic scale - the higher the octave, the more notes it posesses). Thats why the piano has an individual string for every note, and not a 'stop' that presses down on a string to make it sound higher notes.
Along with Chickenhams examples, look at anything by Arnold Dreyblatt (his stuff in unbelievable, really loud and raucous) and Pauline Oliveros (just tuned accordion drone music) as well as some of the guitar music of John Cage and.... Thinker Org, who use lots of justly tuned electronics behind all the clatter you usually hear.....
the beginnings of what we call western music (as it has been historically recorded) developed in the early middle ages through the christian church in the form of plainchant (no harmony, only lots of people singing the same tune). The rudiments of this form of music were based on what had been salvaged of Ancient Greek music theory (remember around this time in the west music was still considered a science, a mathematical study of ratios....all this was inherited from Pythagoras). Anyway, the idea of the 'cadence' or moving from one note to a different one was firmly rooted in the use of fourths, fifths and octaves for a long time...again, this owes everything to Pythagorean tuning (or 'Just Intonation' as its contemporary offshoot is referred to). However, as plainchant and music theory developed through the 13th century, the favouring of intervals such as thirds and sixths became increasingly popular.
Music was composed around this time using about 6 (I think) different 'modes' (groups of notes). These modes were linked to each other by certain common notes which were exploited, as time went on, for this reason and became 'pivot notes' which enabled the moving from one mode to another. As polyphony (more than one melodic voice) began to find its way into music around this time also, increasingly complex music began to take shape which utilised all these newly developed areas of composition. Within a couple of hundred years you had Johannes Ockheghem writing 35 part choral pieces with melodies playing backwards over each other and all kinds of carry on.
Once this system of modal writing and mode change became established, the introduction of equal temperament allowed the octave to possess the same relationships across an enormous note range (a semitone in equal temperament is equal to an multiplication in frequency of the square root of 1.095, whereas 'just intonation' operates on a logarithmic scale - the higher the octave, the more notes it posesses). Thats why the piano has an individual string for every note, and not a 'stop' that presses down on a string to make it sound higher notes.
Along with Chickenhams examples, look at anything by Arnold Dreyblatt (his stuff in unbelievable, really loud and raucous) and Pauline Oliveros (just tuned accordion drone music) as well as some of the guitar music of John Cage and.... Thinker Org, who use lots of justly tuned electronics behind all the clatter you usually hear.....
