h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ahh. Yes, I am laconic to an excessive degree there. How about "Temperament issues arise from the fact that sme notes require different tunings to accompany others in perfect harmony. This happens not only between different hexachords, but even within the same hexachord - as we saw above, D and F do not make a harmonic interval in the natural hexachord."

That business of the hard hexachord starting on Gamma - I just plain overlooked that, thanks for pointing it up. I supose a sentence is needed saying "these hexachords can be reiterated at any octave" - I just took that for granted.

"Is it a matter of where the percieved semitone is in each hexachord, or is it a literal matter of mathematics, or is the system extended past singable notes into playable ones?"

-- The semitone occurs just once in each hexachord, between Mi and Fa. It is equally mathematical and perceptible, singable and playable.

Packing ideas tightly is amusing, and is very convenient when talking to someone who knows exactly what you are talking about. Outside of Peer Review, I have been tweaked for my exceedingly un-packed Sherried Eggs recipe, so perhaps this is a personal preference of mine. I hope to not water your entries down into pabulum, but to help myself, and to see if we can make the article interesting enough that more folks will talk about it and thus get Scout interest.

I think your proposed rephrasing makes sense. This seems to be a description of how consorts came to be, that is, groups of accompanying instruments all had to be made especially, to be tuned to the same Pythagorean key so that the semitones matched. Is this what you were getting at?



I thought the semitone was uniquely defined, and the idea of what was a flat or a sharp was still unknown at the time, which is why I am puzzled as to how some hexachords get called hard/soft/or natural (other than their original starting note, which is what I thought was the case). Is this me missing something mathematically stated elsewhere?

There are two semitones, the diatonic semitone (Mi-Fa) and the chromatic semitone (B flat-B natural), that occur in the medieval theory. I think I mention their different size in a footnote.

Flats are needed right from the start, and pretty soon all the flats and sharps we now use were filled in.

The hard hexachord was one with a hard (i.e. sharp) B, the soft one had a soft (flat) B, the natural one had no B at all. Nothing more than that is meant by the names.

The question of consorts is yet another whole entry; in the sixteenth century it became common for sets of matching instruments to be made in various sizes (treble tenor bass and so on): reed instuments, recorders and specially viols. The tuning problem is not solved by this however; it is endemic in all music, and above all in singing. That wasn't my point here. It is still a problem for a violinist to learn to play in tune with a piano; and it was always tricky for a lute to play with a harpsichord. Identical instruments don't even solve the problem either: the worst trouble is arguably two sets of bagpipes, though that arises from their tone quality (a constant blast).

The word 'consort' is a curious case. It seems that up until the mid seventeenth century it was reserved, not for a set of like instruments, but for the mixing of different kinds of instruments together. Matthew Locke put the cat among the pigeons by using the term "The Broken Consort" for some of his string chamber music in the late 17th century; before that a broken consort was a consort of any instruments, playing "broken (i.e. improvisationally ornamented) music". A trad jazz band is a broken consort.

Are you still working on this?

Recumbentman is on holidays at the moment and will not be back until October, so I suggest this should be left as it is until he returns.

Is this going to be worked on now?

Yes Cyzaki, over the next few days. Thanks!

After reading your learned words...

I'm a soprano and I'm definitely a non-regular fork, but then everyone knows that sopranos haven't got academic senses...

Great work incidentally, now if only I could find a power source for my brain cell...

". . . everyone knows that sopranos haven't got academic senses"

The same goes for basses. And tenors, and altos, and mezzos and baritones, and coloratura castrati. So much for what "everyone knows".

I think, having had a final tweak, I'm finished messing around with this one too. Thanks Cyzaki!

Hi,

I made multiple passes through both entries and it is slowly falling into place. But as others have pointed out, it takes a big effort. I thought it was just because I have no musical background at all.

Coincidentally, my Hungarian other half returned last night from Hungary. She had a copy of her school year book. The school was the Komolői Kodály Iskola! She learned the system and sang in the school choir and was able to explain a bit more to me.

I'll make another pass and let you have my comments.

Awu.

Thanks Ausnahmsweise, and greetings to your well-versed Hungarian other half! Kodaly is absolutely brilliant as a music-teaching school. My eldest grandson has just started in a Kodaly school at the age of 4, and he loves it. I did some summer schools for Kodaly teachers, and the principal teacher Ildiko Herboly (may be misspelt, it's from distant memory) was one of the most effective teachers I have experienced.

My daughters have been going to a Kodaly music school for most of their lives (since they were 3) and music is second nature to them.

I have flagged this as finished before, but I've just been at it again. I have accordingly unticked the "Not for review" box. Was this the wrong move?

I have taken on board some of Sea Change's requests, and other things, and once more I can confidently state: I am finished with this Entry.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Congrats!

Well done!

Hopefully both the Sol-Fa entries will be together on the front page!


Geggs

Thank you Cyzaki Gnomon and Geggs!

And thank you to the scout who has put me out of my misery, just as I thought I'd better do another little tweak. Gone beyond diminishing returns, all I could do to it now would have been downhill . . .

Coolness, ~recombentman!