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

Joanna,

Thank you for your welcome (of 2 weeks ago!), and your comments on the alphabet verse. Please don't think me rude for not replying. It was down to me being dumb - not impolite!

Your message didn't show a separate time flag on my home page because it came on the same day as another reply, and until now (when I wanted to ask an ACE a question) I hadn't clicked the button to look at all replies. What a dumbo!

By way of apology I offer the above explanation as another alphabet (blank) verse:

A bit clumsy? Dumb?
Experience failed!
Goodnes , how I, Joanna, kept losing messages!
No other person quite repeats such timing,
Unless very well Xcused.
YourZ,

Kes

While I'm here, a thought about Scales:

Would a bit of physics help to bring out the underlying logic?

You pluck a string (or blow into a pipe) of length X, and you get a particular note (the fundamental). You also get small %ages of other notes (the harmonics). The first harmonic is one octave above the fundamental; the second is 1.5 octaves above. These are heard (usually subconsciously), and so the brain thinks they sound "right". That's why all modes and scales have a tonic, a dominant (the second harmonic, but an octave low) and the next tonic (the first harmonic). From here, the various modes part company (depending on who cut the string or chopped the pipes), but they do have a note (the median) to go in the gap between tonic and dominant. The other notes just fill in the gaps (or not much, in pentatonic).

In any single key, you can generate all the notes in the scale by starting with a long enough string\pipe and continuing to cut it in half. That accounts for the ideal intervals between all the notes.

Unfortunately, if you start from a different home note (like from G instead of C, for example), the seconds, fourths & sevenths that you generate fall at slightly different frequencies from what should be "the same" notes obtained from different keys. The difference, by the way, is called a "comma", and it was what drove harpsichord tuners nuts. The "equal temperament" tuning which allowed Back to write his famous 48 x2 was a compromise which equalled out all the "commas" over the whole range of the keyboard.

Hope that helps. If not, try alcohol - applied internally.

Regards,

Kes

Wow Kes, I think the Scale is going to get another section, soon thats a great explanation... I'm going to add that to the entry & then in the event that its approved we'll both be listed as having written it

I'm glad you found the info. useful - happy to help.

I can't offer much on the D and A opera - your notes are very thorough, but here are a couple of items:

D and A contains many sections of instrumental music without voices. This was dance music. It is thought that some of it got edited out after early performances, which is one possible explanation of the incomplete key sequences. French operas (with which Pucell would have been familiar) contained ballet sequences, but the idea was not at the time popular in England. The fact that Josias Priest was not only Headmaster but also the Dance master might have something to do with it .....

The use of the major to minor key shift to go happy to sad is well known, of course. Usually, the shift is from the major to its relative minor (which starts on the submediant, and has the same key signature). Purcell's shifts (from major to tonic minor) are also seen in Italian suites, but not usually in other music of the time.

Cheers - love the stars on your page!

Thank you, Kes, I knew there was something I'd left out of that entry

Glad you like my stars...

My pleasure. Can't stop - must go and do some work for the boss! CU soon.