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Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
That's why I think it's a non issue. Snobbery is an issue, but that's not the fault of the music theory, it's the fault of the snobs.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I don't see it so much as snobbery but rather it just isn't equipped to explain non-western art music derived styles.
There is certainly a reluctance in classic circles to explore outside western art music though- that is certainly true.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
The intervals used in Western music are all integer ratios in frequency, eg octave is 1:2, fifth 2:3, forth 3:4 etc.
This would suggest there is a fundamental mechanism at work here, ie this was waiting to be discovered rather than it was completely invented.
There are also data about use of these intervals in nature, eg birdsong. In fact there are data suggesting that the accuracy of interval production in birdsong confers social status.
Music theory essentially is an exercise in reverse engineering why something works; you certainly do not need to understand music theory to make music, and theory alone won't direct you to write a great piece of music.
A huge body of music theory is common across all genres of Western music; eg the intervals used in chords, and resolution.
In contrast, there is a trend in certain circles of academic thought that generation of knowledge is always culturally situated, and employed to exert power, which seems to be the underlying implication of the video above.
Also, they sniff a lot. Not joking. Sniffing is the main thing I've had to RX out of sessions for some reason!! Probably our old cold damp basement studio, heh.
To get very good at a classical repertoire requires total dedication to the task.
It doesn't really allow for huge amounts of divergence into other areas.
Jazz requires a similar dedication, but to other areas- improvisation, transcription for example.
I've played with several classical musicians who had zero ability to improvise or play very much at all without the notes on a page in front of them. I remember having a conversation with the piano player in a band I played in years ago. She couldn't grasp that I was literally making it up as I went along when I was soloing over a chord progression.
"How do you know what to do in each moment?" she asked.
"I don't know... I just sort of do it", I replied.
At that point in my playing were she to put some sheet music in front of me you'd have not heard me over the crickets chirping.
I can read music now, but not a note back then- she could read anything and play it immediately.
That looked like voodoo to me at the time.
She taught herself to improvise in the 3 years I was in that band- started by writing variations of whatever we were doing down on the staff, then slowly she used the score less and less. Her home base is still, I understand it, the written form of music and mine is still very much improv but you can develop away from your specialisation if you put in the work.
Essentially, you get good at what you practice and what you maintain.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Already having a background in the history of culture-knowledge, I wasn't surprised to learn any of this. What I find more interesting is how the American academy seems to have stagnated and dwelt on this particular "cult" of music theory whilst other parts of The West have moved on. Perhaps it goes to show how niche and insular this corner of academia is.
To be fair it's not clear whether we invented maths or whether it was there to be discovered.
Maths is a fundamental property of the universe.
Equal temperament is actually a comprise that came about through the problems with reconcilling the Pythagorian intervals. Other tuning have been tried, eg mean tone.
Actually several instruments don't employ equal temperament, eg the piano where the tuning is stretched, so that the bass end is flatter and the treble end is sharper than equal temperament.
I would agree that the frequency of C seems an arbitrary choice (and has and does vary, for example many European orchestras tune to A 443), and there are people who believe that choosing A440 was conspiracy!
https://jakubmarian.com/the-432-hz-vs-440-hz-conspiracy-theory/
I do think there are people who would argue that an octave is a cultural phenomenon; I don't agree with them.
You're right but without a brain to understand it does it have any meaning?
A lion can't understand maths- it doesn't even know that it is a lion.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Anytime human reasoning and language get involved, it's cultural. We sometimes have a knack, though, for kidding ourselves into thinking our ideas are of nature.
Whilst some knowledge is culturally situated, I do not believe all knowledge is culturally situated (and yes we would go down a thesaurus argument rabbit-hole of what we mean by "culture" and "knowledge").
And clearly some knowledge is superior to other knowledge; for example the heliocentric view of the solar system is superior to the geocentric view.
Also by stating "but the next level of this is when one set of culture-knowledge claims superiority over another, or even over all others," are you advocating cultural relativism? I think that is a very slippery slope down which to go, for example if a culture thinks it's acceptable to persecute homosexuals is this OK?
When describing the video attitude towards "Superior culture-knowledge" I was trying to be measured in my words rather taking for inflammatory position.
If you wiped out humanity and all human knowledge and another sentient species evolved it would develop maths and it would be the same.