Trio theory

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Trio theory is a theory of the origin and nature of scales and tonality.

Contents

[edit] Evolution of scales

[edit] Archaeological evidence

A current viewpoint among many laypersons and scholars[citation needed] indicates tonal scales and tonality arise from natural overtones. Most of the archaeological evidence regarding this has been found only in the last few decades, and most, if not all of it confirms many earlier claims of the universal or "natural" evolution of the scales most widely found in human music, because these finds represent new dug-up appearances of the diatonic scale. Or at least the development of yet another 7-note or 8 note scale, evolving from 5 and 6-note scales. (See the statements of the Chinese musicologists in Studies in Music Archaeology III (2003) and on line).

Helmholtz in the historic research for his book Sensations of Tone also wrote of the same development elsewhere going from shorter scales up to longer 7-note (and, with the octave added), to an 8-note scale.[citation needed]

The evidence for this now includes the recent find of the Divje Babe Neanderthal Flute, 50,000 years old; The world's oldest known song (Assyrian cuneiform artifacts) 4,000 years old (deciphered by Prof. Ann Kilmer[citation needed] to be diatonic and using harmonies of thirds, similar to ancient English gymel); and the recent find of many 9,000 year-old flutes in China, one of them fully still playable with 8 notes, including the octave.[citation needed] Indeed one of the flutes had an extra tiny hole drilled in order to improve the accuracy of the octave tuning. See the article and photograph in Nature journal[citation needed] at the time of the 2000 announcemnt of the find. These finds, by independent archaeologists, reveal similarities to present day widespread musical scales. Prof G. Harbottle, one of the Nature article's authors likened the tuning of the flute to the diatonic scale in an interview with Fox news.[citation needed]

[edit] An acoustic theory of scale origins

Originally published in 1958, the Origin of Music (1970, 1981, ISBN 0-912424-06-0), claims that when the most audible overtones of the three most nearly universal intervals (octave, 4th and 5th), are placed within the range of that octave, this gives rise to the most common scales: Pentatonic, major & minor (depending how many of the audible overtones are so placed).

The unequal audible strengths of the overtones determine the role and power of each note in a scale (tonic, dominant or subdominant), i.e., tonality and tonal scales.

The natural or acoustic musical scale and its tonality (meaning a scale-form in which there are strong and weak notes, rather than all notes seeming to be equally important) arose in the most ancient times as follows, according to musicologist Bob Fink's theory:

We hear the octave as the loudest overtone of any note, such as middle C. Next loudest [and different] note would be a tone (when we lower it by an octave) matching what is the fifth note of a scale, namely the "fifth." In the scale of C, this would be G. The note that produces middle C as its audible overtone would similarly match the 4th scale note, F.

This creates what is now called the tonic, the fifth, and the fourth, which are steps (or "intervals") in the scale when they are played out loud as separate notes. This "trio" of intervals come from the most noticeable of the most audibly related overtones to a given note.

The tonic, fourth and fifth are found in the music and scales of virtually all cultures in all periods of human music making.

When each of the intervals is sounded as separate notes, they, in turn, have their own audible overtones. The influences from the loudest of all these overtones suggests (by an evolving process) what notes can fill in the rest of the notes found in the most widely known scales in the world and in history.

This also explains why there are strong and weak notes in the scale, why there are only 2 halftones historically accepted in the scale, and why notes historically entered the scale when they did etc.

[edit] Derivation of different scales

Below are shown the overtones of these three intervals. String out the three most audible (different) overtones of each, within the span of an octave, and you can get the major scale and other widespread scales (leaving out the repeated octave overtones and inaudible overtones as redundant):

    TONIC C:    Overtones: C, G, E, (and B-flat; then inaudible) 
    FIFTH G:    Overtones: G, D, B, (and F) 
    FOURTH F:   Overtones: F, C, A, (and E-flat;)

Using those notes and overtones, we can list these scales:

The Major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.

Then, substitute the three audibly weakest ones (the 3rd, 6th and 7th notes of the scale) with another three notes (which includes the even weaker next overtones listed above in parentheses), and which are flatter, and you get the minor scale. (The 6th note above is strongest of the three because it forms no halftones with adjacent notes in the major scale. Halftones in scales, as Helmholtz pointed out in Sensations of Tone, were avoided by most early musical cultures. "Many nations avoided the use of intervals of less than a tone...."):

Minor scale: C, D, E-flat, F, G, A-flat, B-flat, C

Because those two overtones (corresponding to the E and the B) are very weak acoustically, they were the last to come into the scale. How they were tuned is a matter of historic uncertainty. Many people tuned them somewhere between minor and major (in the "cracks" on the piano), producing what are historically known as "blue" or "neutral" notes.

Or, if the 3rd and 7th notes are omitted altogether (thereby avoiding any halftones), the piano's "black notes" pentatonic 5-note scale results.

Pentatonic scale: C, D, F, G, A, C

[edit] Halftones in the scale; evolution of harmony & tonality

The process of tentatively adding halftones into the pentatonic scale took place in China, in Scottish music, elsewhere, and even the names given to these notes in different cultures are similar: "passing," "becoming," "leading" notes. It seems it was only this functional usefulness of the semitones which eventually allowed them into scales, as scales evolved and were recognized by various musical cultures, much as words evolve and are added sporadically into usage, and then permanently into dictionaries.

However, Pope John XXII in 1322 slowed the process and made an edict against use of the 7th as a leading tone and forbid notating them in written music. Curt Sachs wrote that the Chinese called leading tones by the name "pien," meaning "becoming," or "on the way to." The Scottish had a similar description for leading tones. Sachs wrote: "The evolution of East Asiatic scales...starts from strictly Pentatonic scales." In later stages, the two "skipped" tones (3rds and 7ths), Sachs wrote, "are admitted to scale, though only as passing notes. Finally, they are fully incorporated." (Rise of Music in the Ancient World, pp.134-5.) See also Helmholtz' Sensations of Tone, p. 287.)

When further considering the later advent of harmony it can be seen that the first three different overtones of the notes shown (or of any note) add up to that note's major chord. There has been use of mostly the same trio -- the three chords of the tonic, dominant (5th) and subdominant (4th) -- to harmonize all the 7 scale-notes in most of the folk melodies known rather than each note in any melody being harmonized by a chord based on that note as the root of the chord. Therefore, most often, a C-major melody would have any of its "C" notes harmonied by a C major chord, but a D in that melody would be harmonized by a G chord (or a derivative chord); an "E" would be harmonized by a C chord; an "F" (or an "A") in the melody would be harmonized by an F-chord; and so on. This further underscores that these three near-universal trio of intervals and their overtones were fundamental semiconscious influences in the evolution of the scale's notes.

Harmony evolved as a means to enhance the inner overtone relationships between scale notes and notes in melodies. Even the names that evolved for them are perfect representations of their acoustic or tonal role, even though the names ("dominant" "sub-dominant" & "keynote / tonic") were also coined by people without acoustical knowledge.

The trio theory indicates the ear was already able to discern sounds as distinct between harmonious or dissonant because the ear could hear these acoustic properties without having to consciously know they existed or learn them solely by conditioning.

There is no doubt that acoustics alone cannot explain all musical matters, as psychology, cognition, conditioning, cultural dictums and their like are all present in the evolutionary acoustic processes outlined here.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Fink, Bob. 2003. Essays & Readings: On the Origin of Music an Integrated Overview of the Origin and Evolution of Music. Saskatoon: Greenwich. ISBN 0-912424-14-1.
  • Fink, Bob. 1970. The Universality of Music. Detroit: Greenwich-Meridian Co. Reprinted 1981 as The Origin of Music: A Theory of the Universal Development of Music. Detroit: Greenwich-Meridian Co. ISBN 0-912424-06-0.
  • Wallin, Nils, Bjorn Merker, and Steven Brown (eds.). 1999. The Origins of Music. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-23206-5
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