Musicology 1
Pythagoras and the Birth of Western Music
Human/Universal Dualities
LimitedOddOneRightMaleRestStraightLightGoodSquare
UnlimitedEvenMany
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One was not simply the first number used in counting, it also denoted ‘Unity, Identity, Equality, the purpose of
friendship, sympathy, and conservation of the Universe, which results from persistence in Sameness. For unity in the details harmonises all the parts of a whole as by the participation of the First Cause’. Two was one plus
one, but it was also the dyad, the principle of dichotomy, the mutability of everything that is; three was
emblematic of things that have a beginning, a middle, and an end; four was the number of points required to construct a pyramid, the simplest of the perfect solids.
The first four whole numbers were used to form the tetractys…
Add together these four numbers and you get 10, the perfect number that is the basis of Pythagoras’, and
therefore our own, mathematics. Contained within the tetractys was the mystery of how finite form – the pyramid, which is suggested by the figure of the
tetractys – emerges from the infinitude of one, the single, perfect point. The spiritual progress made by
Pythagorean initiates is symbolized by the progression in the tetractys from the unity of one to the unity of ten.
Musica Instrumentalis
Musica Humana
Musica Mundana
Octave
Fifth
Fourth
Intervals
Tetrad
http://www.suddensound.com/um/monochord/
Plato’s Demiurge
The Big 3
Frequency
Wavelength and Amplitude
Amplitude
Waveforms
In acoustics the term "harmonic" is a noun used to describe an overtone or partial
whose frequency is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency
A fundamental frequency and the first five harmonics with frequency ratios of 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 5:1 and 6:1 in relation to the
fundamental frequency
The Harmonic Series