On Jan 5, 2005, at 4:25 AM, Bruce Hunter wrote:
> Masayuki Koga writes about 72 notes per octave (Shakuhachi Japanese
> Bamboo Flute,1978).
It is important to distinguish between what may be called frequency
discrimination and note discrimination. It's one thing to assert that
the brain can distinguish between 440 hz and 445 hz. It's quite
another thing to assert that this distinction has a musical
significance. It is not possible, even when playing a single note, to
achieve absolute pitch precision. Since our perception of music
depends on our ability to perceive the relationships between notes, for
instance, that two notes are both "C", and since it is not possible for
humans to produce pitches with absolute precision, in order to perceive
music (as opposed to mere pitch variation) the mind must interpret all
pitches within a certain range as being a single note.
There is a limit, then, on how many different notes (that is, pitches
with musical significance) an octave can have. "Quarter tones appear
to be about the limit. Scales of twenty-four steps are found in the
Middle East, and of twenty-two steps in India. Finer subdivisions of
pitch space have not appeared in any of the world's diverse musical
cultures." [Robert Jourdain, "Music, the brain, and ecstasy: how music
captures our imagination", p. 74.]
In the case of the shakuhachi, the quarter tone limit may be too
strict, given that meri notes differ from kari not only in pitch but
also in timbre. However, this doesn't necessarily change the more
general limit of 24 notes per octave. And certainly the traditional
notation doesn't support 72 notes per octave, which suggests that the
composers and teachers of shakuhachi music did not feel a need for a
notation which would discriminate more than about a dozen notes per
octave.
Tim Larkin
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