Re: [microsound] Re: 4/4's for neanderthals

[soren-microsound@xxxxxxxxxx]

something natural about 4/4?  Try the happy birthday song, old
mcdonalds, etc...everything we westerners grew up with is in 4/4, that's
why we like it so much.  Ever listen to any classical indian or asian
music?  Not a whole lotta 4/4 there, at least discounting the western
influenced pop which is mostly in 4/4...

I agree that there is a simplicity to 4/4, but I don't find it much
better if you go to 3/4 or 5/4 (anyone ever listen to bartok?).  Most of
the microsound stuff that I've heard is not in any meter...but most of
it doesn't seem to have any rhythm, either, besides the rhythm built
into the sounds themselves...Anybody know why that is?  Everything is
either 4/4 or 0/0...nothing ever moves around, look at eric saties
gymnopedie's, all unmetered...


Ok, enough ranting, I just wanted to point out that nothing is
"natural", everything is conditioned.  Most of the western world likes
major/minor scales, but outside of the west you'll find a virtually
unlimited number of scales (different tunings and all...).

Ok.


Check out my (non-spiffy, under construction) page for some rhythmic
music that isn't in any meter...

http://www.theory.org/~soren/masters.html




On Tue, Oct 22, 2002 at 04:49:35PM -0400, Joshua Schrei wrote:
> that being said, I think there's something that humans naturally respond to
> about 4/4 time. why else would it be so prevalent? and I don't think we
> respond just because its simple, or easy to digest. I think something about
> that particular cycle resonates with our intrinsic rhythm, or something like
> that. for instance, in western musical notation, everything is based on
> dividing up measures into four parts. music is almost always expressed in
> quarters or sometimes eighths. if this was purely a mathematical process,
> wouldn't it be based on a decimal system like mathematics is? why do we
> naturally gravitate towards fours? four seasons, four directions, etc...
> 
> 
> 
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