Music that is psychedelic

[mistersloane]

I had this professor Royal Brown who told me that someone told him that the universe vibrates at a frequency that matches the original A note that they used in Mozart's time (we've changed it and now our A is a little higher I think)...

How did that happen?....the 'A' changing to be higher. I'm imagining committees and fisticuffs..."Sirrah! No! My 'A' is more in tune with the cosmic vibrational frequency! A duel to decide I say!"

 

[nomadthethird]

I think it happened around the same time they decided to change and/or standardize the tunings for a bunch of orchestral instruments... I'd have to look it up but I'm positive that it happened, and I'm pretty sure the shift was upward nearly a whole step and it was around the time of Mozart.

P.S. It wasn't just the A getting higher, it was all the notes in the tempered western tonal system. But they changed it, if I'm remembering correctly, all around the A string, because there was some dispute about what was a proper "A"...

 

[whatever]

I had this professor Royal Brown who told me that someone told him that the universe vibrates at a frequency that matches the original A note that they used in Mozart's time (we've changed it and now our A is a little higher I think)...

http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=pitch+A+440+and+the+universe+and+mozart

Then, click on: A Few Notes on Pitch

(the whole article is relevant, the fourth paragraph xplains the phenomenon in question)

 

[nomadthethird]

Did I say it would be hard?

I just spent all day on the phone conducting scholarship interviews, finishing application essays, filling out FAFSA paperwork, filing my taxes, and making sure I'd applied properly for my second B.S. rather than B.A. degree.

Sorry if I don't really feel like chasing down shit on the internets on Friday night. Looks like you didn't have so much trouble. Was that so hard for you, love? I guess not. Looks like you had nothing better to do, either.

 

[whatever]

You sound busy!

But what a first post! let me googlez dat 4 u lol

anyway, more importantly, the answer to your question is there

juz playin' ya know, internet n all

 

[zhao]

hey whatever, welcome.

on the A thing, i remember reading an interview with the sunn o/// dood who was talking about irish bagpipes using A a lot as well as his own boring half-assed drones. should really cross post in pretentious crap thread.

but by "universe" whoever told this prof must have meant the earth? because, you know, we are aware of 1 grain of sand on the beach of the universe.

here is wiki on "pitch inflation"

During historical periods when instrumental music rose in prominence (relative to the voice), there was a continuous tendency for pitch levels to rise. This "pitch inflation" seemed largely a product of instrumentalists' competing with each other, each attempting to produce a brighter, more "brilliant", sound than that of one's rivals. (In string instruments, this is not all acoustic illusion: when tuned up, they actually sound objectively brighter because the higher string tension results in larger amplitudes for the harmonics.) This tendency was also prevalent with wind instrument manufacturers, who crafted their instruments to play generally at a higher pitch than those made by the same craftsmen years earlier.

It should be noted too that pitch inflation is a problem only where musical compositions are fixed by notation. The combination of numerous wind instruments and notated music has therefore restricted pitch inflation almost entirely to the Western tradition.[citation needed]

On at least two occasions, pitch inflation has become so severe that reform became needed. At the beginning of the 17th century, Michael Praetorius reported in his encyclopedic Syntagma musicum that pitch levels had become so high that singers were experiencing severe throat strain and lutenists and viol players were complaining of snapped strings. The standard voice ranges he cites show that the pitch level of his time, at least in the part of Germany where he lived, was at least a minor third higher than today's. Solutions to this problem were sporadic and local, but generally involved the establishment of separate standards for voice and organ ("Chorton") and for chamber ensembles ("Kammerton"). Where the two were combined, as for example in a cantata, the singers and instrumentalists might perform from music written in different keys. This system kept pitch inflation at bay for some two centuries.

The advent of the orchestra as an independent (as opposed to accompanying) ensemble brought pitch inflation to the fore again. The rise in pitch at this time can be seen reflected in tuning forks. An 1815 tuning fork from the Dresden opera house gives A = 423.2 Hz (info), while one of eleven years later from the same opera house gives A = 435 Hz (info). At La Scala in Milan, the A above middle C rose as high as 451 Hz (info).

19th and 20th century standards

The most vocal opponents of the upward tendency in pitch were singers, who complained that it was putting a strain on their voices. Largely due to their protests, the French government passed a law on February 16, 1859 which set the A above middle C at 435 Hz.[4] This was the first attempt to standardize pitch on such a scale, and was known as the diapason normal. It became quite a popular pitch standard outside of France as well, and has also been known at various times as French pitch, continental pitch or international pitch (the last of these not to be confused with the 1939 "international standard pitch" described below)...

go get those grants nomad tiger!

 

[Chris]

the French government passed a law on February 16, 1859 which set the A above middle C at 435 Hz.[4]

!!


at first this sounded ridiculous... but... it does bring to mind M_nus' (et al) reaction against the escalating bpms in the 90s; or that meeting... I think it was earlier this decade... where the DnB dons got together to set a speed limit on their genre.

the more things change etc

 

[mistersloane]

http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=pitch+A+440+and+the+universe+and+mozart

Then, click on: A Few Notes on Pitch

(the whole article is relevant, the fourth paragraph xplains the phenomenon in question)

That made me laugh. I wanted nomad to explain it to me though, and that doesn't come up in google, unfortunately. If there was a 'ask nomad' button, I'd totally press that every time rather than use google.

 

[mistersloane]

here is wiki on "pitch inflation"

That's so fucking mad. I love, love the idea that we're not hearing anything now as it was heard then, that's never been done in films, has it? Some 17th century Barry Lyndon style epic where everything sounds totally wrong would be amazing. Peter Greenaway to thread, please.

 

[Mr. Tea]

'Pitch inflation' just sounds like a sort of 18th-century analogue of modern-day producers' compression-obsession and the 'loudness wars' there was a thread about on here a little while ago.

 

[Chris]

if only the French government would outlaw auto-tune

 

[zhao]

higher pitches is nothing but headache inducing for me. i would much rather EVERYTHING go lower. Vivaldi would sound a hell of a lot better.

 

[zhao]

if only the french government would outlaw auto-tune

ha!

 

[Mr. Tea]

How did that happen?....the 'A' changing to be higher. I'm imagining committees and fisticuffs..."Sirrah! No! My 'A' is more in tune with the cosmic vibrational frequency! A duel to decide I say!"

"Sir, I'll have you know I've arrived at my pitch after an exhaustive arithmetickal study of the book of Genesis!"

"Well sirrah, I am assured my pitch reproduces the true cosmic note by an eminent mystic of the Hindoos!"

*cue aforementioned fisticuffs...*

 

[DJ PIMP]

actually if you're prepared to become fully uterine i think that new susume yokota album 'mother' is very strong

it's kind of a new age rebirthing soundtrack album, but at the same time it's really cogent and consummate

it veers away from the psych dickbag masculine stroking stroking aesthetic i think, somewhat

 

[Mr. Tea]

That's interesting DJP, do you think psychedelia usually tends to have a 'male' sort of sound to it?

 

[zhao]

on the contrary i think the acid rock and psych bands of the 60s were seen as effeminate by the normal rock crowed. i mean PINK floyd, with songs about cross dressers (their own wardrobe also leaning in that direction).

and i've tried time and again but never found any redeeming qualites about yokota (what he has to do with psychedelia i've no clue)

 

[nomadthethird]

There are some people who perform the baroque composers in the original tunings but they are considered crazy purists by most. Maybe sometime I'll find a performance done that way and go see it for kicks.

I forgot that an A now is 440 hz, which is a pretty embarrassing thing to forget.

 

[nomadthethird]

That's interesting DJP, do you think psychedelia usually tends to have a 'male' sort of sound to it?

I'm not DJP, but I actually think that being in a psychedelic state of mind is kind of considered feminine because it entails being so "receptive" rather than aggressive (those damn hippies with their long hair and tight pants)...but then you have Led Zepplin and those kinds of bands that are very psychedelic and all about "rocking" in a way that I think has been appropriated in a hypermasculine way that they didn't really intend...

 

[nomadthethird]

on the contrary i think the acid rock and psych bands of the 60s were seen as effeminate by the normal rock crowed. i mean PINK floyd, with songs about cross dressers (their own wardrobe also leaning in that direction).

and i've tried time and again but never found any redeeming qualites about yokota (what he has to do with psychedelia i've no clue)

Syd Barrett was very attractive. And his clothes were nice. And his music was good.