Perspectives on the division of musical space: An interdisciplinary study.

摘要

This interdisciplinary study investigates theoretical foundations for the division of musical space from scientific, cultural, historical and musicological perspectives. The first chapter analyzes pitch spectrum segmentation from linguistic, psychoperceptual, neurological, and evolutionary viewpoints. Two fundamental dichotomies of aural perception are found to influence segmentation of pitch space: (1) perception of tone from fundamental frequencies [f0] or spectral frequencies [f sp]; (2) pitch differentiation preferences grounded in innate capacities related to human physiology and neurology and those preferences developed through acculturation and interaction with material culture.; These dichotomies exist in both logarithmically and harmonically structured systems. In turn, both logarithmically and harmonically structured systems subdivide into culturally determined prescriptive and descriptive categories.; In the second chapter, the musical system of ancient Mesopotamia as a descriptive, musica practica system is examined. Archeomusicological research examining the Old Babylonian 'tuning texts' reveals a harmonically determined musical system shared by multiple Semitic cultures from 1800 to 400 B.C.E., thus predating the Greek Pythagorean system by more than a millennium.; The third chapter examines ancient Chinese music theory as a prescriptive system that evolved towards equal tempered regimes built on concatenation of spiraling fifths. This development is evident in the lu system and subsequent microtonal tuning systems. Segmentation schemes, as evidenced in instruments found in the Mausoleum of Zenghou Yi, as well as theoretical texts of the Huai Nan Tzu, Chino Fang, Ho Ch'eng-T'ien, and Ch'ien Lo-chih, are examined.; Chapters four through seven survey Ancient Greek music theory. The syncretic nature of early Greek segmentation systems, whose source was ultimately Mesopotamian, is established by archeological evidence and proto-historic accounts. Music theories ranging from those of the early Pythagoreans of the late seventh century B.C.E. to the theorists of the Hadrianic Revival of the second century C.E. are analyzed in testimonia, fragmenta, and major texts. Major text portions in Classical Greek, as well as one in Latin, are presented with translations by the author. The conflict of prescriptive Pythagorean theories (whose goals were philosophical and cosmological) with descriptive Aristoxenian theories (whose goals, following Aristotelian methodologies, were scientific musicological investigation) is discussed.