My cat Sushi told me he was about to start a blog so I figured I'd beat him to it.
Plus I'm required to blog for my groovy Intermedia Class at JFK University in Berkeley.
Take that, kitty! 2 legs faster than 4! Merowwll!!!
Ermm...Why "Looking For A Certain Ratio"? It's a line from a Brian Eno song called "The True Wheel" that has always resonated with me.
This phrase inspired me to make a little pastel drawing for my Art & Symbolic Process class last spring:
Searching for balance and proportion.
And...recently I've been exploring the ancient system of musical tuning known as Just Intonation. This is based on small whole-number ratios (eg 2:1, 3:2, 11:7) and follows the natural harmonic series. The result is sweet sounding intervals, noticeably different from the sound of Equal Temperament. This latter tuning system was adopted in the West roughly around the time of Bach in order to standardize keyboard instruments and allow for easy key changes. Equal Temperament is based on "irrational numbers" derived from the 12th root of 2. Long story short, none of the intervals it uses correspond to the natural ones. It's an abstraction much like the Gregorian calendar. But I digress...
Blah blah blah
Blog blog blog
More to follow!
i love brian eno! spinning with the Just Intonation break down...take that kitty! Hahaha!
ReplyDeleteI've heard several people recommend this book so I'm wondering if you've ever heard of it: "This is Your Brain on Music" by Daniel Levitan. Also recently heard about the book "The Tao of Music," by John Ortiz. Not sure how great they are, but thought I should pass them along. And...I love Brian Eno, too!
ReplyDeleteI can't find your email! Can you send it to me? elizabeth_perlman@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, I emailed you my email :-)
ReplyDeleteI read about half of Levitin's book and then got busy making art & music!