While doing some research on the Bohlen-Pierce scale recently, I came across the following reference:
M. V. Mathews, L. A. Roberts, and J. R. Pierce, "Four new scales based on nonsuccessive-integer-ratio chords," Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 75, S10(A) (1984).
Upon tracking down this reference at the library, I was dismayed to find that it only refers to an abstract of a paper presented at the 107th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. I have been unsuccessful so far in locating the complete paper. Can someone on the list point me to where I might find the full paper? If anyone actually possesses this paper, can you contact me directly about obtaining a photocopy of it?
Many thanks, John
--- John G. Pusey xen@tiac.net http://www.tiac.net/users/xen/jgp.html
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Message text written by INTERNET:tuning@ella.mills.edu
" Each chemical element is uniquely identifiable in the electromagnetic specturm by its special set of unique frequencies. These frequency sets interact to produce more complexly unique cycle frequencies, which are unheard by human ear but which resonate just as do humanly hearable musical chords or dissonances."
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Interesting... It would be curious to hear the chords produced by the absorption patterns of various chemical elements and compounds, after transposing them down some enormous number of octaves.
Were I to guess though, it would be little more than a curiosity. I personally doubt if they would have any particularly significant meaning to our ears. The two physical/physiological mechanisms are far too unrelated for there to be much correlation.
Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 9 Mar 1997 05:51 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA09517; Sun, 9 Mar 1997 05:51:34 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA10066 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id UAA02958; Sat, 8 Mar 1997 20:50:05 -0800 Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 20:50:05 -0800 Message-Id: <199703082345_MC2-124D-A3AB@compuserve.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu
> Interesting... It would be curious to hear the chords produced by the >absorption patterns of various chemical elements and compounds, after >transposing them down some enormous number of octaves.
> Were I to guess though, it would be little more than a curiosity. I >personally doubt if they would have any particularly significant meaningto >our ears. The two physical/physiological mechanisms are far too unrelated >for there to be much correlation.
For the simple part of the Hydrogen spectrum explained by Rydberg etc, the frequency ratios are 1:4:9:16... which would be quite pleasant and under some circumstances the differences between these frequencies also (3, 7, 9, 12, etc) which is still quite tolerable.
For heavier elements like Iron which have many many more frequencies I suspect that it would sound like heavy metal :-)
Hey, I got to crack that joke twice in 3 days (I used at the anvil chorus on Saturday). There was a big concert for the opening of a large new stadium near here (mainly for rugby). The highlight of the night (which was all very spectacular) was when they did the "Dance of the Diggers" to honour the people who worked on the project. This consisted of two large digging machines, lit by an erie light against the dark sky, doing a wonderfully elegant dance to the music of Swan Lake. They did an amazing job and at the end the digger operaters took a bow in full evening dress. They got an ovation.
In another post in this thread, based on my statement: >" If the substance of the universe, the aether, is taken as a >medium then the speed of sound in the aether is what we know as light >The aether is very high tensile stuff). So these two statements are in >agreement."
Gary Morrison wrote: > I suppose there's not much point in getting into the well-accepted fact >that the aether has been found not to exist in any physical sense, or at >least not as the medium that light "makes waves in" as it was originally >theorized.
It is only well accepted by people who don't understand it. The people who made the dicoveries that are supposed to have discredited the ether, namely Einstein, Michelson, Lorentz etc, all continued to believe in an ether. If you doubt this, read Einstein's speech on the subject delivered in 1920. It is on the WWW, just search for "einstein ether". There is no reason not to believe in an ether (except fashion).
-- Ray Tomes -- rtomes@kcbbs.gen.nz -- Harmonics Theory -- http://www.kcbbs.gen.nz/users/rtomes/rt-home.htm
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> ... or the simple part of the Hydrogen spectrum explained by Rydberg etc, > the frequency ratios are 1:4:9:16... which would be quite pleasant and ..
When I commented that I doubt if the absorption frequencies of chemical elements would (taken down many octaves) have any particular significance to our ears, I elected, in the interest of brevity, not to add "unless they coincidentally match something known to be significant to our ears", like harmonic relationships.
Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 12 Mar 1997 02:57 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA02431; Wed, 12 Mar 1997 02:57:25 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA02429 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id RAA25599; Tue, 11 Mar 1997 17:55:53 -0800 Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 17:55:53 -0800 Message-Id: <199703112054_MC2-1270-A4F6@compuserve.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu