Golden Flutes, animal music, octatonics

Hi Jacky,

> BTW - Here in NC, we have the Gray Mockingbird,
> which can immitate the calls of many birds, they will get up in a
> tree or on a power pole, and improvise for hours. One I've heard
> around my house has learned the cry of the hawk, which I know must
> scare the hell out of all the animals around here - but he has nailed
> that sound to a "t".

Here in jolly old Israel we have a blue jay that likes to imitate
other birds. It also imitates cats, which seems like a completely
useless ability, though its funny for us to hear a 'Meow' from 50 ft
up a tree.

We also have a bird that has a song which is either extremely long
or endless. I've listened for many minutes and it sings a complicated
melody, then 'sort of repeats', changing one note or sound, then again.
Since the bird also has a full repetoire of trills and buzzes some
the of the variations sound like he's surprised himself and then
trying to figure out what to do with the new line (like a jazz
player making lemonade out of a lemon).

Lastly, I heard a story that some species of whale in the Eastern
Pacific had changed their song recently. Apparently, some Indian
Ocean whales had strayed too far East, and so the 'Merican
whales copped their song.

>
> Fascinating! Ever try C C# D# E F# G A A#?
>
> Or C D D# F F# G# A B?
>

Shore, I just call them 'the diminished scale' but jazz theorists
differentiate between the two since the first is great for dominant
seventh chords and the second is just great.

Some think the history of Western music can be summed up as the
history of the leading tone, I think that a history of the diminished
chord may be more appropriate (recognizing that some of the more
used rows of the second Vienese school were for the most part
interpolated diminished chords).

> I love these octatonics! Especially on the guitar!
>
> I think my whole understanding and appreciation of repeating block
> scales must begin with these two 8 of 12 scales, because of long ago
> integrating them into my guitar languages.

Yeah, once I 'saw' the wide JI diminished chord in your scale,
it harkened back to these sorts of structures. Your scale also
had 16 notes, right? So maybe there is a "stretched quarter-tone
dimished scale" in there...

HOWEVER, I'd never have found the structure listenning
to the Golden Flute clip! Which goes to show that how one thinks
about the materials and what one does with the materials may
have no apparent relation to each other. (There is nothing wrong
with that, whatever gets one taking the next rung on the ladder
is fine).

thanks again.

Bob Valentine