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0 pointsdr_dshiv5y ago0 comments

I agree that the central scientific question is whether harmony is a metaphor or mechanism, e.g., for psychological constructs like Cognitive Dissonance. My guess is that harmony is so pervasive that it ceases to have original meaning -- like in the manner that every atom is a harmonic oscillator or how brainwaves are based on an "octave" structure (e.g., Beta is double Alpha, Gamma is double Beta, etc). However, this question of metaphor or mechanism should be resolvable with science, eh?

However, I disagree that harmony is primarily a western phenomena. It is a central feature to Confucianism and Daoism. It also plays a major role in Native American philosophy.

0 pointsdr_dshiv5y ago0 comments

However, I disagree that harmony is primarily a western phenomena. It is a central feature to Confucianism and Daoism. It also plays a major role in Native American philosophy.

0 comments

5 comments · 1 top-level

PaulDavisThe1st5y ago· 4 in thread

I was talking specifically about harmony in a musical context as being very western.

dr_dshivOP5y ago

Well, the point still applies. The small integer ratios of harmony apply even to the rhythms of gamelan. And, of course, octaves are more-or-less universal across cultures.

PaulDavisThe1st5y ago

This starts to get silly.

"Small integer ratios" apply to huge numbers of natural phenomena, because "small integers" and "ratios" are properties of the world we live in. Pointing out that "harmony is another example of small-integer ratios" seems fairly devoid of content to me, especially when the primary user of musical harmony has long abandoned those pure integer ratios to allow modulation and other desired compositional techniques.

Octaves are not universal across cultures. Byzantine music has no octave equivalence, for example. There was even a paper cited here on HN recently showing lack of octave awareness in different cultures (the paper may have had some flaws, but was interesting).

1 more reply

mkl5y ago

From a story a couple of weeks ago, octaves, while common, seem to be learned: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23624596

imoverclocked5y ago

That may be, but they are still learned according to https://www.quantamagazine.org/perceptions-of-musical-octave...

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