aspects and music

isthmus nekoi

This just occured to me, and I can't believe it didn't strike me earlier. There seems to me, to be a major correspondence b/w old school astrology and classical western music.

First, we have 7 planets, and 7 notes. Between these 7, we can arrange them through time (melody), and space (harmony). I'm going to look at both here...

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Time: The classical time signatures are 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4, corresponding to the opposition, trine and square. You can't really have a conjunction time signature b/c there is no dynamism in the classical sense, created by one monotonous beat over and over... *although* this is the basis of other musical traditions, just not the classical western one. 4/4 is by far the most frequently used of the quarter note signatures. The next most common sig is 6/8, which corresponds to 3/4 naturally. So there is the sextile. Note its relation to the trine. So we have 2, 3, 4 and 6. Fascinating isn't it as those are the major aspects!

Why skip 5/4? Ah..... if you have ever heard a 5/4 time signature it is very unusual. In fact, the only popular music band I have *ever* heard use 5/4 is TOOL, and they experiment w/rhythm quite a bit. The quintile is what I would deem 'not intuitive', which means my students have a very very difficult time playing this whereas the others I've mentioned seem to come easily (although this may be a result of classical training!!). Jazz students might find it easier though.

Other time sigs that have arisen w/modern classical are all over the place, sort of like how some astrologers will look at septiles, biquintiles etc. Just about anything goes in 20th century composition and songs with 7/8, 9/8 are now included in the examination system repetoire.
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Harmony:
If you have ever heard an interval of a third compared to that of a forth, you can *hear* how a trine is "easier" than a square.
opposition corresponds to a second=AB
trine corresponds to a third=AC
square corresponds to a forth=AD (A4)
sextile corresponds to a sixth - watch this - =CA
See how again trine and sextile match? A sextile is just the inversion of a trine if you relate them to intervals.
now the quintile corresponds to a fifth = DA, D5. A quintile is the inversion of a square!

Fifths are also very common intervals, especially in pop music, you will find the 5th as the basis of most baselines. Just check out any sheet music for pop and you'll see this... b/c 5ths are actually 4ths inverted, so I would see quintiles as sharing the same tension as 4th, as sextile shares the same ease as trine.

Now the interesting thing is also 7th chords which are composed of 2nds and 3rds. This sort of harmony is very common in jazz music and has been encorporated in the classical repetoire b/c of more modern composers like Debussy. I am very ignorant of the 7th harmonic though, but I imagine there to be some kind of correlation.

Finally, the one lesson to note (;))from this is that one harmony alone does not make it pleasing to the ear, or having dischord. Plus, what constitutes harmony/dischord is learned and a sense of harmony changes from culture to culture and even through time (compare Baroque harmonies w/that of the Romantic period). It is the context in which the interval comes gives it its sense of colour. Like painting, tones in music are all relative. I now see a chart as a complex song w/a musical structure whereby the melody/harmony is set off by progressions and transits......

Anyways, hope you found this interesting ^_^
 

jlbvt

Now, that is a well-thought-out correlation. I have trouble understanding astrology to the point that, although I am fascinated by it, I cannot grasp even the basics.
I do understand music though! Thank you Isthmus Nekoi for putting it into musical terms! I am now going to read your post again... ;)
JOAN