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4.2.5The Harmonic Series: Pythagorean Scales and Pentatonic Scale Patterns
As discussed in Chapter 3, the human brain has the ability to automatically analyse a tone’s constituent harmonics and identify the soundmaker. That means the brain has the ability to understand (and appreciate) simple ratios of frequencies, whatever form they take—overtones of a single tone, or scales consisting of notes in simple-frequency relationships.
So, whenever humans stumble upon a way of generating a series of notes in simple-frequency relationships, such as the harmonic series, they find the notes pleasing and make music. Homo neanderthalensis knew how to do this, and they weren’t even of our species, Homo sapiens.
The harmonic series is a phenomenon of nature that anybody anywhere can generate with nothing more than a string or a piece of catgut or sinew attached via some sort of bridge to a resonator. Easy to make. Pleasing, You get simple-frequency-ratio discrete notes.
It’s no wonder, then, that Pythagorean scales, especially pentatonic scales (discussed in Chapter 5), have emerged independently in the musical cultures of all the major civilizations, from Africa to Europe to Asia. Humans everywhere prefer music made with tones in relationships of simple frequency ratios. Even a 22-tone scale used in India shows an underlying Pythagorean structure, no doubt derived from the harmonic series.