Re: harmony

Dear Jeffrey,

I much enjoyed our conversation and hare been puzzling over the evolutionary basis of our appreciation of harmony, not something l=E2 d ever thought about before until you brought up this fascinating question.=C2

Fortunately as I was puzzling over it, the soun=s of a workshop my wife, Jill Purce, was giving in a large room below me in =ur house came wafting up. She teaches chanting and meditation and was giving a special master class on overtone chanting, a form of chant=ng which brings out the overtones which are always implicit, that are made explicit in this Mongolian technique.

So I think=the answer is fairly clear. Although harmony in musical sense of the=word is not a major part of our evolutionary heritage, harmonics certainly are.=C2 If you and I sing the syllable 000 on the note C, our voices will sound different and will be recognisable to any people w=o know us because there are different patterns of overtones. This is wh= a flute playing C sounds different from a cello or a trumpet. Just to recognise somebody else's voice requires this detection of =vertones which are, quite literally, harmonics and the same is true in the animal kingdom. Sheep can recognise their lambs by sound, and vice versa, again based on a subtle detection of harmonics.=C2

So our brains and our mental habits have over a=long period established the ability to detect harmonics, and to recognise differ=nt patterns of harmonics. So when musical harmonies come along, our brains and minds are naturally receptive to them having had millions of years of practice.

I myself think that the three dimensional patterns of rhythmic activity set up by the perceptions of sounds, and indeed all other sensations, resonate with previous similar patterns and involve an inherent memory given by morphic resonance.

Best wis=es

Rupert

harmonics of course. but pleasant h=rmonies not the same. can natural thir=s fifths etc be used to calm a group or a child ? may=e. it is clear that the energy it takes to deconst=uct shrill and dissonant sounds like a baby crying ,have reasons. =AO does pleasant harmony represent something like the vi=ual act of looking at a still lake. represent " no =redators" , I love the homing pigeons=C2 , . It would be awful if the chinese stars and moon real=y did have an underlying reason. :) . Im not sure =hy people have moved to worms if we have yet to figure the simplest =acteria cell. and its reasons and formula for division. =C2 what evolutionary advantage, would there be for dividing. =AO unless it made the odds more difficult if under attack. =AO energy would need to be expended on attacking copies, =etc. and some of " you" might survive?

=AO thank you for your faraday guidance. his favori=e book isaac watts improvement of mind