tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Aug 19 08:13:31 1997

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Re: yu-bIm-'egh

According to Neal Schermerhorn:
> 
> ghItlh charghghghwI':
> 
> >My point is that the Klingon scale might not repeat at the
> >octave, but instead at some other interval. In particular, they
> >like threes so much, perhaps the scale runs from 440 to 1320,
> >tripling the frequency instead of doubling it. Instead of
> >giving them the "extra" note within an octave, it would spread
> >the nine notes out far enough to have the spaciousness and
> >consonance of a pentatonic scale, leaving out all those
> >disonant tones a Kligon finds so objectionable in Bach and
> >Mozart and all those other Human noisemakers!
> 
> This is possible, but listen to the excerpt from Aktuh and Melora in
> Unification Pt. II. This 'aria' clearly starts with an octave. 

That doesn't indicate anything. An octave could simply be an
arbitrary interval within a larger scale, like a perfect fifth
is for the music we are more familiar with.

> Also
> consider how the Klingon Anthem Klingon Choir tenors start it on an F=174,
> while the basses start on F=87. (I appx'ed the frequencies in my head - no
> guarantees) - Both these pieces of canon, obviously representative of the
> older musical style in question, clearly point to a recognition of the
> harmonic octave. 

Look how important a fifth was to Gregorian Chant. Does that
mean that the scale of that time was bounded by it? The
existance and perhaps even prominance of the octave does not
mean that in their musical notation the octave is the distance
between two yumey.

> Not to suggest that the twelve-tone system is used either.

Well, I don't think a twelve tone system would be called
nonatonic, now would it?

> Why not a diminished scale or something similar? 

This is a definite possibility, but I have a few problems with
it. It is a bit too conveniently similar to our western music.
A diminished scale still has eight tones instead of nine. If we
add a tone to a western scale, we have eight modes to choose
from (major and minor are but two modes which have come to
dominate since the Renaissance) and a variety of options as to
where the ninth note goes.

Meanwhile, all of this works on the assumption that a scale is
bounded by an octave. This is true for most human musical
notations, but there is no reason Qo'noS would follow this
rule. Perhaps the first wind instrument on Qo'noS was similar
to a clarinet.

All other wind instruments overblow to the octave. Change your
embouchure and/or fingering slightly and on a flute or obo or
bassoon or saxophone or recorder, and you get the "same" note
in a different octave. On a clarinet and do the same thing, the
note you get is an octave and a fifth off instead of an octave.

In other words, with mild modification, most wind instruments
repeat their scale in different octaves with nearly identical
fingering. The clarinet, however, does not repeat its fingering
for the first octave and a half. It has the harmonic
characteristics of a closed tube instead of an open one.
Instead of doubling the frequency when you overblow it, you
triple the frequency.

And Klingons like threes. So tripling the frequency is cool.

And since your average (untrained) singing range pretty much
maxes out at an octave and a fifth (really straining for those
last two notes, while admittedly, classically trained voices
typically stretch to two octaves) we can just assume that
Klingons don't DO falsetto and an octave and a fifth is their
vocal range. They might like a scale that fits their entire
vocal range instead of arbitrarily slicing it at the octave
repeating half a scale for the upper range.

Musical instruments might similarly be limited to the octave
and a half range. If such a scale had nine notes in it, the
notes might be arranged like a pentatonic scale so that natural
fourths and fifths occur easily, but tritones and minor seconds
are nonexistant. This makes for a very pure, Eastern musical
sound where the musical dynamics change quite a bit from the
western 1-2-5-1 or popular 1-4-1-5-1 cadences.

Human music would be very dissonant to one accustomed to such a
scale, and the purity of consonance of this Klingon scale would
suit well to heroic themes.

Of course, if you want to consider Paramount's "canon" you
should just use whatever scale THEY use and figure that one of
those nine notes just didn't happen to get used in that piece.
[wejpuH].

> qu'! jabbI'IDghomvamDaq muchwI'pu' law'qu' lutu'lu'! chaq matay'choHchugh
> tlhIngan QoQ wImuchlaH. leSpalmeyraj tIqem!

maj! qechvam vIparHa'qu'. reH muchrup muchwI'a'!

> Qermaq 

charghwI'

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