tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Aug 19 15:45:27 1997
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Re: yu-bIm-'egh
- From: "Neal Schermerhorn" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: yu-bIm-'egh
- Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 18:47:54 -0400
ghItlh charghwI':
>> 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.
I refer to a scale consisting of alt. whole steps and half steps. This,
when we repeat the octave, is a nine-note scale.
I don't think their tuning would be 200 cents - 100 cents - 200 cents - 100
cents - etc. on the money. IOW, their scale is likely sim. to old Asian
scales, where the intervals are not exact.
>
>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.
chaq...
>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.
If Klingon physiology is identical to human, which I doubt. Plus, if we use
the Klingon Anthem as canon, we find them singing in octaves. Since
do-re-mi and presumably yu-bIm-'egh are used to learn melodies, if I'm on
low yu and you're at double the freq. say at jav, and we consider these
both acceptable starting pitches, it is a little weird. yaj'a'?
Hmm, maQoch 'ej maQochbe'.
>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].
The Klingon Anthem is potentially in a diminished scale, or perhaps in a
scale consisting of half steps plus a quarter tone. (Or rough equivalents)
The human actors, of course, tend to sing it more human-style. As for Aktuh
and Melora, at least in Unif. pt 2 (ST:TNG) the 'pianist' says she might be
a little rusty - perhaps this is less than definitave. (And she's playing a
non-Klingon instrument. And she and Worf, neither really first-person
participants in Klingon culture to any great extent, are the singers.)
Here's a weird thing I JUST noticed while writing this - can't figure yu,
but -
bIm (beam) - a drop of golden sun?
'egh (Type 1 verb suffix) - a name I call myself?
Qermaq