tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 03 19:45:46 2000

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RE: Klingon Music



jatlh DloraH:

>>Disclaimer: I am most definitely not an expert
>>on music I guess this is more as a question
>>than a statment. In either an octive or
>>nonave, when you jump from a note at one
>>level to the same note on the next level you
>>are doubling the frequency. In an octive that
>>distance is divided into seven notes. In a
>>nonave its divided into more notes; but
>>jumping from one level to the next is still just
>>the frequency doubled.
>>
>>qar'a'?

jIQochbe'...

jatlh tuv'el:

>                toH! This is not
confirmed by Maltz
>(or anyone that I've heard), but if it is correct, a
>nonave is the frequency tripled instead of just
>doubled, and is divided into eight notes, three
>triads.

Is "nonave" an actual musical term? (I couldn't find it in my music
dictionary.)

Anyway, KGT makes no mention at all of a "nonave."

KGT p. 72:  "Older Klingon music was based on a nonatonic scale--that is
one made up of nine tones."

And from everything I've read in my music books (I'm no music major,
mind you), a "scale" is a series of notes from any given note to the
next occurence of that note, which is double the frequency. So for the
Klingon nonatonic scale, {yu} and {yu} would be equivalent to "do" and
"do." It's just the in-between notes that would be different. I guess
the big question is whether or not the in-betweens line up with any of
the notes in Terran music.

Well, anyway, the average interval between two consecutive notes in
Klingon music is apparently 1.5 Terran(?) half steps. I've tried a few
"Klingon" scales on my keyboard, and some don't sound too bad, while
still sounding a bit alien...


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reH taHjaj tlhIngan Hol...

Qapla'

qenobIywan



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