I am a former classical pianist, mathematical Engineer and piano builder. Music structure is amazing. Music is just the “best approximation” for 1) the human ear, 2) the human hand, 3 ) human emotion, like happy & sad, and 4) human vocal cavities.
Take a pure sound, keep doubling its frequency will create octaves. Start with the first letter of the alphabet A.
A3 220 hz, A4 440hz, A5 880hz ...
Octave notes all sound “the same”, but just of different pitch.
Then divide those notes by integer fractions of pitch/frequency eg 3rd 5th.
Fractions sound harmonic and musical, but they are approximate.
After centuries of trial and error, 12 note divisions/fractions are ideal. That is Western music. Eastern music may have many more notes like 53 or 72.
Too many notes sounds “noisy” to us.
Also the human ear loves fractions, otherwise it sounds noisy.
Western 12 is just right IMHO.
7 of the 12 notes creates chords, hence human emotion.
Chords (scales) create human emotion like happy, sadness, incompleteness, irritation or confusion.
A woman's high note, like G or C, is arbitrary. Vocal cavities in women, can perform whistle register notes, like Mariah Carey. Personally, those are beyond true music quality, but nice if you have them. The point being, chest & head notes, based on human cavity dynamics, have a wide range, so a singer's highest note is arbitrary and quite variable.
Music is the “best approximation” matching mathematical fractional division to the human ear. Fractional sounds harmonically musical. Decimal non-fraction sounds noisy.
Mother nature loves doubling. Sound loudness has a wide range measured by db decibel. Sound pitch has a wide range measured by octave.
A piano with 88 keys is a good approximation of the range of human hearing in the ear, from lows to highs, about 7+ octaves A0 to C8.
The average human voice can sing 2 octaves if you practice hard.
Modern music has been modeled and built around the human, especially for our pleasure.
— (c) TheNext
Music is strange in that it is a simple phenomenon composed of complex or abstract events.
Many pieces I like are arranged as though based on the rhythms of breathing. I think that’s what I’m hearing.
Breathing can become shallow, light and raspy when under tension.
Breathing can become full, sumptuous and loud when content.
I didn’t mean to hijack anyone’a thread,
but someone said ‘Music’, and one thing sort of lead to another. It’s always on my mind in some form.