Saturday, March 8, 2014

The Pythagorean Assimilation of Subharmonic Flutes

Wilson's comparison and guide to transcribing
 subharmonic scales to a pythagorean system
    This  stray page found in the records  is being added  to the archives file called Flute Notes.  Wilson is concerned with the way subharmonic scales and their melodies can be assimilated into a pythagorean tuning array. He entertained the idea that subharmonic flute melodies in India could have found their way into string instruments tuned to a pythagorean chain.
    Wilson might be the first to mention the use of tuning the exit hole of a subharmonic flute to either a fourth or fifth of one of the holes, hence these designations in the upper of the two sets of  blocks. This practice he observed in the tunings found within his large collection of South American flutes. The ratios in between the blocks show the difference between the two sets of scales. The chart is one way we might transcribe subharmonic scales and pythagorean scales and melodies into each other. Unsigned or labeled, it was a document the archivist received from him by at least 1978.

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