About Positive Music
by Don Robertson
Musical Scales
When music is played, the vibrations of
the music effect all life in the vicinity. The effect that the music has will depend upon
the way that the vibrations of the music are harmonically constructed. One of the factors
that determines the effect of music is the particular musical scale from which the melody
and harmonies are built. Different scales create different modes and emotions. The scales
on which music is based are not an arbitrary creation of man; they are formed on very
definite patterns that are the intrinsic to all nature.
During the late 1700’s, scientists
began identifying certain chemical elements for the first time. In 1808, a scientist named
John Dalton suggested that the atoms that make up matter were physical objects that had
specific weights. In 1829, Johann Doebereinger demonstrated that particular elements could
be arranged in groups of three, according to their weights. In each group of three, the
elements had similar properties and the weight of the middle atom in the group was close
to the average of the other two. These were said to be chemical equivalents to the musical
"triad," the most basic chord in music. In 1864, a man named John A. Newlands
grouped all of the known elements into the order of their atomic weights. He then divided
these into groups of seven elements each. He demonstrated that when the atoms were put
into order with their weights increasing, there was a pattern of repetition that was
identical to the musical octave, the same found on the piano keyboard. When he talked to
his fellow chemists of the time about this "law of octaves," they laughed at
him.
In 1869, Mendeleev compiled another Periodic
Table of the Elements. This table was arranged according to atomic weights and was
based on Newlands’ work. Mendeleev found, as had Newlands, that the chemical
properties of the elements reoccurred at definite intervals. He likewise concluded that
these were the periodic functions of their atomic weights. According to Daniel Morris, in
his article "Music of the New Spheres" in the December 1969 Chemistry
Magazine, Mendeleev’s arrangement of the elements came to him while he was listening
to a performance of Schumann’s Piano Quintet, Opus 44 (a wonderful piece of music, by
the way). He was seated on a sofa, apparently mulling over Newland’s and
Doebereinger’s arrangements of the elements, when all of a sudden he jumped up, sat
at his desk, and arranged all of the elements in a more complete and final way than had
Newlands. In his article, Morris wondered if the music of the quintet hadn't influenced
Mendeleev's arrangement of the elements in the periodic table.
Mendeleev’s Chart of the elements
now hangs in every high-school chemistry lab as a testimony to the endurance of his work.
Comparing this chart and the musical octave, we can see the interrelationship that occurs
between nature, in its material essence, and nature as sound and music.
The basic chord of music is called the triad.
It provides the basic underpinnings of the seven-note scale: the scale of the octave. A
triad can be demonstrated by playing a simple C major chord containing three notes: C, E,
and G. The triad that Johann Doebereinger found in the relationships of atomic structures
was based on a principal that he found to be similar to the principal of a musical triad.
The musical triad also corresponds to the three primary colors of the color spectrum that
can be seen when light is passed through a prism. These colors are red, yellow, and blue:
the only three colors that cannot be created by combining other colors. Yes, there is a
color octave also. The same patterns that are the basis of sound and music are also the
basis of all nature. No wonder music has such a "sympathetic" effect.
|
