source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 5 Apr 1997 17:11:31 -0800 Subject: Scale of Neanderthal flute From: alves@orion.ac.hmc.edu (Bill Alves) The Ethnomusicology Research Digest just posted information about the world's oldest known musical instrument, a 43,000-82,000 year old bone flute. According to the author of a study of the flute's scale, Bob Fink, the scale is diatonic minor with degrees 2 and 7 missing. (Though he admits that the third is neutral, he says that the "limits are based on what an average ear might notice as being in or out of tune.") The article about the paper says: "Fink added, "This is the most powerful practical evidence ever in support of believing there is a natural or acoustical foundation to the evolution of the diatonic scale." It is also in line with University of California's (Berkeley) Prof. Anne D. Kilmer's deciphering of the world's oldest known song from clay tablets, 4,000 years old, indicating the use of both harmony and of the diatonic scale. It is also supported by recent psychological studies by Trehub (U. of Toronto), Schellenberg (U. of Windsor), and Kagan (Harvard) of infants. These studies (Vol. 7 #5 Sept '96 of "Psychological Science") showed musically untutored infants preferred natural (acoustic) intervals over dissonant intervals." I won't quote the long article here, but his paper is at: http://www.webster.sk.ca/greenwich/fl-compl.htm Here is an excerpt: Holes 2, 3 & 4 on the bone (as shown, from left to right) stand in a significant relationship to each other: The distance between holes 2 and 3 is virtually twice that between holes 3 and 4. The line-up of the holes indicate that it is a flute. This means we are looking at a whole-tone and a half-tone somewhere within a scale. Such a combination of whole-tone and half-tone is the heart and soul of what makes up 7-note diatonic scales. Without making even one more measurement beyond this, we can already conclude: These three notes on the Neanderthal bone flute are inescapeably diatonic and will sound like a near-perfect fit within ANY kind of standard diatonic scale, modern or antique. We simply cannot conceive of it being otherwise, unless we deny it is a flute at all. In essence, the whole story is simply that. Sometimes the simplicity of a situation, as outlined just above, is so simple that we are unnecessarily suspicious of the obvious -- that it's just "too easy" to accept it at first glance, and we tend to over-complicate things to avoid appearing hasty. Therefore, many experiments and other approaches were tried, but the simplicity of the issue remains intact. The remaining hole (left-most first hole on the picture) is the only clue we have to answer the remaining questions, which is really the bulk of the paper's subject. To those questions, as one can read, we have come up with a fit to the Mi, Fa, Sol, La part of a minor scale, which includes a flatted La and a "neutral" third for Mi, widely used in many cultures, sometimes called a "blue" note (match no. 2 in the paper). Another match was also considered viable (no. 1). Bill ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ Bill Alves email: alves@hmc.edu ^ ^ Harvey Mudd College URL: http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/ ^ ^ 301 E. Twelfth St. (909)607-4170 (office) ^ ^ Claremont CA 91711 USA (909)621-8360 (fax) ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 6 Apr 1997 14:58 METZ Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA03756; Sun, 6 Apr 1997 14:58:50 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA03754 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id FAA29104; Sun, 6 Apr 1997 05:57:18 -0700 Date: Sun, 6 Apr 1997 05:57:18 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu