source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 11:17:17 -0700 Subject: Re: Neanderthal flute From: alves@orion.ac.hmc.edu (Bill Alves) I didn't want to give my own interpretations of Fink's article before presenting his thoughts, but now that it has started some good discussion, I thought I'd jump in. Fink draws most of his conclusions from the not exactly profound observation that the holes in the flute are unequally spaced. For some reason, he thinks that this is a momentous discovery, as most people, he surmises, would expect primitive Neanderthals to tend to space things equally. He adopts as one of his assumptions: "As we humans seem to show, there is a history of a predisposition toward equality in measurements: The distances between telephone poles; between pickets; between windows on buildings in the architecture of all periods and cultures; between sidewalk slabs; between inches; feet, yards, centimeters -- between ranks and files of all types, etc. " I don't see what any of this has to do with music. Is any Paleolithic art symmetrical? Does any of it show equality in measurements? I see no reason to think that Neanderthals would develop a music based on equal measurements on flute holes even if they liked to arrange their caves or other dwellings with the stone age equivalent of regular sidewalk slabs. That aside, Fink seems to equate unequal with diatonic, for some reason that I cannot quite fathom. Diatonic means to me a seven note scale with a certain sequence of tones and semitones, the tones being about twice the size of the semitones. Now, he has only four tones on this flute. He postulates a sequence of tone, tone, semitone, which will fit into a diatonic scale, sure, but also a pelog scale, the in scale of Japan, certain non-diatonic Eastern European scales, plenty of non-diatonic ragas, and so on. Unless one stretches one's definition of "diatonic" to include all of these scales, I don't see any reason to suppose that Neanderthals were or were not using diatonic melodies. Also, by admitting the possibility of neutral thirds, he is stretching the term diatonic quite far. Fink apparently has another publication which I have not seen in which he argues that the diatonic and anhemitonic pentatonic scales are the best musical representations of the harmonic series (what he calls the "overtone series"). I'm afraid I'm at a loss to understand why four, six, or forty-three tones per octave can't also model the harmonic series, or how neutral thirds fit into this scheme, but then I haven't read this other paper. Fink, like some other writers, argues for the historic precendence of just intonation, based only on the beauty and naturalness of the harmonic series. Now, I love the sounds of many JI intervals, and I use JI in my music, but to say that it is therefore the fundamental basis for all music is to misunderstand what art is. This is not to say that the harmonic series plays no role in the evolution of musical systems, I believe it plays a very powerful one, but for some cultures, so does the mystical value of a length of pipe, the ability to transpose, the tension resulting from temperament, and so on. Which of these many criteria were important to the Neanderthals? I sure as hell don't know, and I don't think one fragment of a bone flute will tell us. Perhaps it was different for the Neanderthals in Spain, or for the Neanderthals living a hundred or a thousand years earlier or later. It is much easier for me to conclude that there is some researcher predisposition here than to extrapolate from this fragment a "natural foundation to the diatonic scale." 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; Mon, 7 Apr 1997 20:30 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA01515; Mon, 7 Apr 1997 20:30:04 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA01513 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id LAA16008; Mon, 7 Apr 1997 11:27:52 -0700 Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 11:27:52 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu