Primarily a GQ science question, but eventually Cafe might be a better choice. Let’s see how the discussion develops.
I recall from Physics that as a string or wire is tightened it oscillates at a faster and faster speed. Creating a higher and higher frequency or CPS. Later renamed to Hertz. If it’s audible, then a higher pitch is heard as the string or wire is tightened.
I’ve never understood why the human ear would detect a pattern in that. Imagine the first guy that heard 440Hz, 220, 110 (A4,A3,A2) and proclaimed by Jove that’s the same pitch! How did humans even stumble across that pattern within an infinite number of possible frequencies?
How does our ear recognize this pattern? You’d think frequency would just go up higher and higher in pitch with no correlation to earlier frequencies.
btw, I am aware 440, concert pitch is a man made concept. Used to organize a series of audible frequencies into a musical system. But for it to work, there has to be a pattern of frequencies that our ears recognize as repeating.
Where does this pattern come from? Is it a odd quirk in our ears creating a pattern out of chaos? Or something with the way wire oscillates when it creates a fequency?
When were humans aware of octaves? The early sinew, and catgut strings couldn’t be tightened very much without breaking. Hard to imagine a Roman’s Lute having more than an octave.
because when two frequencies of the same note but different octaves are played together, there’s no “beat” frequency. a "beat"in acoustic terms means when two notes are played together (and they’re not the same note, an octave apart) a third perceivable tone or “warble” is generated at a frequency which is the difference between the fundamental frequencies of the two notes.
a trivial example of this is the “ringback” tone you hear when you call someone on the phone, and they haven’t yet answered. the ringback is a multitone with a component at 440 Hz and a second at 480 Hz. you hear it “warbling” at a 40 Hz rate because that is the difference between the two tones.
An object with a natural resonance that is an integer multiple of a given frequency will reverberate when stimulated by that frequency. So playing a 440 Hz tone will result in overtones at 880 Hz, 1320 Hz, 1760 Hz, etc. 880 Hz and 1760 Hz are the two As above concert A. 1320 Hz is, interestingly enough, E, the major 5th of A.
I see overtones sometimes on my guitar tuner. Tuning the high E, it will register E4 and as the tone dies out, an E2 will display. An overtone perhaps from the wood vibrating.
I recall struggling with tuning as a beginner. My teacher would say make them sound the same. Quite frustrating. Then in high school physics we talked about the difference tone between two similar frequencies. Tuning suddenly made sense and became fairly routine. It’s harder on the bass strings because the difference note is so low. Hard to hear it clearly. Todays modern tuners are more accurate and much faster. I can still tune by ear when needed.
Funny, that music teachers present octaves, natural notes, accidentals and so on as elements of music. Little to no explanation on the science of it, how it was discovered, and why it works.
Perhaps after a major battle, the Spartans heard two dying men screaming? Same pitch and one Octave apart. Music was born.
Music was born.