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Harmony and Melody: Vibrating String, Vibrating Membrane Acoustical Components
All of the acoustical components of both harmony and melody are contained within a vibrating string or vibrating membrane:
- They incorporates the same ratios of frequencies that yield all the major and minor scales of the diatonic order.
- They include the same scale degree notes, sounded simultaneously, that correspond to the root and the other notes of the major triad and other chords.
Once your brain had evolved the circuitry to distinguish simple ratios of frequencies from each other, it also had the necessary built-in capability to automatically process intervals, tunes, keys, and chords.
It was probably inevitable that at some point in human history musicians would eventually discover and develop Pythagorean-type scales and associated harmony that made possible Handel’s “Messiah,” Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me,” and John Lennon’s “In My Life.”