Expanding Musical Consciousness

A journey into new sonic worlds of polychromatic pitch-color.

Visible light is made up of a spectrum of colors, invisible except on rare occasions (rainbow, prism, etc.). Generally, these component colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) are always present yet individually invisible. By analogy, imagine sound as consisting of component, interacting, multidimensional sonic-spectral colors, most of which are beyond perceptual awareness due to our lack of exposure to high pitch-resolution (micro-pitch). Our conventional chromatic system limits the categorical distinctions to only 12 notes per octave.

The pitch continuum is made up of unbounded fundamental pitches (tones), each containing an infinite series of harmonics (overtones). Most of these embedded harmonics are inaudible due to perceptual (awareness) and physical limitations.

In addition to the physical and cognitive limits to perception,
limits of imagination/intuition are no less relevant. Creative imagination and intuition can expand the boundaries of learned cognitive/perceptual pattern recognition, meaning, expectations
and projections.

Creative imagination and intuition are elements that can be considered to fit integrally within gestalt theory. The perceptual whole is greater than the sum of it’s sensible parts. – The creative (expressive) whole is greater that the sum of learned language, techniques and practice.

An example of ‘in-between’ pitches beyond the auditory resolution and notation of our chromatic musical language:

Listen especially for the harmonics and the powerful pitch space between the minor and major 3rd.

Notice that there is no rising-pitch Doppler effect of the horn as the train approaches, only increasing frequency intensity (volume) and brighter sound (more prominent higher harmonics).

Also note the very significant (transient) Doppler effect of the horn as the train passes (lowering of pitch/harmonics).

Notice that after passing, the end of the train horn sound rises to the original pitch.

The subsequent horn sound has new prominent harmonics and an overall prominence of the lower harmonics (darker sound). The fundamental horn pitches are now the same after as before.

Interesting implications may result from the 2 observed phenomena:
1. Dynamic harmonic spectral shifting with movement. [timbre]
2. A perceptible ‘collapse’ of the doppler wave function as the passing train horn ceases sounding.

I imagine standing along a large elliptical track with a train horn continuously sounding as it rounds the track. Rudimentary Doppler effects describe the descending pitch as the train passes. But at what point along this elliptical track would we hear the horn pitch ‘ascend’ to its original pitch (fundamental plus harmonics/timbre)?

The potential impact of pitchcolor awareness comes thought the development of increasingly refined (high pitch-resolution) levels of auditory pitch discrimination and perception. This would, in turn, allow a progressively expansive perception of complex harmonic interrelationships embedded within the gestalt of spectral and interactive harmonics. This process could lead to an evolution in auditory awareness, multisensory (via touch, skin, bone conduction, etc.) sound/vibration perception and conceptual intelligence.

Philosophically, such an application of microtonality would constitute a movement away from a traditionally dominant quantitative perspective of music, toward a perceptual/conceptual integration of the pitch continuum as an unfragmented and dynamic whole.

This holistic perspective is in complementary contradistinction to an application of microtonality as a process toward further ‘atomistic’ subdivision/quantization of the pitch continuum. This quantitative approach seems rooted in an orientation and conceptual pursuit toward an audibly optimized, static micro-pitch ‘particle’ and its subsequent application as a ‘fundamental building block’ of music.