Why are there no notes between b/c and e/f ?

[uethanian]

Before Bach's tempered scale (what we use now), my understanding is that perfect 3rds and perfect 5ths were used which made music sound different than it does now, and it also made only a few keys practical for performance: all naturals and probably up to 1 or 2 sharps or flats (C, G, D, F, Bb). With these 5 keys, all 12 notes are known and used, but at first tuned differently from now.

*COUGH BACH NEVER USED EQUAL TEMPERAMENT COUGH*

 

[Baleen]

*COUGH BACH NEVER USED EQUAL TEMPERAMENT COUGH*

Gee, sorry for what apparently must be an obvious gaff.

What about the Well-Tempered Clavier? I thought Bach wrote pieces for all 12 keys, and to make them playable, tuned in the equal temperament we now use. Regardless, my point is that I believe early tuning was in perfect intervals, which can be found in the lower notes of the overtone series. And this is why I think it was logical that early tuning would've been based on these perfect intervals, which is how I think it was inevitable that knowledge and use of these intervals would lead to a 12-tone system of music.

 

[osciphex]

This may also help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_temperament

My understanding has been that the way the notes are named was sort of arbitrary and partially an outcome of how temperment in music has changed over the centuries; but I could be wrong, I was told this in a hurry and didn't learn it in a class or from a book.

 

[lemur821]

What about the Well-Tempered Clavier?

I think I heard somewhere that those were in well temperament.

 

[uethanian]

I think I heard somewhere that those were in well temperament.

haha, sounds right.

its a little misleading...the term 'well tempered' doesn't mean anything, except that its not equal tempered but also not pure either. there were a few tunings around at the time, but meantone temperaments were very common. meantone tuning stresses the importance of pure major 3rds, but sacrifices some other pitches. it also lets you play in multiple (but not all) keys. and in meantone, there's two types, 1/6 comma meantone and 1/8 comma meantone, the comma refering to the greek musical interval. as i understand, the well tempered clavier was meant to be played all the way through without having to retune. to what key however, i dont know.

 

[pauldebass]

maybe the piano players needed to break up the pattern. if there were black keys between every white key how'd a play a boogie woogie?
well, A use to not be 440, why'd that change?
ouch I'm getting a headache

 

[scott plummer]

Music is not perfect math. Pythagerous even said that when he tried to relate it with the golden mean. the only way to make it work close to perfect is in one key but then that would be boring. The thing that everyone forgets is that it is all thoery. not fact, law, or the way it has to be. We all just percieve in patterns. so we try to make things fit to the way we say they should. Thoery is a set of lines to color in, art is sometimes most beautiful out of the lines.

 

[uethanian]

Music is not perfect math. Pythagerous even said that when he tried to relate it with the golden mean. the only way to make it work close to perfect is in one key but then that would be boring. The thing that everyone forgets is that it is all thoery. not fact, law, or the way it has to be. We all just percieve in patterns. so we try to make things fit to the way we say they should. Thoery is a set of lines to color in, art is sometimes most beautiful out of the lines.

1+ to some things, but mathematically music can be perfect in theory, however untrue that is in reality. depends on your definition of 'perfect' i suupose. i wouldnt go as far to say 'one key' music is boring (indian, middle eastern, scottish bagpipe), but yes, it is very limited.

EDIT: i gave it a lot of thought and i have a better explanation.

earlier i mentioned that it was due to solfege, but although solfege is related to the topic, its not the reason. i got in touch with my modal roots and realized something else. before the baroque period happened, european music was essentially modal. mideival and renaissance specifically. if you're familiar with your modes, you'll know that the Ionian scale is basically a natural major scale. although in a lot of cases the Ionian was theoretical (not considered useful), its pattern of whole and half steps is the basis for all other modes. there's no really consonant notes between E and F, so that part makes sense. from B to C, however, was more arbitrary. it can be argued that the minor seventh is more consonant than the major seventh, and certainly modal composers use the minor seventh more often. anyways, B is as close as you can get to C without sounding horrible. so no notes inbetween there. when this kind of music was still in use, it was easy to talk about (heck most musicians didnt even use music) because nothing in the key signiture changed, just the pattern of whole and half steps. then it follows that as composers wished to modulate, they added notes between each whole tone to make a consistent series of half tones. overall, 'why are there no notes between b/c and e/f' is a cause of the preferences of midieval musicians.

 

[The Artist]

The importance is not that there are no notes between b+c and e+f(in western music), but that there ARE between all of the other notes in the chomatic scale. The intervals between each note that were chosen for the Major scale are tone+tone+semitone+tone+tone+tone+semitone.
The frequencys between each semitone have the same value.
It is the choice of letters wich may make it apear that there are some notes missing between bc+ef, where in fact it is the positioning the letters within the chomatic scale. bc+ef are just closer together.
They could have also given all 12 notes a letter each, but then you would need more lines on sheet music, thus making it more difficult to read I guess.