I posted this over at Masons of Texas earlier today, and I thought that you guys might find it interesting... I will probably add more to it in the future, as I am working on writing a book about Masonry and Classical Music currently. Enjoy!
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Most masons have a firm understanding of the basic principles of grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. But there is another discipline mentioned that it seems is often neglected, and it has much to teach the mason. That discipline is Music.
There are really many things about music that should make this art & science interesting to the Mason seeking additional light.
It is of peculiar interest to masons, that western art music and its theory were developed around concepts of mathematics that frequently appear, veiled in symbols, in our rituals.
Today I want to talk about the (arguably) most common chord progression in western music, the I-IV-V-I chord progression. If this discussion is a little over your head, feel free to ask as many questions as you like, and I will do my best to explain things a little better.
For simplicity, we will use the Major scale only today. There are 7 notes in the major scale (8 if you include the octave of the first note). A chord is named with a Roman numeral that corresponds to which scale degree is its root, so a I chord is a chord whose root is the 1st scale degree in the key. This is the "home" sound that usually starts and ends a song.
An interval is the distance between two notes. The first intervals considered consonant (pretty) were the perfect unison (the same note), the perfect octave ("Some-where" in somewhere over the rainbow), the perfect 5th (power chords in rock usually are simply a P5), and the perfect 4th ("here comes the bride")
the interesting thing is that the ratios that describe these intervals, and therefore these chord progression "I-IV-V-I" are (respectively) 1:1, 2:1, 3:2, and 4:3. these ratios form an AUDIO representation of the lesser tetractys of pythagoras. The SR mason might find the latter particularly interesting.
unfortunately, I'm going to have to cut it short here. I can post more later if there is interest. But right now, there is dinner calling.
___________________________________________________________
Most masons have a firm understanding of the basic principles of grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. But there is another discipline mentioned that it seems is often neglected, and it has much to teach the mason. That discipline is Music.
There are really many things about music that should make this art & science interesting to the Mason seeking additional light.
It is of peculiar interest to masons, that western art music and its theory were developed around concepts of mathematics that frequently appear, veiled in symbols, in our rituals.
Today I want to talk about the (arguably) most common chord progression in western music, the I-IV-V-I chord progression. If this discussion is a little over your head, feel free to ask as many questions as you like, and I will do my best to explain things a little better.
For simplicity, we will use the Major scale only today. There are 7 notes in the major scale (8 if you include the octave of the first note). A chord is named with a Roman numeral that corresponds to which scale degree is its root, so a I chord is a chord whose root is the 1st scale degree in the key. This is the "home" sound that usually starts and ends a song.
An interval is the distance between two notes. The first intervals considered consonant (pretty) were the perfect unison (the same note), the perfect octave ("Some-where" in somewhere over the rainbow), the perfect 5th (power chords in rock usually are simply a P5), and the perfect 4th ("here comes the bride")
the interesting thing is that the ratios that describe these intervals, and therefore these chord progression "I-IV-V-I" are (respectively) 1:1, 2:1, 3:2, and 4:3. these ratios form an AUDIO representation of the lesser tetractys of pythagoras. The SR mason might find the latter particularly interesting.
unfortunately, I'm going to have to cut it short here. I can post more later if there is interest. But right now, there is dinner calling.
