----- Original Message ----- From: "Mario Taboada" <
matrxtech@yahoo.com>
> We don't know who invented certain essential and
highly
> nontrivial things, but if we did, we would probably
call
> the inventor a genius. It may not have been a single
person
> but a series of them --this is common. I don't think
a
> single person invented harmony, or
counterpoint.
Harmony almost certainly derived from the inability to pitch
properly. That's why early harmony is nothing more than the
original melody sung in a different key (usually at intervals
of a fourth or a fifth. Rare instances of a third have been
found, but rarely in early secular music).
As for counterpoint, well... Give a couple of kids a couple
of guitars and sooner or later they'll start playing
different tunes. Getting the melodies to fit, that takes some
skill. But to 'invent' the idea is pretty facile.
Al
-- # Plain ASCII text only, please. Anything else won't show up. # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 09 Apr 2004 EDT