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Golden Ration in Music

An expository piece of writing regarding the Golden Ratio and how it relates to music.

The Golden Ration, Phi, can be seen in music as well as other matters. For example, there are 13 notes in an octave and 8 notes in a scale. Additionally, the 5th and 3rd third notes of the scale are the foundations of chords, which are based upon whole tones. The whole tones are 2 steps away from a root tone, the 1st note of a scale. This pattern: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 is a clear example of the Fibonacci sequence, in which phi is the ratio of successive numbers of the sequence.

Other examples are how there are 13 notes between two C's, 8 white keys, 5 black keys, and these keys can be split into groups of 3 and 2 (13, 8, 5, 3, 2), another example of the Fibonacci sequence in life. In addition, the frequencies of tones in Western music are based on the Fibonacci sequence and certain instruments are designed based on phi.

Many classical composers have based their music on phi. For example, Hungarian classical composer Béla Bartok bases some of his works on the golden ratio. The xylophone progression in his work Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta occurs at the intervals 1:2:3:5:8:5:3:2:1. French composers, Erik Satie and Claude Debussy have been known to incorporate the golden ratio in their works. In Debussy's Image, Reflections in Water, the sequence of keys are marked out by intervals at 34, 21, 13 and 8, with the climax of the piece at the phi position, which is a common characteristic of classical pieces in general.

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Comments (1)
#1 by Chrispy Bear, Jul 7, 2008
I absolutely love the golden ratio. Actually that probably goes without saying coz I am human and we do appear to be hard-wired to find it deeply satisfying wherever it's encountered. It makes complete sense that the "unnatural" even-tempered scale we all enjoy so much adheres to it.

Smashing article Zashuna- got me thinking!
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