Re: Music-conlangs & music

Hi!

James W. writes:
> On Thu, 6 Jul 2006 13:43:39 +0200, "Henrik Theiling"
> > E.g.:
> >
> >     Tone:      1  2  3  4  5  6  7
> >   Lydian:      C  D  E  F# G  A  B   -- used for imperatives
> >   Mixolydian:  C  D  E  F  G  A  Bb  -- used for indicative
> >   Dorian:      C  D  Eb F  G  A  Bb  -- used for subjunctive
> >   Phrygian:    C  Db Eb F  G  Ab Bb  -- used for questions
> >
> > (C is just an example, the tones are not absolute notes, but the scale
> > may start for anything comfortable with the speaker.)
>
> This could prove to be ambiguous. What would be necessary, I think is
> for the person to *always* use the same base pitch. Otherwise the
> closeness
> of the modes could be a problem. For example: If the person started a
> Dorian clause on C, but then did a Lydian clause on Eb, the pitches
> involved
> would be exactly the same. (C Dorian = Eb Lydian as far as pitches go.)
Hmm, I see, yes.

>...
> > Let basic word order be free (for now), constituents marked by tone.
>
> I think for this to work there would need to be a fixed word order,
> preferably verb initial, since that gives you the base tone for the
> modes.
Right, that would be a natural solution.  Or better the last tone in a
sentence should be the base, otherwise it might sound strange, at
least in music it sounds strange.  The first is important, too,
though.

Another solution would be to force the lowest tone to be interpreted
as the base.  You'd be forced to only use pitches higher than the base
for anything but the base itself.  This would give free word order
again, but probably sound less pleasing to human ears.

Or maybe we could tinker by disallowing tone 5 altogether and using a
slightly different assignment of tones so that you could tell the
scale even without ordering of any kind by the lack/presence of
certain tones.

> > What do you think of such a system?
>
> It could work, especially with a spoken component.
> Fun idea!
I think I will elaborate this a little. :-)

**Henrik