The Music of Hindostan c9.s2.48

c9.s2.48

The power of hearing up to the 3rd partial provides a scheme of notes which is known as ‘quintal’ harmony; and since this is infinite, it would be possible to plot a scale in this harmony alone of twenty-two or any other desired number of degrees in the octave. But the relationships would begin soon, after the first half-dozen or so, to be remote and practically unintelligible. For instance, the obvious relationship of C to B♭ is that B♭ is a minor Third (316 cents) from G, and G is a Fifth (702) from C; total 1018. It is possible in quintal harmony also to reach B♭ from C, but only by calculating upwards in major Tones (5 × 204 = 1020), and this process confuses the ear. It does not matter that 1020 is not the same as 1018; for the difference is only 1/56 of a semitone, and it requires a good ear to distinguish even tenths of Semitones in an interval which, like C–B♭, is derived, and not a matter of immediate perception like, for instance, C–G, or C–E. What matters is that the ear cannot make so elaborate a calculation as five successive major Tones—as, indeed, Aristoxenus, quoted above, suggested.