Fractal Harmonics

“Lemma” is the Greek word for a gap.  Let’s investigate:

As we discussed on the home page, a “fifth” is so-called because it is the 5th note of the western scale (do-re-mi-fa-so).  But it is actually generated by touching a string  1/3 along its length, thereby multiplying the original frequency by 3.

The “cycle of fifths” is simply a repeat of this, playing the fifth, then the fifth of the fifth, and the fifth of the fifth of the fifth and so on until you get back to your starting note.  It’s a sort of harmonic journey around the cosmos – and this is one way to find all 12 of the notes of the western diatonic scale:

The trouble is, that you don’t come back to the frequency you started with.  When you get back to that note, there’s a gap.  And since J.S. Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, this gap was treated as proof that Nature was flawed, that the Music of the Spheres was a poetic fantasy, and that the best thing we could all do is commit genocide and destroy the planet – well, that’s what we did anyway.

Well, no more my friends!  Because it turns out that Nature is not stupid or callous but an intricate fractal, and the “lemma” at the end of the cycle of fifths is actually a sub-octave of the frequency you started with.  Every time.

For easy reference, here again is the summary table of the harmonic notes we generated from the sub-audio “still-point” notes of B-flat and F that we discovered on the home-page:

Unlike the 17th century view of the universe as a giant watch-works, the understanding we have today is of a quantum universe, based on a more harmonic and holographic view of energy and information; and the fractal nature of musical harmony which we have identified here, seems to sit comfortably with that notion, suggesting the possibility of a “new world harmony” (wouldn’t you rather have harmony than “order”?!) – founded on resonance, rather than false mechanics and altered “temperaments”.  There is no need for Equal Temperament – it only serves to destroy the harmonic message of our music.

Using 3^12

Another we to think of the “cycle of 5ths” is that you take your first frequency and multiply by 3, to give you your first “perfect 5th”. You then do this 11 more times, so 3 x 3 x 3 etc, or 3 to the power of 12.

3^12 is 531,441

So, let’s take one of our frequencies, a low B-flat of 0.9 Hz and multiply it by 3^12 to see what frequency we wind up with when we get back to B-flat having gone around the cycle of 5ths 12 times:

531,441 * 0.9 Hz = 478,296.9 Hz

Bring it down a few octaves:
478,296.9 / 1,024 = 467.08681640625

Closest harmonic note: 460.8 Hz (an octave of our starting frequency of 0.9 Hz (0.9 Hz x 512 = 460.8 Hz)

So the gap is:
467.08681640625 – 460.8 = 6.28681640625 Hz

We have a G at 6hz (the 5th harmonic of our Eb of 9.6 Hz = 9.6 Hz x 5/8 = 6 Hz)

So, the gap between this nearby harmonic and the gap we have above is: 6.28681640625 – 6 Hz = 0.28681640625

Let’s octave this up so we can deal with it: 0.28681640625 Hz x 1024 = 293.7 Hz.

What’s the closest harmonic we have to 293.7 Hz? It’s 288 Hz (our D, as the 5th harmonic of Bb: 230.4 x 5/4 = 288).

So, what’s the gap between the remainder of 293.7 Hz and our D: 293.7 Hz – 288 Hz = 5.7 Hz.

What’s our closest harmonic to 5.7 Hz? Well we could go with 6 Hz again – to yield a difference of 0.3 Hz (6 Hz – 5.7 Hz = 0.3 Hz). 0.3 Hz as the final gap is a sub-octave of our E-flat (9.6 Hz / 32 = 0.3 Hz).

Or we could go lower, with D at 4.5 Hz (288 Hz / 64 = 4.5 Hz). So, in this case, the gap is 5.7 Hz – 4.5 Hz = 1.2 Hz. And again, 1.2 Hz is another sub-octave of Eb (9.6 Hz / 8 = 1.2 Hz).

Either way, in this example, we started with a Bb at 460.8 Hz, we went around the “cycle of fifths” 12 times by multiplying our starting frequency by 3 (to give us the “perfect fifth”), and we did that 12 times (x 3 x 3 x 3, etc.

We ended up with a frequency that was not an octave of the 0.9 Hz we started with, but when we broke down what that gap was, we found that it contained within it, several sub-harmonics of our starting frequency:

1. E-flat (the third harmonic below our B-flat)
2. G (the fifth harmonic of that E-flat)
3. D (the fifth harmonic of the B-flat we started with)
4. Another E-flat

Someone could write a computer programme to illustrate this for any frequency you start with – but I’m confident there are no exceptions: every gap at the end of going around the cycle of fifths 12 times will resolve to being comprised of a series of sub-harmonics of the frequency you started with! It’s the lemmings law, and that’s the way they like it!

So, the gap (let’s not call it the lemma any more because I’m getting increasing flack from actual music theorists who tell me that the word “lemma” refers to a specific pythagorean interval gap, and not any old gap, but that’s good enough for me). Anyway, the point is, the gap is not some non-harmonic breakdown of the natural order. It is, as I said, a fractal reflection of the frequency you started with, as sub-octaves, petering out.

If you think about it, if the cycle of fifths did exactly overlay to the frequency you started with, the universe would have resonated itself into oblivion in the first mili-moments after every big bang – or creation event – or whatever we want to think of it as. But this fractal-underpinning of harmonic propagation is much more subtle: it means that the harmonic fabric of nature extends into all things, but with the increasing subtlety of these tiny sub-harmonics of harmonics, rather than some bombastic, positive feedback, forever amplifying the frequency you started with. Reflection and complementarity is how nature works, apparently – and humans too!