Tag: Helek

Equal Temperament vs Just vs Earth Tuning

by julianshelbourne, posted in harmonic propagation

Click on the link to listen to three versions of the same performance of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on piano, tuned three different ways.

Three versions of the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata
  1. One in Equal Temperament. 
  2. The second in the “just” tuning I have developed based on natural resonances such as the ancient helek (3.33333 of today’s seconds) equivalent to the time it takes our Earth to rotate 1/72nd of a degree, as an E-flat. 
  3. The third recording is in “standard” equal temperament where the A note = 440 Hz

There’s nothing like a side by side comparison of the way we’re told music should be tuned, versus the way that harmonics propagate naturally, and based on the frequencies I’ve discovered to resonate with the fabric of the way in which our planet rotates and generates its magnetic field.

For me, the the first one is ok but doesn’t fully resonate. The second one interacts with the room when you listen – it sounds louder and fuller. The 3rd one is just horrific to me – a bunch of noise, especially after listening to the others. No wonder Beethoven seems to some to be haunted by ghosts and teetering into disonance – when all we hear of him is recorded in the shitty Equal Temperament 440 hz “standard” that was introduced just in time for World War 2, as it happens.

I hope you can enjoy how music is supposed to sound. Feel it in your gut and let me know in the comments!

Thanks to Edward Grant for this performance: www.classicalarchives.com/midi/composer/2156.html

Music and the fabric of time

by julianshelbourne, posted in Uncategorized

Well, I just came across this article where the author goes back to the ancient Hebrew divisions of time and overlays musical frequencies in keeping with these time divisions and – lo and behold – comes up with the exact same frequencies for the complete musical scale that I did, based on the phenomena of the “resonant still points” which I demonstrate on my homepage.

https://ethnographicsblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/19/a-horological-and-mathematical-defense-of-philosophical-pitch/

The Hebrew measure of time was the “helek” which equates to 3.333333 (recurring) seconds. Gives you more time to think, I suppose.

This measure of time was devised by dividing each of the 360 degrees by which the Earth turns every day into 72 parts to give a total of 25,920 helakim (plural of helek) per day.

First off, my frequency (and his) for C is 259.2. (By the way, each time you multiply a frequency by 10 you’re getting the Major Third of the original – so 25,920 also suggests a frequency for G# (C-D-E, E-F#-G#).

As the author points out, 25,920 also equates to the number of years in the Great Year – the time it takes for the world’s axial “wobble” to precess through 360 degrees, going through the twelve Ages – one for each of the Astrological signs. And it takes 72 years for the equinox to precess by one degree.

Two hours is 25,920/12 = 2160 helakim, and 2,160 years is the length of an Age. And this suggests a microcosm/macrocosm thing where we enjoy a tiny Age, or change of astrological sign, every two hours of the day.

And every day is, in effect, a mini Great Year as our position on the planet passes through all 12 astrological signs.

The Earth rotates 1 degree on its axis every 4 minutes (72 helakim x 3.333 seconds = 240 seconds = 4 minutes.) (3.333 recurring is a favourite number of the Free Masons but perhaps their big secret is simply the Helek. By the way, this video beautifully presents much of this.)

Every day, we turn 360 degrees, 4 minutes per degree = 1,440 minutes which is a number the author equates to F# as 1,440 Hz, which is an octave of 360 Hz – which is also the frequency I’ve found for F#.

Dividing the hour into seconds suggests B at 60 Hz.

He makes the root frequency for his scale 108 Hz because 360 degrees divided by 3.3333 seconds per helek = 108. 360 represents the full daily and annual rotation of the planet on its axis and around the zodiac. Now, 108 Hz is a sub-octave of 216 and 432 Hz – so that’s the frequency for A. Same as mine. So he sort of encompasses a whole year into A as the root note.

He then derives the harmonic series from this A using the “5-Limit” harmonic approach (which is simply deriving 5ths (multiply the frequency by 3) and the major third (multiply by 5).

The author also considers beats per minute as a starting point – so that the rhythm of the music and the music itself are aligned with the fabric of time.

He works into this a division of time (in seconds or helakim) by whole numbers: 2, 3, 5, 7, 9.

So he divides the day into seconds (60 seconds times 60 minutes times 12 hours) = 86,400 seconds, (a number which relates to A=432 Hz). He also starts with a notion of C at one cycle per second where its octaves would be 2 Hz, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 Hz, etc.

And with one helek = 3.333-seconds, a minute is 18 helakim – which relates to D at 9, 18, 36, 72, 144, 288 Hz

As he says, “Using 5 Limit Tuning with the root set to A (at 216) rather than C, the frequencies of notes C4 (256), G4 (384), E4 (320), D4 (288), and B4 (240) are reducible to, respectively: 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15“. Meaning that 1, 3, 5, 9 are sub-octaves of the given frequencies, e.g. 9 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 288 Hz = D.

If, as I believe, the phenomenon I can demonstrate on my tone generator is indeed the phenomenon of sound interacting with the fabric of the universe, then what more powerful evidence than to find that these frequencies all tie back to a natural way of measuring time – at least on our Earth. Do check it out: https://ethnographicsblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/19/a-horological-and-mathematical-defense-of-philosophical-pitch/