At 04:50 26-04-13, Richard Dobson wrote:
I am not clear just what the issue is here.
The issue is that if one is going to be precise about the Physics and Maths discussed here, one should preferably extend that precision to musical considerations.
...there is nothing otherwise special about "middle C", and it is in any case only approximately in the middle for the modern concert piano.
The name presumably predates the modern piano. As far as organ harpsichord and clavichord keyboards go, Italian and Flemish models from c. 1600 had a compass that placed this C in the middle of the available pitch range.
For most other instruments it is not in the middle at all. It is is the lowest note on the standard flute, almost the highest note on the bassoon
Have you heard the first note of the Rite of Spring - a C one octave higher? This note is playable by any decent bassoonist today.
, and by no means comfortable to sing for a bass voice.
Really? Perhaps Russian basses! :-)
Notationally it is the point of symmetry between the treble and bass staffs (the current position of the clefs being relatively modern inventions, and relative to modern human vocal ranges); that is the only other sense in which it is "in the middle".
I was alwas under the impression that it is the C closest to the keyhole (another musical term) ;-)
David _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound
