Thinking of the initial vibration that first made polyphonic sound... and the overtone series. Can we imagine holding that rope and whipping it through the paces of tonal harmonics? The tonic, the octave, the dominant, the sub-dominat.
Can we imagine the first two human voices that sang together? At first they might have sung the same song. And then tried an octave apart. But then, the first polyphonic attempt—what great courage! Did the 5th come naturally? Or was there scooping and searching and tuning mid-flight?
As the tones and songs collapsed upon each other, what dissonance rubbed the right way to create some new thought for the nature of sound?
The crack of a tree limb falling in a thunderstorm, the snort of a horse sucking oxygen on a hard run, the chatter of currents carving a river bed, sound is always environmental. Art is always contextual.
Can we imagine a new art that is equal parts mathematics and experience? Can we have the courage to admit that the visual and the aural are experienced simultaneously (even if we care more for one than the other)?
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