Text: Subject: Re: [SVPForum] E, the point of balance Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 16:10:35 +0000 From: "luigi.di-martino" Reply-To: SVPForum@yahoogroups.com To: Hi Dale Just been reading the Ramsey book for the second time and wanted to share with you how the note E is the center of the musical system. I will spend the next fifteen minutes typing out a bit of chapter 3 from the book and then show you by a simple diagram how E has levity and gravity surrounding it and how this levity and gravity is distributed throughout the Major scale. "While the ratio 1:2 corresponds to rest, and to the force of gravity, the ratio 2:3 corresponds to motion, and to the centrifugal force. The prime 2 , by any of it's powers, never produces a new note. The prime 3 always produces a new note, and on this account its powers are limited to the first power, the square, and the cube, and each of these powers of 3 produces one new note. The prime 5, like the prime 3, produces new notes........ A third note produced by the prime 5 is derived from the note produced by the first power of 3, and this note by the first power of 3 being slightly acted on by the force of gravity, and the first power of 5 having only a little centrifugal force, the result is that this note E in the scale of C, derived from the first power of 3 by the prime 5, is balanced between the two forces. It is the only note in the system which in the octave scale has not a large interval on the one side of it nor on the other, and consequently it is the only note which attracts and is attracted by two notes from proximity. Thus it is that the musical system is composed of three notes having specific gravity and three having specific levity or buoyancy, and one note E, the center of the tonic chord, balanced between these two forces. As the attractions of notes from proximity take place when the notes with downward tendency meet the notes with upward tendency, had the notes been animated by only one of these forces there could have been no system of resolutions of the notes either in melody or harmony; they would all have been by gravity weighing downwards, or by levity soaring upwards. The third note of the octave scale, E, the centre of the tonic chord in the key of C, is the centre of the system. It is the note which has the least tendency either upward or downward, and it has immediately above it in the octave scale the note with the greatest amount of specific gravity, F, the root of the Major subdominant; and immediately beneath it the note which has the greatest amount of specific levity, D, the top of the Major dominant. Thus the root of the subdominant chord and the top of the dominant are placed right above and below the centre of the system, and the gravity of the one above, and the levity of the one below, causes each of them to move in the direction of the centre. These tendencies are seen in the scale at whatever key it may be pitched, and by whatever names the notes may be called. And it is on account of this permanency of charactor of the notes that the third note of the scale, E, in the key of C Major, has a lower effect than the second, D; and that the fourth note, F, has a lower effect than either the first, second, or third; the fifth note , G, has a higher effect than the fourth, F; but the sixth, A, has a lower effect than the fifth; the seventh, B, has a higher effect than the sixth; but the eighth, C, has a lower effect than the seventh." Ramsay The obvious diagram that will give one a chance of understanding the above is to show the three chords, the subdominant - tonic - dominant. subdominant tonic dominant F A C - C E G - G B D g g g centre L L L The 'g' is for gravity and the 'L' is for levity. Then to delete the repeated notes: F A C E G B D You see there are three notes below E, gravity, and three above, levity. Here now is the scale of C Major going round in series: C D E F G A B C g L centre g L g L g

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