FW: On the seven scale notes

[JM]

Will Layman writes:

Our GR narrator, however, has a much more
flexible sense of democracy, not willing to limit himself to a mere twelve tone
octave, but favoring instruments that hardly favor any set tones -- most notably
you kazoo (how do ya get a C on that?  Uh, just blow, man.)  I think more
significantly, when Slothrop finally finds that harmonica in the stream, it's
reeds are all softened up and, finally, he able to bend notes "away from
official frequencies," playing the blues just like Charlie Parker in the episode
where the harmonica takes its famous dive.  GR's subversive instruments don't
honor the 7 tones, the 12 tones or any set of tones other than what a person is
"just feeling."

-- Will Layman
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Nobody's mentioned it so I will.  Members of the violin family (not exactly subversive or  
preterite instruments), being fretless, are equally liberated from the authorized western 
musical scale.  (Orchestral players and soloists tend to avoid playing on open strings, which 
are or should be tuned to standard pitches.  The timbre of an open string is different, and 
you can't add vibrato.)  So the kazoo and the (well-soaked) blues harp have some 
"respectable" company after all. 

A mere curiosity:  some of the old harpsichords had the "black" keys split in half so that the 
lower half of the key would pluck (say) C-sharp and the upper half of the key would pluck 
D-flat.  The reason being that the two enharmonic notes are not at precisely the same pitch. 
Singers and violinists may still adjust for the subtle difference.   It's only our modern ears 
that find the compromise tuning, which is more convenient for keyboard instruments, 
acceptable.            

So what do I seem to be saying?   I guess it's that TRP's conceit about the kazoo and 
harmonica being on the subversive side of an "us" vs. "them" binary opposition due to their 
capacity to play outside the authorized scale is kind of clever but also kind of weak--unless 
you want the entire string section playing in there with 'em.                            -jm