Notating numbers

• Sep 12, 2023 - 15:16

I would like to notate the following pitches:
128
144
162
170.667
192
216
243
256
How can I do this?

Comments

• Sep 12, 2023 - 16:57

Thanks AndreasKågedal, but I don't think you understand this problem? I want to notate any numbers that I choose. All of those numbers on the chart you linked to were numbers chosen by someone else. If I tune Musescore to 432hz, it will not output the numbers I have selected to work with but will output numbers of it's own choosing, programmed by some other person who is not engaged in my composition. I want these people OUT of my composition entirely! LOL

Most of those notes on that chart are abbreviated irrationals. I only specified one abbreviated irrational in my list of numbers. Every other number on my list is a whole number. I want exactly these numbers. If I said I wanted 440, 441, 442, 443 and 444, then that is what I want to notate, exactly. As a matter of fact, I would very much like to notate this latter list also.

I want to compose using pure mathematics.

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• Sep 12, 2023 - 19:49

Ok. So, is your question if there is a standardized way to notate music with pitches in Hz, instead of regular "C, D, Eb" type of pitches? and how such a notation would look (on paper)?

Or are you less interested in a notation system, and more interested in how to make MuseScore play a score where the pitches are specified in Hz?

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• Sep 12, 2023 - 21:38

I want to notate and play back the numbers of my own choosing. IOW, I want Musescore to accept numerical input along with standard mathematical operations, just as I notated above. 440/2=220, then INPUT 220, while Musescore saves a copy of the complete equation (which was 440/2=220). 441/3=147, 147x2=294 INPUT 294. I want to hear all of the numbers in the sound spectrum.

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• Sep 13, 2023 - 08:13

You provide pitches in Hz in Csound, but i don't know if it can do the arithmetic. Perhaps you would have to do that outside CSound. Read the documentation and experiment!

An other alternative might be music21 which is a python library. You can do anything there, I think. Including exporting as a MusicXML (and hopefully the frequency specifics would be included.)

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• Sep 13, 2023 - 20:01

I don't think That is what I want to do. I want to use MUSESCORE as a tool for studying harmonics and mathematics and composition. I am talking about developing the notation and composition program called Musescore so that it is ultra sensitive to the imagination of the artist, and so that students and teachers of music and mathematics can both enjoy the benefits. A child can learn to compose as soon as they learn the number system and can count multiples, divide, add and subtract. They can hear what a number sounds like. They can play with Musescore in their spare time and do homework with Musescore,.They can plug the number 100 into the program, multiply it by 2 and hear the octave. They can do anything they want at a very early age without having to learn the stave system.

I envision this as the traditional score mode, a Composer's Calculator and also a traditional score mode that is a calculator in itself. So in that mode, I can plug in a tempo (like 100.) Then, when I get to a bar line, I can click on it and simply put a mathematical operator and a number into it (like +10 or x2) and the tempo will be altered (to 110 or 200 respectively.) I envision the entire composition process as a mathematical skill and art.

I spose it would be good to replace (I don't mean to imply the discarding of the old system) the stave entirely with one line staves and just pile numbers on to the single lines. Something like this:

10080
5040 (operator: x 2 = 10080)
Where 5040 is the root and 10080 is the 8ve.
10080
5040 (operator: x 2 = 10080) Instead of the note head would be the number 5040. Then 10080 on top. To get the 5th of 5040 divide it by 2 and multiply it by 3. Or divide it by 3 and multiply it by 2, depending on whether the 5th is to be above or below the tonic of 5040. In all cases the mathematical operations are stored by the Musescore program. All that would appear on the score would be the numerical values of the notes.

Basically, the user would be able to use this system more like how the developers use it. We could divide a selected 8ve into 9 (or 10 or 11...) equal parts and do some arithmetic with those parts. We can use our imaginations with numbers just as mathematicians do.

Kids could be using Musescore to compose music as soon as they learn the basic rules of math - in the 2nd and 3rd grade. In fact they can start earlier than that because they can just fiddle with it to hear what different numbers sound like. They can be using Musescore in preschool. The 2nd and 3rd graders can show them how to use it.

Uh oh! WOLF TONES! 

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• Sep 13, 2023 - 22:34

OK, fair enough. You've laid out the what and how. But a little short on why. Oh you say it's to help kids to learn math and composition (using math).

My problem is that Western music isn't really based on math. Oh sure, we use certain math-like concepts to describe music. But it is entirely possible to learn an instrument and play it without knowing any math. Or even knowing how to read music.

And I don't know where you live, but in the US music has been mostly removed from lower grades because it isn't as important as other classes.

It's fine that you want to develop whatever your system is. So MuseScore is open source. Have at it. But I think notation software just isn't the way to do it. You want to replace notes with numbers. And not just any numbers. You think multiplying 100 by 2 equals an octave. Interesting. I assume that software will be the only thing that can read your music.

You think kids ( who have enough to do just learning basic skills) will understand writing music.

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