Zalanthan musical scale

[Brytta Léofa]

Apparently do, re, mi, etc. is inappropriate to use ingame. Is there some other standard for expressing musical tones over emotes/says?

http://armageddon.org/help/view/Music%20Theory
http://armageddon.org/help/view/Music%20Theory%20and%20History

So what we do know is at least:
- Zalanthites understand scales as repeating every octave; i.e. a particular sense in which a note and its octave are the same note.
- Some kind of pentatonic scale is fairly standard.
- Notes typically named by size of body parts...which I'm reading as distance from the root.
- So "eye, foot, snout, antler, half" is probably something like a major pentatonic scale: do re mi so la do'.

Just bullshitting something, I might try maybe naming tones something like:
"ro" == root == ut/do
"ay" == eye == re
"fuh" == foot == mi
"sot" == snout == sol
"an" == antler == la
"roha" == root-half == do, an octave up
"ayha == re an octave up, etc.

I would also guess at a very generous interpretation of intonation...note placement isn't very precise and shading the pitch is part of the art.

[Halcyon]

In material poor places in Africa, some instruments are made to tune near the sounds hand sized beetles make rubbing their wings together.

Tuning in Europe was all over the place until the 12th-14th century, when traveling music groups got to a certain prominence, and nobles started getting sets of musical instruments made for their homes.

Why not use an inix bellow as the fundamental for a chant, or the rough bellow of the gate guard as a starting point for authoritarian fifths?   How about matching the melody for some variations to the songbird in the nearby cage?

[lostinspace]

To go from one octave to the next the sound frequency must double.
Technically there's no reason this has to be done in eight steps (octave) right?

[Brytta Léofa]

Armageddon in 2022, causing me to Google "octave in non-diatonic music."

Yeah, I thiiink that there are non-Western systems in which the octave is similarly important even though they use different scales and tones. For that matter, plenty of Western music uses e.g. a pentatonic scale (five notes), a whole-tone scale (C D E F# G# A# C', six notes, thanks Debussy), or a scale that does have 7 notes but isn't actually diatonic (the funky minor scale variants).

The octave is a pretty universal concept but getting there with eight steps is much less universal?

[triste]

When I was six years old my mom said the western music scale sucks, the double harmonic scale is better. More or less agreed my whole life, the western scale sounds diminished and babyish compared and anything in double harmonic which is instantly sexier.

And learning fantasy words for a fake scale isn't my cup of tea. So I don't really care for recommendations here. Maybe the Tan Muark use one scale with 30 notes and gross militaristic Allanakis only have four notes. Maybe Zalanthas has nuance and variation like the real world. Not up to us to dictate, people can do it in game.

[Jihelu]

I'll be the first to say I really like realistic depictions of in world in the game world.

I like knowing: What is the common breakfast food? (Which is probably going to be bread based with something else, maybe a local tuber) How do they justify such a large standing military with so little trade partners and with having to feed them all (Unless the Allanak farms are huge, but I've always gotten the impression they kinda sucked)
Etc

It could just not be my thing but the musical scale is not something I think I've ever wanted to really engage with, mostly I think due to the helpfiles being kind of dismissive of it. "Oh uh, everyone uses something different and its a quirky animal language system" just seems like they hand waved a proper explanation. I'd rather the nobility and educated just use IRL terms and not bother with it, or just not bother with it at all.

[sucre]

I think this is great, as someone who regularly plays musically inclined characters. Perhaps I will utilize it.

But I also don't want ANYONE who wants to play a musician of any sort in game to feel like they must know music theory or themes or vocabulary in order to play. As someone who was hesitant with her first character ever who became a bard in game, I was so because I had seen some folks really, really get into the theory of it all and I felt like a rube.

This all is an interesting bonus, this discussion is very fun to observe (I love when everyone gets passionate and nerds out about stuff!), but adherence is not a requirement!

[Void]

Phrygian dominant scales all day.

[dumbstruck]

I am just here to suggest someone remove Violins from mention on the music history and theory page. I was ooc'd when trying to order one that they were all rewritten or overwritten with a much more obscure and primitive instrument I as a player have never heard of and had to find out on google was the most primitive precursor to the instrument. It was awkward as hell to be looking for something specifically mentioned in music documentation as existing only to find out it doesn't now.

[betweenford]

Lol yeah. Violins and fiddles being turned into rebabs was an interesting choice. Honestly tho i kinda like the rebab after hearing its music. Kinda confusing to players tho.

[Jihelu]

When the fuck did they retcon violins?

[Lotion]

I've seen a violin within the last year.

[sucre]

When the fuck did they retcon violins?

I was wondering the same thing.

[betweenford]

Around November.