I have two thoughts, but neither seem particularly "sexy" unless it is a particular form of one of them used for a particular purpose.

I will be back looking for clues after I fill the bird feeders and move the hose which has been running for two days. Looking forward to possible rain on Tuesday!

Cynthia

Sexy may just be in my view!! Not sure others would have the same perspective.

After unison, this is the simplest interval in music. The languages in which the oldest extant written documents on tuning are written, Sumerian and Akkadian, have no known word for "_ _ _ _ _ _". However, it is believed that a set of cuneiform tablets that collectively describe the tuning of a nine-stringed instrument, believed to be a Babylonian lyre, describe tunings for seven of the strings, with indications to tune the remaining two strings an "_ _ _ _ _ _" from two of the seven tuned strings. Or the Moody Blues 9th album!! Hmmm...again!!

Nancy.

Well, no more comments yet - hmmm indeed. Well, I'm off to a baby shower, back in a couple of hours to add more clues!!

Nancy.

Does it take a fairly big stretch to produce this on a piano?
Is there a connection to an early form of the periodic table of the elements? (chemistry trivia!)

TM

Well, I was going in a completely different direction. I was thinking of birdsong or the music rain makes (natural occurrence threw me). I was not thinking of a term. So, going back to the storage vault that is my mind (a leaking sieve actually-that is redundant isn't it? See what I mean!), I have another idea, but only thanks to the Moody Blues reference.

Cynthia

Well, TM - depending on the size of your hands, it could be a stretch!! I know when I was young it was for me. As to the elements, well.....it could be represented by a 2-letter code - P8, because it is considered perfect, rather like a Pythagorean interval!! Ha, how's that?? When several of these notes are played together, they "ring" together, adding a pleasing sound to music. The word can also be used in the Catholic liturgical sense.....whew, so many uses. And yes, Cyn, if the MB's reference got you there, good. The more I learn about their music, the deeper it becomes!!

Nancy.

It was one of those things where "...Lost Chord" came to mind, but immediately was replaced by another due to the number of letters you want and your use of "an"!

Cynthia

After unison, which would be a 1:1 ratio of frequencies, I think that the next simplest ratio would be 1:2, which would stretch about 6 1/2 inches on a piano keyboard. It seems appropriate that Nancy learned this in grade 8. :)

Does this make sense?

TM

It makes PERFECT sense. Now, my source says the ratio is 2:1, and I'm not sure why that would make a difference from 1:2. For example, if the first were 220 Hz, the next in sequence would be 440 Hz, then 880 Hz, and so on.

Nancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Closing tune on the album

Lower to higher = 1:2
Higher to lower = 2:1

Same relationship, different points of view, right?

TM

Aha, thanks!! That does make sense!! Interesting that music and science have a correlation!! The Pythagorean connection blew my mind, cause the only thing I have used his triangle for since high school has been to square the corner of a deck! Like I said, I am finding all of this very sexy, and would like to be able take it up again.

Nancy.

Duh, this is all greek to me all I could think of was from 'C' to 'C' it looks like I'm out in left field again.

Annette

Well, Annette from C to shining C indeed - I was looking for "octave". Not my favourite Moody Blues album, but it was the one that got them back together and recording after a 4 year hiatus!! It was also keyboardist Mike Pinder's last album, and if you watch the video at the end, it's interesting how he enters the 'light', but doesn't come out the other side.

In music, an octave or perfect octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems". It may be derived from the harmonic series as the interval between the first and second harmonics. notes an octave apart are given the same note name in the Western system of music notation - the name of a note an octave above A is also A. This is called octave equivalency, the assumption that pitches one or more octaves apart are musically equivalent in many ways, leading to the convention "that scales are uniquely defined by specifying the intervals within an octave". The conceptualization of pitch as having two dimensions, pitch height (absolute frequency) and pitch class (relative position within the octave), inherently include octave circularity. Thus all C♯s, or all 1s (if C = 0), in any octave are part of the same pitch class.

Monkeys experience octave equivalency, and its biological basis apparently is an octave mapping of neurons in the auditory thalamus of the mammalian brain and the perception of octave equivalency in self-organizing neural networks can form through exposure to pitched notes, without any tutoring, this being derived from the acoustical structure of those notes. Studies have also shown the perception of octave equivalence in rats (Blackwell & Schlosberg, 1943), human infants (Demany & Armand, 1984), and musicians (Allen, 1967) but not starlings (Cynx, 1993), 4-9 year old children (Sergeant, 1983), or nonmusicians (Allen, 1967).

FYI, for TM, a Pythagorean interval is a musical interval with frequency ratio equal to a power of two divided by a power of three, or vice versa. For instance, the perfect fifth with ratio 3/2 (equivalent to 31/21) and the perfect fourth with ratio 4/3 (equivalent to 22/31) are Pythagorean intervals. Am I the only one getting hot?? lol. I really do need to get back into this!!

So, for TM, Cyn and our last minute entry, Annette:

Thanks for playing all! I've given you some pretty songs from Octave, the album. Some of the Blue Jays music was folded into the album. This one's a rocker, written and sung by John Lodge. I read a recent interview with him, about this song. He was talking about staying on a good path, and described the 'Slide Zone' putting you foot wrong in life - such an English thing to say!! Everyone please have a great week, see you next weekend.

Nancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Steppin' in a Slide Zone

LOL Nancy, I thought I had posted my answer before but must have not hit the submit button. Took 5 years of piano myself but didn't like it, I wanted to play the Sax. It's was TM's comment "stretch" that got me going in the right direction. I could just barely do it.

Annette

That is funny Annette!! I really wanted to play clarinet!! I guess they thought we should all start with piano - sadly, we ended there too!

Just out of the shower and back from my garden. I have a bucket of tomatoes - lovely. Also harvested my seed CTT beans for next year. I should have been paying attention, as I pulled the rather sad looking vines, then realized there were a bunch of new flowers at the top. 8( Oh well, next year - at least I have seed.

Nancy.

I have always loved The Day We Meet Again and that is a wonderful rendition. I sure do wish I knew more about music. No talent, but absolutely could not live without it.

Thanks for the undeserved stars. Good thing I am a Moody Blues fan, huh?

Cynthia