Music

Take 5

Take five is a United States idiom “used to tell someone to stop working and relax for a short period of time.”

“Take Five“ is a jazz standard composed by Paul Desmond in 5 beat per measure, the melody relying on the blues scale, with harmony E-flat minor.

Released as a promotional single in September 1959, “Take Five” became a sleeper hit in 1961, and then went on to become the biggest-selling jazz single of all time. The track still receives significant radio airplay.

Here are seven minutes and twenty-five seconds to enable you to Take Five. Relax and enjoy. Life is good.

432 versus 440 Hz music

Abstract

Context: The current reference frequency for tuning musical instruments is 440 Hz. Some theorists and musicians claim that the 432 Hz tuning has better effects on the human body, but there are no scientific studies that support this hypothesis.

Conclusions: The data suggests that 432 Hz tuned music can decrease heart rate more than 440 Hz tuned music. The study results suggest repeating the experiment with a larger sample pool and introducing randomized controlled trials covering more clinical parameters.

Sylvia Villa writes in Sylvia Villa Music.com: “432hz vs. 440hz: An Investigation” and who doesn’t love a good investigation?

Below is an excerpt from Ms. Villa’s investigation which is very comprehensive. I urge you to read her article.

“440hz is the audio frequency equivalent to the musical pitch of A(4), six notes above middle C on a piano. Also known as Stuttgart Pitch, it was first proposed by Johann Heinrich Scheibler in 1834 after having invented a pitch measuring device called the “tonometer”. This proposal was approved by the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians at a meeting in Stuttgart the same year. Nevertheless, for a long time, there was no definitive global tuning standard for music. Different countries tuned to ever so slightly different pitches, for example, in France, they tuned to 435hz, made official by the French government in 1859, whilst in Britain it was common to tune to 439hz. It wasn’t until 1936 that the American Standards Association recommended that 440hz should be the standard tuning for A (4) across the globe. This wasn’t taken up by the International Organization for Standardization until 1955, and was only truly formalized as ISO 16 in 1975. Now the universal tuning standard, this is the note, or frequency, that musicians will tune their instruments to, in order to play together, with the majority of music now being tuned to this pitch.

432hz, also known as Scientific Pitch, is an alternative tuning for the musical note A(4). It is Greek philosopher and mathematician, Pythagoras, who is credited with originating this specific tuning using his famous monochord- an ancient scientific and musical instrument consisting of ‘metal strings stretched over a hollow resonating body.’ As the monochord is an instrument built according to harmonic ratios, Pythagoras devised that the string lengths could be divided into sections using ratios 2:1 to create a perfect octave and 3:2 to create a perfect fifth. It was through this discovery that Pythagoras theorized that the entire universe could be better understood through the combined interpretation of musical harmonies and simple mathematical ratios. For many centuries, right up until the early modern period, musical harmony was considered to be an important contribution to scientific understanding and one of the primary languages of the universe, often working in concurrence with astronomy. For example, astronomers of the 16th and 17th century, such as Johannes Kepler, were of the belief that the motions of the planets produced a ‘cosmic harmony’ of sorts.”

432hz

For your relaxation and listening pleasure here are Chopin’s Nocturnes in 432hz:

Here are several hours of “Classical Music for Brain Power . . . and everyone needs brain power.

Whiskey Blues on YouTube

When I just want to chill a little I tune into the many YouTube Whiskey Blues videos.

“California Dreamin”

“California Dreamin’” is a song written by John and Michelle Phillips in 1963 and first recorded by Barry McGuire.^[5] The best-known version is by the Mamas & the Papas, who sang backup on the original version and released it as a single in December 1965.

Here is one of my favorite artists, Diana Krall, performing California Dreamin.

And “The Girl from Ipanema”

“The Girl from Ipanema“, is a Brazilian bossa nova and jazz song. It was a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s and won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinícius de Moraes, with English lyrics written later by Norman Gimbel.^[5]

The first commercial recording was in 1962 by Pery Ribeiro. The Stan Getz recording featuring the vocal debut of Astrud Gilberto became an international hit.

Here are Diana Krall & Joao Bosco performing The Girl from Ipanema:

The incomparable Natalie Cole with Diana Krall performing:

And the greatest duo in the history of duos Nat King Cole and his daughter, Natalie Cole, recorded after his death, – Unforgettable!

Every day is a blessing and one of God’s blessings was Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong. He continues to remind us what a wonderful world we live in. I pray that we all endeavor to be a blessing.