Himalayan Tectonic Belt: Morlet Wavelet Variation and Seismic Harmony

Morlet wavelet analysis is a method of studying the periodic spectrum of non-stationary physical signals and is applied to the Himalayan Tectonic Belt to explore whether there is any seismic periodicity, and to explore the possibility of harmony or commonality of properties among the seismic activities of different zones. The earthquake sequence during 1951–2016 with magnitudes M ≥ 6.0 is analysed. Wavelet non-periodicity for the Centre zone suggests a non-uniform spatial–temporal distribution of earthquake movement between plates which may relate with the rare great earthquakes, while the periodicities for the west and east zones may suggest the concurrence with the adjustment of the tectonic movement of the east- and west-end regions of the Himalayan Tectonic Belt relative to its central core. These three zones collectively form the Himalayan Tectonic Belt. This contains a periodicity of about five years of seismic activity that tests successfully with a 95% confidence statistic. Borrowing from the concept of musical harmony, this is the significant seismic harmonic which reflects the Belt’s pervasive tectonic stress and an overall harmony of continent–continent plate convergence. Morlet wavelet analysis also reveals the Himalayan Tectonic Belt and the Pamir–Hindu Kush Tectonic Zone to be engaged as a big new family: the Himalayan Tectonic Belt Plus. It is demonstrated that this new whole also has seismic harmony with the common property again being the 5-year periodicity. This indicates a unified structure of pervading active stress and seismic harmony permeating the overall seismicity.

Re-Actualization Balinese Gamelan Harmony for Renewal Knowlegde of the Balinese Music

Balinese music has a variety of gamelan that develops in the community. Balinese gamelan is a central object in the development of Balinese musical knowledge. One of the most problematic is the harmony system. In the context of Balinese music knowledge, the harmony system is an element that is often discussed its existence. The 'harmony system' has been recognized through the dualistic concept. This concept is the source of the technique for playing the Balinese Gamelan. Knowledge of the harmony system with this dualistic concept is based on the object of research by Gamelan Gong Kebyar. Gamelan Gong Kebyar is indeed very closely related to the dualistic system. However, this system is not relevant to several other Balinese Gamelan, one of which is the Gamelan Gambang. Therefore, knowledge of the harmony system in Balinese music needs to be updated. This update is an actualization of knowledge about gamelan harmony. The problems discussed in this article are what is Balinese Gamelan harmony, what is the roles of Balinese Gamelan harmony and the concept of Balinese musical harmony. This reaserch uses a mix method, namely qualitative and quantitative methods. Musicology approach as a qualitative method while sound physics as a quantitative method. Re-aktualisasi Harmoni Gamelan Bali untuk Pembaruan Pengetahuan Musik Bali Abstrak Karawitan Bali memiliki ragam gamelan yang berkembang di masyarakat. Gamelan Bali merupakan objek sentral dalam pengembangan pengetahuan karawitan Bali. Salah satu yang paling bermasalah adalah sistem harmoni. Dalam konteks pengetahuan karawitan Bali, sistem harmoni merupakan unsur yang sering dibicarakan keberadaannya. Sistem harmoni terepresentasi melalui konsep dualistik. Konsep inilah yang menjadi sumber teknik memainkan Gamelan Bali pada umumnya. Pengetahuan sistem harmoni dengan konsep dualistik ini berdasarkan objek penelitian Gamelan Gong Kebyar. Gamelan Gong Kebyar memang sangat erat kaitannya dengan sistem dualistik. Namun sistem ini tidak relevan dengan beberapa Gamelan Bali lainnya, salah satunya Gamelan Gambang. Oleh karena itu, pengetahuan tentang sistem harmoni dalam karawitan Bali perlu dimutakhirkan. Pembaruan ini merupakan aktualisasi pengetahuan tentang harmoni gamelan. Permasalahan yang dibahas dalam artikel ini adalah apa yang dimaksud dengan harmoni Gamelan Bali, batasan harmoni Gamelan Bali dan model harmoni secara musikal gamelan Bali. Penelitian ini menggunakan mixmethode , yaitu metode kualitatif dan kuantitatif. Pendekatan musikologi sebagai metode kualitatif sedangkan fisika bunyi sebagai metode kuantitatif.

Of Music, Morals, and Salads

This article uses music and the discourse about music to understand the practice of tolerance in Prague during the period immediately preceding the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War. Drawing on Las ensaladas (Prague, 1581), a collection of vernacular polyphony compiled by the Spanish composer Mateo Flecha the Younger, and Harmoniae morales (Prague, 1589–90), comprising musical settings of Latin texts by the Slovenian composer Jacobus Handl, the article argues that such music offered Prague's diverse citizens a medium for reflecting on how to live morally and peaceably. Ultimately, this article challenges the commonplace that musical harmony offered an effective model for social harmony, arguing that the practice of singing together exposed the limits of tolerance even as it illuminated how difference might be accommodated.

"MUSICAL READING": A PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH OF M. F. GNESIN

The article investigates the approach based on "musical reading", developed by music teacher Mikhail Gnesin in the early XXth century. The paper studies the prerequisites, basic provisions and principles of "musical reading" as a highly emotional way of reading a poetic text by note, preserving the nature and specific features of human speech. The author reveals a connection between M. Gnesin's ideas and B. Asafiev's intonational concept. A step-bystep "musical reading" integration into the practical work of theatre actors is considered. The rhythmic reading approach is described and the examples of using various metrhythmic means of musical expression to convey the emotional and semantic content are given. Introduction of speech intonation into music is discussed both in terms of the fixation of the specific characteristics of speech intonation in graphic form and applying this method in practice. The article concludes the prospects of using the method of "musical reading" by the professional theatre artists and arts students (developing speech-based choirs, ensembles and dialogues according to the laws of musical harmony; creating unique speech-and-music works, where human voice with its specific timbre and accompaniment are integral parts of the artistic whole).

The Enlightenment

This chapter traces the history of music and philosophy in the Enlightenment, with a particular focus on English thinkers in the years 1660–1750. It identifies three modes of interaction between musical and philosophical ideas: music as object of philosophy, music as inspiration for philosophy, and music as corroboration for philosophy. The chapter hones in particularly on the significance of the new, “mechanical” approach to philosophy that emerged in the later seventeenth century and on changing explanations of music’s fabled ability to cure the bite of the tarantula. Through all of this, it uncovers how ideas about musical harmony and music’s affective power were intertwined in this period. It also includes two eighteenth-century case studies showing how these ideas played themselves out in the French “high” Enlightenment and in German Idealist philosophy at the close of the Enlightenment. The chapter closes with an examination of the relative merits, in this context, of the terms “Baroque,” “scientific revolution,” and “Enlightenment.”

European musical context in the works of Sukhbat Aflatuni

The object of this research is two works of Sukhbat Aflatuni: “Tashkent Novel” and “Balthazar”, as well as the last part of the trilogy “Adoration of the Magi”. The subject of the research is the authorial interpretation of music theme, revealing the uniqueness of musical images in the indicated novels. Special attention is given to the European musical context with emphasis on most significant musical pieces that not just create a background sound in the novels, but also affect their structure. The author examines the functions of musical references, and proves that mentioning of the composers’ names and composition in works of the writer fulfills the function of “other storyline”. The conclusion is made that musical context in works of the writer is diverse and multifunctional. The structure of “Tashkent Novel” directly correlates with the Opera “The Magic Flute” by Mozart. Another significant musical text in the novel is “For Elise” by Beethoven. In the trilogy “Adoration of the Magi”, of special interests from musical perspective is the last novel of the writer “Balthazar”. The protagonist is the avant-garde composer, who seeks for the new forms that allow presenting the entire history of music; from his perspective, music is the highest manifestation of spirit. By this, Sukhbat Aflatuni brings to life Plato's idea of the celestial meaning of musical harmony.

The World as a Harmony

In line with the growing recognition of fifth century Pythagoreans as the main developers of a Pythagorean philosophy, the article offers a reconstruction of Philolaus’ metaphysical framework, arguing for its potential explanatory power and anticipating some key notions in ancient metaphysics. Starting from the scala naturae in B13, I reconstruct Philolaus’ overall metaphysical framework from his fragments, exploring how it might have worked when applied to micro-macrocosmic ontology. Key to this reconstruction is musical harmony. It is shown how, by using musical harmony as a paradigm and making explicit its mathematical structure, Philolaus (a) possessed a rather sophisticated explanatory framework, capable of accounting for the complex structure of the cosmos and of living beings; and (b) began to grasp the importance of a normative, abstract, structural principles working at a different metaphysical level from the constituents of things, thus anticipating Aristotle’s distinction between material and formal causes.