Date of Award

8-2004

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Program

Applied Physics

Department

Physics

Major Professor

Ioup, George

Second Advisor

Puri, Ashok

Third Advisor

May, James

Fourth Advisor

Ioup, Juliette

Abstract

We used a Byzantine Music piece performed by a well recognized chanter in order to derive experimentally the mean frequencies of the first five tones (D – A) of the diatonic scale of Byzantine Music. Then we compared the experimentally derived frequencies with frequencies proposed by two theoretical scales, both representative of traditional Byzantine Music chanting. We found that if a scale is performed by a traditional chanter is very close in frequency to the frequencies proposed theoretically. We then determined an allowed frequency deviation from the mean frequencies for each tone. The concept of allowed deviation is not provided by theory. Comparing our results to the notion of pitch discrimination from psychophysics we further established that the frequency differences are minute. The Attraction Effect was tested for a secondary tone (E) and the effect is quantified for the first time. The concept of the Attraction Effect is not explained in theory in terms of frequencies of tones.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

Download

Share

COinS