The
Lipps–Meyer law, named for
Theodor LippsTheodor Lipps was a German philosopher. Lipps was one of the most influential German university professors of his time, attracting many students from other countries. Lipps was very concerned with conceptions of art and the aesthetic, focusing much of his philosophy around such issues...
(1851–1914) and Max F. Meyer (1873–1967), hypothesizes that the closure of melodic intervals is determined by "whether or not the end tone of the interval can be represented by the number two or a power of two," in the frequency ratio between notes.
Thus the interval order matters — a
perfect fifthThe perfect fifth is the musical interval between a note and the note seven semitones above it on the musical scale. For example, the note G lies a perfect fifth above C; D is a perfect fifth above G, C is a perfect fifth above F...
, for instance (C,G), ordered
, 2:3, gives an "effect of indicated continuation", while , 3:2, gives an "effect of finality."
This is a measure of interval strength or stability and finality.
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The
Lipps–Meyer law, named for
Theodor LippsTheodor Lipps was a German philosopher. Lipps was one of the most influential German university professors of his time, attracting many students from other countries. Lipps was very concerned with conceptions of art and the aesthetic, focusing much of his philosophy around such issues...
(1851–1914) and Max F. Meyer (1873–1967), hypothesizes that the closure of melodic intervals is determined by "whether or not the end tone of the interval can be represented by the number two or a power of two," in the frequency ratio between notes.
Thus the interval order matters — a
perfect fifthThe perfect fifth is the musical interval between a note and the note seven semitones above it on the musical scale. For example, the note G lies a perfect fifth above C; D is a perfect fifth above G, C is a perfect fifth above F...
, for instance (C,G), ordered
, 2:3, gives an "effect of indicated continuation", while , 3:2, gives an "effect of finality."
This is a measure of interval strength or stability and finality. Notice that it is similar to the more common measure of interval strength, which is determined by its approximation to a lower, stronger, or higher, weaker, position in the harmonic series.
Source
- Meyer, M.F. (1929). "The Musician's Arithmetic", The University of Missouri Studies, January.