Interesting posts thanks.
Too true. Most of the patterns in music seem to come from dancers in the country , from Bach to Blues and Jazz. They are all rhythm. As long as there is a recognisable pattern , so we want hear more, it works. The blues chords resolve from the 5th to 1st in Blues because we expect it , following the rhythm pattern after a little colour from a 4th or a 7th. You can hear what is coming next.
Fibonacci spirals are as good a pattern as any. Now what about a prime pattern.?1357. Maybe a little inaccessible.
Your Brain on Music or David Byrne’s How Music Works get into a lot of that along with the importance of venue , sound and expectation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wavytone
Johann Sebastian Bach established the convention and it has stuck.
It was pleasing, with enough variety to be non-trivial, yet clearly not random, and easily learnt.
Another thing in the pre-computer age is that patterns involving 12, 30 or 60 were often favoured because of the numerous ways they could be subdivided equally ( ie they have several small prime factors).
This also simplifies dance composition (ie choreography) for everything from popsongs, folk dances, ballroom, Latin etc. Musical sequences that don’t follow the pattern are very difficult to dance to (often impossible).
You may have noticed this also affects the success of the top-selling popsongs.
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