Study of Beelzebub's Tales

40.860

“And this science of theirs, later also passing from generation to generation, reached your contemporary favorites almost simultaneously with the said Chinese science.

40.860-1

“All subsequent misunderstandings began with this, that in the information which had reached them from the ancient Chinese it was shown that the ‘whole octave of vibrations’ has seven ‘restorials,’ that is to say, that the octave consists of seven ‘gravity center sounds’; while in the Greek information it was said that the ‘whole octave of vibrations’ has five ‘restorials,’ that is to say, that the octave consists of five centers of gravity or five whole notes.

40.861

“And so, only in consequence of the fact that in the presences of your favorites of recent centuries the functioning of every kind of data for ‘being-logical-reflection’ crystallized in them began to proceed almost, as it is said there, ‘topsy-turvy,’ and as both of these entirely differently sourced informations which reached them appeared to them, according to their ‘bobtailed’ logical mentation, equally plausible, then those beings of contemporary civilization who began in a new fashion to bake, like pancakes, all kinds of separate independent branches of their illustrious science, having fallen during several years into a state of what is called ‘troubled perplexity,’ could not in any way whatsoever decide which of these two contradictory theories to prefer and which of them to accept and include in the number of branches of their ‘official science.’

40.861-2

“After a great deal of, as they still sometimes say, ‘drying of saliva,’ they finally decided, in order that no one should be offended and at the same time in order to have also this branch in their science, to unite into one both of these theories which had reached them from ancient times and which had nothing in common with each other. And a little later when one of them, named Gaidoropoolo, thought out a very long ‘mathematical’ explanation of this misunderstanding, namely, why in one theory there is mentioned the division of the octave into seven ‘whole sounds,’ while in the other, into only five ‘whole sounds,’ and why and how such an important contradiction had occurred, then these mathematical explanations of his entirely pacified all the corresponding representatives of contemporary civilization so that now, with a quiet conscience, they produce all their wiseacring concerning vibrations on the basis of the ‘mathematical explanations’ of this obliging Gaidoropoolo.

40.862

“In these mathematical explanations the following considerations were adduced:

40.862

“Now, that is to say, this same obliging Gaidoropoolo, in a certain way known to himself, calculated the number of vibrations of all the Chinese seven whole notes and began to explain that in the Chinese ‘seven-toned octave’ those whole notes called ‘mi’ and ‘si’ are not whole notes at all but only half notes, since the number of vibrations which they have almost coincides with the number of vibrations of those Greek half notes which according to the division of the Greek octave are found just between the Chinese whole notes ‘mi’ and ‘fa and between ‘si’ and ‘do.’

40.862

“He made the further supposition that it was obviously convenient for the Chinese to have the restorial of the voice, that is, the ‘center of gravity’ of the voice also on these half notes, and therefore they divided their octave not into five whole notes like the Greeks, but into seven, and so on in this way.

40.862

“After this explanation of Mr. Gaidoropoolo, as I have already told you, all the other contemporary scientists of new formation were completely pacified, having stuck a label also on this branch of their official science.

40.863

“Almost as many of these restorials of the voice or, as they are still sometimes named, ‘light sounds of voice’ are formed among your favorites and until today are still formed, as there are independent groups into which they are divided and still continue to be divided, and this proceeds so because these light sounds of voice are in general formed among the beings from many outer as well as inner surrounding conditions not depending on them themselves, as for instance: geographical, hereditary, religious, and even from the ‘quality-of-nourishment’ and the ‘quality-of-reciprocal-influences,’ and so on and so forth.

40.863-4

“Your contemporary favorites of course cannot understand that however hard these same ancient Greeks tried, or, so to say, ‘however conscientious their attitude toward this matter,’ they could not with all their wish find in the division of the octave of sound into definite tones either more or less than these five whole notes, since the totality of all the conditions not depending on them, both inner and outer, gave them the possibility at the reproduction of their chanting to rely only on their five restorials of voice.

40.864

“‘Restorials’ or gravity-center-sounds in the voices of beings are in general and are called those notes which, during the reproductions of different sounds by corresponding organs, the beings manifest according to the properties fixed in them and depending on the general functioning of their presence—which properties in their turn are the result of heredity and of acquired faculties—freely, easily, and for a long time, without evoking any tension whatsoever on the part of other separate functionings of theirs, that is to say, in other words the restorials are obtained when the tempo of the result of such a manifestation of theirs fully harmonizes with other functionings of their common presence, the tempo of which is already fixed in them thanks to all the inner and outer conditions of their common being-existence.

40.864

“Thanks to the various conditions there of local character and also to various assimilated hereditary qualities, various ‘restorials of voice’ or gravity-center notes are formed in beings of almost each group or of each geographical place, and hence the division of the octave into whole notes among beings who breed on each definite part of the surface of this planet of yours is quite different.

40.864

“At the present time among your favorites such groups exist as have the capacity to reproduce the gravity-center notes in the octave of sounds not only in five or seven gravity-center sounds but even in thirteen and seventeen whole notes.

40.864-5

“To illustrate what I have just said, the beings of a certain smallish group might serve as a good example who dwell on the continent Asia to whose singing I personally very much liked to listen and who in their physiological possibilities—although they had the data for the manifestation of only three restorials—could nevertheless in their chanting reproduce up to forty separate definite sounds.

40.865

“Their chanting was extremely delightful and at the same time, however lustily they might sing, yet the calm and sustained reproductions of the vibrations of sound were obtained among them only on one or other of these three of their ‘organic restorials.’

40.865

“This physiological particularity of theirs, namely, that whatever number of definite sounds they reproduced the beings of this small group always obtained in the whole octave of their voice only on these three restorials inherent in them what is called the ‘unchanging totality of vibrations,’ and that all during their manifestation these restorials had the property of evoking what is called ‘centralization’ and echo in the whole presence of a being, I made very clear to myself when, having become interested in their chanting, I began to investigate this particularity, rare among your contemporary favorites, with the aid of three special what are called there ‘tuning forks’ which I ordered, and with the aid of several very sensitive what are called ‘vibrometers’ which I possessed and which were invented for me personally by my essence-friend Gornahoor Harharkh.

40.865

“In the Chinese division of the octave into whole notes this being-property was not at all taken into account.