> Funny thing is that in recent years, they have abandoned any such > calibrated units for most measurements. Units of time, length, > voltage, etc. are now defined in terms such as the wavelength of a > specific spectral line in a specific isotope. So you don't have to > depend on a physical copy of a physical object halfway around the > world; you can determine the units in the privacy of your own lab. In > most of the world, this is now the situation. [...] > I can't think of a way to make a funny tie-in to music for this now. > Maybe someone else can. Something along the lines of how we no longer > need to calibrate our instruments to any mundane physical objects in > this world; we can align our music with the very basic phenomena of > the cosmos. But there's gotta be a better (i.e., funnier) way to > express the idea ...
I heard somewhere that there was an ancient Chinese term for a month in the spring that translated as something like "in-tune flute time". The reasoning behind it was that at that time of year, the base joint of the local bamboo had grown to be just the right length to make a standardly pitched flute out of. Musical pitch gets to define the calendar. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760 <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack> * food intolerance data & recipes, Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files, and my CD-ROM "Embro, Embro". ------> off-list mail to "j-c" rather than "abc" at this site, please <------ To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
