Blow fifth

Blasquinte called the the Overblowing a gedackten whistle sounding fifth above the octave of the fundamental ( twelfth or third  partial tone ). According to the Austrian ethnomusicologist Erich von Hornbostel , to whom the term goes back, the blow fifth at 678 cents is almost 1/8 of a tone smaller than the tempered fifth at 700 cents or the pure fifth at 702 cents.

With the help of his - never fully developed - blowing quint theory , which also included a 23-step circle of blowing fifths , Hornbostel tried to explain the origin of some non-European tone systems such as Pélog or Slendro . Hornbostel's theories, which seemed to be confirmed by measurements on panpipes and xylophones , were, however, z. B. challenged by Manfred Bukofzer from 1937 and refuted or limited in their validity.

literature

• Manfred F. Bukofzer: Blasquinte. In: Friedrich Blume (Ed.): The music in past and present . 1st edition, Volume 1, Bärenreiter, Kassel 1949
• Willibald Gurlitt : factual part . In: Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht (Ed.): Musiklexikon / Riemann . 12th edition. Schott Music , Mainz 1967, DNB  457660716 , p. 111 f .
• Erich von Hornbostel: Musical tone systems. In the current edition: Opera Omnia. Nijhoff, The Hague 1975
• Jaap Kunst : Around from Hornbostel's Theory of the Cycle of Blown Fifths. In: Proceedings of the Royal Tropical Institute. 76, Koninklijke Vereeniging Indisch Instituut, Amsterdam 1948; later in: Kay Shelemay (Ed.): Ethnomusicological Theory and Method. Garland, New York / London 1990, pp. 43-75
• Curt Sachs : The Wellsprings of Music. Edited by Jaap Kunst. Nijhoff, The Hague 1962