3.3.4.2. The Origins of Chrominicism

With a sweeping gesture of her hand, SIMPLICITY erased the complete diagram and signaled for one of the subscribers to place a note right in the middle of the wall, any note.

One of the subscribers complied and put an D4 in the center of the large wall, and the note started playing softly.

On moving back from the wall, the subscribers noticed that SYMMETRY and HIERARCHY where standing aside, towards the back of the room but REGULARITY had not entered the room, which they had started calling the Hall of Pitch.

SIMPLICITY then placed more notes, vertically above and below the center D4, all 'D's also, 6 below, just above the floor and 5 above, just below the ceiling, with a vertical line between each pair, placing a "2/1" inscription beside the middle of each segment, and all notes played simultaneously.

After verifying that everyone seemed to have understood what she had done, from the center note again, following the upward diagonal on the right and the downward diagonal to the left, SIMPLICITY placed a new series of notes, with segments between them and the "3/2" inscriptions beside the segments.

This new series went from Fb in the bottom left corner to B# in the top right corner, with 7 natural notes in the center, around the 'D', in the order F C G D A E B 7 flat notes in the bottom left and 7 sharp notes in the top right, always in the same order, as illustrated on the diagram below, adding the pitch axis on the left side and a flat-sharp axis on the bottom.

The notes were not playing simultaneously any more, but one after the other, from left to right and from right to left. Only the vertically aligned 'D's sounded together, in their turn.

The subscribers noted that using the 3/2 interval, she had generated different notes in a never ending sequence, while the previous interval, 2/1, only produced the same note, even if at different octaves.

They also noted that the bottom axis ranged from flat on the left, to sharp on the right. While the subscribers pondered, the Statues waited patiently and understandingly.