Octave - Wikipedia 27/04/2021, 09*39

Octave
In music, an octave (Latin: octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason)[2]
is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave
relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the
use of which is "common in most musical systems".[3] The interval between the first and second A perfect octave
harmonics of the harmonic series is an octave. between two C's

In Western music notation, notes separated by an octave (or multiple octaves) have the
same letter name and are of the same pitch class.
Perfect octave
To emphasize that it is one of the perfect intervals (including unison, perfect fourth, Inverse unison
and perfect fifth), the octave is designated P8. Other interval qualities are also
Name
possible, though rare. The octave above or below an indicated note is sometimes
abbreviated 8a or 8va (Italian: all'ottava), 8va bassa (Italian: all'ottava bassa, Other names -
sometimes also 8vb), or simply 8 for the octave in the direction indicated by placing Abbreviation P8
this mark above or below the staff. Size
Semitones 12

Contents Interval class 0

Just interval 2:1[1]
Explanation and definition
Cents
Music theory
Equal temperament 1200[1]
Notation
Just intonation 1200[1]
Octave of a pitch
Ottava alta and bassa
Equivalence
See also
References
External links

Explanation and definition

For example, if one note has a frequency of 440 Hz, the note one octave above is at 880 Hz, and the note one octave below
is at 220 Hz. The ratio of frequencies of two notes an octave apart is therefore 2:1. Further octaves of a note occur at
times the frequency of that note (where n is an integer), such as 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. and the reciprocal of that series. For
example, 55 Hz and 440 Hz are one and two octaves away from 110 Hz because they are 1​ ⁄2 (or ) and 4 (or ) times the
frequency, respectively.

The number of octaves between two frequencies is given by the formula:

Music theory
Most musical scales are written so that they begin and end on notes that are an octave apart. For example, the C major
scale is typically written C D E F G A B C (shown below), the initial and final C's being an octave apart. Because of octave
equivalence, notes in a chord that are one or more octaves apart are said to be doubled (even if there are more than two
notes in different octaves) in the chord. The word is also used to describe melodies played in parallel in more than multiple
octaves.

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While octaves commonly refer to the perfect octave (P8), the interval of an octave in music theory encompasses chromatic
alterations within the pitch class, meaning that G♮ to G♯ (13 semitones higher) is an Augmented octave (A8), and G♮ to G♭
(11 semitones higher) is a diminished octave (d8). The use of such intervals is rare, as there is frequently a preferable
enharmonically-equivalent notation available (minor ninth and major seventh respectively), but these categories of octaves
must be acknowledged in any full understanding of the role and meaning of octaves more generally in music.

Notation

Octave of a pitch
Octaves are identified with various naming systems. Among the most common are the scientific, Helmholtz, organ pipe,
MIDI, and MIDI note systems. In scientific pitch notation, a specific octave is indicated by a numerical subscript number
after note name. In this notation, middle C is C4, because of the note's position as the fourth C key on a standard 88-key
piano keyboard, while the C an octave higher is C5.

An 88-key piano, with the octaves numbered and Middle C (cyan) and A440 (yellow)
highlighted

Scientific C−1 C0 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9
Helmholtz C,,, C,, C, C c c' c'' c''' c'''' c''''' c''''''
Organ 64 Foot 32 Foot 16 Foot 8 Foot 4 Foot 2 Foot 1 Foot 3 Line 4 Line 5 Line 6 Line
Sub
Name Dbl Contra Contra Great Small 1 Line 2 Line 3 Line 4 Line 5 Line 6 Line
Contra
MIDI -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
MIDI Note 0 12 24 36 48 60 72 84 96 108 120

Ottava alta and bassa

The notation 8a or 8va is sometimes seen in sheet music, meaning "play

this an octave higher than written" (all' ottava: "at the octave" or all' 8va).
8a or 8va stands for ottava, the Italian word for octave (or "eighth"); the
octave above may be specified as ottava alta or ottava sopra). Sometimes An example of the same three notes expressed in
8va is used to tell the musician to play a passage an octave lower (when three ways: (1) regularly, (2) in an 8va bracket, and
placed under rather than over the staff), though the similar notation 8vb (3) in a 15ma bracket
(ottava bassa or ottava sotto) is also used. Similarly, 15ma (quindicesima)
means "play two octaves higher than written" and 15mb (quindicesima
bassa) means "play two octaves lower than written."

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The abbreviations col 8, coll' 8, and c. 8va stand for coll'ottava, meaning "play the notes in the passage together with the
notes in the notated octaves". Any of these directions can be cancelled
with the word loco, but often a dashed line or bracket indicates the extent
of the music affected.[4]

A similar example with 8vb and 15mb

Equivalence
After the unison, the octave is the simplest interval in music. The human ear tends to hear both notes as being essentially
"the same", due to closely related harmonics. Notes separated by an octave "ring" together, adding a pleasing sound to
music. The interval is so natural to humans that when men and women are asked to sing in unison, they typically sing in
octave.[5]

For this reason, notes an octave apart are given the same note name in the Western system of music notation—the name of
a note an octave above A is also A. This is called octave equivalence, the assumption that pitches one or more octaves apart
are musically equivalent in many ways, leading to the convention "that scales are uniquely defined by specifying the
intervals within an octave".[6] The conceptualization of pitch as having two dimensions, pitch height (absolute frequency)
and pitch class (relative position within the octave), inherently include octave circularity.[6] Thus all C♯s, or all 1s (if C = 0),
in any octave are part of the same pitch class.

Octave equivalence is a part of most advanced musical cultures, but is far from universal in "primitive" and early
music.[7][8] The languages in which the oldest extant written documents on tuning are written, Sumerian and Akkadian,
have no known word for "octave". However, it is believed that a set of cuneiform tablets that collectively describe the
tuning of a nine-stringed instrument, believed to be a Babylonian lyre, describe tunings for seven of the strings, with
indications to tune the remaining two strings an octave from two of the seven tuned strings.[9] Leon Crickmore recently
proposed that "The octave may not have been thought of as a unit in its own right, but rather by analogy like the first day of
a new seven-day week".[10]

Monkeys experience octave equivalence, and its biological basis apparently is an octave mapping of neurons in the auditory
thalamus of the mammalian brain.[11] Studies have also shown the perception of octave equivalence in rats (Blackwell &
Schlosberg 1943), human infants (Demany & Armand 1984),[12] and musicians (Allen 1967) but not starlings (Cynx 1993),
4–9 year old children (Sergeant 1983), or nonmusicians (Allen 1967).[6]

See also
Blind octave
Decade
Eight foot pitch
Octave band
Octave species
Pitch circularity
Pseudo-octave
Pythagorean interval
Short octave
Solfege

References
1. Duffin, Ross W. (2008). How equal temperament ruined harmony : (and why you should care) (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=i5LC7Csnw7UC&q=how+equal+temperament+ruined+harmony) (First published as a Norton
paperback. ed.). New York: W. W. Norton. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-393-33420-3. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201
71205150905/https://books.google.com/books?id=i5LC7Csnw7UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=how+equal+temperament
+ruined+harmony&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiHl-v79eDUAhVOID4KHVp8D4cQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)
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Octave - Wikipedia 27/04/2021, 09*39

+ruined+harmony&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiHl-v79eDUAhVOID4KHVp8D4cQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)
from the original on 5 December 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
2. William Smith & Samuel Cheetham (1875). A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities (https://books.google.com/books?id=1L
IPFk6oFVkC&q=diatessaron+diapason+diapente+fourth+fifth&pg=PA550). London: John Murray.
ISBN 9780790582290. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160430185327/https://books.google.com/books?id=1L
IPFk6oFVkC&pg=PA550&dq=diatessaron+diapason+diapente+fourth+fifth) from the original on 2016-04-30.
3. Cooper, Paul (1973). Perspectives in Music Theory: An Historical-Analytical Approach, p. 16. ISBN 0-396-06752-2.
4. Prout, Ebenezer & Fallows, David (2001). "All'ottava". In Root, Deane L. (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians. Oxford University Press.​
5. "Music" (https://www.netflix.com/watch/80243768?trackId=14277283&tctx=0,0,6408cfd3-9144-40c3-b5e9-38b6e4738e
aa-17692375,,). Vox Explained. Event occurs at 12:50. Retrieved 2018-11-01. "When you ask men and women to sing
in unison, what typically happens is they actually sing an octave apart."
6. Burns, Edward M. (1999). "Intervals, Scales, and Tuning", The Psychology of Music second edition, p. 252. Deutsch,
Diana, ed. San Diego: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-213564-4.
7. e.g., Nettl, 1956; Sachs, C. and Kunst, J. (1962). In The wellsprings of music, ed. Kunst, J. The Hague: Marinus
Nijhoff.
8. e.g., Nettl, 1956; Sachs, C. and Kunst, J. (1962). Cited in Burns, Edward M. (1999), p. 217.
9. Clint Goss (2012). "Flutes of Gilgamesh and Ancient Mesopotamia" (http://Flutopedia.com/mesopotamian_flutes.htm).
Flutopedia. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120628142037/http://www.flutopedia.com/mesopotamian_flutes.ht
m) from the original on 2012-06-28. Retrieved 2012-01-08.
10. Leon Crickmore (2008). "New Light on the Babylonian Tonal System". ICONEA 2008: Proceedings of the International
Conference of Near Eastern Archaeomusicology, Held at the British Museum, December 4–6, 2008. 24: 11–22.
11. "The mechanism of octave circularity in the auditory brain (http://www.neuroscience-of-music.se/eng7.htm) Archived (h
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20100401145359/http://www.neuroscience-of-music.se/eng7.htm) 2010-04-01 at the
Wayback Machine", Neuroscience of Music.
12. Demany L, Armand F. The perceptual reality of tone chroma in early infancy. J Acoust Soc Am 1984; 76:57–66.
Allen, David. 1967. "Octave Discriminability of Musical and Non-Musical Subjects". Psychonomic Science 7:421–22.
Blackwell, H. R., & H. Schlosberg. 1943. "Octave Generalization, Pitch Discrimination, and Loudness Thresholds in the
White Rat". Journal of Experimental Psychology 33:407–19.
Cynx, Jeffrey. 1996. "Neuroethological Studies on How Birds Discriminate Song". In Neuroethology of Cognitive and
Perceptual Processes, edited by C. F. Moss and S. J. Shuttleworth, 63. Boulder: Westview Press.
Demany, Laurent, and Françoise Armand. 1984. "The Perceptual Reality of Tone Chroma in Early Infancy". Journal of
the Acoustical Society of America 76:57–66.
Sergeant, Desmond. 1983. "The Octave: Percept or Concept?" Psychology of Music 11, no. 1:3–18.

External links
Anatomy of an Octave (http://www.kylegann.com/Octave.html) by Kyle Gann

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In musical tuning theory, a

Pythagorean interval is a musical
interval with frequency ratio equal to a
power of two divided by a power of
three, or vice versa. For instance, the
perfect fifth with ratio 3/2 (equivalent to
31/21) and the perfect fourth with ratio
4/3 (equivalent to 22/31) are

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