The Rule of the Octave

For the footnotes and other extra information see the following link:
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Created by Elam Rotem & Sean Curtice, April 2021.

Special thanks to Iason Marmaras, Johannes Menke, Felix Diergarten, David Erzberger, Leonard Schick, and Anne Smith.

[Williamegert]

Elam, I mean no flattery in the statement: you are the quintessential music teacher. There is a lot of elitism that goes on in this realm. You make things easy to understand, use humor, are humble and above all, it is crystal clear that you are a true lover of your art. Thank you, I am made greater after watching your videos.

[brentusfirmus]

"Counterpoint teachers hate him! Local *lutenist* discovers the *secret* to continuo playing with ONE WEIRD TRICK... LEARN THE TRUTH NOW" 😂😂😂

[MusicaUniversalis]

10 years ago, my then composition teacher who I had just started taking lessons with showed me all inversions of this rule (ascending and descending) in major and minor and then made me learn to play them by ear in all key signatures. He demanded I play them before writing them down in order to train my ear, it was tedious but ultimately incredibly helpful. After playing them, I ended up writing almost two notebooks full of every inversion along with every key signature of this rule. It took a few weeks, but it was worth it, and good start to getting into figured bass. I'm honestly very surprised someone made such a beautifully thorough video on it, it always seemed way too specific for my own channel. Anyway I just got it as an exercise from him and never bothered to search for the source texts, so thanks for this.

[AndrewGordonBellPerc]

Just before going to bed last night I had the thought: It's been a while since the last Early Music Sources video.

Then I wake up to this!

[smuecke]

Your meme game is so strong. Loving it!

[maurobraunstein]

I never really cared about Renaissance music -- until I saw some of your videos. This was years ago, and now I'm totally captivated by the music theory of the past. It's a little weird to think that YouTube wouldn't have any historical music theory content if it weren't for this channel, but I don't see where else to learn this stuff (other than from the primary sources, which are not easy to read -- or find). Are there even comprehensive textbooks showing different theorists'/teachers' approaches to voice leading, cadences, modes, etc.? I feel like it's only here. Thanks for constantly making such great content.

[DUNCZI]

Dear Elam, today's (learnt) musician (so not bass guitarists) basically (or frequently) do not know just enough measure about early music. Hence, when early music is on performance there are many mistake will be detected. I appreciate Your nobile work. You really will be a source. Grazie mille! Juts go ahed. Your fun.

[johnrothfield]

Toward the end of the episode you touched on the idea that "Rule of the octave" might have a mystical, astrological, or eternal aspect. The following should be obvious. I think this can be equivalently thought of in modern terms as follows:

1. The rules can probably be derived from first principles based on what is considered consonant or dissonant, which in turn could be argued is mathematically determined by the overtones, which at the time were considered mystical, like math itself. Certainly systems of mathematics are god-like.

2. Probably an machine learning AI could generate the rules by feeding it a few compositions. I'm sure someone has done this.

3. I think some of the authors you mentioned ascribed the rules as innate. According to Chomsky, we have innate language recognizers that can create grammar, so that we could naturally create a grammar to recognize the rules. Probably every thinking musician has there own theory of music that they create.

4. Apriori. Probably the rules could be generated from a small set of axioms, similar to Geometry or 20th century work by Whitehead etal. The problem of course is that such a system is closed.

[rafesca]

This is fantastic! I started practicing the rules a few days ago… I’m already finding I can improvise an elegant-sounding third voice on two-part pieces—like magic! I’ve always wanted to get good at improvising on early music, but I never quite understood how. It’s really uncanny how much this video opened up and clarified a huge chunk of music of western history for me. Thank you!!

[ospgntc]

I'm surprised every time how incredibly well done your videos are. There is no shortage of research, good explanation, humor, and - not to mention - stunning visualization. It's a miracle to me that you don't have ten times as many subscribers. Please keep up the phenomenal work and don't stop making these videos!

[NorkelFjols]

"Counterpoint teachers hate him!" God, that had me laughing for a whole minute XD

[lawrencetaylor]

In church I wasn't an orphan, in fact I came from a large family and had younger brothers, and a meaner older brother. When we had to sing, they would often laugh. So I never learned to harmonize. In fact, I joked that I was born with two left ears.
I bought a piano at 65 years of age, like my Mother, and have been practicing ever since. It was only last month that I learned of the Rule of the Octave. Elam and his channel has become an amazing guide. I got over my shame of singing and practice singing using the tonic, third and fifth. I watched this video for the third time, and I guess I have to learn counterpoint.
Oh well, it's never too late.

[hucbald]

Each of your new videos is a real treasure for us musicians and teachers. This one again shows very nicely how well one can teach. Full of best expertise and humor! Thanx a lot again!

[mrsenstitz]

That was so eye opening. The place of the third is brilliant.

[HumbleNewMusic]

Such a b e a u t i f u l video in so many ways... Thank you Elam!! 👊 🎶 🙂

[kateclark]

Absolutely wonderful (again!) Thank you so much Elam and Sean! It is so clear and bright and lovely to watch and even funny :-) And I want to point out that not only keyboardists but also melody instrumentalists can benefit hugely from understanding the Rule of the Octave: it is a wonderful guide to the harmony underlying their own repertoire and to embellishing it.

[mrsenstitz]

I have learned a great deal from you. Thank you.

[GoodSneakers]

Another splendid episode! I thought the rule of the octave just had something to do with octave intervals or parallels, but this was very insightful for me as a piano teacher and arranger!

[spielplatzaltemusik]

Great Video and a great channel! Thank you for putting in so much effort to spread the word about early music in a lighthearted way!

[natullus]

yeah!! new Early Music Sources video = best day of the week! thank you <3