#fish's-answers

[3584-tropical-fish]

hello i would like to know about medieval chants since you keep mentioning them

YAYYY okay buckle up because ive got A Lot that i've learned and i need to prep for an exam

so, in the middle ages you have a lot of monks following the rule of st. benedict, which (among other things) instructs monks to partake in some type of work, and to read sacred texts. Benedict doesn't specifically instruct monks to translate and preserve these texts, but the way he worded it means that a lot of them take it to mean that part of the work they should be doing is translating these old texts.

Particularly, they're translating greek scholars, and the guy important to medieval chant is Ptolemy. Ptolemy basically took a lot of earlier theorists works and modified them to fit his system, but the main things to remember is that ptolemy discussed:

pythagorean tuning (presumably developed by Pythagoras, based on ratios of string length to determine intervals)

the "perfect" intervals that result from this (octaves, fourths, and fifths)

Various modes (Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian). we don't know what these modes were, but we do know that they existed

and monophony (multiple voices (both actual voices and instruments) performing the same melody and moving at the same time)

So these are the ideas that early medieval monks are basing their music off of. They're also not writing it down early on, and just sort of making notes in their hymn books. These early notes are referred to as "neumes", and we dont really know exactly what was meant by all of these. They seem to give some general indication of pitch, though.

I'll also say here that there wasn't any pitch standard at the time. People started at a note that worked for their voice, and then they just sand from there and improvised what sounded nice.

In the middle ages, monks also adopted the ancient greek modes. Since they didn't know what these modes were, they made up their own definitions. So, each mode was assigned a series of tones (/whole steps) and semitones (/half steps). So, dorian was T S T T T S T. The four that were taken from ancient greek theory are known as the "authentic modes", and when they're used in a chant, the chant tends to stay above the finalis (the finale note of the chant, which is specific to which mode a chant is in). Medieval theorists also introduce plagal modes, where the chant tends to dip lower than the finalis. So, dorian tends not to go below a D (its finalis), but hypodorian will.

(though again, pitch standard wasn't real. a medieval d would not be the same as a modern d. and tuning was different back then).

you also get early staffs! these use ligatures, and are written on a four line staff. The clefs are movable, and you have three of them (F, C, and G. These eventually become our modern bass, alto, and treble clefs).

^^ this is an example with an F clef (also this is on a five line staff! So it’s probably later Middle Ages). So, that middle line is F, and if we assume this page to be the full chant, the finalis would be D. As it rarely goes below that D, this chant is in dorian mode.

In this example, you can also see an example of note-syllable relationships. Most syllables on here only have one note attached to it, so this would be a syllabic chant. When a chant is or a more important day or in praise of someone more important, they tend to get more ornate, and that's when you get neumatic chant (each syllable has a couple notes sung on it, which you see in this example occasionally), or melismatic chant, where a single syllable will be embellished extensively.

Here's a good example of a melismatic chant! It's for st. michael's feast day, so it's very important and very ornamented. The video includes medieval sheet music, and you can see how "alleluia" is incredibly intricate from the get go.

Also worth noting is the way they taught this! in the modern day, we have our solfege systems, which started as the hexachord, a series of six notes taken from "ut queant laxis". If you were learning chant in the middle ages, you'd use "ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la", and when you needed to go beyond six notes, you'd mutate into a new hexachord. Hexachords came in three varieties: the natural hexachord which started on C, the soft hexachord which started on F (and included a Bb), and the hard hexachord which started on G (and included a B natural). Bb is the first accidental because it was used to avoid tritones. Again, still no pitch standard, so these notes were kind of whatever you wanted them to be, but what was important was knowing where the intervals between them were.

As time passes, people in certain areas began making their chant more complex. This is where organum comes in. Organum simplum is when you'd have two voices moving at the same time, in harmony. They'd tend to keep the voices a fourth or a fifth apart, and that results in stuff like this:

Then they add more voices and things get MORE intricate. Monks will take pre-existing chants and create elaborate ornamentation on top of it. the original chant becomes a drone underneath this ornamentation, and is known as the tenor. At this point we’ve moved away from monophony and entered heterophony (one main voice and several derivative voices), and even polyphony (many unrelated voices)!!

This also is a good example of rhythmic modes! you can hear the almost swing feel, which comes from the se rhythmic modes tending to break down into out modern day 6/8 sort of timing. I won't elaborate on this because im just now learning more about this so im not confident on my knowledge about it.

And there's also the english method that emerges later, which changes the tuning of a major third, and then bases their chants around that instead of fourths and fifths!

I am uh. realizing just how much i wrote. so im gonna say that's a good overview of fun medieval chant stuff, but i hope this all made sense!! you'll probably hear a lot more of this once i get around to composing "sweet dark mouth - chant style" though :) thanks for asking and giving me an excuse to ramble about it!!

[ionomycin]

fishbone corset

[nhura]

QUICK NO ONE'S LOOKING

(See readmore for thoughts, cope, bonus, etc.)

Anyone else up thinking about Ratio's big, strong, secure arms and how warm and all-consuming they could be in a hug or embrace. :/ Anyway

I just wanted to draw them being cute and seizing a sliver of a moment where they could have some PDA silly time without actually having any eyes on them. They're public figures and working adults with very clear boundaries between public persona and private life (to varying degrees of "in a sad way"), so while it may be in Aventurine's nature to constantly blur lines for various agendas and self-preservation (read: play "the flirt" without an aligned goal), I believe that in an actual relationship they'd be fairly private.

It's kind of fun to break your own rules, though! Ratio would be more upset about the consequences, though. He's a little bit of a hypocrite, which is devastating for someone of such discipline, but nobody's perfect.

I'm of the mentality of, "If you're tired of working on it, then just post it!", so here are some fun peripherals that I didn't feel like adding:

Some staff in the background sweeping up to evoke a blended sense of fragile privacy and liminal time.

A laptop on the aquarium/bar/counter because there's something fascinating about seeing people on their work laptops in public.

The rest of their clothes (casual friday)

[sturgeonposting]

Gingerbread sturgeon

HES BEAUTIFUL AND HE MIMICS THE LIFE CYCLE AND GROWTH OF THE GENUS HUSO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hedgehog-moss]

I always underestimate how easy it can be to entertain a teenager. I have this preconception that small kids find everything fun even mundane stuff while teens are jaded and self-conscious and need elaborate or cool activities, but my teen cousins are visiting this week and when they arrived I was in the greenhouse having an issue with the filter in one of the tanks, so I asked them if they could catch all the fish from one tank and move them to the other tank, and they were delighted to be given little dip nets and sit on the edge of the tank to hunt fish for 20min. As I asked them to do it I was thinking, it’s like those duck-fishing fairground games from when they were toddlers, they’ll probably think it’s a bit cringe, and five minutes into it these jaded teenagers were like, hey it’s like duck fishing at the funfair when we were toddlers, I've missed it, it’s fun :D

[14dayswithyou]

This angel has another question! \o

do you have a general idea of what renrens voice would sound like? like a celebrity, singer, or maybe just a general description?

i hope all is going well for you 🫶🫶

✦゜ANSWERED: Ren's singing vc can be found here (I misread the original ask and thought it said "sings like", not "sounds like" sdksdgjs), but it also includes what I think Ren's talking voice would sound like ^^

But!! if I had to give an example, I've always imagined Eve (from Nier) to be very similar to Ren's talking voice!! It's soft, timid, and has that curious lilt to it — but also has dat [REDACTED] edge as well >:3

[feeshu09]

Hi! I found your blog today (like five minutes ago), absolutely feral for your art and not above begging! So, please please please more Happy Beginnings AU please please!!!! I love Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu so much!!! (If you don't want to, no harsh feelings <3)

Yue Qingyuan finally entered the chat bwahahaha

so yqy's qi deviation did happen. But instead of having his soul bound to his sword he somehow ended up in the modern day instead. Poor boi is lost and a bit disoriented at the moment. But he'll find Xiao jiu (and gain a new didi in the process)...eventually 🤭

(more of my happy beginings au: first | previous | next)

[feyburner]

Damian can of course draw very well, but he’d rather die than let Tim think he put any effort in

Final panel text:

Tim: Got a little sidetracked at the end there huh

Damian: What do you mean?

[serial-unaliver]

one thing I actually like about reddit is there's enough customer service workers on the site that people won't bitch at you if you say something like "i'm kind of tired of customers getting mad when I don't react positively to every repetitive joke they tell". yeah I guess you can say the customer is trying to be nice but do you think we're actually saying "ugh shut up" to the customer in real life rather than putting on our best performance for a manager? lmfao. I remember the amount of hate I got for my post joking about certain customer interactions with credit cards because people genuinely assumed i'm like, screaming at customers over this.

also why is it exclusively the customer that is supposed to be given the benefit of the doubt and not the person who is being verbally abused and/or sexually harassed for minimum wage full time LOL. "what if the customer has personal problems" I am literally so physically ill at my job i've had to leave in an ambulance that pulled up to the store more than once. sorry though, I forgot this is something only a customer is capable of experiencing in life. obviously if you're working it's a choice and you have no sort of issue whatsoever. not like you need money to live under capitalism or anything right?

[3584-tropical-fish]

ask game yayyy NEXT

She’s quiet for a moment before she continues on. Her gaze trails away from them as she says, “Did he seem strange to you? The whole deal with the statements, the tape recorder… it didn’t feel natural, did it?” Arthur hesitates, and then says, “Yes, I think you’re right. It was as if…”

leaving you with a trail off into nothing, because I am honestly not quite certain where I'm heading from here, but I did write a new line! which is an improvement over the past however long!

Anyways, this is some horror besties AU for you, sonia! my beloved crack crossover that i and @the-zenith-calls take way too seriously <3

[hinamie]

Your face in profile, with a look I'd never seen

jjk atla!au with @philosophiums

[fishsticksloser]

First of all, LOVE ur blog

Second, can you do rise boys x reader, but reader just randomly calls them by their full Name when their in trouble-

Thank you!

-stars

Full Name

RotTMNT x gn!reader

Warnings: full name = trouble, swearing, short

A/N: Time is moving so weirdly... Posting today cause I was just so busy and out of it yesterday

Donnie

"Donatello Hamato!"

His full name?

You must be angry

He's sweating bullets

He keeps a pretty good poker face, just nervousness showing in his eyes

He smiles nervously when you come into his lab

Oh yeah... You're mad

Leo

"Leonardo!"

Oh shit...

What did he do?

He racks his brain trying to remember if he did anything bad

He grins anxiously, remembering what he did as you walk in

He'll act like he has no clue what you're talking about

Mikey

"Michelangelo!"

You never call him that!

He immediately comes to find you

Seeing you upset about something he did

Immediately apologizing

He feels so bad

Raph

"Raphael Hamato!"

You used his whole name?

He is worried

He goes to find you

When he sees why you're upset he's on his knees apologizing

He'll tell you "Raph didn't mean to" or "sorry, baby"

He hates upsetting you even by accident

[glassshine]

thread of all fish jewellery I made

thank you for your time

[bambiilooza]

banished poseidon lore pls!!

there is info under the cut cuz i don't wanna make the post too long for ppl who just wanna see the drawing

here's a drawing of poseidon being sane <33

he named the seagull btw. it's called triton.

so, this isn't very accurate to epic or any myths and i'm kind of just fucking around. so keep that in mind.

with the gods, they will have these tattoos to symbolise their status as a god. after he was stabbed and absolutely humiliated, they were sort of just peeled off his skin by some divine force. (the only reference i can think for what it's like is an mlp episode lol. in 'the cutie map', they're cutie marks are ripped off of them. it's like that but much more painful.)

it wasn't zeus who did it and i'm just gonna keep it vague and say it's fate or something. just some sort of force? i don't know.

he wakes up washed up on a very small island off the coast of scheria (where the phaeacians live) and is stuck there. he calls out to zeus in desperation but, gets no response which makes him realise that he's been cast out. he's no longer respected by any of the olympians and his cries for help go unanswered.

also, on the island, time works differently. one hour is gonna feel like one day. so, when he gets a visitor on the 5th day he's on the island, it feels to him like it was much longer than 5 days since he's seen that person. i'll reveal who that person is when i have art of the reunion drawn. but, feel free to guess

with the time thing, i've not yet decided if that's happening to him due to his loss of status as a god, the island's just being freaky or it's a work of athena. i like the third option the most but, i've not fully decided.

i think that's enough for now cuz this is getting long. thanks for reading :D

[tinystepsforward]

Okay, so this is a wild hypothetical and begging baseless speculation... but would Matt getting the boot be better for Tumblr specifically? Have unintentional knock-ons? (And thanks for all your commentary and updates!)

this is absolutely a wild hypothetical! the answer is, perhaps predictably, that it depends on who replaces him.

automattic as a whole is rotten from the top down. one of the board members is a perfect example of this: the very first female general in the US military. #girlboss, right? matt was very excited about bringing her onboard.

matt is on the board. toni, who i believe is the interim ceo and know very little about, is on the board. i would assume that any replacement ceo would be less likely to start a complete PR trashfire, but that doesn't mean that they're not still going to be making cynical, profit-based decisions.

in this economy it's very unlikely that tumblr will be staffed well enough or given enough agency to create actual lasting change for the better. but we'd at least have a ceo who isn't prone to using superadmin tools to fuck individual people over when trying to win arguments, i guess? which is not a structural win in any way, it just removes one particular volatile factor.

[akalikestodraw]

could you maaayyyyybbbeeee make a coelacanтh dragon?

i really like your arт and your designs are nice!!!!!

Fishy :3

I like how this guy turned out

(also bonus a song about this species of fish)