We use the term “higher” to describe notes of smaller wavelengths, and this term seems strangely fitting in a way that I don’t quite understand. For example, when a band is playing heavy bass notes and then a singer comes in with treble notes, it seems like the vocal notes are actually physically *higher* (like, in the room or in my ears) than the bass notes.
Is this a real thing? Or am I just imagining it? Or is it just subconscious association with the words “high” and “low” which we use to describe these notes? Or maybe I’m just noticing that speakers and venues usually put the woofers on the bottom and the tweeters on the top?
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A literal view, while possible to think about, is missing the point a bit. This is one of those things that is not *actually true*. It’s just a learned association that begins to ‘make sense’. Other cultures may use different terms, like bright/dark in Danish, or light/deep in Norwegian.
From David Cohen’s chapter in The Cambridge History of Music Theory, p. 315:
>… this familiar spatial image or metaphor, which we take for granted, seems to have been absent or merely inchoate in the conceptualization of music until about this time. The technical terms in ancient Greek and Roman music-theoretical writings for what we call “high” and “low” pitch were, instead, “acute,” that is, “sharp” or “pointed” (Gr. oxeia, Lat. actua), and “grave,” that is, “heavy” (Gr. bareia, Lat. gravis).
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