What's this? A perfect fifth? Why that sound?
This interval needs no introduction for anyone who knows about the physics of music. It is the pitch ratio of 1:3, the second overtone above a fundamental. The first overtone, double the frequency of the fundamental, is musically the same note: an octave. So, the 1:3 ratio produces the first tone which is musically different from the fundamental.
Pythagoras with his monochord demonstrated this relationship in the ? century B.C. It is highly doubtful that he was the first to recognize the overtone series and its ratios. Some writings about overtones exist in old Indian and Arabic manuscripts. Anyone who played a stringed instrument with any insight understands how to use harmonics, as well as anyone who ever played a flute or blew a trumpet.
Pythagoras gave us our first scientific description of the overtone series.. The same ratios exist in any waveform, whether sound or electromagnetic. The color spectrum is the overtone series of light. The interval of a fifth is secreted-or not- in almost every sound that I have ever heard, except, ironically, the human voice, which is Music's most sublime mystery.
The folk music of the entire world springs from this interval, from didgeridoos to bagpipe drones and fiddles. The fifth gave rise to Medieval organum, which was the seed of polyphony and the modern Western tonal system, which has come to dominate the music of the entire planet. The fifth is such a strong sound that it has to be avoided as often, or more often, than it is used. Its appearance in music is like a track on which the train must run.
Aside from being my favorite interval, I can't think of a more basic, versatile, or essential sound. I certainly love lush complex harmonies, no doubt about that. This sound (or sonority, or verticality, etc.)is still the simplest, most powerful and pervasive in music.
By the way, did you know it is possible to derive the tones on a monochord in reverse? Total symmetry.
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