Originally Posted by rharv
Yes
However, doesn't that require that those biological and neural responses mean we inherently have a 'snapshot', if you will, of those overtones-over-time that allows us to respond? Comparable to a static painting, say .. or ROM
We (even non-musicians) may very well have a "snapshot" or natural understanding of what an octave is even if we may be unable to articulate that understanding in words.

I agree with Levitin when he says "we’ve come back home again each time we double a tone’s frequency". But have we really fully "come back home"? We've doubled the frequency so we are no longer "home" in the frequency domain but I think we are "home" in some other domain that appears to be circular; think circle of 5ths.

Moving from A440 to A880 may sound equivalent from one perspective but those two notes are quite different from another perspective. Perhaps the brain is wired to collapse 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, etc. frequency ratios into a single category that we percieve as "similar". And maybe it does this because these integer ratios don't allow any dissonance from happening. Non integer ratios would introduce dissonance because the pressure pulses reaching the inner ear are out of sync.

Just a thought . . .

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