source file: mills2.txt
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 22:44:29 -0700

Subject: 88CET #14:  Pragmatic Concerns 2

From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@compuserve.com>

Concluding my comments on interesting pragmatic considerations with working
in a nonoctave environment...

   Another complication comes with ear-training and sight-singing.  I'm
convinced that semiformal ear training is even more important to xenharmonic
composition and performance than in traditional, and unfortunately isn't pursued
in depth except by a comparative few.   

   But editorialism aside, ear training exercises often require you to sing a
note at a particular pitch.  If the intended pitch does not fit within your
vocal range, you will usually sing an octave equivalent of that pitch.  If you
do this in a nonoctave tuning you would be singing an entirely different note
that does not even necessarily lie within the tuning system!  As with the case
of tuning instruments to each other, this is one of those cases where we take
the existence of octaves for granted.  

   But it's important to realize that this is not necessarily a problem.  Even
in the usual octave-based environment, you can't legitimately change octaves
frequently and still claim to be singing what you're supposed to be singing. So,
if you perform an entire exercise at the same octave offset from the desired
pitches, you're probably going to learn just as much as if you could sing them
at the exactly correct pitch.  

   Also, in a case where you are practicing interval singing, such as if you are
asked to sing an "answer" pitch that is thus-and-so interval above a root note.
Rather than only singing the answer pitch, you can sing the root pitch as well
just to establish the octave offset, and sing the answer pitch at the same
offset.  

   The key point here is that, in short, it's just an exercise.  Still, without
a doubt, it is very desirable wherever possible to try to avoid substituting
octave equivalents in exercises, since it's clearly unacceptable in an actual
nonoctave performance or composition.  


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