source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 24 Feb 1996 09:57:48 -0800 Subject: Re: TUNING digest 641 - Mode & Mood From: "Laurence W. Key" Dear Matthew et al., Two audible effects which may relate mode to mood, one local, the other global: Proportionally beating triads. These have a characteristic "ringing" sound. The key coloration that results from irregular interval sizes. In the so-called "well-temperaments", the C major triad is closest to just, and travel around the circle of fifths, either toward the dominant or the subdominant, yields triads which are progressively farther from just. -+-+-+-+ Since we are no longer limited to the keyboard's 12 pitches/octave, we don't get to hear the sound of the wolf diminished sixth in 1/4 syntonic comma meantone. It's been disected into 31 equal parts in 31-ET. The same can be said for the wolf diminished fourth (7:9) or augmented fifth. One question that the musicologists haven't answered to my satisfaction: Did composers avoid these sounds, i.e. did performers tune their keyboards to the pieces they were performing, or did they simply regard them as somewhat different-sounding intervals to be utilized/exploited/dealt with? Laurence W. Key (flute001@peabody.jhu.edu) 1 East Mount Vernon Place Baltimore, Maryland 21202 Phone: (410) 659-4009 Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 24 Feb 1996 20:15 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id LAA14049; Sat, 24 Feb 1996 11:14:42 -0800 Date: Sat, 24 Feb 1996 11:14:42 -0800 Message-Id: <960224191236_71670.2576_HHB67-8@CompuServe.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu