source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 06:15:32 -0800 Subject: Re: TUNING digest 647 From: linusliu@hk.super.net (Linus Liu) >A posting in the list is > >>I recognize the sound of only two tunings - >>one is 12-tone equal-temperament and the >>other is not. > >This is a reasonable sentiment for a milatary general, but for a keyboard >muscian, it only makes evident the lack of tonal perspective. William Sethares just sent me a private mail to explain that he meant this statement just for laughs. Well not quite, he told me something which I also find true, he said: > this is the kind of attitude that I get from musicians > whenever talk about alternate tunings comes up What I also find is that musicians and audience always cannot tell a difference between music played in tune and 12-TET (thinking that they are the same). But they can tell "modified" tunings. An example is my wife commented Gary's 19-TET piece sounding like a band of small children playing their cheap recorders (Sorry, Gary). > If you do not recognize a mean-tone tuning, or a Well temperament, >you are really missing an important perspective on what 12 tone ET actually >sounds like. I do not know what to say someone has missed if someone cannot notice that Heifetz, and a few others, play 100% in tune - on certain pieces. > As far as what is "in tune"; if "in tune" describes that which is >arranged harmoniously, it is a mathematical fact that equally tempered >keyboards are out of tune. > Violinists and other non fixed pitch instruments don't play in equal >temperament very long if left to themselves .The critical musical ear >naturally seeks the harmonious placement of pitches to form purer intervals >than what is found in 12 tone equal temperament. >regards, >Ed Foote >Precision Piano Works >Nashville, Tn. > Not just one string quartet member confessed on the "bowed-strings" newsgroup that they spend 99% of their time on intonation. Harpists and harpsichordists complain of their having to tune their own instruments. They forget that violinists and singers have to tune each and every note in real time. it is natural that we spend 99% of our time on intonation. Intonation is of course not just meant for "harmonious placement". It is meant for creating the sentiments of joy, sorrow, love, and every possible sentiment of an artist's endeavour. If you are still not bored, please congratulate me over my 6-year- old daughter's winning yesterday second prize in an open schools piano competition, grade 3, among 54 competitors. Before, she won third prize at the same competition grade one at four, and another third prize in grade two at five. She has absolute pitch, but does not realise that my violin intonation is different from the piano. She tries to correct me even, sometimes. But when my Faure Sicilienne sounded so good, she bounced up and down like a ball. Regards, Linus Liu. Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 2 Mar 1996 18:35 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id JAA28369; Sat, 2 Mar 1996 09:35:28 -0800 Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 09:35:28 -0800 Message-Id: <9603021734.AB04826@delta1.deltanet.com> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu