source file: mills2.txt Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1996 09:18:36 -0700 Subject: Misc. From: Paul Rapoport A few random notes for anyone or no one: 1. On the origin of the word "jazz." This is uncertain; the story recently circulated is a popular one, but not necessarily correct. 2. On Hindemith. Having never studied with him, I can only report his book Unterweisung im Tonsatz, translated as The Craft of Musical Composition. This is the book in which he builds up a new harmonic theory based on the harmonic series and then treats everything as 12-tET. Hindemith discussed the 7th harmonic at some length but did not, as far as I can tell, understand it. His book is to me a historical curiosity: it almost did something right, perceived something of an abyss at really paying attention to the harmonic series, and then retreated into the familiar. I'd be interested in others' opinions. 3. Guitar tuning. Mark Rankin believes that the best way to take into account the flex of the strings at the frets is to include in the calculations something known as Gilbert scaling. I have had two fretboards built this way. Anyone else want to explain Gilbert scaling? I don't have the theory readily available. ========================== ================================= Dr. Paul Rapoport e-mail: rapoport@mcmaster.ca SADM (Music) tel: (+1) 905 529 7070, ext. 2 4217 McMaster University fax: (+1) 905 527 6793 Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Thu, 6 Jun 1996 19:08 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id KAA11333; Thu, 6 Jun 1996 10:08:38 -0700 Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1996 10:08:38 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu