source file: mills2.txt Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 14:46:06 -0700 Subject: TUNING digest 874 From: Daniel Wolf <106232.3266@compuserve.com> Re: Johnny Reinhard on cent notation. There is a deeper aesthetic issue behind the notation question. If it is my intention to compose in a texture of fixed pitches, then cents are a reasonable notation. If however, my intention is to have just intonation in a harmonic texture, then it is more appropriate to ask the players to locate the tones by intervals expressed as ratios (perhaps with cents as an ancillary notation) and to tune these intervals by eliminating beats. In my String Trio _Figure and Ground_, I used a cent notation in the first version of the third movement. Even with the best players, the results were unsatisfactory, because points of reference were lost as the general pitch level tends to drift, rendering fixed cent intervals all but useless. A renotation with ratios attached solved all the problems and the Thuermchen ensemble has since played the piece with real success (a cd will be released next year). In my second string quartet, _Field Work_, I require a serious retuning of 15 of the sixteeen open strings. In that the pitches are relatively prime, and only open strings and natural harmonics are used, I find that what is essentially a tablature notation suffices. But in this case, the players are not asked to locate pitches during the performance as the locating has taken place beforehand (via electronic tuning instruments and reduced beating). Of course, there are countries like France or Belgium where a fixed do solfeggio has been drummed into the heads of all _conservertoire_ musicians, and there are some musicians with so-called _absolute pitch_. In these cases, the chances of obtaining a just intonation via reduced beating are practically hopeless. (I myself have a good pitch memory, but Choir singing and trombone playing have taught me to turn this facility on and off in deference to relative pitch) Daniel Wolf, Frankfurt Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 26 Oct 1996 00:31 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA10609; Sat, 26 Oct 1996 00:33:34 +0200 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA01524 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id PAA16336; Fri, 25 Oct 1996 15:33:31 -0700 Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 15:33:31 -0700 Message-Id: <2.2.32.19961025223019.006766e0@adnc.com> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu