source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1996 10:03:01 -0800 Subject: Re: notation From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@CompuServe.COM> > If I read a notation that says 969 for this note and 840 for that, unless > I know the theory and have memorized arbitrary numbers, these two mean > rather little. But if I have a sign for the 7th harmonic and another for the > 13th, then I know the relationships and can begin to hear and produce the > intervals. I think Johnny's point is that if a note-head had, for example "-15" over it (meaning that it is to be played fifteen cents flat of 12TET), you can whip out a fingering variation that you have memorized to be roughly that much flat of that note. Once you know the 12TET fingerings, and any player of a given instrument would, it wouldn't take much more effort to augment that knowledge with a series of memorized cent variations. That is far easier than performing from a 7th or 13th harmonic sort of description, because with that you'd have think - in realtime, on the fly - "OK, what's the root of this chord (that in itself is especially tough since any realistic performance each performer will have PARTS, and not the whole conductor's score)? How does this note relate to that root? How much flat is a 13th harmonic from the closest 12TET pitch?" Or similarly, in 17TET say, "OK, what's the tonic now? Which scale step is this note relative to that tonic? How much sharp or flat is that 17TET note from the 12TET value that my instrument is designed to play?" The cent values, as Johnny so aptly pointed out, are ideal prescriptive notation, whereas the harmonic numbers or whatever, are ideal descriptive notation. Harmonic numbers on a JI conductor's score make it a whole lot easier to figure out what effect is to be achieved, but they are very impractical to work with in realtime on a performance basis. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 4 Nov 1996 23:16 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA00639; Mon, 4 Nov 1996 08:15:04 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA00637 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id XAA18036; Sun, 3 Nov 1996 23:15:01 -0800 Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1996 23:15:01 -0800 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu