source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 14:27:45 -0800 Subject: Re: Johnny's Lingua Franca Notation From: Johnny Reinhard American Festival of Microtonal Music 318 East 70th Street, Suite 5FW New York, New York 10021 USA (212)517-3550/fax (212) 517-5495 reinhard@ios.com On Mon, 4 Nov 1996, PAULE wrote: > > >Cents notation uses all the symbols of 24ET: this means that a 969 would > >be notated as a B natural with a "-31" above the notehead (assuming C as > >the fundamental). > > If I saw that, I would think 1059 cents, not 969. You are correct here. Two booboos in one: a Bb -31 is the correct notation. > > >Paul, it is not possible to sing the midpoint of a 7/4 without first > >learning it by rote, by memory, from a tuning machine. This logarithmic > >division of a "usually" > >unfamiliar interval is impossible to divide "on the cuff" into 2 equal > >halves (of 484.5 > >cents each). If you insist that you can do it, and I was to trust your > >veracity, you would be the first person in the world that has ever been > >able to achieve the feat. > I did not claim that I could do this! I certainly couldn't do it very > accurately. I did mention that the accuracy of logarthmic pitch-distance > perception was far more crude than the accuracy that can be acheived by > tuning to eliminate beats. I just claimed if one had systematically learned > 72-tet, one could do it very easily. This is what I mean by "rote." You learned in advance of applying your ear. If you had not, you would join the human race in being unable to split the unfamiliar 7/4 in half. > >Can you sing easily a scale of 5ET? 7ET? > >Yes, IF you learn it by rote. > > The musicians of Thailand, without the benefit of oscilloscopes, etc., > achieve 7et very nearly. This was probably achieved through a > trial-and-error method, and subsequently learned by rote. But the fact that > it was acheived in the first place is evidence of logarithmic hearing. One > can distinguish 5ET from other pentatonic scales, not necessarily in a > musical context, but by listening to the melodic intervals one by one and > noting any differences. Actually, I am fluid in playing and singing both 7ET and 5ET, but I learned them. One could not simply initiate these scales on the spot. One can "learn" the placements of anything (12ET proves that). One cannot do so unaided by previous preparation. > >Mathematical machinations to the contrary, cents deviations from a 12ET > >grid is for all musicians, not only AFMMers. > > Dismissing arguments based on practicality, feasibility, and acoustics as > "mathematical machinations" does not contribute to intelligent dialogue. > Apparantly members of Franz Richter Herf's institute and those who have > performed Ezra Sims' music do not fall under the heading of "all musicians." Please don't misunderstand me. I only want to underscore that AFMM musicians may be more devoted and more virtuosic than some, but they merely paid their dues, learning one tuning after another. They are drawn from the pool of all trained conservatory players. There is less of a difference in skill than in attitude, based upon my experiences. Johnny Reinhard Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 4 Nov 1996 23:31 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA00466; Mon, 4 Nov 1996 23:32:39 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA00464 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id OAA03278; Mon, 4 Nov 1996 14:32:30 -0800 Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 14:32:30 -0800 Message-Id: <01961104223210/0005695065PK3EM@MCIMAIL.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu