source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 11:32:02 -0800 Subject: Re: Discussion on "Reply to Gary Morrison" (Bill Alves, Paule, From: Heinz Bohlen First of all: Greetings! I'm listening to the list now for several weeks, and I find it exciting. My deep felt thanks to Enrique Moreno who introduced me to it. Secondly: There seems to be some emotion around the question whether the diatonic scale is based on the major triad, and wonderful expressions like "historico-geographic fallacy" are thrown into the ring. I never had an opportunity to read what Mathews and Pierce have been advocating in this regard. However, when I (some time in the early seventies) was in the process of "discovering" what has been since dubbed the Bohlen-Pierce-Scale, I tried to come to terms with this question, too. And I guess I still see the answer as I have seen it at that time: the diatonic scale is the result of the INVOLUNTARY attempt to fill the framework of the octave with the major triad and its sub-intervals, and finally inserting small intervals created in the process to achieve equidistance. When trying to make harmonic music, and that was a cumbersome process during the middleages, the triad must have been present on the minds of the composers, whether it was "invented" at that time, or not. Okay, here you got my personal opinion, now shoot at me! By the way: I am interested in everything that Pierce or Mathews or others have been writing on the "Bohlen-Pierce-Scale", and I promise to send a copy of my first publication on the subject (alas, in German, and only as long as stock lasts) to everybody who can help me out regarding this matter. My address: Mail: Dale Ave. # 109 Fax: 415-852-9517 Mountain View, CA 94040 E-Mail: heinz.bohlen@mptp.cpii.com Heinz Bohlen Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 20 Nov 1996 20:46 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA01073; Wed, 20 Nov 1996 20:47:46 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA01069 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id LAA12904; Wed, 20 Nov 1996 11:47:43 -0800 Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 11:47:43 -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