source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 21 Dec 1996 09:50:20 -0800 Subject: Systematizing Tuning Again From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@compuserve.com> As I was wading through my past messages, I came upon those I sent regarding the question of whether there's value in systematizing tunings. That as opposed to playing whatever pitch you need at the moment. As I did saw them, an analogy to why I think there is value in systematizing tuning came to mind. It may be analogy that some list subscribers can relate to, perhaps others not, since it is an analogy to particle physics. (And of course, this is just my opinion; others might disagree entirely.) In one of my favorites from my video library, a particle physicist said the following (this is an approximate quote anyway), "The standard model of the Universe is very powerful. It explains so much, but it's not complete. It's main flaw is an asthetic flaw: it's too complicated. Ever since the ancient Greeks put us on our current line of inquire, we've had this prejudice that there's something simple underlying it all. Well, six quarks and six leptons, coming in different 'colors', and in their antiparticle forms, is too complicated." In short, what they're fighting is the sense they have that, if they ever encounter anything they can't explain, they just patch up their theory by contriving a new particle, rather than finding a way that well-understood particles or forces can explain that phenomenon. (Of course, those particles are not contrived though in the sense that that particle must actually be detected in a particle accelerator before it is accepted to exist.) In analogy, using a coherent system of pitches rather than just inventing a new pitch whenever you run into a new compositional problem to solve, I believe can lead to more meaningful musical results. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 21 Dec 1996 22:16 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA23211; Sat, 21 Dec 1996 22:18:36 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA23210 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id NAA11556; Sat, 21 Dec 1996 13:18:34 -0800 Date: Sat, 21 Dec 1996 13:18:34 -0800 Message-Id: <199612211616_MC1-DBF-624D@compuserve.com> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu