source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 21 Dec 1996 14:00:08 -0800 Subject: Re: Systematizing Tuning Again From: Matt Nathan Gary Morrison wrote: > 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. Those aren't mutually exclusive. I'd like to be able to compose with a tool which allowed access to any pitch I needed without having to predetermine the set. That doesn't mean my pitch choices must be random or lacking analyzable structure. > ...a particle physicist said...approximate quote anyway..."...six > quarks and six leptons, coming in different 'colors', and in their > antiparticle forms, is too complicated." > > ...they're fighting...the sense...that...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. > > 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. All analogies break down, and it probably doesn't help much to pick at them, but it's kind of fun, so: To me, you have it backwards. A "coherent system of pitches" sounds like the "too complicated" six quarks etc., and the idea of picking any pitch you need from a single parameter of frequency sounds like the unifying, simplifying analog to a physical theory which would explain all 6 quarks. I'd like to think of it more as systemized tunings being individual specimens of the infinity of pitch combinations, all based on the single umbrella parameter of frequency, just as the infinity of molecular configurations may someday be explainable by a single physical theory. I prefer to think of pitch systems as temporary compositional devices which may be used over a whole piece or just in passing. A composition approaching the complexity of natural beauty might end up using thousands of pitches in hundreds of analyzable "molecular" subsets. Matt Nathan Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 22 Dec 1996 17:50 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA28288; Sun, 22 Dec 1996 17:52:37 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA28285 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id IAA15236; Sun, 22 Dec 1996 08:52:35 -0800 Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 08:52:35 -0800 Message-Id: <32BD7468.B25@interlinx.qc.ca> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu