source file: mills2.txt Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 13:10:27 -0800 Subject: Subharmonic chords From: Daniel Wolf <106232.3266@compuserve.com> Paul wrote: '' It should be pointed out that no less an authority than James Tenney dismissed subharmonic interpretations as a musical fiction, despite their compact appearance in his lattices.'' My conversations with Jim and La Monte Young in Krems, and with Jim later in Frankfurt last year suggested that both were very much more flexible on this issue than your remark indicates. ''Musical fiction'' is an extremely curious phrase to use. ''Music-theoretic fiction'' is more plausible, but I have no idea what terms of reference are construed as fiction and fact by this statement. The fact remains that /4:/5:/6 is a description of a set of frequency relationships that is extremely useful, while the equivalent harmonic description (in lowest terms: 10:12:15) is misleading when applied to any real musical contexts of which I am aware. Do you really hear a just minor triad as being built a Major third above an absent fundamental? Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 20 Jan 1997 18:14 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA07761; Sat, 18 Jan 1997 02:21:12 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA07754 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id RAA23570; Fri, 17 Jan 1997 17:21:10 -0800 Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 17:21:10 -0800 Message-Id: <54970117214645/0005695065PK4EM@MCIMAIL.COM> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu