source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1997 16:31:22 -0800 Subject: Re: TUNING digest 980 From: "Adam B. Silverman" Again with the semantics! How silly! I like this, Gary: > I've always taken partials to mean: >* "Partials" to mean frequency components of a sound whether or not they >are > harmonically related. >* "Overtones" to mean essentially the same as partials, but implying > frequency components above the perceived pitch of the tone as a whole. >* "Harmonics" to mean partials that are in fact harmonically related. But Lucy says: >Let's call the sounds we hear when we touch the string lightly,, >(which Matt calls "complex tones"): > "ghosttones" (for the sake of clarity). No! Let's call them "Flageolet tones" like the rest of the world (except France, who might think that you're talking about a bean). >For an "ideal string" everything Just Intonation enthusiasts >claim may be totally true. > >I feel that the "ideal string" is a purely intellectual >mechanism, which may have contributed to some of the paradoxes, >which I have encountered in the "harmonics only at integer >frequency ratios" logic. >I am talking about the REAL (gets rusty from your sweat) string. Since when is music a purely intellectual mechanism? You're right that music is not purely intellectual, but it is therefore foolish to propose a non-harmonic basis for your "pure-tuning" since strings will differ among themselves, and certainly all instruments will be wildly different from the others in your orchestra. On another note... Forget the new millenium! Here is the most important landmark of our time...20 days until Tuning Digest 1000! _________________ Adam B. Silverman 153 Cold Spring Street; A3 New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 782-1765 abs22@pantheon.yale.edu Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 10 Feb 1997 04:32 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA00726; Mon, 10 Feb 1997 04:32:46 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA00724 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id TAA18148; Sun, 9 Feb 1997 19:31:06 -0800 Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1997 19:31:06 -0800 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu