source file: mills2.txt Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 01:58:55 -0800 Subject: Re: Harmonics From: Matt Nathan Gary Morrison wrote: > simple whole-number ratios usually predict quite accurately what our ears > view as significant. They are the navigational bouys in the sea of tuning > possibilities. > > BUuuuut... I don't believe that pitch relationship being significant to > our ears means that we must ideally use it, any more than we should sail > into collision course with navigation bouys! For example, intentionally > missing a 3:2 P5 by about 5 cents produces quarter-comma meantone, which to > my ears and those of many others, sounds really fantastic! And it sounds > great not (only) because it hits a 5:4 right on, but even more so because > of the specific way that it misses 3:2. > > Obeying well-known ground rules sows the seeds of expectation in your > audience's minds, but defying those rules is what makes your audience > listen! Really brilliant music comes from cleverly and emotionally using > both expectation and defiance of expectation. Simple whole-number ratios, > being a pretty good model of what is fundamentally meaningful to our ears, > are one example of such a means of using and defying expectation. Regular > structures in a tuning system (like circles of fifths) are another, as are > consistency of meter and rhythm. Nice analogy. JI intervals are like guide buoys. They are the way we find our way around hearing-space. That means we can identify and enjoy other intervals; the fact that some singers can sing 12tet proves that. I'm repeating an earlier post, but I like to describe slightly detuned just intervals as an example of deviation from a gestalt, which is a basic device of all arts. People like a little beating and phasing sometimes. I do think there's a place for music which jumps directly from buoy to buoy though, especially nowadays when most of the music you hear is full of near misses. Matt Nathan Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Tue, 11 Feb 1997 14:57 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA02357; Tue, 11 Feb 1997 14:57:27 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA02355 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id FAA20871; Tue, 11 Feb 1997 05:55:15 -0800 Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 05:55:15 -0800 Message-Id: <199702110847_MC2-1119-64E8@compuserve.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu