source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 19:02:45 -0700 Subject: Re: pseudo From: mr88cet@texas.net (Gary Morrison) >> * It's not an 81:80 frequency ratio. >This would mean that 2^1/7, 2^11/19 (and 8*88cents) are pseudo fifths too. Does that mean that you'd like to change the name of a scale that's existed for several hundred years to quarter-ptolemaic-just-syntonic-comma meantone? A P5 is a basic chord and scale constructor, whereas a syntonic comma is a measured result of a specific experiment, which has subsequently been used as a semigeneric unit of pitch difference for specifying the sizes of meantone fifths. I'm not in favor of changing the size of the centimeter, thank you. The syntonic comma is interesting, historically speaking, for two attributes: First is how it comes about (the pitch difference between large and small Ptolemaic whole-steps). The second is that it is probably the most basic of a handful of justifications (all puns intended) for an OPEN system of tuning - one with an indefinite number of tones per octave's span. The task of either accepting precise renderings of just ratios, including the comma discrepancies it generates, or of tempering in terms of that comma, is almost certainly the single-longest running thread in the history of tuning. Now, we have a new concept that shows only one of those two vital attributes - the difference between large and small whole tones, but explicitly precludes an open system of tuning. We are faced with a choice: Do we generalize an existing term to where one of its two most important attributes is rendered irrelevant, or at least secondary? Or, do we derive from the first term, a new term for the new concept? I think that Ivor Darreg's choice of "pseudo" is at least a pretty good term for something that has some, but not all, of the qualities of an "". Perhaps a "quasi" would be better? If you two really think that it's better to reuse an existing term ... Well... OK... "Syntonic comma" certainly wouldn't be the first such term. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Thu, 1 May 1997 04:06 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA01549; Thu, 1 May 1997 04:06:13 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA01576 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id TAA25649; Wed, 30 Apr 1997 19:04:37 -0700 Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 19:04:37 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu