source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 3 May 1997 19:09:18 -0700 Subject: equal temperaments: why bother? From: Paul Rapoport The question about why bother with equal temperaments is welcome. I'd add that their structures, and widely differing ones at that, make a fascinating musical--and yes, expressive--difference. Related to this, you have true enharmonic equivalent pitches and intervals in equal temperaments, which you may get in just systems only by fudging things theoretically. Then there is the practical problem in just systems of treating all notes potentially the same way. If there is a limited number of pitches available, say on a keyboard, then you can't. Even with infinite numbers of pitches (not a problem in electronic media), there are certain traditional harmonic problems which do not admit an easy solution. Of course, there are plenty of disadvantages to equal temperaments as well. None of which means they are superior or inferior to anything overall. Many people work in both equal temperaments and other tunings, for their own reasons, which maybe they will add here. Paul Rapoport Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 4 May 1997 05:05 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA03886; Sun, 4 May 1997 05:05:25 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA03854 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id UAA26338; Sat, 3 May 1997 20:02:29 -0700 Date: Sat, 3 May 1997 20:02:29 -0700 Message-Id: <01IIG7F9B8328Y4Y8F@ONLINE.EMICH.EDU> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu