source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 4 May 1997 21:17:51 -0700 Subject: why ET's From: Aline Surman Actually, that is an interesting question. If I am not mistaken, the original impetus for developing eq temps in western music was to be able to modulate to distant keys, and be somewhat in tune. The history of meantone and well temperaments seems to bear that out. Using Papa Bach as a prime example, his music would have been impossible to realize in any sort of pure tunings. So would jazz, or any music with more than a few chord changes...and, I love music with chord changes. As to the comment that we now have keyboards that can play pure tunings, that's great for keyboard players, but maybe not for the rest of the musicians in the world who play other axes. And, Marion's comment that he thought people gravitated to eq temps because they were "easier"...easier in what way? I certainly admit that pure tuning understanding is a vast and endless subject...I am working toward that goal daily, and it's a long haul. However,do we mean, by easier, intellectual understanding, or the performance of great music? If we mean performance, than I must frankly say that much music in pure tunings that I've heard is abysmal, more of an attempt to demonstrate the tuning rather than to be a great musician. This is referred to as microdoodling (in some places). I'm not so sure that modulating through a cycle of major or minor 3rds in 34 tone eq, and writing a killer chord progression off of same cycle, and then improvising (or composing) a great solo over those changes, is terribly easy. This is one of my future projects, and it is a bear. Again, musician and theorist surely overlap in places, but too often, in my experience, there's a lot of talk about tunings, much of which is quite advanced, but little advanced music to back up the talk. Much great music has been made in 12 eq, and I am listening to some killer flamenco as I write...yes, I am bored to tears with 12 eq, but you "just" champions better get on the ball, then, and do some serious playing and composing, instead of chattering...then, your words will have more real depth and meaning...Hstick (PS...and certainly, such folks as Lou Harrison, the Reinhards, Catler Bros, John Schneider, and a few others, have made great "just" music...not to mention the zillions of Indian, Arabic, and Turkish musicians who have been doing so for thousands of years)...(PS 2...my friend Ernie Crews had a dream a while back that the "just intonation" folks had taken over the world, and had outlawed eq temps...ho ho) Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 5 May 1997 16:19 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA04944; Mon, 5 May 1997 16:18:40 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA04832 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id HAA21602; Mon, 5 May 1997 07:16:11 -0700 Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 07:16:11 -0700 Message-Id: <97050223092849/0005695065PK1EM@mcimail.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu