source file: mills2.txt Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:01:42 +0200 Subject: Parch Tuning From: Lydia Ayers A couple of weeks ago, Adam Silverman posted: > 2. As Partch progressed through life, he became more inclined to >write dissonant, "mistuned" music which is based on his "Monophonic Scale," >but is not necessarily in what would be purists would consider to be Just >Intonation. It's a matter of opinion whether Partch wrote "mistuned" music. While he must have had some difficulty keeping the string instruments exactly in tune, he probably came as close as humanly possible. I don't agree that the intervals Partch used later in his life were "dissonant" either. The intervals continue to be "strange" for many people, but Partch himself considered them consonances, as indeed they are on at least some instruments, for example those with harmonic partials, such as flutes, and my Woodstock Gamelan, a tubulong percussion instrument. I also tuned my Chinese guzheng in a pentatonic scale of 1/1, 8/7, 9/7, 10/7 and 12/7 and it sounds very consonant when it is freshly tuned, but it is difficult to get the strings to hold the tuning for long. Best, Lydia Ayers Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:06 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA00520; Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:06:22 +0200 Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:06:22 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA00518 Received: (qmail 11058 invoked from network); 16 Jun 1997 21:35:50 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 16 Jun 1997 21:35:50 -0000 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu