source file: mills2.txt Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:06:22 +0200 Subject: Re: Lydia comments on x/y/z scale coding system used by Bill Alves From: alves@orion.ac.hmc.edu (Bill Alves) Charles Lucy wrote: >Lydia Ayers queried the use of the scale x/y/z notation. >I agree with her implied criticism of the ambiguity of this system. > >I have used it for many years, yet to mean something totally >different, and much more precise than the vague current Alves usage. > >I tackled Bill on this recently, off-list, and he provided a >(to my mind) lame justification for his continued use of the >pattern, which was originally devised in about 1989 by John Gibbon, >Jonathan Glasier and myself in Los Angeles and widely distributed >in pamphlet form. Just to set the record straight, Charles Lucy originally wrote me the forwarded email to respond to a post in the context of defining pitches in some modes as subsets of tuning systems. I wrote him back that I had no intention of setting up a competing "Alves system" as he has implied. I merely wanted a brief way, in that post alone, to specify number of pitches in the tuning system/number of pitches in the mode/commonly used auxilary pitches. Three numbers separated by slashes seemed an understandable way to do it. I included obvious qualifications and had no intention to try to express the actual tuning of these modes. I also told Charles Lucy that I found the Lucy/Gibbon/Glasier system interesting (if largely unrelated to the point of my post), but that I doubt that all tuning systems or modes could or should be defined in terms of MOS scales. I promised to try to avoid confusion in the future. If this explanation is "lame," so be it, but, goodness, can't a person express himself with numbers and slashes sometimes? Bill ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ Bill Alves email: alves@hmc.edu ^ ^ Harvey Mudd College URL: http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/ ^ ^ 301 E. Twelfth St. (909)607-4170 (office) ^ ^ Claremont CA 91711 USA (909)607-7600 (fax) ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:07 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA00543; Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:07:17 +0200 Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:07:17 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA00539 Received: (qmail 19858 invoked from network); 16 Jun 1997 08:14:23 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 16 Jun 1997 08:14:23 -0000 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu