source file: mills2.txt Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:39:25 +0200 Subject: Parch Tuning From: Daniel Wolf Lydia Ayers wrote: '' It's a matter of opinion whether Partch wrote "mistuned" music. Whilehe must have had some difficulty keeping the string instruments exactly in tune, he probably came as close as humanly possible. '' It's clear that we're talking about two kinds of ''mistuned''. The first is simply that Partch's instruments did go out of tune relative to how he wanted them - the idiophones and strings are weather sensitive, and he didn't like to retune during intermission, so pitch would drift during a concert. Some of the recordings give especially bitter examples of this. What Adam was referring to, however, was Partch's use of pitches that were, by his own terms, non-harmonic. One example frequently used by Partch areclusters on the chromelodeon, which could be analysed theoretically as harmonics of incredibly low fundamentals, but were certainly not analysedin this way by Partch and are unlikely to be heard by in this way by anyone else. (The use of the ''octave'' coupler on the chromelodeon should be mentioned as well). Another example is the use of ''alternative'' playingtechniques yielding pitches which Partch did not bother to analyse. My favorite examples are the playing of harmonic canons from the wrong side of the bridge (in Windsong/Daphne) and playing slide string instruments withthe slide placed diagonally accoss the strings. Then there are instruments - like the cloud chamber bowls - whose pitch is a more subjective matter.Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:39 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA00829; Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:39:27 +0200 Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:39:27 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA00825 Received: (qmail 21871 invoked from network); 16 Jun 1997 09:15:07 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 16 Jun 1997 09:15:07 -0000 Message-Id: <199706160513_MC2-188E-C12C@compuserve.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu