source file: mills3.txt Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 15:58:32 +0200 Subject: S. Commas and Quartertones From: mr88cet@texas.net (Gary Morrison) >I knew someone would pounce on my objection to general use of quartertone >and say that syntonic comma should be restricted to 81:80. Then again, I agree with you that "quartertone" should be limited to specific pitch distance of 50 cents. But, as we've discussed before, I believe that the term "syntonic comma" should be reserved for a specific experimental result. Its use as a unit of measurement of temperament (e.g., quarter-comma meantone) are too deeply engrained in musical history to allow the term to be generalized into a generic tuning-error mechanism that can have different results in different tuning systems. Ivor Darreg and I also believe(d) that the fact that 81:80 provides such an audibly-intuitive and historically-significant means of making an open tuning system is an extremely important characteristic of that interval. (By "open" tuning system I mean one that has an indefinite number of steps per octave.) We believe to be so important a characteristic of the syntonic comma that it doesn't make sense to generalize 81:80 in with a general classification of intervals that don't also have that characteristic. That's kind of like trying to classify the F.horn as a woodwind just because it's so commonly used in woodwind ensembles. The fact that varies pitch through valves and harmonic overtones rather than toneholes, is just too basic a difference to permit grouping them into the same classification. SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: layers@cs.ust.hk Subject: Chinese Virtuosi - Call for Works PostedDate: 15-08-97 17:20:42 SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu $UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH RouteTimes: 15-08-97 17:20:47-15-08-97 17:20:47,15-08-97 17:18:55-15-08-97 17:18:56 DeliveredDate: 15-08-97 17:18:56 Categories: $Revisions: Received: from ns.ezh.nl by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA v1.1 (385.6 5-6-1997)) with SMTP id C12564F4.00544A6C; Fri, 15 Aug 1997 17:20:40 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA08726; Fri, 15 Aug 1997 17:20:42 +0200 Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 17:20:42 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA08721 Received: (qmail 21478 invoked from network); 15 Aug 1997 15:20:33 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 15 Aug 1997 15:20:33 -0000 Message-Id: <199708151518.XAA09590@csnt1.cs.ust.hk> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu