source file: mills3.txt Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 02:11:11 +0200 Subject: ONE. All the music is microtonal. From: Eduardo Sabat ONE: ALL THE MUSIC IS MICROTONAL The draft of this article was sent two days ago erroneously and Gary Morrison answered it. The following topics would be change because the entire work is not written, nor polished. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are several topics about this matter I've thought about, and surely many of which I must learn, but, they are enough to affirm without any fear the title. They are : ) Where is the 12 ? ) Musical writing ) Harmonics ) Just listen ) More than 12 ) Sound Spectrum ) 1) Where is the 12 ? THEORY All the Pyth. scales bigger than 13 notes per Octave are microtonals, because the comma appears with the Pyth. 14. What ? , Why do I say 13 and 14 ? Where is the 12 ? If you want to make a joke to a friend first ask him how many notes are there in one Octave, he will answer "8", and inmediately ask him how many notes are there in the chromatic scale per Octave. Almost everybody will answer "12". The real answer is 13, because they are 12 plus 1, such that of the Octave. 8 and 12 are paradigms, we the Tuners (sometimes) use the expression "8/Oct" and "12/Oct" as equivalents to indicate the "obvious", it is 8/Oct means 8 NOTES per Octave and 12/Oct means 12 INTERVALS per Octave. We understand the meaning, no problem, but generaly we don't think that their "units" are different. 8 means total notes and 12 means note-names (or structural notes if we like).So to equalize concepts if we use 8/Oct we must use 13/Oct, and if we use 12/Oct we must use 7/Oct. Lets ask to a pianist how many keys are there in the piano per Octave. Everybody will answer "12". I believe that originally the word Octave was made for notes and not for subsequent intervals inside the douple. The Julian Carrillo "Sonido 13" marked the first step of his microtonal adventure. Until the dodecaphonisme of Schoemberg the 12 chromatic notes were at the service of 7. Number 12 was a part of the musical evolution, now the doors are open to the microtonalism. Eduardo -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eduardo Sabat-Garibaldi e-mail : esabat@adinet.com.uy Home: Simon Bolivar 1260 Office FAX-Phone : 598 2 900353 11300 Montevideo Home Phone : 598 2 780952 Uruguay