source file: mills3.txt Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 08:47:12 +0100 Subject: Reply to John Starrett From: Gregg Gibson John Starrett said: > I have been doing some experiments prompted by Greg's recent > posts about 19tet. I now am certain of this fact -- 19tet sounds like > out of tune 12. Try this experiment. Record a pop tune in 19tet, and play > it for the man on the street. If he can tell you anything at all about > the tuning, it will be that it just sounds out of tune. And the funny > thing is, he is right! If the man on the street wanted music in other > temperaments than 12, don't you think he would have asked for it by now? > Perhaps 12 sounds like out of tune 19. Seriously though, what pop tunes are you using? The kind pianists come up with, and which no rock singer will use?Are you using sheet music or what the singer actually sings? As for the man in the street, or the average rock musician, or the average musician, he doesn't know what temperament is, but accepts whatever the theorists and musical instrument companies serve up to him. If you think the average rock singer habitually sings in 12-tone equal, I have some prime Florida swampland I inherited from my grandmother that I could let you have really cheap. Actually, there are some rock songs, particularly from the 50's, whose melodies are perfectly playable in 12-tone equal - I have never denied this. There are many more which are not. These last tend to be the most popular. You have but to go buy some sheet music and play the rock melodies of a band such as Oasis or Everclear or almost any other you fancy; the sheet music is typically a mere travesty of the original, not because the transcribers are dolts (well, sometimes they are), but because they use 12-tone instruments to do the transcribing. Many of the most characteristic rock melodic figures involve the 1/3 tone, and lose all meaning when a 1/2 tone is substituted, e.g. Ab A A C D Eb D#. Why do you think that rock bands change their instrumentalists so blithely, but when the vocalist leaves or dies, that is THE END... You are CERTAIN of something this complex within a few days? You found and interviewed the legendary man in the street within 48 hours? SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: Gregg Gibson Subject: Khroai, etc PostedDate: 16-12-97 10:50:38 SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu $MessageStorage: 0 $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: 16-12-97 10:48:48-16-12-97 10:48:49,16-12-97 10:48:28-16-12-97 10:48:29 DeliveredDate: 16-12-97 10:48:29 Categories: $Revisions: Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2 9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C125656F.0035E3B7; Tue, 16 Dec 1997 10:50:33 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA15343; Tue, 16 Dec 1997 10:50:38 +0100 Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 10:50:38 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA16673 Received: (qmail 613 invoked from network); 16 Dec 1997 01:50:29 -0800 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 16 Dec 1997 01:50:29 -0800 Message-Id: <3496B15A.595E@ww-interlink.net> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu