source file: mills3.txt Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 01:18:06 +0100 Subject: Judging Effect of Temperaments From: Gregg Gibson One of the main difficulties in judging of the effect of temperaments in actual music is that so much depends on the inspiration of the composer, and the culture and nature of his audience. It is possible to be atrociously mechanical and boring in 19-tone equal, and inspired in 12-tone equal. I do _not_ believe it is possible to be inspired in 13- or 20-tone equal; the lack of even the shadow of any possible musical order is too great. Other systems such as 24- or even 22- or 29-tone equal, fall somewhere in between. They are poor systems, and have but a fraction of the usable resources of the 19-tone equal (29- and 22-tone equal are much poorer in resources even than 12-tone equal), yet a (very ill-advised) genius might get something out of them. He would be the first, greatest, last and only member of his school. The Indian instrumentalists have waged a losing battle - nowadays almost totally lost - on behalf of a close approximation to 22-tone equal for more than 2000 years, so Paul Ehrlich is not without precedent in his fondness for this system. This is as far as the most charitable informed person can go in the way of an open mind. To go further is merely to pave the way for an instinctive retreat into the 12-tone equal, which is where the efforts of the Western microtonalists have hitherto led. SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: Gregg Gibson Subject: Just Interval Progressions PostedDate: 17-12-97 01:53:11 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: 17-12-97 01:51:09-17-12-97 01:51:09,17-12-97 01:50:48-17-12-97 01:50:48 DeliveredDate: 17-12-97 01:50:48 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 C1256570.0004AC4C; Wed, 17 Dec 1997 01:52:58 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA17487; Wed, 17 Dec 1997 01:53:11 +0100 Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 01:53:11 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA17478 Received: (qmail 13482 invoked from network); 16 Dec 1997 16:53:05 -0800 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 16 Dec 1997 16:53:05 -0800 Message-Id: <349784F8.17E7@ww-interlink.net> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu