source file: mills3.txt
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 17:26:58 +0100

Subject: Tuning Standards?

From: "Fred Kohler" <Fred_Kohler@bc.sympatico.ca>

In the light of some of the recent debate involving Mr. Gibson and others I
have a couple of comments and questions.

Most of the subscribers of this list are in agreement that it is desirable
to move beyond 12TET in order to improve our musical resources.  There is a
lot of disagreement as to how to do so.  I think a lot of this has to do
with personal taste.  If you don't much like 7 limit intervals or they don't
fit in to the kind of music you make, you won't see any reason to adopt a
tuning that uses or emulates them.  If you are someone that likes jazzy
chord progressions and ease of modulation to different keys, JI may not be
for you.

Sometimes people will take opinions ultimately based on personal taste and
build elaborate theories as to why theirs is best.  Human nature being what
it is I think we are stuck with a real diversity of tunings as different as
the people advocating of them for quite some time to come.

Is ther a way for a multiplicity of tunings to co-exist in a way that
performers from different camps can play together or is there a need for a
"standard" tuning for practical reasons such as instrument manufacturing and
performance?

Will the fragmentation of opinion among tuning pioneers inhibit a popular
movement beyond 12TET, so that alternate tunings remain the province of
academics and isolated pockets of experimentation?

Best of the Season and a Happy New Year to All,
Fred.





---------------------------------------------------------
 Fred Kohler, #7-240 Burnside Rd E, Victoria, BC, Canada
 phone:(250)388-7918  email:Fred_Kohler@bc.sympatico.ca