source file: mills3.txt Date: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 14:29:46 +0100 Subject: Re: Comma shift and the speed of the galaxy From: gbreed@cix.compulink.co.uk (Graham Breed) Carl Lumma wrote: > And you can't deny that there's a motherload of beauty to be found in music > where the vertical sonorities come from a different pitch set than the > horizontal ones. The horizontal pitch set holds everything together, while > it is turned 81 shades of purple by the changing harmonies. That's one way of looking at it, of course, but not the way I look at it. Firstly, there's no real distinction between horizontal and vertical. Harmony is as much about putting chords together as describing their properties in isolation. I prefer to have a repeating chord sequence, and choose the melodic notes to harmonise with that. As the harmony is chosen with lattice space in mind, that means a lot of the same notes will work with each chord. So, there's some kind of modality. This is very different from choosing a mode first, and trying to get chord sequences from it, even if the result is the same. If you structure a melody around, say, a pentatonic mode with a load of chromatic notes, it should sound cohesive enough. I sort of know what I'm talking about here, because I have written music like this. My previous post on avoiding comma shifts is completely wrong in detail, though. You never need have a 1/5 from the tonic in a major key, it's the fifths that cause trouble. How tactful of you all not to point that out! To get 6 5-limit triads with distinct roots from 7 notes, they have to be a cycle of fifths, and therefore a diatonic key. So, as all the fifths are in tune, you need some kind of compromise for the thirds to be also. If you ignore the supertonic chord (ii) in a major key, there's no problem with JI. If you do use the supertonic, provided you go straight back to the chord you came from, there's still no problem, but you need 8 notes. SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: John Maxwell Hobbs Subject: MIDI tuning for Win95 PostedDate: 28-12-97 15:18:11 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: 28-12-97 15:15:58-28-12-97 15:15:59,28-12-97 15:15:24-28-12-97 15:15:25 DeliveredDate: 28-12-97 15:15:25 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 C125657B.004E5916; Sun, 28 Dec 1997 15:17:42 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA09996; Sun, 28 Dec 1997 15:18:11 +0100 Date: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 15:18:11 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA26540 Received: (qmail 21612 invoked from network); 28 Dec 1997 06:18:08 -0800 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 28 Dec 1997 06:18:08 -0800 Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19971228091612.0070ab30@artswire.org> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu