source file: m1374.txt
Date: Fri, 3 Apr 1998 13:46:27 EST

Subject: comma/error

From: A440A <A440A@aol.com>

Gary wrote:

<< The entire point of a comma is that there is a conceptual framework -
often 12-tone-per-octave scales - wherein we'd like two different pitches
to have turned out the same, but they didn't. >>

     I agree that is one point of the comma, but not  "entirely".  (This
borders on dissing dissonance)
      A different perspective is that the comma is source for dissonance, (or
something other than Just harmony).  It is by tonal contrasts that so much
music makes its beauty, so the comma provides an essential ingredient.   
    Commas are not bad things to be computed out of musical composition, they
are a measurement of tonality!

Regards, 
Ed Foote