source file: m1397.txt
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 07:22:33 -0400

Subject: undertones

From: monz@juno.com (Joseph L Monzo)

Do undertones exist?  No.
Does the undertone series exist?  Yes.

These are simplified answers, designed to
get your attention and provoke you into reading
the rest of this.  There have been a couple of postings
recently describing some exceptional cases of a
single played tone producing an undertone, and
I'm still waiting to see Mrs. Strange's work on
violin undertones (and would like to learn more
about Tibetan singing), but by and large, undertones
as an acoustical phenomenon of a single comlex
tone, conceived as the reverse of overtones, don't
exist.

The _undertone series_, on the other hand, is
certainly something that can be calculated and
produced with integer math.  Last night I heard
Jon Catler's "Sleeping Beauty" for the first time,
which is based on utonal harmonies.  In one
section, Catler played a harmonized melody
on two high pitches, but had his amp and guitar
volume controls set so that the played pitches
were just about inaudible, but which were
calculated to produce a melody on the low
and strongly reinforced difference tones.
Conclusive proof that there _is_ a such thing
as an "undertone series".

Perhaps the terminology is unfortunate, in which
case we should find a better name for the
phenomenon.
 
BTW, if you can make it to Johnny Reinhard's
"Micro Mystery Tour" concerts (AFMM '98) in
New York on May 7th and 8th, you'll hear a new
performance of "Sleeping Beauty" on the second
night (in itself, a good enough reason to attend --
it's a  _beautiful_  piece), and on the first night,
the voice of God will  sing undertones, à la the
above-mentioned Tibetan monks, in the premiere
of Reinhard's "Adam and Eve", .  If  _God_  sings
in undertones, they  _must_  exist....   : )

   Joseph L. Monzo
    monz@juno.com
  

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]