source file: m1414.txt
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 03:59:57 -0500 (CDT)

Subject: Re:  TUNING digest 1404

From: mr88cet@texas.net (Gary Morrison)

>(a) I'm not sure that 12TET has been exhausted even yet (I've posted on
>    this before, and recently, so I won't belabor the point).

   My immediate reaction to that is to point to the ol' law of diminishing
returns.  But perhaps that's belaboring the point too.





>(b) Just because tunings weren't 100% exactly 12TET doesn't disqualify
>    the music of the Baroque period from being (in some essential way)
>    12TET-ish, as it were.

   Without a doubt, there are tunings that sound different, and tunings
that sound REALLY different.  Well-temperaments can provide a veritable
cosmos of flavoring differences within the realm of 12-toned tunings, to
the point that, if that's mostly what you work with, those differences can
be as striking as night and day.

   But there can be no denying that the differences between 12-toned
temperaments are pretty subtle compared to tunings that bring in entirely
alien harmonies such as 9:7, 7:4, 11:9, 13:9, and such, and compared to
tunings that provide scale structures that don't conform to diatonic
prejudices.





>    Heck, most purportedly 12TET instruments
>    even today aren't all that exact

   I can certainly relate to that, especially considering a rather
frustrating and elusive acoustical problem that has cropped up on my
soprano saxophone!