source file: m1418.txt
Date: Sat, 16 May 1998 09:25:44 -0700

Subject: Equal temps are "easy"

From: Aline Surman <stick@uswest.net>

Hey Monzo...look, I know you're a sharp fellow, and I enjoy your 
ideas. But, do you really think eq temps are "easier?" Boy, that opens up 
a whole canful of ideas about music and expression; I mean, I guarantee 
you that John Starrett's upcoming pieces on the forum CD are 
extraordinarily difficult to play, even though they're in 19 eq, and 
they're great music to boot. On the other hand, I've heard a BUNCH of 
music in pure tunings that didn't take much skill or imagination to play.
If you mean that understanding pure tunings is on a higher level of some 
sort, as opposed to the "simpler" eq temps, maybe. There is surely a 
depth in the exploration of the harmonic series that approaches infinity; 
how intellectual knowledge translates into music and sound is a whole 
different ballgame, though. I'm not sure if my 34 tone eq temp guitar is 
any "easier" to play than Rod Poole's 17 tone purely fretted axe. In 
fact, Rod told me that even 22 notes was uncomfortable for him. So, pure 
or tempered, "easy" is a tricky term to use regarding a choice of 
instruments. People can surely have various reasons why they choose a 
certain tuning system. As has been pointed out many times, 
temperaments allow a musician to utilize a lot of chord changes, 
while often, pure tunings are more modally oriented. I like and respect 
any form of profound expression, chordal or scalar; I see the study and 
application of different tuning systems one more tool in my musical bag.
I try to apply tunings much the same way I do modal ideas in my 12 tone 
playing; as Ivor Darreg often pointed out, each system has it's own mood 
or feel; this is absolutely correct. So, I will continue to study and 
apply new concepts of tuning in an effort to improve my art. But, if I 
want to expand on Coltrane's "Giant Steps," I'll bet, first of all, that 
it is "harder" than snot to play, and is much better suited to an equal 
temp (such as 19, where I have adapted it), than it is to a purely tuned 
instrument...Hstick