source file: m1441.txt Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 21:27:54 -0400 Subject: 9:8 and 10:9 on the pedal steel From: "Paul H. Erlich" >Now, this is a little aside of the conversation, but aren't 9:8 and 10:9 >both part of the 5-limit system? Partch includes them in his 5-limit >chapter in "Genesis". Where does this "9-limit" talk come from? 9 isn't a >prime number. It comes from Partch himself, who had two uses for the word limit. The 9-limit means a musical style where ratios of odd numbers less than or equal to 9 function as consonances. >Both 9:8 and 10:9 are used in the standard E9th pedal steel. Typically the >F# is tuned to 9:8 and lowered to 10:9 with the pedal that raises the B >(3:2) to C# (5:3). I've always thought of it as a 5-limit system. There's >nothing here to really challenge the ear. We're talking about 9:8 and 10:9 as harmonic simulaneities. Normally a major second is considered dissonant. I had no idea that the standard pedal steel guitar had pedals that lowered pitches by a comma.